Apples Self Repair Program Is Not What It Seems

back in september 2021 i purchased two iphone 13 pros to see how repairable they were in my teardown repair assessment video we found that swapping the logic boards between my two phones resulted in a plethora of messages and artificial problems making it appear as though the parts were not functioning correctly this included the battery health being removed stating the battery needed servicing face id didn't work true tone vanished entirely and the front camera became a slideshow or this from a company that just launched a self-repair program that's quite a turnaround and i want to see just what's changed in those few months for starters the repair program covers the iphone 12 13 and se models with both repair manuals repair tools and some parts available to order from apple's self-service repair store there is even an option to rent the required tools for 50 which is a really awesome move from apple however apple's tools total 35 kilos and if i was to ship them internationally it cost upwards of 800 unlike any other parts website i've shopped on it requires the device's serial or imei numbers along with the code found in the repair manual the reason why apple wants your device's serial number will become apparent later on i ordered an iphone 13 display camera adhesive and repair tray which totaled 355 us dollars or 672 australian the program is currently only available to people with a us address luckily for me i have a plethora of connections and was able to have my parcel redirected to me here in australia from apple a display replacement for the iphone 13 pro is 279 dollars on the self-repair store it's 268 plus us tax which for some reason wasn't even included in the item price i have no idea how to calculate us sales tax but i believe it was around 19 for the display meaning it cost more to buy the replacement display than to just have apple do the repair however if you return your broken item for a credit it works out to be a few dollars cheaper things are really not off to a great start unpacking the parcel we have an introduction sheet outlining the program as well as all the parts i ordered this is something i never thought i'd see apple selling parts and tools to the public is there a catch well we won't find out until we get these parts installed one thing i'm weary about is parts pairing the serial number of the new display is even listed on the packing sheet apple knows exactly what screen they've sent you and the exact device it's supposed to be installed on the same goes for the camera which i'll unpack next and there we have it a genuine apple replacement camera it's even got a little protective film to prevent you from getting dust or fingerprints on the lens very nicely packed and same goes with the display assembly not only do you get a replacement oled but a set of screws just in case you're really clumsy and tend to lose them underneath is a totally genuine totally authentic brand new apple display assembly it even comes with the proximity sensor cable already attached with everything unpacked it's time we installed it onto an iphone i've held on to my iphone 13 pros from the ted ana repair assessment video and we'll be using the gold one to demonstrate apple's new repair program i understand it's not actually broken but i wanted to somewhat reassess the iphone 13's repairability and this phone will be a good baseline for that purpose now in order to make this an accurate reassessment i'll need to update from ios 15.0 to 15.5 with that we can now begin the procedure i'll first need to heat up the device while apple has their own machine for this purpose which you can now buy my heat plate will do the job just fine this iphone needs to be very hot in order for the adhesive to give way after the two pentalobe screws are removed the display can be lifted up and pry away from the frame using a plastic pick [Music] with the display loose we can now move the phone across to the apple repair tray this will allow us to hold open the display using the inbuilt suction cups using the proper apple lingo i can unfasten the tri-lobe screws and remove the lower cowling from here i can unplug the battery using a black stick black stick no no no no you'll always be a spudger to me after the battery is unplugged i can detach the display as you can see the suction cups are removable from the repair tray which makes taking off the screen extra easy proceeding it's now time to take out the rear camera like i said earlier there's nothing actually wrong with this rear camera we're just doing this to see how apple's repair program works after its two cables are detached the camera can be removed i'll remove the protective cover from our new apple replacement and get it installed into the iphone 13 pro once the flex cables have been attached i can install the cowling and its tri-lobe screws before i can attach the new display i firstly need to remove the old adhesive which is easier said than done in fact this is the hardest part of iphone repair apple's own guide shows you how to do this however my adhesive just kept breaking off i have had situations where it came off a lot easier but with this phone that just wasn't the case so i had to resort to using chemicals to remove it this way works but creates a real mess i've tried to minimize this by putting a small amount of isopropyl alcohol into a syringe this will help distribute the alcohol precisely as the adhesive starts to break down i can start scraping it away this is a really time consuming process that cannot be underestimated if you don't get this step right the seal for water and dust won't be perfect before i go ahead and attach the new adhesive i'm going to test out the display panel after it's attached i can power up the phone upon boot the brightness seems oddly low unlocking this phone we can see the dreaded non-genuine part messages for both the newly installed camera and display these can also be found in settings this display is straight from apple themselves so why are we getting these messages well apple might have a self-repair program but they're still trying to prevent third-party repairs the message states that the part is unknown and could be because it's not genuine not functioning as expected or the installation is incomplete i take offense to that second statement as i proved in my repair assessment video on both the iphone 12 and 13 the brand new parts i swapped between the two phones caused the same messages and resulted in multiple functions not working as the software was programmed to do so however i don't actually take issue with the idea of having a message if the part has been replaced through these videos and other right to repair advocates we've got an apple to fix the glitchy cameras on the iphone 12 and now even have this repair program but it's not without issues apple is still in complete control of the repair you must contact them in order to complete the repair and remove these messages but before i do that i want to see if anything has changed since my original iphone 13 repair video came out having only replaced the display and front proximity sensor face id still functions this was not the case a few months ago with just a screen replacement the whole face id system was bricked auto brightness was another feature lost as part of a screen replacement this hasn't changed at all the same goes with true tone it still vanishes without a trace there should be an option for it to turn it on but there just isn't now argue all you want about how this has something to do with security or the proximity sensor needs to be calibrated for the screen brightness to work but if all that was the case then why does the proximity sensor still work during a phone call putting my finger in front of the display turns it off as it should this is usually what happens when you place the phone next to your ear in recent years the camera has been a problematic area so i did want to re-test that the rear camera works as intended but let's see what happens when you replace the front camera when i did this in september the camera turned into a slideshow let's see if apple's fixed that i'll need to crack open my other iphone 13 pro and extract the front-facing camera from it now we can attach it into the gold iphone i won't be disassembling it any further but just letting the replacement camera float freely while we test out the phone booting back up into ios we can see three error notifications in settings a new one for the face id sensor we just swapped in meaning face id has now been disabled but as for the front cameras they're working so it seems all that apple's fixed are the glitchy cameras and disabling face id after a display replacement all the other issues still remain after years of wondering how apple does it it's time to see how these new components are paired to my phone with the replacement apple parts installed it's time to get this phone plugged in to my laptop for this i'll be using an apple macbook this is important as i want to share my internet connection over usb i'm doing this so i can attempt to capture all of the network traffic that goes between it and apple's diagnostic servers the process started off with providing my order number and basic device information as well as being asked a few basic questions i was told it would take about 15 to 30 minutes to complete the calibration process it took an hour and 27. the first thing i was advised to do was enter diagnostic mode by holding both the volume up and down buttons while plugging the iphone into a power source from here we were able to connect with the apple technician who was going to run through the pairing process now as i wanted to capture all the packets with wireshark i needed to hotspot the phone just so it would get past this wifi connection screen before turning off my hotspot now that i've forced it to connect to the internet over a usb connection there are some diagnostic terms and conditions i need to agree to such as apple may collect images of the device linking to its serial number diagnostic data any paired accessories network connections daily call attempts app usage data and core duration seems kind of invasive for installing a new screen and camera but i have to assume that's for other diagnostic things that can also be run on the device after letting carlos our technician know we were ready he began system configuration this is the magical piece that allows the software to work correctly after the parts have been replaced it only took a few seconds to get to the end where it appeared to be stuck carlos congratulated me a little too early it seems i told him of my issue but he seemed keen to get onto calibrating the camera as it turns out there was just a little communication error as i believe some of these messages are automated and that congratulations message wasn't actually supposed to be sent the phone was now waiting for camera calibration holding the phone in a vertical position i could begin the calibration following the instructions provided by carlos i needed to move the phone left to right nine times but there was a problem it wasn't finding any objects i thought i must have to put something in front of the phone so we can pick it up this didn't work in fact the entire calibration software quit on me a few moments later it appears that it timed out carlos getting back saying there was an issue regarding the lidar scanner i asked if we could give the process another shot but carlos said he couldn't help with carlos now losing interest i flung open the iphone 13 to reconnect the lidar's flex cable it doesn't take much for a flex cable to be slightly unplugged or have a piece of dust preventing a proper connection if you're going to have end users repair their products and require a remote calibration you have to expect you may have to do it twice if something doesn't work quite right the first time having now convinced carlos to retry he says he's getting the same error however i've only just turned on the phone and have yet to connect it to the internet back in diagnostics mode i waited for the process to begin for a second time however there was an issue it wouldn't redo the calibration it seems i've stumped even the apple technician this part's pairing rubbish is not only frustrating to repair us but it seems even some official technicians cannot figure out how to redo it after it's failed whether this is a lack of knowledge on the technician's behalf or just poor software i'll never know as this is not publicly available software however astonishingly after booting back into ios the display and camera show up as genuine apple parts and the warnings and software limitations are gone as for the wireshark capture it turned up not much with everything being unreadable encrypted data i'm no expert so i wouldn't know what to look for in this capture but i thought it was worth a shot before sealing up this phone for good there was one last thing i wanted to test what happens if i put the factory shipping parts back onto this phone after we've now had the new camera and display calibrated will they still function and be recognized as genuine or will i have the same issues i would have with any other third-party replacement part or apple genuine part that isn't paired in settings we can see that it is an unknown part this shipped from the factory with this display panel but now it acts like it has no idea what it is anymore very interesting apple is pairing the phone to the new display not the display to the phone which is usually what you do if you're trying to get around this by soldering on a chip from the old screen to make the phone think the screen is the original one apple just pairs a new screen it's as simple as that but of course we don't have access to that software even when going through apple's self-repair program you're still relying on apple themselves to run the calibration software to finish up this repair i'm going to need to install a new adhesive gasket unlike anything i've ever seen before there's a little extra piece of mesh up by the earpiece this has to do with face id so i'll make sure that it's installed proceeding i can attach the new adhesive gasket onto the frame of the iphone 13. after it's positioned i can press it down into place with a plastic spudger apple themselves have a special tool that would apply pressure to both this adhesive and the display once it's installed as i mentioned earlier i didn't buy apple's tools as i already have an excellent set from ifixit which has worked wonders with this iphone 13 pro it's finally time to install the display for the last time i'll set it back into the repair tray and connect its two flex cables from here i can reattach the battery and the two cowlings which go over top of both connections as a good practice you should test the device before closing it up although the guide doesn't recommend this i definitely do with the phone functioning it's time to clean off the insides and remove the protective film from out newly installed adhesive as well as the back of the display before closing up the phone i'll clean off the front-facing camera using a microfiber cloth and some air afterwards the display can be pressed firmly down into place after the two pentalobe screws are installed apple recommends putting the phone into their display press i created my own by just pressing the phone flat on a table for 30 seconds hey it worked for me lastly i can remove the plastic protective film and install a new tempered glass screen protector and we're done so this is it a look into apple's self-repair program the statement i said back in 2020 about apple killing third-party repair still holds true apple is still in complete control of these devices from the moment you purchase it how you use the device what you install and how you fix the phone all has to be done the way apple wants it this is not right to repair right to repair would allow you to have the device repaired by the manufacturer a third party or to do it yourself with whatever parts you like without having to require the approval to pair the parts together most of what i discovered when these phones launched still holds true you cannot repair this phone without sending it to apple or using apple's self-repair program it's important to note that apple records your serial number so you can only use the part you ordered on the phone you ordered it for which makes this useless for repair shops even if they wanted to pay the price some of the parts cost more than just having apple repair the device the program isn't all bad the availability of repair manuals and tools is a valuable addition especially if you wanted apple's tools for your own repair business but in reality this mess would end if apple just gave us their calibration software and on that note this has been a huge jefferies video if you like what you saw hit that subscribe button and consider checking out the teardown and repair assessment playlist for more videos just like this one and if you're looking for a used device be sure to check out my online store link for which is down in the description that's all for this video and i'll catch you guys next time

Channel: Hugh Jeffreys

Views: 543,060

Keywords: Hugh, Jeffreys, Apple, iPhone, iPad, iPod, technology, repair, restore, restoration, destroyed phone, broken phone, phone repair, android, samsung, Apple self service, Apple self repair, DIY, iPhone 13, iPhone 12, iPhone SE, Right to repair

Id: SQbVuhwwd4s

Length: 18min 0sec (1080 seconds)

Published: Sun May 29 2022