Since the launch of iOS 12, repair techs have noticed a disturbing trend. Any time a battery was replaced on an iPhone XS, XS Max or XR, battery health diagnostics would report that the installed battery was unable to be verified as an authentic Apple battery, and the battery health info would be disabled. This happened even when the installed battery was a genuine OEM Apple battery from another iPhone.
If you thought Apple had stopped attacking independent repair, we have some bad news for you: they now appear to be aggressively locking down even the most basic battery repairs by pairing your battery to your phone.
Justin Ashford from YouTube channel The Art of Repair recently discovered that iPhone batteries have a battery fuel gauge that can serialize the battery to a particular iPhone, making it impossible to swap out the battery while retaining the iPhone battery health diagnostics. We spoke with Justin to get his thoughts on the matter and what it might mean for iPhones and other Apple devices in the future.
7 Kommentare
Does this mean CoconutBattery for iOS will no longer read battery data on these iPhones?
I’d guess the same tech will appear soon in Mac laptop batteries too b/c they store a lot more energy and are much more of a fire hazard (and are easier to replace with 3rd party products) than an iPhone battery.
rockjapan - Antwort
Like it's the first of that kind of things by them…
Vassilis Kipouros - Antwort
Apple could make money if they let people repair their phones but sold the iPhone parts directly on their website. Guess there just to close minded to do so.
[deleted] - Antwort
I’ve just brought my Galaxy SIIx out of mothballs, slid a new battery into its slot and transferred my SIM into it. Works great and it’s all the phone I’ll ever need. If it ever quits, I still have a GT-S5830 which actually has an FM radio in it. Meanwhile, back to making $$$ with MacBook repairs
ThosD - Antwort
screw Apple.
Mr. Exploding Kitten - Antwort
Is the chip encrypted? ifixit needs to make a tool for this lol
Jay - Antwort
For the record, I am not pro-Apple, but a realist. With that said Apple are entitled to do what they can to protect their brand and their bottom line, as long as it is within the fair trading and business competition legislation and policies that most countries have in place to prevent monopolistic trade practices. Bash Apple all you want but the true and proper way to fight these ‘trade restrictions’ and ‘right-to-repair’ issues that Apple are allegedly conducting, or, ultimately if you see these practices as unfair, just like iFixit did I believe a year or so back, is via court or your local politicians/government or you can just go and riot like they do in HK. At least Apple still give us screwdriver access unlike 70% of the other cell phone brands.
Smuff47 - Antwort