Astonishing Anti Repair Practices By Apple In the Last 15 Years

today we're taking a look at all the things that Apple has done over the years that have impacted repairability but it's not all bad news with apple now coming out in support of repair legislation which is not only unexpected but something vastly different to lobbying against repair as they've done before some of these repair implications have been removed or fixed While others have been impacting repair for over 14 years I've covered bits and pieces of some of these issues but no where can you find a list or explanation of all so I thought I would condense these all into one video explaining when it began the cause and its effects so if you face a roadblock or unexpected issue you'll have a better understanding if that issue is caused by bad repair or the product's design most believe repairability issues began around 2012 to 2013 but it's earlier than that it really all began with the introduction of the pentalobe screw in 2009 first seen on the battery of that Year's MacBook Pro this was at the shift of ditching user replaceable batteries who ones inbuilt and inaccessible to the user it didn't make it to the iPhone till 2011 with the iPhone 4 in an early production change that saw Philips screws replaced with the pentalobe this screw is still used in Apple devices today and is really the first guard to keeping you out found on the base of the iPhone and MacBook as such it's become very well known but have you ever taken the time to look closely at the screw because it's very similar to that of a Torx head this is important to understand as it could have been designed in such a way that it looked like a similar known screwdriver bit but was just different enough that it would strip if a Torx driver was used after all I can't believe the rounded grooves would make an improvement over Torx and other screw types despite the last few iPhones being secured with very strong glue the screws are still present at the base of every iPhone 2009 also saw the introduction of the iPhone 3GS and Apple's software signing server for iPhone this meant the iPhone 3GS was the first iPhone not to be able to downgrade to a previous version of the iPhone software this was done by requiring an online server to approve or sign the software as it was being loaded onto the iPhone each device has its own specific signature for every iOS version Apple could with a flick of a switch prevent you from installing older versions a practice still in place today at the time this was likely to combat jailbreakers trying to modify the software to add features to their phone while it's understandable Apple didn't want people messing about with its software it also later came to their advantage the newer software could be programmed to slow down older devices something Apple admitted to doing in 2017 but we'll get to that later it'd be a few more years before we saw the next hit to repairability and upgradeability in 2012 Apple released the retina MacBook Pro which featured the first riveted in keyboard something that was previously attached with many tiny screws was replaced with rivets this change also appeared in the MacBook Air around the same time keyboard Replacements by Apple were offered as whole top case Replacements with new batteries and small parts the daring third party could attempt replacement by ripping the old one free and using screws to reattach its replacement the riveted keyboard would also later cause Havoc when Apple's redesigned butterfly keyboard in the 2015 to 2019 MacBooks would begin to fail with a costly top case replacement the only way to swap the keyboard most of the bottom of the laptop was replaced also while this repair was covered under Apple's service program it certainly would have cost Apple a lot financially to replace keyboards along with that their batteries were now glued in beyond belief in Just 4 years batteries went from user replaceable to screwed inside the laptop with tamperproof triwing screws to now being glued inside and locked behind a bottom case secured with pentalobe security screws the retina MacBook Pros also featured fully solded on RAM the only other previous device to do so was the MacBook Air which compromised upgradability for thinness while solded on RAM prevented upgrades it would also later cause issues with computers whose RAM chips had failed or developed bad solder joints the reliability of solded ram has improved since then and is widely used among device manufacturers with no Apple device today supporting Ram replacement in 2013 we saw the first iPhone software paired component the touch ID sensor software would reject its replacement what could be seen as a security feature by some has always had me wondering a pass code has always been required on first boot so even if a hack sensor was possible it wouldn't work anyway and if the sensor was replaced while the phone was switched on then it could be programmed to disable it until reboot or at least provide an override or something in settings if companies like Google and Samsung can make Replacements work I don't see why Apple couldn't while impacting repairs it would also later cause devices to Brick when updated or restored in iTunes even swapping two sensors from two working devices would cause both to Brick with iTunes spitting out era 53 this was one of the few repair issues that have been fixed over the years in a software update a replacement sensor will still not work but these devices will no longer fail to update or restore moving along in time to 2015 we saw the first of solded on storage in Apple computers with their redesigned MacBook laptop this change quickly spread over the next few years to the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air before finally the iMac and and Mac Mini I personally have seen many examples for sale online with failed ssds and with it not being replaceable the device is left unusable the iPhone 7 in 2016 would replace the home button as we knew it for a solid state version that relied entirely on pressure this button was again linked to each iPhone however with its replacement not even the button worked meaning you could no longer exit apps third parties attempted to circumvent this Lo down through use of Bluetooth buttons and the like to this day no replacement Works quite right 2017 saw the introduction of the iPhone 8 and true tone a feature that would be taken away with a display replacement true tone is simply software that color shifts a display based on the light color of a room removal was done by checking the serial number of both the display and light sensor if one or both were replaced it would disable the feature serial number programming was reverse engineered and programmers started appearing so you could copy the display serial number to a new screen bypassing the software lock Apple later combed this by encrypting the serial number data on the display ending this workaround now the only way to retain the feature is by swapping over two tiny chips found on the back of the screen which is not only ridiculous but timec consuming very difficult and risky Apple's high-end phone the iPhone 10 released alongside the 8 featured the same issue but also introduced another like previous iPhones and their Touch ID sensors the new iPhone's face ID feature was paired to each device this included the front cameras a replacement would not only brick face ID but could cause issues with the front camera functionality including portrait mode both iPhone 8 and 10 models now housed glass rear panels while these allowed for wireless charging the glue used to attach the glass is so strong it needs lasers to break down it wasn't until the iPhone 14 and 15 Pro that the back glass would become removable also this year Apple admitted they were using software to slow down older devices as the battery aged and were doing so without telling customers this came to light when people had been finding two of the same model phones were performing totally different to one another while Apple still does this they have implemented battery health and performance information in to their battery page in settings it'd be only a year later when this battery health information would now become disabled on a replacement battery like true tone it was working off checking the serial number along with a new warning message that would appear after both a battery and display replacement that would stay in settings indefinitely another one of these messages would affect the iPhone 12 cameras shortly after launch in my yearly tear down and repair assessment I found the rear camera didn't function correctly when replaced after mass media attention on the issues an update for the rear cameras was issued but part of that upgrade was a not genuine message added for any replacement cameras the wording would later go on to change from unable to verifi genuine part to just unknown part to circumvent Apple's battery lock down some third parties began transferring the battery management system from the old battery over to a new one fooling the phone into believing the battery was the old one to retain full functionality while this was going on Apple's redesigned 2019 Mac Pro would be kitted out with Hardware paired ssds that while physically removable were linked to the device meaning you must use Apple's expensive and proprietary ssds to upgrade your computer a feature enabled with the then new T2 security chip this is a similar story today with the Mac Studio you can make replacement ssds of the same size work but but upgrades to larger sizes are not possible 2021 and the iPhone 13 saw face ID becoming disabled after a display replacement two parts that seemingly are not connected at all this was eventually fixed after more media coverage however what wasn't was the Glitchy front cameras after replacement of the front cameras a user is not able to take any images this image has carried on through the iPhone 14 and 15 series along with the removal of auto brightness which will cause issues on iPhones with always on displays these phones have also received mixed results with replacement vibration Motors and Flash Flex cables on the rear glass iFix it reported their iPhone 15 Pro Max crashes with a replacement back glass however my iPhone 15 Pros exibit no issues this unpredictable and heavily controlled replacement parts problem has also made it to Apple's new Mac laptops with the Apple silicon MacBook Pros I've tested having paired Touch ID sensors lid sleep sensors and displays the lid sleep sensor was cracked and a thirdparty calibration tool created whether it will be patched like the true tone work around remains to be seen a replacement display on these new MacBooks will also cause brightness issues and weird artifacts at the top of the display with two laptops exhibiting the same artifacts as the years Roll by keeping out third parties from repairing Apple devices has been getting more and more aggressive though Apple has released a self-repair program which while provided access to genuine parts repair guides and tools was less than a viable means of repair with many replacement parts costing a similar amount to having Apple do the repair meaning doing it yourself really makes little sense the software issues still remain and are only removed when you contact Apple to to complete the repair of course they'll only enable these parts if you've purchased them from their store allowing them to continue the control on repair But A New Beginning might be coming with apple backing a right to repair Bill something none of us saw coming the bill in California only covers products sold after the 1st of July 2021 likely meaning older devices will remain unrepairable Apple says they intend to honor California's new repair Provisions across the United States what that means for those in the rest of the world remains to be seen but for now the iPhone 15 is just as software locked down as many of the previous models before it I've attempted to provide knowledge on all of the issues that have affected repair over the last decade to the best of my ability most of this information is that of my own experience and opinion given just how much has changed over the years there's a good chance I've missed some things that impact repair ility so be sure to check the comments for any updates and on that note this has been a hug Jeff's video if you like what you saw consider subscribing and check out the playlist for Tech that's not what it seems if you're looking for any used devices 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: 908,894

Keywords: Hugh, Jeffreys, Apple, iPhone, iPad, iPod, technology, repair, restore, restoration, destroyed phone, broken phone, phone repair, android, samsung, anti repair

Id: e3e-b-7jCYk

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2023