iPhone users beware: 'Error 53' after Apple iOs 9 update makes your phone worthless!Feb 6(AZINS) Apple may be deliberately 'bricking' iPhone 6 devices in its new iOs 9 update, if users have repaired the handsets at non-Apple stores, according to a report in The Guardian.

If the home button of the phone, which has built-in touch ID fingerprint recognition, is repaired by a 'non-official' company or person, the user reportedly gets an 'Error 53' message when he/she upgrades the iPhone software to iOS 9. Many users have complained that phones that worked fine after repairs, were rendered useless, and the data on it irretrievable, after installing the upgrade.

According to tech experts, Apple is aware of the issue but has not done anything to intimate customers that the iOs 9 update would make their iPhone 6 dead if it has been repaired at non-Apple stores.

Antonio Olmos, a freelance photographer, told The Guardian that he was covering the refugee crisis in the Balkans when his iPhone 6 broke down. He had to get it repaired through local shops in Macedonia as there were no Apple stores in the area. Olmos says the screen and home button were fixed and his phone was working fine until he accepted the invitation to install the iOS 9 software update. Within seconds, the 'Error 53' message popped up, making the phone unusable. The Apple store in London said nothing could be done to fix it.

Livid with the experience, Olmos tells The Guardian, “How can a company deliberately make their own products useless with an upgrade and not warn their own customers about it? Outside of the big industrialised nations, Apple stores are few and far between, and damaged phones can only be brought back to life by small third-party repairers. I am not even sure these third-party outfits even know this is a potential problem.”

Olmos is among many others who have reported that their Iphones are now junk. Several tech fora, as well as posts on Apple Support Communities, share similar experiences.

The move looks designed to prevent third parties from carrying out repairs on Apple products.

In a statement an Apple spokesperson told The Guardian, “When an iPhone is serviced by an unauthorised repair provider, faulty screens or other invalid components that affect the touch ID sensor could cause the check to fail if the pairing cannot be validated. With a subsequent update or restore, additional security checks result in an ‘error 53’ being displayed … If a customer encounters an unrecoverable error 53, we recommend contacting Apple support.”