Broken touchID sensor bricked your iPhone with error 53? This update from Apple is going to fix it!

The TouchID on the newer generations of iPhones and iPads is a great bit of hardware. Pressing your thumb into the home button is well and truly easier than having to input your password into your device every time you want to unlock your phone or make a purchase.

Apple takes the security of your device very seriously. So, they have designed the TouchID hardware to be paired with it's respective phone. Basically this means that if someone steals your phone, they can't replace the sensor with a fraudulent one the gain access to your phone. This all sounds pretty great and secure for your phone and personal data.

But what happens when you break the sensor? Well, first off, and this is the obvious one, you won't have the TouchID functions any more. But this isn't the real big problem with a broken TouchID sensor. You see, if you go to update your phone's software, you will get an error 53 message. This also causes your phone to get stuck at boot, effectively bricking your phone. This happens because part of the code in the update process looks for the operating TouchID sensor and rejects the update if it's not perfect.

Well that's all changing now with the latest update from Apple. The new iOS 9.2.1 is designed to still restore your phone to working order, albeit, without the touch functions. You will be able to get a replacement home button if you break it, but at that point, it will be for aesthetics and click functions only.

This is the official statement from Apple:

“Some customers’ devices are showing ‘Connect to iTunes’ after attempting an iOS update or a restore from iTunes on a Mac or PC. This reports as an Error 53 in iTunes and appears when a device fails a security test. This test was designed to check whether Touch ID works properly before the device leaves the factory.

Today, Apple released a software update that allows customers who have encountered this error message to successfully restore their device using iTunes on a Mac or PC.

We apologize for any inconvenience, this was designed to be a factory test and was not intended to affect customers. Customers who paid for an out-of-warranty replacement of their device based on this issue should contact AppleCare about a reimbursement.”

Well, it sounds like Apple let a bit of testing code slip through to final production software and that's what caused the problem. Just one problem with that; we've been aware of this problem for a very long time and it's only being resolved now. I won't speculate why this wasn't sorted out earlier, but phone repairers around the globe will now be rejoicing as a many phones that could have been deemed un-repairable have suddenly become potentially repairable.

Do you know someone who has had their iPhone or iPad replaced under Applecare because of this? Let them know! They may be entitled to a reimbursement!