I recently shaved my beard down to just a mustache, and now Face ID won't recognize me at all. I checked the settings, and it shows that Device Protection is enabled, which means I can't just remove Face ID. The device insists I need to use Face ID to turn off Device Protection, but since it doesn't recognize me anymore, I'm stuck. My phone was reset after being stolen yesterday, and now I can't seem to access it with my password like I could previously. What should I do? Should I contact Apple directly, or is there another way to resolve this without resetting the phone? Just to clarify, I've got an iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 26.3.1.
3 Answers
It's a bummer that you’re having trouble! Just so you know, Stolen Device Protection only turns off with biometrics, so you can't use a passcode to bypass it. If you've set it up to be deactivated at trusted locations, try heading to one of those spots; you should be able to turn off the protection there and then set up Face ID again using your passcode. If you set it to always lock, you might just have to get used to the passcode for now. In the future, you might want to do the second Face ID scan while wearing a mask or without your glasses to capture more of your face data. It’s strange that you’re facing this issue though, it’s worked for me in the past after shaving!
It would be awesome if iPhones supported on-screen fingerprint recognition as a backup for Face ID. It gives you more options in situations like this, you know? That way, you wouldn’t be locked out after a shave!
That’s unusual, usually, when Face ID fails, it should still give you the option to use your passcode. Have you tried restarting your phone? Sometimes a simple reset can resolve weird glitches like this.
That's what I did last time, and it let me use the password. I’m really surprised it’s not working for you this time!