Skip to main content

Repair information and guides for the Apple iPhone 5s that was announced on September 10, 2013. Model: A1533, A1453, A1457, A1528, A1530, A1518

3530 Questions View all

About the touch id sensor

When I replace the home button, can I replace only the flex ribbon, or should I buy the whole part?

Thanks a lot guys.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Score 30
38 Comments

hello i have problem with iphone 5s, i have replace the main board (PCB) but the fingerprint not work , can help me how to fix? and if i buy new finger print sensore can i solve the problem ?

Shyqi

by

Shyqi, please read the thread before commenting. Your question is answered several times over.

by

the answers here are incorrect. I am a certified apple technician and there is a fix for this issue. unfortunately it can only be done be certified apple technicians with a certified apple reprogramming software. I have fixed about a dozen. most have been iPhone 6 but the same terms apply for the 5S.

by

iTECH, I mentioned that now Apple offers this repair, at least from last September.

by

It has always been a repair that apple can do just not widely spread like some other fixes do to the fact that apple does not share info.

by

Show 33 more comments

Add a comment

9 Answers

Chosen Solution

It is impossible to replace the home button assembly and preserve Touch ID function. The sensor is designed to be secure and it is uniquely paired with each CPU. You can't extract the key from the sensor or the CPU because they are designed to take the key to their graves. Reprogramming them is unlikely—even for Apple. They have never offered to replace the button and likely never will. (Update: They do now.)

So if the device is under warranty, leave it to Apple. If the sensor is replaced by you or damaged, you will lose Touch ID forever.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 15

17 Comments:

Its not under warranty...

So what shoukd i do?!

In older versions of the iphone,fixing the home button was very common problem!!!

If the key not responding to presses i can throw it to the ocean cuz avery sendor is uniqe to its phone?!?!

by

Yes, if it's dead it's dead forever. Try to find a way to get warranty for this thing or you're stuck with a dead one.

by

Mine is damaged, but I replaced with another one. The touch ID did not work anymore, but the home button is working fine.

by

I suggest to all this people to go better with samsung they don't have this apple certified bulls#£+= to repair your phone when you don't have apple warranty if you don't have it anymore they'll tell you get insurance this is all about money $$

by

What if you out the original back in and it still says it isn't working properly?

by

Show 12 more comments

Add a comment

I'm going to put this as a separate answer because it seems that some other answers to the OP's question has caused more confusion rather than answering questions. I'll try to put this as simply as I can.

If you are having issues with the home button on the iPhone 5S, the assembly can be replaced. The part is available from iFixIt as well as many other vendors:

iPhone 5s Home Button Assembly

It is very important to note that although you can replace the home button assembly, you will permanently lose any Touch ID related functions if you do so.

You will however regain any basic home button functions (i.e. clicking the home button).

iPhone 5s Home Button Assembly Image

Product

iPhone 5s Home Button Assembly

$9.99

Was this answer helpful?

Score 9

11 Comments:

Ok, in my case the home Flex was cutted, The finger Print is good.

So can i separate the finger Print sensor from the home Flex?

by

No it's impossible to seperate any peice of the home button assembly and not destroy it..

Your fighting a lost cause

by

OK Thank you :(

by

maybe I missed something but the cable that connects from the button to the board if that was cut can i still maintain button functions less finger ID

by

What about restore or update- does iphone stuck in error 53 with nonworking Touch ID???

by

Show 6 more comments

Add a comment

The ID Touch is part of the home button and unlike the home buttons in the past iPhone models the ID Touch hardware on the home button ribbon part is linked to the A7 microprocessor on each iPhone 5s logic board. So, in other words the ID touch hardware is married to the A7 chip and is unique to each iPhone. This is why you can not change out the home button part to get the ID Touch to work and why after replacing the part a reset loses the feature in Settings altogether. If you have a home button function failure you can change out the part and get that function back, but you will lose your ID Touch function permanently. If you have lost your ID Touch, it is gone, not even Apple can fix that they will give you a new iPhone if it falls under AppleCare. Apple prides itself on security i.e. iCloud and now ID Touch. It is very very secure and like iCloud has it's drawbacks when legit iPhone owners forget there ID and PW, so does the ID Touch have its drawbacks when a malfunction happens. It's simply just the way Apple designed these devices. Thanks - iRepairsIt.com

Was this answer helpful?

Score 7

9 Comments:

Irepairsit1 are you an echo? This has been said over and over in this post

by

Apple can fix amd reprogram a new home button to the board. I have fixed maybe a dozen so far. Once the phone is in my hands it takes less than 5 minutes to change the button and about 15 minutes to reprogram it to the logic board.

by

hey can you tell me how i can reprogram it

by

ITech --are you doing this outside of an Apple Store? If not, then your answer is misleading. Are you offering a service to the rest of us that do not have access to the proprietary reprogramming machine? For less than the cost of going to Apple and having a new assembly put on? If so, we are all ears. Otherwise you are making it seem to the DIY community that it is possible to reprogram the button outside of Apple, which of course it is not.

by

@itech can you do it for me?

by

Show 4 more comments

Add a comment

You can repair the touch id button if your touch ID still works but not your button. Although their is some skill to it. All you have to do is carefully desolder the button from the bottom of a replacement button and desolder the original button (4 legs)and then solder the replacement button back onto the original. I have done many of these.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 7

5 Comments:

Wow that is incredible and there are people out there that will sell you the home button and not even tell you that this is a fact. and when you ask them they say that they have not had any complaints and that there are some defective buttons out there? I replaced 2 buttons on the same Iphone only to then search and find this answer of why they do not work. Thanks Dude!!!

by

I don't fully understand what you mean.

I accidentally cut the flexcable and will replace it. Is it still possible then to keep the Touch ID working?

by

Could you please elaborate on that ?

Do you keep the old cable with the new button or the old button with the new cable ?

by

How do i do it? i wan´t to try it

by

yeah, share how you did it. Put it on Github and link to it. Leak the tool. Fight the power. Do whatever you can to help us.

by

Add a comment

My advise is to get it fixed under warrenty and will cost you nothing

Was this answer helpful?

Score 5

16 Comments:

Its not under warranty...

So what shoukd i do?!

In older versions of the iphone,fixing the home button was very common problem!!!

If the key not responding to presses i can throw it to the ocean cuz avery sendor is uniqe to its phone?!?!

by

Tom are you saying when touch id sensor fails not even a replacment will fix it?

Why is the 5s not in warrenty the phones come with a years warrenty and arnt even a year old yet!

by

No, nothing can fix it. The only way to fix Touch ID is to replace the entire phone. It is very unlikely even for Apple to come up with a way to fix this.

Maybe his phone had been damaged so Apple won't provide warranty.

by

So if touch sensor stops working not even a new part can fix?

by

Can't get my head wrapped around this tom so if a finger print scanner fails why would a new finger print scanner not work I see replacments for sale with my supplier

by

Show 11 more comments

Add a comment

The fingerprint sensor is married to the CPU. it is NOT possible to get the fingerprint sensor function back once it has broken, your only chance is through insurance/warranty. To be honest, I don't even think Apple repair it. I haven't heard an instance in which they do, they just replace the phone entirely

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1

2 Comments:

They do. I've seen Genius Bar repair bill for non-functioning home button, they replace the display assembly for about $100.

by

Stupid. Typical Apple.

by

Add a comment

Hi i have replaced my display with other iphone 5s display .. Only my display was broken not the touch id still touch id was working good .. But i replaced with complete display and touch id of other apple iphone 5s .. It touch id not working ... .. If i put my orignal touch id which was working before .. Will it work

Thank you

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1

5 Comments:

My understanding is that it will, but you may have to do a Restore in iTunes to get it back. Follow up on this to let us know if this is true.

by

I took my 5S to a third party tech to replace my dead battery with the battery of the mal-functioning not-in-use 5S of my father. They swapped the screens (with the home button) too… I told them to swap them back and not charge me a single buck for something I didn't request.

The TouchID is not working as of now. I'll try restoring my 5S and report back

by

Hi David -- Just go into the TouchID settings and re-add your fingerprints.

You should not need to restore. If it won't let you add a fingerprint then the home button you have is not capable of TouchID.

by

Hi, Xrgsz. It has the original button, not the button of some other iPhone. I already tried that and it told me it couldn't activate the sensor. In fact, the "Add new fingerprint" option was greyed out and none of the previously saved fingerprints were listed. Trying to turn on the switch to use TouchID for AppStore and iTunes purchases showed the "Add new fingerprint" UI but just one second later it showed me that error message.

I was planning on restoring my iPhone but it ran out of battery and once I turned it on again the TouchID worked flawlessly without even needing to re-add my fingerprints.

I may assume that the iPhone checks the TouchID sensor once it is already on, so as to decide if it activates the function on the next boot. At first boot with the original home button back it didn't work but at the second boot, once it had detected it was the original sensor, it worked flawlessly

by

Yes. you are correct! I don't know why I didn't think of that...I should have said to just turn it off and on again. I'm glad you got it working without having to do a restore and go through all that. At boot the TouchID service needs to get activated; if it can't be activated for whatever reason it will need to be rebooted to get it working again. I thought though that when this happens it automatically removes any / all saved fingerprints. But maybe not in your case.

Happy Holidays.

by

Add a comment

You can use 3u software to update ur iphone even u have error 53 thats if your tiuch is missing this software surpasses the error making u have a succesfull upate

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0

13 Comments:

Error 53 is no longer an issue and hasn't been for some time now. There is no need to go to such great lengths to get around or avoid error 53...a simple restore or update of an iPhone 6 or newer that does not have Touch ID will work just fine.

by

Error 53 is back but this time are way harder to fix.

by

@Tim - Please explain. I co-own a mobile repair shop and am very connected with the rest of the repair community. I'm reasonably sure I would have heard about any resurgence of error 53....at least with regards to a non-original home button...if indeed it had returned.

by

@iguys you can own whatever you want buddy. I'm part of iFixit.vn if you don't know us you don't know much!

by

What if one desoldered the chip on the original home button and transferred it to the replacement?

by

Show 8 more comments

Add a comment

Just to be clear the new error 53 is not related with the Touch ID at all. For those people that work on iPhone motherboard like I do. You will know what I'm talking about. Changing related parts you don't have to worry error 53 anymore. It's gone! it was meant for apple technician only. For those of you that trying to desolder the original Touch ID scanner to a new home button the answer is yes it will work. I have done it

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0

5 Comments:

You still have yet to specifically tell me what is causing this "new error 53". Go ahead, you can get technical...I do board level repair too. I'm relatively new to it and may not be as skilled as you, but I understand the terminology and will know what you're talking about if you tell me the specific components that get replaced.

Regardless, why did you even mention this "new error 53" in this thread if it has nothing to do with Touch ID? This thread is all about Touch ID. In fact, the name of the thread is even "About the touch ID sensor".

by

Since you ask I might as well tell you so you won't be wth is Tim talking about. It's baseband issue if you see the new error 53 or will you ever get a chance to work that much on board to even see it. But you are the man tho Iguys!

by

I'm not going to sit here and argue over something you don't know. But I am here to help clear up some of the question technicians have or concern within the job. Don't be oh I'm sure error 53 is gone blah blah when iTunes still show that error. Like the error 3194 is it the same as it was used to before? The answer is no error 3194 now and error 3194 before got nothing to do with each other but it's still the same error isn't it?

by

Finally, some real information! That's all I wanted, really. If you had framed it in a way originally that said that error 53 has returned but has nothing to do with Touch ID, I probably wouldn't have argued with you. I'm well aware that specific iTunes errors can be produced for a number of different reasons. Again though, this thread is about Touch ID!! So when you come here and say that "error 53 is back again", of course I'm going to question you...because it is not back again as an error that is produced due to Touch ID issues! I'm still mystified as to why you even brought it up in this thread when it has nothing to do with the topic of the thread.

Also, I could really do without the condescending attitude. You don't know me and my abilities and knowledge-base as a technician, so quit acting like I'm some lowly peasant that knows nothing.

by

Trolls are everywhere...Sheesh!

by

Add a comment

Add your answer

areotov will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 1

Past 7 Days: 6

Past 30 Days: 22

All Time: 211,954