How to disable the Face ID ir scanner?

Hi Jody,

The obvious result of removing or disabling the IR projector and/or IR camera is you will lose Face ID; I assume you're okay with that.

What I'm not clear on is that the IR system consists of an IR dot projector and and IR camera and whether you're looking to disable the projector, the camera or both.

Here's the part you're looking at.

The IR camera is on the left in the red box, the front selfie camera is to the right in the orange box, and the IR dot projector is at the far right in the green box.

Unfortunately, it looks like Apple has changed the design of the front camera assembly from that on the earlier iPhone X. On the X the three components had three separate connectors, but on the 11 it's been reduced to two connectors. So as far as I can tell, the IR projector and the front camera share a connector, so it may not be possible to unplug the IR projector without unplugging the selfie camera too.

Now, to my mind it would make a lot more sense to combine the IR camera and the IR projector into one connector instead, and it's possible that's what they did, but I can't tell from pictures and haven't located any information that gives me the answer to that.

So at this point the best advice I could give you would be to try unplugging the IR camera (the connector outlined in blue in the picture) and see if that also disables the IR projector.

Unfortunately iFixit doesn't have a written guide to that repair, but there's a Spanish site called Nadie Me Llama Gallina that has a guide showing you exactly how to do that. The guide is for removing the front cameras, but you can just stop early if all you want to do is access the connector and unplug it.

Manuales / Apple iPhone 11 / Front cameras - Nadie Me Llama Gallina

Now I do have to warn you that the processor in the phone checks all of its sensors every three minutes, and if it can't read one then it reboots the phone. So the act of unplugging the IR camera (and hopefully the IR projector as well) may trigger that reboot cycle, making the phone only useful in three minute intervals.

One alternative that might accomplish what you want to do us to simply take a piece of black electrical tape and stick it on top of the IR projector and/or the IR camera as desired. Placing it on the projector will keep it from shining IR light on your face, and putting it on the camera will keep it from being able to see in the IR frequency range, although be cautioned that it's always possible the phone uses that camera for things other than Face ID, so you could lose some other functionality.

In summary, I'd suggest that the tape over the IR projector would be your safest option, with the added bonus that it's easily reversible if you should, for example want to sell the phone.

Good luck and let us know how it all turns out!

UPDATE (Feb 7 2025):

Ah, okay, this is new information that changes the whole ballgame. The IR projector would be coming from the right side of the speaker, so obviously that's not the culprit. However, mounted on the screen on the left side of the speaker is what's called the flood illuminator. It's marked in red on this picture, next to the speaker in orange.

Here's another view to give you a better idea of how it relates to the screen. Again, the flood illuminator is in red and the position it fits into the screen is marked in yellow.

The flood illuminator is basically a flash, only it operates in the infrared (IR) wavelength. Most people can't see that part of the frequency spectrum so it doesn't bother the greater part of the population. It appears you are one of the very few people who are able to see a wider part of the light spectrum than most of us so you get a flash in your face every time the phone tries to recognize you with Face ID.

So if you're up for the amount of work equivalent to replacing the screen, you could open up the phone, remove the earpiece speaker assembly and place a piece of tape over the flood illuminator. Here's the iFixit guide that would step you through that operation.

iPhone 11 Screen Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide

Of course, chances are Face ID won't work after this, but I suspect that's okay with you so if that's the case, I'd say go for it. On the other hand if you aren't confident in your ability to do the screen replacement procedure, then your current solution of putting a spot of paint on your screen protector is a perfectly good strategy.