On September 21, 2026, 9to5Mac said it reproduced a bug that freezes and reboots the iPhone 18 Pro after a failed Face ID scan. In one Reddit thread, 22 of 24 replies to the original complaint confirmed the same or a similar issue.
The Brief
- 9to5Mac reproduced the Face ID crash on at least one European iPhone 18 Pro by simulating a failed scan, then tapping “Try Face ID Again”.
- Macworld tracked 22 of 24 direct Reddit replies to one owner’s complaint describing the same or a similar issue.
- The bug appears tied to the 18 Pro’s redesigned, smaller Face ID sensor, which Apple’s own support guidance places at the top-left of the device.
- Neither outlet reports a statement from Apple; support outcomes reported secondhand don’t agree with each other.
A failed Face ID scan locks up the screen
The iPhone 18 Pro went on sale on Friday, according to Macworld. That followed the Apple launch event that brought the A20 Pro chip to the Apple smartphone lineup. The launch drew “a heartening amount of customer hype”, per Macworld, before the bug reports surfaced.
A number of iPhone 18 Pro owners report their device freezes and reboots after a failed Face ID attempt.
— 9to5Mac (@9to5mac) September 21, 2026
9to5Mac has reproduced the bug on at least one European iPhone 18 Pro model.
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Early bug reports now test the Apple customer loyalty that base was built on.
9to5Mac says the crash appears to follow one trigger: a failed Face ID attempt to unlock a protected app. That covers Passwords, a private Safari tab, or any biometric-locked app. It does not seem to fire from the standard lock screen. The outlet reproduced the fault on at least one European 18 Pro, though it does not seem to affect everyone.
9to5Mac published a way to test a unit: cover your face to force a failed scan, then tap “Try Face ID Again“. An affected phone stops responding to all touch input for a few seconds, then panics and reboots to the lock screen.
Apple’s own support guidance places the 18 Pro’s TrueDepth camera “at the top of the device towards the left corner“. It warns a covering finger or palm can block a scan when the phone is turned sideways, the same failure 9to5Mac’s repro step forces on purpose.
Apple’s documented steps are to clear obstructions, then “reset Face ID, then set it up again,” and it says a phone “might need service” if setup repeatedly stalls or the camera isn’t working. That ladder addresses recognition failures, not crashes, and never mentions reboots.
Conflicting support outcomes, reported secondhand
The 18 Pro sits below the Pro Max and the $1,999+ iPhone Duo, in the premium bracket where everything needs to be perfect.
Support outcomes reported secondhand disagree. One 18 Pro Max owner wrote that the phone panic-restarted three times from Face ID and once from a timeout, inside its first day. They called Apple support and did a Face ID reset.
The same poster later said Apple ran diagnostics and concluded the unit was simply faulty. 9to5Mac cites a Reddit user, possibly the same person, who says Apple support apparently recommended a hardware swap. The outlet views that call as probably a misdiagnosis.
Neither outlet reports a statement from Apple. That silence tests loyalty long built on reliability.
A second, thinner report: frozen touchscreens
A separate complaint describes the 18 Pro’s screen going unresponsive to touch, shown in a video posted to X. A commenter argued the freeze was a bug in iOS 27, not the 18 Pro itself. The commenter said it was caused by swiping down Notification Center and Control Center together.
The poster replied that they didn’t “exploit any bug” and that it had happened twice. They then linked to a second user reporting the same issue.
The Face ID failure is better documented than the touch bug. The next iOS 27 update will show whether Apple treats it as software or hardware.
