iOS 11.3 kills touch, ambient light sensing for iPhone 8/X users with aftermarket displays

The aftermarket repair community is reporting that the iOS 11.3 software update renders touch functionality inoperable for iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus with a non-genuine display.

One high-volume third-party repair shop told AppleInsider earlier this week that about one in three screen repairs done on the iPhone 8 family were having the problem.

Replacing the display with a third-party part without updating a microchip seems to cause touch functionality to be lost, but it’s unclear what a chip “upgrade” entails.

Be that as it may, an Ohio repair shop technician told Motherboard that the repair community believes a microchip is responsible for powering the screens. Basically, repair shops have figured out how to fix the affected phones by opening them and upgrading the chips.

The publication separately reported that some iPhone 8 and iPhone X units are losing ambient light sensing functionality when screen repair is done by a third-party shop.

Experiments have shown that the sensor is disabled by iOS during the boot process. The aftermarket repair community has verified the behavior in iPhones from all around the world. The issue manifests itself with devices running iOS 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3.

As of February 2017, third-party iPhone screen repairs no longer void the warranty.

Vice reported today that the Federal Trade Commission has determined that “Warranty Void If Removed” stickers in gadgets mean nothing because federal law says you can repair your own things. Apple is among the companies opposing “Right to Repair” laws.

Manufacturers cannot force you to use their own repair services and those who try are basically breaking the law. “Right to repair” laws would compel consumer electronics manufacturers to provide repair manuals, spare parts and other essentials to the public.