Apple to Allow Used Parts for Repairs of Select iPhones

Apple announced today that starting this fall, the company will allow users of select iPhones to utilize used Apple parts for repairs. This will first apply to owners of an iPhone 15 or newer, who will be able to repair their devices with used genuine parts including screens, cameras, and batteries. Apple also said that future iPhone models will support used biometric sensors for repairs.

As of today, iPhone users who try to repair their devices with non-genuine parts will encounter software warnings, with some features like screen calibration also being automatically disabled. That’s because after a repair, iOS triggers a “pairing” process that checks whether a repair part is genuine or not, and that also applies to used Apple parts. But that’s finally changing later this fall.

“For the last two years, teams across Apple have been innovating on product design and manufacturing to support repairs with used Apple parts that won’t compromise users’ safety, security, or privacy,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “With this latest expansion to our repair program, we’re excited to be adding even more choice and convenience for our customers, while helping to extend the life of our products and their parts.”

In practice, starting this fall, customers and service providers looking to order parts from Apple’s Self Service Repair Store for repairs that don’t require a replacement of the logic board will no longer need to provide the device’s serial number. However, Apple told the Washington Post that it won’t be offering used repair parts to independent repair shops.

To discourage people stealing iPhones to disassemble them and sell their parts, Apple will also extend its Activation Lock feature to iPhone parts. This means that trying to repair an iPhone with used parts from a device with Activation Lock enabled will restrict the calibration capabilities of these parts.

While Apple won’t allow repairing older iPhones models with used repair parts, this is still a positive change to improve the longevity of recent iPhones. Apple also claims to be the only smartphone manufacturer to allow users to check whether their device has been repaired. Later this fall, the iOS Settings app will also display whether repair parts on an iPhone 15 or newer are new or used.