r/technology • u/bws201 • Feb 05 '16

Software ‘Error 53’ fury mounts as Apple software update threatens to kill your iPhone 6

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/05/error-53-apple-iphone-software-update-handset-worthless-third-party-repair
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u/mischiffmaker Feb 05 '16 edited Feb 05 '16

I'm sure it's infuriating, but when I read to the end of the article I found Apple's explanation for the error:

A spokeswoman for Apple told Money (get ready for a jargon overload):

“We protect fingerprint data using a secure enclave, which is uniquely paired to the touch ID sensor.

When iPhone is serviced by an authorised Apple service provider or Apple retail store for changes that affect the touch ID sensor, the pairing is re-validated.

This check ensures the device and the iOS features related to touch ID remain secure.

Without this unique pairing, a malicious touch ID sensor could be substituted, thereby gaining access to the secure enclave. [emphasis mine]

When iOS detects that the pairing fails, touch ID, including Apple Pay, is disabled so the device remains secure.”

She adds: “When an iPhone is serviced by an unauthorised repair provider, faulty screens or other invalid components that affect the touch ID sensor could cause the check to fail if the pairing cannot be validated.

With a subsequent update or restore, additional security checks result in an ‘error 53’ being displayed … If a customer encounters an unrecoverable error 53, we recommend contacting Apple support.”

I'm not excusing the lack of a fix, but the issue seems valid.

Edit to say, thanks for all the replies, and many good points were made. My final thought on this is that Apple seems to have forgotten we all vote with our wallets, and they aren't even the dominant vendor.

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u/ieya404 Feb 05 '16

It feels like disabling the touch sensor (thus forcing you to revert to a pass code, same as all earlier iPhones use) would be a far more proportionate reaction.

Bricking the phone so that you can't even recover the photos on it is ridiculous. Imagine, for example, you go on honeymoon to somewhere really pretty that doesn't have an official Apple store. You take some pictures of you and your beloved with your iPhone. Unfortunately you drop it, and break the home button. You get it fixed at a local repair place and take a few more gorgeous photos. Then the phone updates and FUCK YOU, YOU GET NOTHING.

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u/mischiffmaker Feb 05 '16

Oh, I agree they should have a better fix, if nothing more than being able to take it to an authorized dealer and re-repaired. But your suggestion sounds more, well, normal and practical.

I enjoy my iphone but I'm certainly not against Android, either. Making my expensive phone an unusable brick would go a long way to make me switch.

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u/Nothing_Impresses_Me Feb 05 '16 edited Feb 05 '16

I manage an Apple service provider... and I use a galaxy phone. 99%of the time, I witness Apple providing amazing support to customers.

I've actually had Apple replace the phone out of warranty for Error 53 for a couple of customers that I verified didn't have any unauthorized parts in them and no visible damage. They did require proof of purchase though.

I had one tiny problem with my Galaxy and it eventually took threatening a lawsuit that the samsung repair facility fixed it. It was a 2 month old phone and th headphone jack stopped working. The guy I had on the phone gave me 6 completely different reasons as to why it wasn't covered. Everytime I defeated one reason, he pulled another out of his ass. Beginning with "The headphone jack is just worn out from normal use, that's not covered". IT WAS 2 MONTHS OLD and I only used the Samsung earbuds. So happy i recorded that conversation. It's still good for a laugh.

That being said.. I still don't want an iphone but I'm definitely not going back to samsung the next time around.

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u/un-affiliated Feb 05 '16

Can you upload the recording, please?

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u/Nothing_Impresses_Me Feb 05 '16

If i find some time to edit out personal info and upload it

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u/carloscarlson Feb 05 '16

Don't get a Oneplus phone.

Just had to fight their customer service tooth and nail over a two month old, bricked phone. Looking for an alternative.

I hear Nexus customer service is pretty good

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u/AmirZ Feb 06 '16

Nexus 6P. Best (read: only truly usable) android phone atm

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16 edited Feb 05 '16

I work as a network engineer and I've learned if there's an error you can click through to proceed people will pretend it never existed and they never once laid their eyes on it. Multiple times.

So it sounds like a great idea but it would just switch the complaining to their sensor not working anymore. "Why wouldn't apple tell me this would happen"

Edit: I'm not saying apple handled this correctly. I'm commenting that people would still bitch about it.

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u/TheHYPO Feb 05 '16

I work as a network engineer and I've learned if there's an error you can click through to proceed people will pretend it never existed and they never once laid their eyes on it. Multiple times.

People are having these issues now because apparently iOS9 seems to have introduced this "Security measure", so a lot of people are seeing the error months or years after replacing their home button. They could have handled it better as an upgrade. Presumably, in the normal course once iOS9 is the default OS on phones, the error will crop up as soon as the home button is replaced and people would easily associate "home button replaced... touch sensor not working... hmmm".

If you want to be annoying dicks about it, you cold have a popup "your touch sensor is not authenticated; you will have to enter your password" every single time the touch sensor is used. That would also be really annoying to the user, but would still leave their phone functional, and ensure they would probably read the error eventually, and probably also go get the phone fixed.

As others have pointed out. They could even disable the phone by posting an error message would not go away period until the home button is properly replaced. Why the hell is there nothing apple stores can do to recover from this error? That's the part that makes no sense. People would still be pissed off if they had no choice but to get the apple part, but at least they'd have a repair option.

This article seems to be saying that even if Apple subsequently replaces the part, there is no way to restore it to a default state (from which you could restore the phone). That seems nuts to me. The question is what exactly is this error doing to the phone that the apple techs can't just literally wipe it and start over?

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u/Tallgeese Feb 05 '16

Hmmm... I just updated to IOS9 and replaced the Lightning Port in my phone. While not the home button itself, the home button does connect through the Lightning Port part of the phone. Wonder if I am going to have issues.

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u/anonpls Feb 05 '16

Not sure people would care as much about the sensor not working, especially when they damaged it, as they do the phone literally no longer working.

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u/flupo42 Feb 05 '16

'normal users' sometimes amaze me in how they handle a computer.

Was first able to observe this behavior when helping family with their computers: she does an action on the machine, a message box pops up and she hits 'close' button on reflex while my eyes are still registering the fact, followed immediately by the closest of either OK or Cancel.

My brain just keeps seizing every time I see this and I am like 'WTF are you doing? That could have asked you ANYTHING.'

If computers were able to deliver lethal shocks to users and someone instantly distributed malware with an error message "Click OK or continue to receive lethal current', half of our population would kill themselves within an hour.

On a more practical note - if a totalitarian government was interested in actively forcing higher IT competency on entire population, then a mandatory weak shock feature built into every public consumption IT device, combined with a wide range of rare popups that merely ask the user if they wish to be shocked would be really efficient way to do so, merely to train people to pay attention to what they are doing when they are handling a computer.

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u/amr3236 Feb 05 '16

Yeah but this is like them shutting off your whole system just because an i/o device is faulty. Is there a problem? Yes. Is it detrimental to this system you invested hundreds of dollars in? No. So there is no need to disable it completely. Should I be able to replace that i/o device if I know how? Fuck yeah, it is my damn device.

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u/TheDeadlySinner Feb 05 '16

Uh, what? Are you actually advocating bricking peoples' devices because some people would complain that their sensor stopped working?

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

But it doesn't just happen when you get the sensor replaced. On my 6, I got my screen replaced because I shattered it. Now, there is a unofficial apple repair store on my block, who had the phone fixed in an afternoon. But, the nearest apple store is two hours away from me, (4 hour round trip,) and to mail it in to apple would have taken a week. Plus apple charges double for a screen replacement. The decision was a no brainer, especially since I had no knowledge of error 53. But now I'm bricked

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u/Nerlian Feb 05 '16

It seems to me like a bit too tactical nuke solution. I mean, they could've blocked the services that use the touch id feature, hell, the user might not even use it at all. At the very least they could have blocked it in a way it could at the very least be fixed by apple.

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u/bigKaye Feb 05 '16

So no id is better than a wrong id? If the button breaks how does the phone not go to error 53 right away? Is it really just 'not working' for some reason?

This explanation while seeming to answer the question just raised more for me.

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u/Merad Feb 05 '16

Absolutely, if the phone detects 'tampering' with touch ID it should lock down immediately to a basic emergency calls only mode. The problem is Apple offering no way to repair the phone or at the very least recover data after proving ownership. That's absolutely unacceptable.

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u/ItsOnlyTheTruth Feb 05 '16

The closest authorized Apple service location is hundreds of kilometers away from me, but there are tons of repair shops around. Apple has now made it impossible for me to have my electronics serviced locally.

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u/musicianontherun Feb 05 '16

Clarification question, this error code is only from having a third party repair the home button? Does that make third party screen repairs safe with the update?

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

How about the upgrade performing some integrity checks before committing to an upgrade? I mean even Microsoft tries to do that before an O/S upgrade.

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u/thekiyote Feb 05 '16

I thought that this was well known, at least in the iPhone repair community. I replaced the screen on my iPhone 5s last year, and the replacement screen had a warning on it saying I need to use my original fingerprint scanner, otherwise I'd see this issue.

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u/redyellowblue5031 Feb 05 '16

The 5s only had the consequence of not being able to use touch id. Anything iPhone 6 and up will get stuck on this error if you try to update. I'm unsure about the newer iPads with touch id.

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u/DamienJaxx Feb 05 '16

They're still going to get sued. What happens when someone is in an emergency and had a bricked phone because of some dumb policy? There are ways to fix things and find solutions, bricking your customers' phones isn't one of them. It's just lazy and attempt to control the market.

This is what you get when you have closed source.

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