NFC Tags won't read after iOS 15.4 update

After updating to iOS 15.4 I can no longer read any NFC tags. I believe Apple Pay is working fine.

Replication:
Unlock iPhone, hold NFC tag to top back of phone (without case or other magnetic or metallic materials nearby). Default iOS behaviour should be to read the contents of a known working tag (works perfectly on an Android device) and display a popup to manage the tag information (e.g. Popup would ask permission to open Safari to open a web link programmed on a tag)

3rd Party Tools: Previous versions of iOS 15 beta allowed read and write of NFC tags using apps such as NFC and NFC Tools. I have used "normal" mode, compatibility mode, have attempted to (re)format the tag to no avail. When conducting a read or write using these tools a popup appears, but no tag can be read or written. "Ready to Scan" popup remains open.

Further steps taken: Hard Reset: No effect

Post not yet marked as solved Up vote post of BruceCalgary Down vote post of BruceCalgary
34k views
Posted by
BruceCalgary
Reply

  • The same thing happened to me when I updated to 15.4.1. I am so frustrated. I have an iPhone SE 2020 and it's not even two years old yet. I use my phone to scan a continuous glucose sensor. It worked absolutely fine all day until I did the update. Immediately after I did the update NFC no longer worked. I did trouble shooting over the phone. Then went into a store. At the store the rep assured me that my phone was absolutely great and nothing was wrong with it -- despite the fact that it no longer read my CGM. In the process I tried two different expensive sensors to isolate if the issue was the sensor or the phone. Two sensors didn't work. I then used my son's phone to scan the sensor and it did work. Mind you, these sensors are $70 each and due to this issue I had to waste two of them. Since then I've had to carry two phones with me, mine and my son's old crusty iPhone 7 just so I can monitor my medical device.

    After I went to the Apple store and was told my phone was fine, I went to the grocery store a couple of days later and attempted to use Apple Pay. It didn't work.

    I returned to the Apple store and by the time all was said and done, three factory resets were done on my phone and a dozen other trouble shooting steps. Finally the apple rep tried to make an apple pay transaction on my phone and it didn't work. Only then did they agree that my NFC was not working.

    I'm pretty peeved about this. I am barely out of warranty. I can't read my medical device. My only choice is to spend hundreds on a new phone, carry two phones or purchase an expensive dedicated sensor from Abbott pharmaceuticals. Adding a bit more salt to the wound, I see that Apple has a website set up to explicitly promote the usage of apple products to doctors, medical systems and patients.

    Apple: If you are going to market wearable medical technologies to us, they have to reliably work. There are people who could actually die from this issue. It is no joking matter.

    Please resolve this issue immediately, offer those affected a fix or an immediate free replacement. Our health and well being has been threatened by a buggy iOS update. This is dangerous in addition to being unfair.

    —
    indigo_bunting

  • I found that if I turn off cellular, then I can read NFC devices. Not worth it for a silly device, but probably worth it for your GCM.

    —
    Ericmatt
Add a Comment

Replies

Same issue here too. I thought it is coming from the new iPhone case I'm using. I called Apple service and after the troubleshoot, they said everything is fine and requested a physical check on the phone (which was not achievable for me). however I noticed it's not working even without the case as well. If you remove the case, won't make any change I was thinking the case has cause permanent damage to my phone's NFC reader.

So what's the plan now? are they even reading all this information here???

Posted by
crazyboyhmd
Up vote reply of crazyboyhmd Down vote reply of crazyboyhmd
Add a Comment

The fix for me (iPhone 12, iOS 15.6) was to go into Settings -> General -> AirDrop and change the setting from Contacts Only to Everyone. After that, scanning of NFC tags worked again. Switched the setting back to Contacts Only and tried scanning the NFC tag again and it still worked. I assume this is a bug.

Posted by
Repox
Up vote reply of Repox Down vote reply of Repox
Add a Comment

Update on iOS 15.6.1 - no change, NFC reader still dead on my iPhone. Using my Apple Watch - NFC working as expected and no problems, it is reading payment terminals without no issue.

Posted by
TomasH31
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of TomasH31 Down vote reply of TomasH31

  • I will waith for iOS 16 - if there will be no fix for it - I will return my iPhone as non properly fuctional within waranty period.

    —
    TomasH31
Add a Comment

Has there been any solution to this? Trying to write like 200 NFC tags but phone isn't picking up a single one.

Posted by
cmcguinness
Up vote reply of cmcguinness Down vote reply of cmcguinness

  • It appears to depend what you write to the tag. If I add wifi credentials, it doesn't work. As in, putting the phone next to the tag has no reaction.

    However, if I use the shortcuts apps to create a simple lights off automation, it works first time, every time. Of if I make it a simple URL, it opens up in Safari.

    So perhaps certain payloads are not supported on the latest version of iOS?

    —
    warrenkerrigan

  • yes I concur that - I can read simple URL's but I can't read or it won't add wifi credentials. Whats weird is that I can use the same tag and it will read and link the URL but if I overwrite it with the WIFI - it fails to read. As soon as I overwrite again with a simple URL it works again. OS16.3 update and I am beginning to wonder if I can be bothered creating a load of NFC when the only OS that will read them properly is an Android - LOL who told me to move to Apple because "it just works"

    —
    paul0001
Add a Comment

So, 12 mini here. It's been off since ios 15.4, I updated every version of ios until today, ios 16.0.2. It never worked. Is Apple seeing our posts?

Posted by
Hoozt
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of Hoozt Down vote reply of Hoozt

  • It just worked. I turned NFC off for a few weeks since it's not working at all. I got a Phonecase with MagSafe support and you guys probably know that your iPhone can detect a MagSafe-supported case. Then I thought this could be affecting the NFC function(electromagnetic stuff), so I found a vending machine, and turned on the NFC, it didn't read at first, but after I played with it around for a few minutes, it worked. I then took off the case and it also works. Don't know how it worked yet.

    —
    Hoozt

  • Maybe MagSafe has something to do with this. I use MagSafe all the time. What do you guys use for daily charging, MagSafe or cable?

    —
    Hoozt

  • Nope. It failed again. But if I put my phone at the reader long enough, it will read. Once it reads, it works for a while(if you try to use it in a couple of minutes).

    —
    Hoozt

Same thing here running iOS 16 on my iPhone12pro with no use of background NFC reading, just reads through third party apps

Posted by
a7mad3aref
Up vote reply of a7mad3aref Down vote reply of a7mad3aref
Add a Comment

Same here, iPhone 11 PM, tried 16.0.2 and also 16.0.3 beta, reseting airdrop, etc. - did not help, nfc still wont read any tags.

Posted by
hoshhi
Up vote reply of hoshhi Down vote reply of hoshhi

  • I also tried downgrading to 15.7 which is the oldest version that is supported to downgrade to and still nfc not working

    —
    hoshhi

  • Maybe MagSafe has something to do with this. I use MagSafe all the time. What do you use for daily charging, MagSafe or cable?

    —
    Hoozt
Add a Comment

The same thing happened to my iPhone SE2020 on iOS16.0.3. Previously, it could read NFC but from some time it became unavailable. I have made NW setting reset, which was no effect. I solicit the solution.

Posted by
Teramachi_mn
Up vote reply of Teramachi_mn Down vote reply of Teramachi_mn
Add a Comment

Same problem here - NFC suddenly stopped working last Saturday. (Apple Pay doesn’t work anymore on any terminals)

iPhone 13 Pro - iOS 16.0.3

Update to iOS 16.1 didn’t fix it.

Apple support did some remote diagnostics - hardware is fine.

Posted by
MuhKuhNo2
Up vote reply of MuhKuhNo2 Down vote reply of MuhKuhNo2
Add a Comment

No change after an upgrate to IOS 16.1. iPhone 13 mini. iPhone is not able to read any payment terminal nor nfc tag. Apple Pay working just fine (in Apps or Web). Mine Apple Watch synced with the same phone working ok, able to read payment terminals just fine...

Posted by
TomasH31
Up vote reply of TomasH31 Down vote reply of TomasH31
Add a Comment

Hi All,

if it helps anyone, I have somewhat the same issue. When scanning NFC tags in automation app or NFC tools, it never fails. If I try then to read the NFC tag with the my phone, it doesn’t work. One solution I found is to lock the phone, and with the screen off, position the iPhone over the nfc tag, and press the side “wake” button. It reads 100% of the time for me.

hope it helps.

Posted by
HasNoName
Up vote reply of HasNoName Down vote reply of HasNoName

  • Same issue here. Tried to create a business card for my brother in law. Everything worked fine, but when I scanned it with my father’s phone (Samsung) it stopped working. Won’t read on any phone anymore. 3rd party app still reads the NFC normally though, so I’m assuming the issues lies with the tag itself? I tried your solution, but when I hold it while turning on my phone, it says that NFC reader couldn’t be turned on…I don’t understand what broke it lol just yesterday my phone read it fine

    —
    Kwapio
Add a Comment

Forward to now....I have not had this issue until my iPhone 11 pro max upgraded to 16.1.1. It worked fine until the last update, and now I am without my blood sugar readings. I bricked two sensors (not cheap) trying to figure this out. The sensor works on my wife's 2020 SE Iphone, which has not been updated to the .1.1. Anyone had any luck with this? Did anyone else have this happen with the latest IOS update? Is there a way to downgrade IOS to the last version?

Posted by
Gregorio38
Up vote reply of Gregorio38 Down vote reply of Gregorio38
Add a Comment

guys! I just updated to ios 16.3.1, and it worked! Still not sure if this is a one-time thing or if the bug is completely fixed, I will update on further conditions.

Posted by
Hoozt
Up vote reply of Hoozt Down vote reply of Hoozt

  • Nope. I think I just got lucky that time.

    —
    Hoozt
Add a Comment

16.3.1 en Iphone Xs sigue sin funcionar, directamente no detecta ni escanea NFC.

Posted by
Jorge5252
Up vote reply of Jorge5252 Down vote reply of Jorge5252

  • Apple really needs to do something about this. Hundreds if not thousands probably have this issue and nothing has been done, instead we are told that we have to get new phones because of NFC Issues when really it's probably a software issue and not a hardware issue. Also for people like me who wear a glucose monitor when NFC is an absolute need for day to day life, it's a shame I have to buy a new phone just to be able to scan myself for my own health.

    —
    mathieufitzgerald
Add a Comment

Apple really needs to do something about this. Hundreds if not thousands probably have this issue and nothing has been done, instead we are told that we have to get new phones because of NFC Issues when really it's probably a software issue and not a hardware issue. Also for people like me who wear a glucose monitor when NFC is an absolute need for day to day life, it's a shame I have to buy a new phone just to be able to scan myself for my own health.

Posted by
mathieufitzgerald
Up vote reply of mathieufitzgerald Down vote reply of mathieufitzgerald
Add a Comment