Following today’s launch of the new iPhone 16 models, Apple has shared repair manuals for the iPhone 16, the iPhone 16 Plus, the iPhone 16 Pro, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The repair manuals provide technical instructions on replacing genuine Apple parts in the iPhone 16 models, and Apple says the information is intended for “individual technicians” that have the “knowledge, experience, and tools” that are necessary to repair electronic devices.
Define “full”. Full schematics, board layouts?
PPBUS_G3_HOT
If I had to guess, this is a service manual for approved third party repair shops that they’ve simply released to the public. So it likely wouldn’t contain any proprietary information that wasn’t explicitly necessary for the physical repair of the device.
And they’ve almost certainly only released this due to the upcoming EU laws related to user replaceable batteries and wider right to repair.
Apple isn’t doing this because they grew a conscience. They’re doing it because it’s a legal requirement they can’t lobby (bribe) their way out of.
Never forget. Corporations are not your friend, and never will be.
As far as releasing these manuals and making parts available is concerned, we already have these laws going into effect in the US
But… are you allowed to read them unless you got an official reading certificate from Apple?
/s
It’s only $99/ year!
Though you can only read it on registered devices.
Not because they wanted to, but because they had to…
I see a lot of commenters really hate Apple, but to clarify, the manual isn’t what’s important here.
According the article, the manuals indicate that the iPhone 16 is actually easier to repair. This is good news for consumers, independent repair shops, and the environment.
You can use a 9-volt battery to remove adhesive and they’ve added more support for Face-ID when replacing the LIDAR sensor.
We still have a long way to go for our right to repair but, the pressure that we put on companies and governments to make change is working. We should celebrate that.
I watched a Hugh Jeffrey’s teardown video yesterday where he showed using a 9 volt battery to remove the iPhones battery. I have to say, that is pretty neat.
In case anyone else wants to see it, I’ve even queued up the link https://youtu.be/8CTX8W4UZUA?si=uv_bvwoHD40B0YDJ&t=846
Step one: take to Apple Store
Step two: get repaired at Apple Storeoop sorry it would cost $1,999.99 to repair this face ID scanner, would you like to purchase our new iPhone 18 Ultra Pro Max Lite ++ with Wii motion+ inside instead?
lol I just saw a video about Wii motion plus so this hits extra hard
The closest Apple store to me is a 90-minute drive. The closest place to me selling Apple devices is a Walmart a few miles away.
There is a place in town which repairs Apple devices. It is not an Apple store.
Which place would I rationally take it to if I wanted to get it repaired?
Step one: take to Apple Store
Step two: get repaired at Apple StoreSee the ‘rationally’ part and explain how the 90 minute drive is the rational option.
Think different. /s
My front facing camera on my iPad stopped working. My device is pristine, has always been in a case, has zero cracks, and has never been dropped. I brought it in to an apple store and they said they could fix it for half the price of a new one. Fuck 'em. I’d rather just do it myself. It was out of warranty by a few months maybe. I don’t remember. The front camera isn’t worth half the price of a new device.
Same experience every time I’ve gone only repair cost is always more than 50% of the cost of replacement.
I thought this was the onion for a second
is this this same repair manual they follow in the store?
you know, the one where they break something else and/or claim it was your fault and refuse to repair it and only give it back to you in pieces.
I’ve…never had a bad experience at the Apple Store, personally. I have a lot of complaints with the company, but I’ve always been impressed with the technicians at the store.
I’ve never been able to get anything just fixed there. It’s always come back and pick it up in X days or a week or 2 weeks.
but I’ve always been impressed with the technicians at the store.
Yeah me too. Each time they gave me the price for a repair I was very impressed. It was always more than I expected. :D
Yeah me too. Each time they gave me the price for a repair I was very impressed. It was always more than I expected. :D
Bahahaha
I’ve had the opposite experience, but I have AppleCare. I’ve seen the prices without it and you’re not wrong! I had cracked the back glass on my phone a year or so ago and it cost me like, $30 to fix. Without AppleCare it would’ve been almost $700. And that’s because—due to the ridiculous design—replacing the back glass involves replacing the entire phone other than the screen and camera module. New battery, new SoC, new storage, new everything.
I later confirmed with an acquaintance who works at the Apple Store that, as long as your battery is still in decent-ish shape, this is a cheaper way to replace the battery. Break the back glass and get that replaced with AppleCare, and you get a new battery. But if you wait for the battery to drop below whatever threshold it is for them to replace the battery (I believe 80% life), it’s more expensive. This acquaintance told me this kind of thing is why he genuinely thinks AppleCare is the best deal they offer. It’s basically a way to inexpensively swap your phone with an identical replacement under certain circumstances.
Recent iphone models have “easily” removable back glass, and it’s actually the main entrypoint for replacing the battery, lowering costs due lower risk of a broken screen (see new google pixels with screens that almost always break on removal)
After this, apple also lowered the cost of most repairs, including on models that don’t get the new replaceable back. the non applecare cost for a battery replacement ranges from 80-100 dollars roughly. which is comparable to the cost of a replacement with even a generic battery from a 3rd party shop.
It took them more than 4 hours past my appointment time to do a simple battery replacement.
This is good news. I hope we get similar concessions on (fairly priced) spare parts availability 🤞
E: I’m guessing the downvoters want fewer spare parts available? Strange opinion but ok.
E2: Oh! I am stupid. Could just be an Apple investor
I really miss repairable devices. Repairing the cracked screen of the iPad Pro I bought a few years ago would cost over 60% of the price I paid for the device. I would have gladly taken a thicker device if that meant it were repairable.
Well that’s mighty White of 'em! Are they gonna provide the tools, and not void the “warantee” if you look at their products funny?
Yes I’m sure they’re actually helpful
Looks more helpful than no manual at all to me. Making the actual replacement parts available for anyone is another thing, though…
I glanced at your icon and thought, “ha, looks like firewire400”, then saw your username hahahahaha love it!
If you had bothered to click the link in the post and read the manuals, you’d have found out that the manuals are very nice, but no, you just wanted to go “Appol bad”
If one has followed Apple with regards to their repair programs or their opposition to right to repair laws then it’s only natural to expect the old apple on the ground to be rather fermented.
I may very well find a “very nice” (looking) manual, but I’ve come to expect it is actually unhelpful - at least that’s the opinion of a certain 3rd-party Apple repair shop owner.
Honestly, Apple was for years very anti-repair.
So the manuals are nice but that doesn’t absolve them for the decades of products designed to be hard to repair on purpose.
I won’t go full Rossmann but seriously Appol very bad when it comes to repairability and reliability. But they can release a few manuals and they are absolved for their bullshit?
It’s a start but Apple still makes purposefully hard to repair products.
I never claimed the manuals did avsolve them of anything.
I simply said that the manuals are nice and complained about the meaningless Apple hate when the commenter had not even looked at the linked manuals.
What is it with the constant cynicism even in the face of actual good news? This is absolutely a step in the right direction on Apple’s part.
Because this is not out of the goodness of their little hearts. It’s legislated straight out of the EU and huge campaign coverage at just how ant-repair they are, like luis rossman has been covering ad-nauseam
we should no expect goodwill from companies, that is why they need to be regulated.
it is actually a better news if it is a response to regulations, that means that the system works, at leas a bit
What does it matter if the end result is still the same?
Fraud. Because it’s fraud.
Care to elaborate?
How big of a rock have you been living under?
C’moon now. Linking a 40 minute video is not an explanation.
Apple has a long history of working against right to repair and third party repair shops. This includes making it difficult for third parties to source the parts needed and changing the designs to requiring part pairing in the name of security. It got to the point where repair shops were buying broken Apple products so they could hopefully source the parts needed.
Looking through what they provided now, it’s basic stuff any third party repair shop could do if they could source the parts. It’s useful. However good electronic technicians can go beyond that and do board level repairs. But that requires schematics and diagrams. A lot of times they would have to get those through other parties who in turn got them through less than official means or violated NDAs.
Guess what Apple isn’t providing? Board level information. This is just doing the minimum the law requires them to do.
Bonus: Louis Rossmann talks about Apple’s history of right to repair [10 minute video]
Apple literally only is doing this because the EU forced them. They are an evil company whose entire mo is to keep control over the device you pay for
Too be fair, they are all evil.
To varying degrees though. Google is super evil but at least they don’t express it via suppressing all choice
This is clearly just a publicity stunt and means nothing outside of parts availability, right to repair, and reparability.
