Some iPhone 18 Pro owners have already queued up at an Apple Store and walked out with a replacement handset. They have wasted an afternoon. The replacement runs the same software and will do exactly the same thing.
A bug in iOS 27 causes the iPhone 18 Pro to freeze and then restart itself after a failed Face ID scan. Apple has confirmed a fix is coming early next week, and MacRumors has spotted iOS 27.0.1 in Apple’s testing logs. Nothing about this is a hardware fault, and nothing about it requires a trip to the Genius Bar.
Here is what is happening, how to confirm your phone has it, and what to do in the meantime.
What The Bug Actually Does
The trigger is a failed Face ID attempt rather than Face ID generally.
It has been reproduced deliberately by covering a face with a hand while unlocking the Passwords app. The screen stops responding to touch, and a few seconds later the phone hard reboots on its own. No warning, no error message.
It does not affect every handset. Reports across social media suggest it is far too widespread to be a batch of faulty units, and the fact that it follows one specific action is the clearest signal that this is code rather than a broken sensor.
Your data is not at risk. This is a crash and restart, not corruption, and the phone comes back up normally.
How To Check Whether Yours Has It
The crash leaves a record on the device, so you do not have to guess.
- Open Settings
- Go to Privacy & Security
- Tap Analytics & Improvements
- Tap Analytics Data
- Look for a panic log with a timestamp matching your restart
If the timestamps line up, you have the same bug everybody else has, and you can stop worrying about your hardware.
Why It Is The iPhone 18 Pro Specifically
Face ID on the iPhone 18 Pro works differently from every iPhone that came before it.
Apple moved the infrared camera under the display, sitting next to the clock in the status bar. That relocation is what allowed the visible Dynamic Island to shrink by 25 percent. We covered the leak that first pointed at under-screen Face ID back in January.
Reading a face through an active display is a harder engineering problem than reading it through a clear cutout, and this is Apple’s first attempt at solving it. First-generation systems tend to hold up fine in testing and then break in specific ways once millions of people use them in bad light, in bed, in a car, and with half a face behind a scarf. Those are the conditions that produce failed scans, and failed scans are what triggers this.
It is one of several changes that made this a year of firsts rather than a refinement, and buying first-year hardware carries exactly this kind of risk.
When The Fix Lands
Apple’s stated timeline is early next week, which puts it in the opening days of October.
MacRumors expects iOS 27.0.1 to be a small bug fix and security release. Face ID is the obvious candidate for what it addresses, but Apple has not published release notes, so treat that as likely rather than confirmed until the update actually arrives.
To get it as soon as it ships, open Settings, then General, then Software Update, and switch on Automatic Updates. Or simply check that screen manually early next week.
The Apple Watch Had The Same Problem
Worth knowing if you bought a watch alongside the phone. watchOS 27.0.1 is already out for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, and it fixes a bug that caused unexpected restarts.
That one you can install today.
What To Do Until The Update Arrives
Keep the phone. A replacement handset runs identical software and will crash in identical circumstances. An exchange costs you time and gains you nothing.
Use your passcode where Face ID struggles. Because the crash follows a failed scan, avoiding the failure avoids the crash. If Face ID reliably misses you somewhere specific, a dark bedroom, a car mount at an awkward angle, go straight to the passcode in those situations.
Do not reset or restore. A factory reset reinstalls the same version of iOS and will not help.
If it persists after iOS 27.0.1, then book an appointment. Continued restarts on patched software would be a different problem, and that is the point at which the Genius Bar becomes worth your time.
If you are still weighing up whether to buy one at all, our full iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro comparison covers what has changed, along with what the new modem does for battery life.
Has Yours Restarted?
Has your iPhone 18 Pro frozen and rebooted after a failed Face ID scan, and did you take it back to Apple before finding out it was a software bug? Let us know in the comments. We will update this page as soon as iOS 27.0.1 is released.
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