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

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OEM home button flex, is the Touch ID still progammable?

Hi,

My local Apple service center tells me that they can reprogram the Touch ID on my iPhone but only if I used an original Apple replacement. They did't say they had to put it in.

When I buy an OEM piece, will that one be programmable or does it not support the Touch ID function at all, because of the fact that normally you'd loose the Touch ID functionality anyway when replacing the home button.

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Pretty sure this is just false the only know way to get the touch id to work with any screen replacement is to keep the original home button and logic board . I have installed a lot of these parts as oem and aftermarket and one thing they all have in common is that the touch id wont work after installation. everything else works until you install iOS 9.2.1 and then you become extremely screwed with error 53 and then your phones a brick I would check with a different apple helper because unless something has changed the changing of home buttons is not a good thing. Hope this helps

UPDATE just found out Apple has a fix for error 53

http://ifixit.org/blog/7924/error-53-fix...

so not so bad now i can fix some of the bricks in the office

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Thanks for the fast reply Jim.

My understanding was that Apple does have the possibilty to connect a new Touch ID to the logic board and so the only issue would be that the new home button assembly needs to be able to support it. I beleive I read somewhere that Apple replaced a complete LCD with home button assembly and still left the Touch ID working. The only way to do that seems to me to reprogram it.

But I suppose that if you're right, then they usually replace only the screen and will transfer the original button to the new screen.

Anyway, I'll put in a new OEM home button assembly and then take it to the service center to see what they'll say. May be I'll get lucky :).

Thanks for the help anyway!

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@ jehuda I hope you get lucky and it works for you but maybe it would be good to keep the old home button handy just in case

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Apple CAN reprogram them, however the technical details are unknown.

It is likely that the button is one-time programmable so it will work on brand new parts from the factory, but not assembled units for security reasons. Or they have the abilities to program whenever they want. If it is the former, and your "OEM" button is actually taken from a scrap phone, it will not work.

It is not known what information and tools are required exactly. My theory is that this will be like restoring iOS, Apple server authorisation is required, so that the method will not leak to the public, enabling hackers to hijack Touch ID. Or they need to read the phone during repair and actually ship preprogrammed assemblies directly so it is not possible to program OEM parts that you brought to them.

Can someone with the knowledge clarify on this?

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jehuda will be eternally grateful.
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