iPhone 18 Pro suddenly stopped recognising its owner — this is a genre of anxiety all of its own

A person stands there, staring at the screen, and the phone looks straight through them, as if through glass. Sound familiar? Let's work out what to do before your hand reaches for an angry review.

First, the main thing: you are not alone in this, and most likely it is not your face at all. A nasty software bug crept into iOS for the iPhone 18 Pro, one that could make Face ID refuse to recognise its owner. Apple has acknowledged it and has already closed the problem with the iOS 27.0.1 update. So most often the hardware is not to blame.

Now, step by step.

First — check for the update. Go to Settings → General → Software Update. If you see 27.0.1, install it and reboot. In many cases Face ID comes back to life right after that, with no further fuss.

Second — if it still does not recognise you after the update, try resetting the Face ID data and teaching it your face again. Path: Settings → Face ID & Passcode → Reset Face ID. The phone will forget the old face print, and you will teach it a new one — in a room with decent light, not holding the device right up against your nose. Sometimes the old print simply goes bad, and re-enrolling solves the issue in one go.

Third — an ordinary reboot by powering off until the screen goes fully dark, not just locking it. It sounds trivial, but it clears temporary glitches that survive an update.

If all of this has been done and Face ID still looks past you, then the software side is already ruled out. What comes next, most likely, is the TrueDepth camera or the Face ID module. There is no getting to the bottom of it without diagnostics: the module is temperamental, and poking at it by eye is a real lottery.

And our technician in the back room knows how to look inside. Bring the device in — we will see what is hiding in there.