Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries To Discourage Third Party Repairing

Apple has finally made it so that users can no longer go to third-parties to get their repairs on their iPhone batteries. Now, users everywhere are dreading the thought of standing in line and paying for repairs at the Apple Store or other authorized dealers.

According to iFixit, the intentional feature locks out replacement batteries lacking a Texas Instruments microcontroller with a unique Apple authentication key and thus cannot provide certain battery health data to users. That includes cycle count, which indicates how much a battery may have degraded, as well as max capacity and peak performance capability. 

Now, a “Service” indicator will pop-up, notifying the user that they should take their phone to a Genius Bar or authorized Apple repair service provider. And reportedly, using another Apple battery doesn’t work either, as a replacement battery can only be authenticated using the company’s internal tools.

iFixit said, “Apple is locking batteries to their iPhones at the factory, so whenever you replace the battery yourself—even if you’re using a genuine Apple battery from another iPhone—it will still give you the “Service” message. The only way around this is—you guessed it—paying Apple money to replace your iPhone battery for you.”

“Presumably, their secretive diagnostic software can flip the magic bit that resets this “Service” indicator. But, Apple refuses to make this software available to anyone but themselves and Apple Authorized Service Providers”, the publication reported.

The tech site said the software lock is being introduced to iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max models running the latest iOS 12 version or the iOS 13 beta.