I’m using iPhone X with iOS 13.5. I’ve used Face ID for months but it suddenly can’t recognize myself this morning. When I reset the Face ID, it keeps saying “move iPhone a little lower”. What should I do now?
When Apple upgraded their lock screen security from a basic PIN to Touch ID everyone was impressed, then came Face ID.
It seemed like something from the future but nowadays, facial recognition is simpler to implement than people realize.
It isn’t flawless though, and many iPhone users are realizing this. After months of using Face ID, it may stop recognizing your face for seemingly no reason.
Even if you reset it and set it up again, the Face ID still not working and says “move iPhone a little lower”. So, what can you do to fix this?
Part 1. Why Face ID Move iPhone a Little Lower Happens?
Seeing “Move iPhone a little lower” error could come down to either a software or hardware issue. Sometimes it’s an iOS bug and simply updating your firmware will resolve it, but it could also be due to your camera.
If you recently dropped your iPhone then this may have caused damage to the camera lens, meaning it wouldn’t be able to recognize your face.
Another common cause is replacing cracked screens. Because replacing an iPhone screen involves taking the device apart, it needs to be done very carefully otherwise issues like Face ID not working move iPhone lower can occur.
In that case, you would want to consider contacting the store that replaced your screen.
Part 2. How to Fix Face ID Not Working Move iPhone Lower
Next, we’re going to consider the fixes you can use to resolve “move iPhone a little lower” problem and we’d recommend going through each of these until you find one that works.
There is no single solution that will fix everyone’s iPhones – all cases are different.
1Restart iPhone
It’s possible that when your iPhone turned on and loaded the iOS firmware, it wasn’t loaded properly. This can result in some features not working the right way and to resolve this, a quick restart should do the trick.
Here’s how to restart an iPhone X and later.
Step 1 – Hold both the Side button and one of the Volume buttons (it can be Up or Down, either will work).
Step 2 – After a few seconds you will see the slider appear. Tap and drag the Slide to Power Off slider.
Step 3 – Leave your iPhone for roughly 40 seconds to ensure it fully turns off, then hold the Side button to turn it back on.
2Hard Reset
If doing a regular restart doesn’t get you anywhere, taking the more aggressive approach of a hard reset could. This completely resets the firmware unlike the last method which restarts most of the firmware packages, but not all of them.
Here’s how to hard reset an iPhone X and newer.
Step 1 – Press the Volume Up button, but don’t hold it.
Step 2 – Press the Volume Down button, but don’t hold it down either.
Step 3 – Press and hold the Side/Lock button.
Step 4 – When the Apple logo is displayed you can stop holding the button.
Don’t worry, there aren’t any risks of doing a hard reset.
This has shown promise at resolving Face ID not working move iPhone lower, and it doesn’t cost anything, so is definitely worth trying out.
3Check for Update
As we mentioned before there’s a chance that your Face ID “move iPhone a little lower” problem have arisen from an iOS error, in which case updating the firmware would be the solution.
Below is how you can manually make your iPhone check for an iOS update:
Step 1 – Make sure that your iPhone is plugged into a power source so that it is charging, and also make sure that it is connected to a stable Wi-Fi network.
Step 2 – Unlock your iPhone and go to the Settings app, navigate to General, and tap Software Update.
Step 3 – Your iPhone will check if your current iOS installation is up-to-date and if not, the most recent version will be shown. Tap Install if a new iOS version is available to download and install it.
This situation is a prime example of why you must always install the latest iOS versions that are released by Apple.
Updating fixes a lot of common bugs and in this case, could fix Face ID not working move iPhone a little lower issue.
4Reset All Settings
Often Face ID not working move iPhone lower can come from your settings conflicting or simply not being set up right.
Remedying this isn’t too tedious but you will have to reconnect to Wi-Fi and change other settings, like your display settings, again after you do this.
Step 1 – Unlock your iPhone and open the Settings application.
Step 2 – Go to General, swipe down and tap Reset, then select Reset All Settings.
Step 3 – Tap Reset All Settings again to confirm the action and your iPhone will take a few seconds to process this.
Aside from having to go through your settings, this is a very easy solution to try. Doing this also doesn’t wipe your personal data so there’s no need to be concerned about that.
5Factory Reset
If you just aren’t getting anywhere with the other solutions or want to skip them, you could go straight to doing a factory reset.
Doing this will get rid of the Face ID so that you can set it up again, but it also removes all of your data, so taking a backup is ideal.
Step 1 – Use iTunes or iCloud to take a full backup of your iPhone’s data. This is an optional step, but we would recommend it.
- iTunes. To take an iTunes backup, connect your iPhone to the computer and when iTunes launches, click the device icon and select Back Up Now on the Summary page.
- iCloud. To take an iCloud backup, launch Settings and tap your iCloud name, tap iCloud then iCloud Backup, and lastly tap Back Up Now.
Step 2 – After your backup is taken, go to the Settings app and open General > Reset.
Step 3 – Tap on Erase All Content and Settings and to confirm you want to do a factory reset, tap Erase Now.
Note: if you forgot to take a backup then you can select Back Up Then Erase at this point.
Step 4 – Your iPhone will then begin the factory reset process. This will take up to 10 minutes so patiently wait for this to finish.
Step 5 – After that is done, you can set up your iPhone normally and restore your backup when presented with the option to do so.
Step 6 – During the iOS setup, enable Face ID and follow the steps to set it up once again.
Assuming that there was a problem with the initial Face ID setup, this will give you the chance to remove Face ID and completely start from scratch.
6Try with Other People
This next solution might seem strange, but trust us when we say it works for some people. All you have to do is try using other people’s faces to unlock your iPhone.
Sometimes when you set up Face ID the camera will recognize the face of someone in the background instead of your face, meaning that it will only unlock for them. It’s not a common occurrence but if you only recently set up Face ID for your iPhone, give this a shot.
7Return to Apple
If you’re in the rare position where none of the solutions we’ve gone over in this article has gotten you anywhere, the likely cause of Face ID not working “move iPhone a little lower” is hardware damage.
Specifically, the Face ID sensor may have failed or malfunctioned, preventing any attempt at using Face ID to work.
The only thing you can do is contact the store you bought the iPhone from, or go to Apple directly, and get support from them. You may get it repaired or replaced – it depends on the circumstances.
Conclusion
Everything you need to know about Face ID not working move iPhone lower and how to fix this problem can be found in our guide above.
This isn’t always an easy error to fix and can take time to resolve, but as long as you follow each of these methods you should find one that works for you.
Got any questions? Feel free to leave a comment below and we’ll help in any way that we can.
