The machine heated up the phone to melt the glue, and a suction cup pried the screen ajar. We placed the phone into a frame that we inserted into the first machine. We removed the two external screws at the bottom of the broken iPhone 12 that helps hold the screen in place. Then we walked through the steps together. He invited me to try the machines on a spare broken phone in his office. Taiyab, who had fixed my family’s devices in the past, and told him my conundrum. ![]() I had never used anything like them before. The three machines - all angular and industrial - looked like serious business. That’s heavy-duty gear, and when I unpacked the equipment, I had a bad feeling. While iFixit’s repair kit is lightweight, Apple’s self-repair program rents out the same machines that the company’s technicians use at Apple stores. “It’s equipment for people to repair their own iPhones,” I said. When the delivery man wheeled two bulky containers to my door, he asked what was inside. A shaky startĭays later, a UPS truck pulled up to my driveway. I was ready for the real thing, I thought. When I pressed it down more firmly with my fingertip, the phone powered up and everything was back to normal. It turned out a tiny connector inside the phone was loose. I ran into some snags - the iPhone wouldn’t turn on, which made me think I had destroyed something. The process to pry open my wife’s iPhone, replace the battery and reassemble the device took about five hours over two days. The iFixit kit arrived with some tweezers, a screwdriver, plastic picks and a suction cup to remove the screen. tools to repair gadgets, so I could first replace the battery in my wife’s four-year-old iPhone XS. I ordered a $45 kit from iFixit, a site that publishes instructions and sells D.I.Y. ![]() ![]() With no experience repairing phones, I decided to get some practice. After seven days, those tools would have to be shipped back to Apple with a prepaid label, and the old battery could also be traded in for a $24 credit. It included a $49 rental fee for the tool kit, the $69 battery, $2 for glue and 15 cents for some screws, along with a $1,210 hold for renting the repair machines. I made the charge for the self-repair program to my credit card. The steps seemed straightforward enough: Use a machine to melt the glue and pry off the phone’s screen, remove the screws and battery, use another machine to install the new battery, then put everything back together and use a third machine to press together the phone. I perused the instructions for my iPhone 12, which was working fine but was probably due for a new battery. (Apple’s program currently includes manuals for iPhones released in the last two years.) There I found the service manual for the iPhone 12 I wanted to repair and ordered the tools. I started by visiting Apple’s self-repair program website,. It is probably no coincidence that it made the move after the Federal Trade Commission said last year that it would ramp up enforcement against tech companies that made it hard for people to fix their electronics.Īnd now, my tale of defeat. This raises the question of why Apple rolled out the self-repair program in the first place. “Repairing modern electronic devices that are complex, highly integrated and miniaturized isn’t easy.” “For the vast majority of customers, the safest and most reliable repair is achieved through an Apple Store” and thousands of authorized repair centers, the company said in a white paper last month. And as my experience shows, the process was challenging even with Apple’s tools.Īpple discourages most people from trying self-repair. For starters, the cost of renting the equipment and purchasing parts from Apple - $96 to replace my iPhone 12’s battery - was more than the $69 an Apple store charges to do the job. The self-repair program, I concluded, is impractical for most people. “They set up the customer to fail,” he said. Taiyab said he applauded Apple for trying to empower iPhone owners but had a harsh verdict. ![]() After reading Apple’s manuals and trying the tools with me, Mr. The catastrophe unfolded even though I called in an expert, Shakeel Taiyab, an independent phone repair technician in South San Francisco, for help.
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