iPhone 11 Pro FaceID slow to activate/register to unlock phone

[netnothing]

Launch day iPhone 11 Pro Max running latest iOS. I have noticed multiple times that randomly after a period of time my FaceID will be slow to unlock my phone.

Here's a video of it in action:

It wasn't until I took this video that I saw the invisible lights from FaceID being picked up on video. It seems like after waking up the display, FaceID is waiting - this is when you see the animation of the spinning unlock. After a few seconds (around 4 secs in the video), you see the FaceID cameras scan and unlock the phone.

Anyone else have this happen?

Couple of notes:
- I have reset FaceID
- A reboot of the phone fixes it
- I could go weeks without the issue and then suddenly have the issue show up, like today, no rhyme or reason

(sorry for the video quality)

 

[Simacca]

Strange. Face ID on my 11 pro is instant and even recognised me with polarised sunglasses. I think there has only be 2 times that it didn’t recognise me first time. Am well impressed.

 

[netnothing]

Strange. Face ID on my 11 pro is instant and even recognised me with polarised sunglasses. I think there has only be 2 times that it didn’t recognise me first time. Am well impressed.

Normally the phone is fine and FaceID is instant. Something happens, no idea what, where the phone gets in this state where the delay occurs.

Since owning the phone, I've only ever had the delay 3 or so times. First time a reboot fixed it for a while. Then when it happened a second time, that's when I reset FaceID. And today is the third time it's happened, again a reboot fixed it (for now).

 

[mavis]

Right when you start the video, the phone is already looking for your face (the flood illuminator is visible, briefly) and after it can't find you, it waits a few seconds and tries again. I guess they could shorten that re-try delay, but it looks to me like that's all it is. You shouldn't need to reboot; I've had this happen a few times on the iPhone 11 Pro Max but it works fine immediately afterwards.

 

[netnothing]

Right when you start the video, the phone is already looking for your face (the flood illuminator is visible, briefly) and after it can't find you, it waits a few seconds and tries again. I guess they could shorten that re-try delay, but it looks to me like that's all it is. You shouldn't need to reboot; I've had this happen a few times on the iPhone 11 Pro Max but it works fine immediately afterwards.

Interesting. Thanks for replying.

When this happens it will keep happening until a reboot, almost every time I go to unlock it. Even if I’m looking right at the phone in good light. A reboot always speeds it back up to lightning fast speed.

 

[mavis]

Interesting. Thanks for replying.

When this happens it will keep happening until a reboot, almost every time I go to unlock it. Even if I’m looking right at the phone in good light. A reboot always speeds it back up to lightning fast speed.

Ok, that's definitely odd. Here's what I would try, if this was happening to me.

1) double-press the power button to bring up Apple Pay and see if that authentication is slow or not.
2) immediately lock and try to unlock the phone
3) reset FaceID (which you've already done)
4) restore the phone and set up as new. To help me do this (I was having battery issues on my iPhone 11 Pro Max after restoring from my iPhone X, and probably my 7+ and 6S Plus, before that) I made a screen recording of the home screen and each folder, opened and paged through (so that I could watch/pause the video once I started installing apps, and get my home screen organized the way I like).

Good luck. I hope it doesn't come to a full restore ... kind of a hassle, but it is nice to start fresh, sometimes.

 

[netnothing]

Ok, that's definitely odd. Here's what I would try, if this was happening to me.

1) double-press the power button to bring up Apple Pay and see if that authentication is slow or not.
2) immediately lock and try to unlock the phone
3) reset FaceID (which you've already done)
4) restore the phone and set up as new. To help me do this (I was having battery issues on my iPhone 11 Pro Max after restoring from my iPhone X, and probably my 7+ and 6S Plus, before that) I made a screen recording of the home screen and each folder, opened and paged through (so that I could watch/pause the video once I started installing apps, and get my home screen organized the way I like).

Good luck. I hope it doesn't come to a full restore ... kind of a hassle, but it is nice to start fresh, sometimes.

Thanks! I’ll give these a try next time it happens. Appreciate it.

 

[Sam in SoCal]

Thanks! I’ll give these a try next time it happens. Appreciate it.

Has the phone had any drops to the ground. Has the device been exposed to excessive water, moisture, or steam? any temperature extremes. Just wanna see if there’s anything potentially hardware related

 

[netnothing]

Has the phone had any drops to the ground. Has the device been exposed to excessive water, moisture, or steam? any temperature extremes. Just wanna see if there’s anything potentially hardware related

Nope, none of those. Figured if it was hardware, it would happen all the time at least.