have you been afflicted with an error 53
well we're here to talk about it I'm
Kyle with iFixit and this is Matt Z matt
is a our resident iPhone expert and
you've become an expert on air 53 over
the last year or so we've been see this
issue so what I'm going to do today is
I'm going to explain to you what error
53 is how that caused it and how to fix
it we're gonna see if we can we can
cause an error 53 on these phones and
then fix it so at a fundamental issue
error 53 isn't is a problem where after
you have done a repair on the phone and
then you go and you update to iOS
sometimes it's 8.0 point 1 sometimes
it's iOS 9 you get an error on iTunes it
says error 53 and the phone is bricked
is there any recovering from error 53 if
you got the phone break at this point we
haven't found anything and if you go to
Apple they say we're sorry you need a
new phone so what is causing this well
let's dive into how the phone works a
little bit I have so this is knife on 6
and there's the touchscreen sensor
embedded here so I actually have that
sensor here this is a this is a touch
sensor rather than iPhone and so you
might put a new screen in you take the
old touch ID sensor you put it in the
new phone when you do that the repair
all usually the new screen comes with
this so this looks like a big metal
piece but really the key piece here is
this cable this is just a metal shield
and then this is the touch ID flex cable
that goes all the way up the back of the
phone and when most people do phone
repairs they don't swap this cable they
buy a new display assembly that has this
cable and and they did this one but and
this is how the repair industry has been
doing this this for years this is how
our I fix it guides tell you how to do
the repair that was all well and good up
until the new iOS update and what Apple
is as done is they have tightened the
calibration and they've tightened the
detection of the attenuation of the
signal along this cable so to show you
this process Matt is going to we have
two perfectly functional iPhone 6s and
we're just going to swap the screens
between the two of them right and that
will cause error 53 presumably yes okay
let's get into it and do it
all right so we've got the screen off
the first phone now we're gonna take the
screen out of the second thumb now again
both of these phones are perfectly
functional neither of them has any issue
okay so now we have the screens off of
both phones we're going to put the
screen the white screen from the rose
gold phone on the black phone and power
those okay so we've got it back together
let's see if it works all right so the
phone turns on it's completely
functional so this shows that we did the
repair correctly the phone is working
all right so we're going to update this
phone to 921 now this phone actually is
already on line to one but we're going
to do the restore and restoring the nine
to one image onto this device will
trigger the earth alright we are halfway
through the restore and it is giving us
the phone cannot be restored an unknown
error has occurred 53 so well click OK
here and the phone is stuck so the
phone's stuck in the middle of the
restore process and what do I do now
there's nothing really that you can do
at this point so if I unplug it it goes
blank okay and now I turn it off that
says connect iTunes so there is there is
no way to fix this in this current
configuration no and if you listen to
Apple you take it to one of their so
Apple has a support page up for this and
they say you take into a store are the
stores fixing the problem they are
turning you down on repair so that's the
bad news
now the good news how do we fix the
problem how can we unbreak this phone so
this is this is our office phone so
let's let's go ahead and unbreak this
bomb which means that we're going to
have to put the original screen back on
it so this is the screen that came on
that phone we're gonna put this screen
back on it
[Music]
so we've got the phone with its original
flex cable on it let's go and turn this
guy back on so it's asking us to plug it
back in
we'll do that 19 says restore we'll go
ahead and restore the device all right
so we're restoring the device and this
should fix it however in the process of
doing this we completely wiped out all
the data on the phone look at that we
have a phone that is back together and
working so make your voice heard speak
out the Apple ask them the requests as
simple what we need is a software tool
that allows you to reoffending eight
your touch ID cable your new touch ID
cable and touch ID sensor with the phone
and if they make that simple software
tool available it will unbreak these
thousands of phones that have so and the
reason why it's important for Apple to
offer this software to everybody is that
not everybody leaves close to an Apple
Store and independent repair shops are
all over America all over the world and
this issue affects people who are
sometimes hours away from an Apple
Center
so hopefully Apple comes up with some
other kind of fix but at least for now
you've got a short-term fix which is
find your original touch ID flex cable
and touch ID button put it back in your
phone and you'll be good to go