Apple has just announced a big change to its repair process that will make it easier for customers and independent repair shops to fix iPhones using recycled Apple parts. In the coming months, certain iPhone models will be eligible for repairs using these recycled parts. This move aims to give customers more options, make their devices last longer, and reduce the environmental impact of repairs.
John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, explained that Apple is always striving to provide the best experience for its customers while also being mindful of the planet. Over the past two years, Apple has been working hard to make sure that recycled parts meet the same safety, security, and privacy standards as new ones. With this new change, Apple hopes to offer more convenience to its customers and extend the lifespan of its products.
One of the challenges Apple faced was ensuring that recycled parts are genuine and safe to use. Apple has developed a process to “pair” these parts to the device, ensuring they meet all the necessary standards. The calibration of genuine Apple parts, whether new or recycled, will be done on the device after the part is installed. This means that future iPhone models will also support recycled biometric sensors.
To make the repair process simpler, Apple is eliminating the need for customers and repair shops to provide the device’s serial number when ordering parts for certain types of repairs. Additionally, Apple is extending its Activation Lock feature to iPhone parts to prevent stolen iPhones from being used for parts. This feature will restrict the calibration of a recycled part if it detects that it came from a device with Activation Lock or Lost Mode enabled.
Apple also believes that it’s important for second or third owners of a device to have access to its full repair history. Therefore, Apple will expand its Parts and Service History feature to show whether a part used in a repair is new or recycled.
This announcement is part of Apple’s ongoing effort to improve access to safe and affordable repairs. In the past five years, Apple has nearly doubled the number of service locations that have access to genuine Apple parts and training. The Self Service Repair program, launched in 2022, now supports 40 Apple products in 33 countries and regions, offering manuals, genuine parts, and tools to those with the necessary repair experience.
