IPhone owners who want to repair their own phones through Apple's Self Service Repair program will in the future also be able to do so with second-hand parts. Commercial repairers can also use such used, original parts.
Apple writes that it will expand the official self-repair program from 2021. Users who want to repair an iPhone themselves can in the future use used iPhone parts instead of just new ones they buy through Apple. In doing so, Apple responds to the criticism of many repair advocates. Tweakers already wrote in 2022 about the criticism of the Self Service Repair program from iFixit, among others, because users had to buy new parts from Apple and then provide a serial number to order the parts. The latter is now no longer necessary, unless the motherboard is replaced.
If users now want to use second-hand parts, Touch ID and Face ID will also continue to work. Until recently, these features stopped when users installed an unofficial screen or camera lens in their iPhone.
Apple is also expanding Activation Lock to stolen devices. In the future, Activation Lock will recognize whether certain second-hand parts come from an iPhone that has been identified as stolen. In that case, a repairer can no longer calibrate the part in the device.
The program remains limited. The unofficial components won't be supported until fall of this year “on select iPhone models.” Apple does not say which models are involved. Furthermore, only iPhones can still be repaired, but not Apple Watches and AirPods, for example.