By activating a dormant software lock on their newest iPhones, Apple is effectively announcing a drastic new policy: only Apple batteries can go in iPhones, and only they can install them.
If you replace the battery in the newest iPhones, a message indicating you need to service your battery appears in Settings > Battery, next to Battery Health. The “Service” message is normally an indication that the battery is degraded and needs to be replaced. The message still shows up when you put in a brand new battery, however. Here’s the bigger problem: our lab tests confirmed that even when you swap in a genuine Apple battery, the phone will still display the “Service” message.
UPDATE: Apple is now also pairing screens to iPhone logic boards.
It’s not a bug; it’s a feature Apple wants. Unless an Apple Genius or an Apple Authorized Service Provider authenticates a battery to the phone, that phone will never show its battery health and always report a vague, ominous problem.
We first saw this phenomenon in a damning video from Justin at The Art of Repair, and we were able to replicate it on an iPhone XS running both iOS 12 and the iOS 13 beta. Swapping in a new genuine Apple battery from another iPhone XS resulted in the “Service” message popping up in the Battery Health section, followed by an “Important Battery Message” telling us that it’s “unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple battery.” Justin says this only affects the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max for the time being.
Put simply, 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 internal 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.
Our friend Justin notes that there’s a Texas Instruments microcontroller on the battery itself that provides information to the iPhone, such as battery capacity, temperature, and how much time until it fully discharges. Apple uses its own proprietary version, but pretty much all smartphone batteries have some version of this chip. The chip used in newer iPhone batteries includes an authentication feature that stores the info for pairing the battery to the iPhone’s logic board. In simple terms, if the battery doesn’t have the unique authentication key the iPhone’s logic board is expecting, you’ll get that “Service” message.
This Is a User-Hostile Choice
Just because a silicon part has a feature doesn’t mean Apple must use it. For years, iPod audio chipsets included AM/FM capabilities that Apple never utilized. This “Service” indicator is the equivalent of a “Check Oil” light that only a Ford dealership can reset, even if you change the oil yourself.
Technically, it is possible to remove the microcontroller chip from the original battery and carefully solder it into the new battery you’re swapping in, restoring the Battery Health feature—but the procedure isn’t for the faint of heart, and it’s an unreasonable requirement for any repair, much less something as simple as a battery swap.
Fortunately, your replacement battery will continue to work perfectly fine, and you’ll get all of the benefits that come with a new battery—we’ve confirmed that this doesn’t throttle the iPhone’s performance on a healthy battery, for example. But you won’t be able to easily see your battery’s health and know when it’s time to replace it.
Then again, this is a huge problem for iPhone owners who may not know about this new, sneaky lockdown, and it will undoubtedly cause confusion: they’ll replace their own battery and notice the “Service” message, then begin troubleshooting a problem that isn’t there.
Apple Is Hiding Your Battery’s Health Data
To make matters worse, as of iOS 10 Apple has blocked third-party battery health apps from accessing most of the battery’s details, including cycle count, which is critical information that tells you whether or not your battery is on the brink of degradation. You can get around this, however, by plugging your iPhone into a Mac and installing a Mac app like coconutBattery. It will show battery health statistics even if your iPhone refuses to show this info in the settings.
This is an ongoing trend, and Apple is making repair increasingly difficult. Back in 2016, they completely bricked iPhones that had been previously repaired, displaying an opaque ”Error 53” if you replaced your Touch ID home button, since they’re paired to the logic board. In fact, DIY home button replacement will still result in Touch ID functionality completely ceasing to exist. More recently, Apple started disabling TrueTone on replacement screens, even if you’re using a genuine Apple screen. Sound familiar?
This pattern of behavior proves, once again, that Apple is out to stop all repairs performed by anyone except Apple themselves. The company claims that using third-party components can compromise the integrity of an iPhone’s functionality, but when genuine Apple parts have the same problem, then clearly it’s not really about third-party components at all: it’s about preventing you from having any autonomy with a device you supposedly own.
You bought it, you own it, you should be able to fix it. It’s that simple. Pairing batteries to iPhones is a gross overreach. It’s yet another instance of purchasing a product, and not being able to fully utilize it—like leasing a car, except you’re paying full price for it.
Fortunately, this is where Right to Repair legislation can step in and save the day. It’s trivial for manufacturers to lock down parts and tie them together, making it easy for them to prevent anyone repairing a device other than themselves for the sake of profits. Let’s do something about it: call your representatives and go to their town halls—state legislators are in recess and visiting their districts. They would love to talk to you.
Update! Apple has issued a response to this, in a statement given to iMore:
“We take the safety of our customers very seriously and want to make sure any battery replacement is done properly. There are now over 1,800 Apple authorized service providers across the US, so our customers have even more convenient access to quality repairs. Last year, we introduced a new feature to notify customers if we were unable to verify that a new, genuine battery was installed by a certified technician following Apple repair processes. This information is there to help protect our customers from damaged, poor quality, or used batteries that can lead to safety or performance issues. This notification does not impact the customer’s ability to use the phone after an unauthorized repair.”
That last sentence has us a bit perplexed. We believe that the “ability to use the phone” involves being able to see the battery’s health information so that you’ll know when it’s time to replace the battery again. It’d be like driving a car without an oil dipstick—how are you supposed to know if you need to add oil?
126 comentários
Error 53 was due to a home button replacement. Just saying. Keep it up ifixit.
kzonenc - Responder
I did a battery replacement on iPhone 6s around ten months ago on iOS 12 something with third party battery and the battery health feature was disabled. HOWEVER, I factory reset my iPhone and the battery health feature restored. Simple as that. I don’t know whether it will work with the latest iPhones on latest iOS but you should try it out. Also, I replaced the screen on the same iPhone a month later and auto-brightness was disabled despite using the same camera and sensor. Factory reset it and auto-brightness is back.
Sorry, I just posted it here so everyone can see.
[deleted] -
Interesting to say that a factory reset fixes all these problems.
At least you have a workaround …
Xavier Jiang -
Yet another reason to never buy an iPhone.
Keets - Responder
@leart78 - No They are! Apple has had this problem for too long!
@keets - I strongly agree, The build quality is nice! but if it compromises Repairability for stupid looks that's a problem!
Ben Capehart -
And yet, quality assurance measures like this are why Apple is consistently tops in the industry in product quality and reliability. This “Right to Repair” crap is just plain stupid. The vast majority of users don’t care to do repairs themselves and would rather have Apple do them anyway.
topo gigio - Responder
Oh really, oh you sad sad poor sheep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RlVC3xw... Apple “Genius” themselves damaged the monitor ribbon cable and instead blames the customer bahahahahaha, customer come in just to have a bad ssd replaced but instead the screen got damaged. Rather have apple do them instead hahahahaha
Another example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_NRcy5... hahahahahahahahahahaha Genius my ass
SheepsHerder -
Are you trolling or are you truly that f*****g stupid? I honestly can not tell…
djlobb01 -
Quality assurance… Hmmm… If an Apple software marks an original, brand new, iPhone battery as bad it is actually the other way around: Apple is so sh*t it can't even recognise its own batteries. It is like a father or mother not recognising their own children. I don't know you, but to me a company that can't figure a part of a product is original or not has no quality or reliability.
Mar Celo -
Except these aren’t QA measures, Apple isn’t top on any objective measures, and… well, right to repair doesn’t mean you can’t take it to Apple. It means you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Just like it doesn’t mean you can’t take your car to the dealer, it only means that it’s a really stupid idea to take your car to the dealer (if it’s not covered by warranty, anyway).
Jqw Rwddwed -
Come into the light brother you’ve been brainwashed to long. For real though I replaced a battery in a normal iphone 6 and bricked the thing forcing me to go out and buy a new phone (not apple) and its not like it was a bad battery or a bad repair it was a battery I got from Ifixit and I choose to fix my phones because I am not going to pay 80 dollars when I can do it myself for a fraction of that not to mention its pretty fun if you know what to do its just something so they can suck more money out of you
Nathan Fruhwirth -
This isn’t a quality assurance issue, this is the equivalent of your cable/satellite provider telling you that you aren’t allowed to change the batteries in your remote control. When was the last time that you had to have a technician replace those batteries? It’s the same as your car manufacturer preventing you from getting a new battery for your car at O’reilly Auto Parts or getting a new spoiler and body kit. It’s the same as your doctor preventing you from getting a generic prescription. I’ve always replaced any part of any device I’ve owned myself as long as it didn’t need soldering, and I encourage everyone else to do so as well.
Steven Moeller -
What if you dont live near an Apple store? Your options are then to drive hours away to get a simple battery replacement that would take any repair shop 15 minutes to fix. Apple isnt about quality assurance. If they were things such as the touch disease and audio ic chips that plague the iPhone 6 and 7 series respectively would have never happened. Apple wants you to replace your device every 2 years at the most to rake in billions of dollars. I really dont understand how someone could defend a company that admittedly bottlenecked performance on devices that had older batteries in them which resulted in many people upgrading their devices when a battery replacement fixed the issue.
Brian Wood -
THANK YOU! this wouldn’t be a “problem” for android users but that is one of the many reasons why apples security and safety of there own consumers is higher then androids, by apple implanting this, it makes apple users less likely get a cheap, third party manufacture, but on a chance that the battery there getting could be a fake, this would cause the safety of apples own consumers at risk for example the battery exploding, like the note 7.
ben -
Ben, that is still a risk, but now genuine battery replacements are affected by this as well.
djlobb01 -
Enough with this “right to repair” argument,
If you own this device, you should be able to repair it. Every company beside Apple (Dell, Hp, Lenovo, Asus, Samsung, Motorola, Fujitsu, One Plus, Blackberry, HTC, Palm, Acer, IBM, Microsoft, Intel) and maybe Nintendo (they just prevent entry by using proprietary screws) did NOT:
use proprietary screws
not allow users to access to troubleshooting software (if any)
charge a ransom for repairing a piece (if any)
hiding their service manual so users cannot see them (some may be poorly documented, but still available, like some Fujitsu or some Acer ones)
Pair damned hardware with software
this last bit is total nonsense. Like, utterly bonkers.
Xavier Jiang -
What a dumb statement. You would not be able to change tires on your own car, but need to go to your authorized dealer to do that for you and pay double, right? This is exactly what is wrong with the world, short minded people who are the same persons claiming “i have nothing to hide”….. and do not have a clue about the far reaching implications. The vast majority of users want to be able to replace their screen on their iPhone 6 Plus instead paying 300 USD for a refurbished one cause the display cracked.
schietkop -
Honestly thats one of the stupidest things Ive ever heard anyone say ever. Glad everyone else put you in your place.
Super J -
I guess you wouldn’t notice the huge self-own of your posting that comment on a site called “ifixit”, a site used many citizens to repair their own devices? How did you end up here, anyway: were you Googling info on how to repair YOUR iPhone?
At any rate, learn something about basic principles of rights: they’re protected from majoritarianism BECAUSE all rights need to protected from “tyranny of the majority”, where Constitution protects citizens from onerous corporate policies (however popular they may be) with Gov’t passing consumer-protection laws.
The concept of rights applies not only to right to repair devices you own, but to free speech rights. privacy rights (based on 4th/5th Amendment), etc.,
Adam Meitz -
some people would rather not pay an extra $50 for a service that they can easily do themselves
Graham Johnson -
It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Apple charges a lot more for repairs than people can pay for parts and tools to do it themselves. The main fault comes from Apple forcing component manufacturers to sell to them and only them, so other sources have to go with an aftermarket solution to provide similar batteries. And of course, Apple uses that as ammunition to convince people that it’s safer to get it done by one of their own service places.
If Apple opened up their parts to selling to individuals and independent repair services, people could save labor costs and get valuable experience in fixing old devices. Heck, even if they keep their devices locked into their own repair network while still supported then open it up once a device reaches EoL, that’d be so much better than Apple having complete control over repair at any stage of the life cycle.
Rain Shinotsu -
You SURELY work for Appe, don´t YOU???
Trust Trash -
YOU ATE AN ENEMY OF THIS SITE/MOVEMENT.
You should immediately be banned
rickcostel -
I have been an apple customer since the Apple II. I was an Apple certified technician. When the Apple III came out there was a service bulletin which directed the technician to pick the machine up, hold it a few inches above the bench, and then drop the machine. This was an actual repair procedure. I don't qrgue about Apple vs Windows vs. Linux any more than I argue about screwdriver vs. wrench vs. flashlight. Frankly, all three platforms have serious issues. And I have all three. But many of the things which drew me to Apple are now gone. Remember when the UI standards were consistent? The machines were reasonably reliable? When component level troubleshooting was the norm? When Apple was not an Apple owner's or an computer tech's worst enemy? When someone offers a usable platform which comes with respect for the customer I will be at the head of the line. Until then I will choose Apple only as the lesser of two evils, and even so, not exclusively.
arrows_in_my_back -
Apple is not the top quality and reliable phone there are a huge number of repair shops for apple products because there always failing. The top reliable and best quality phones are made by Nokia they last forever and are indestructible. They last so long the network provider stops supporting them.
Don Marr - Responder
Error 53 has nothing to do with screen replacements, it was the home butting causing this issue.
info - Responder
Negative. Buy a screen from Amazon that isn’t OEM, install the screen and watch the touch ID function no longer. Run the diagnose on the apple device, shows screen. Put back the old OEM screen, watch it work. You can do this in 35 mins or less. Test it out.
Gennessis Ocasio -
Thanks to Justin and ifixt to highlight this .
Laga dator Umeå - Responder
Bye bye Apple.. we Don’t buy phones that we cant fix anywhere we want in our company.
we allready figured it out with the iphone X that all most any problem there is un repairable.
Same as HTC that there phone we’re very difficult to repair, we stoped purchase them for that reason only.
If thats true i guess our company will switch to Samsung, its about 800 phones.
3StarDrones - Responder
I’m encouraging my Step-Father to convince his work to switch from iPhones for this same reason. They have a tech guy that does all the repairs for their phones and the most common issue was battery replacements.
Steven Moeller -
There must be a special devision at Appl called the A-holes.
They devise the best possible way to confuse anyone wanting to repair their devices.
I’m an iPhone repairer and I wonder wtf the designers are thinking when every part in every iPhone is different! Surely this costs the company money to change every part! The length of every screw and plug and cover plate
this a-hole devision has devised glue that doesn’t let go with isopropyl to make repair more difficult. “Oh, I’ll just hide a screw under a piece of tape to f*#k up a few newbies. Haha.
Even the tape under the batteries in all phones after the 5 are a trap to deter repair. FFS, 3 strips of Apple proprietary special magic adhesive rubbish! The &&^&^$^ battery is not going to jump out and run away!!! 1 x30mm strip will suffice.
Hopefully, with JI leaving, there may be a return to sensibility.
Making the iPhone reparable will put Apple in front of the competition. It creates a complete economy of 3rd party repairers and the world is a better place.
Jack - Responder
Hey! A shout out to Apple! make your phones repairable and that will keep you on top of the pile! No one will repair the other brands because of expense and cost. Keep it real and you can stay on top of the market forever. People like repairable products.
Jack - Responder
Apple phones are more expensive to fix than Samsung phones. Samsung themselves offer parts for their S and Note series on an official website. The only reason why the iPhone was cheaper to repair was because it was predominantly using LCD displays which could be copied and made by 3rd parties. OEM OLED displays aren't cheap. However Samsung's ones are cheaper than ones for the iPhone X XS XS Max.
djlobb01 -
Nothing wrong with Apple warning the user that they likely using an inferior battery that may no operate to their standards. The features like temperature allow the CPU to throttle correctly and for the phone to operate safely. Just because after market batteries aren’t exploding doesn’t make them safe to use.
mojo85 - Responder
Are you ret*rd? Because that is the only explanation when the article clearly says the warning message will appear even if you swap a battery from a brand new original iPhone into another iPhone.
Mar Celo -
Yeah he's either woefully stupid or a minumum wage apple worker. Prob both.
daryninspace -
Agree - at least they can be sure of the consistency of their brand, and hence can't be blamed for a shoddy repair by an unauthorized party….
Jeff -
Did you read the article about the chip in the battery being custom and communicates to the phone? Sure a replacement aftermarket battery works but clearly it is not the same, so it’s falling back into a mode that it still operates but is warning users about as it MAY not have all the features that an Apple battery has to communicate it’s health status correctly.
mojo85 -
this one right here! I highly agree with you. dont listen those people, its the androids users who like to hate on apple users, never the other way round, there just jealous that with apple its nothing but easy for us, constant updates, and best of all: every app developer will optimise their apps for apple phones, cant say the same for androids, carrying on living the good life fellow friend!
ben -
Honestly I have no problem with this, putting an unauthorised battery in your iPhone is literally a death sentence
At least now people won’t have to worry.
Mark Benson - Responder
OK you make a good point. Dunno about the rest of you, but Mark has me convinced. 100% altruistic design feature by Apple.
Ben Markedson -
My 6S Plus running iOS 12.4 (and a non-Apple battery) is showing a “Service” indication and no “maximum capacity” nor “peak performance capability” statistics.
kb9rhe - Responder
Whats the point of replacong batteries in iphones. Just get a cheaper samsung, they all have bigger and better batteries than Trash(a name for apple)
Stephan Kruglov - Responder
I believe the word your looking for is crapple
Nathan Fruhwirth -
yeah, just buy an second hand Samsung Note 7
fagdroids are the worst trolls
leartzajmi -
by the way, now in 2021 Samsushi it’s doing the same like apple.
they are following the same practice even after mocking apple with ads and trolls like you for years.
samsushi trolls of fans are the most retarded ever..
blaming apple for removing features when the don’t use apple products and never complain when the product or brand they are actually using do the same like apple.
leartzajmi -
If you can acquire the software from GSX, then this isn’t a problem.
Mac - Responder
GSX, as in Apple Global Service Exchange? How to register?
Ben Markedson -
Die hard apple fan sinds 1992 and even ex apple staff moved to android and will never look back. In my view the only thing worth using from apple are pre-2012 MacBooks. Anything else is just not good enough and far better and more cost effective options are available. If you still on the apple dark side, try it. You may pleasantly surprised.
Their software is even worse. Except for osx and iOS they typically overpromise and underdeliver as they fail on implementation. Is there anybody out there still using apple photo, apple maps, apple numbers, pages keynote, apple home? Or there extremely limited iCloud? Apple music? Confusing. Apple TV? Better options out there. Imessage? Try WhatsApp, WeChat or line etc etc.
Bart J - Responder
Yes, I am. Works pretty well overall. And I don’t only use Imessage but other services as well.
I don’t like the input lag on the Android phones I’ve tried so far, that’s one of the reasons I’m still using an Iphone. Plus the music making apps on iOS are of high quality and in abundance.
Martin Bergstrom -
But wait, the ramming gets even harder.
I tried to have my battery replaced during the battery promotion last year, but they told me that the sticker on the inside of my phone was a color that indicated that it had gotten wet. Because of that they would not replace my battery at all. They wouldn’t do any repairs on it at all. But I was welcome to buy a new phone. Lol.
It’s simply and transparently greed.
algoguy - Responder
I live in Hot Springs national Park Arkansas and own the Device Medics. If Apple requires their customers to replace batteries at The genius bar it will literally take at least 3 weeks and a two-hour drive where I live to have your battery replaced. Customers aren't going to go for that s***. There will be a workaround this is Apple's way of being dicks like they always have. In my town of approximately 45,000 there are 8 repair shops and in my shop alone 95% of my business is fixing iPhones. I tell that statistic to every customer as well but they don't care they're dumb sheep. Even my amazing technician Skylar uses a $@$* iPhone 8+. To be fair we do fix all phones as well. The problem is people are lost without their cell phones even a 30 minute repair time is almost too much for some customers. It's like their mind is blown. I've had children punch out their parents cold, customers throw punches at me. I now strap a 9mm sig Sauer to myself at all times as my customer base is getting crazier and crazier
Paul OBier - Responder
Honestly I find annoying on my second hand ford focus that the check oil light needs resetting with a top secret combination(press gas and brake peddle simultaneously and turn on ignition, don’t start the engine, wait 20 secs) . But someone how has dolloped out $1000 on a expendable fashion accessory when there are cheaper and better phones out there, they deserve it just to flash brand and pose…..
What a pain in the a55 it is to sit with an apple fan, they rant on and on about how great Steve was and how hi invented oxygen so we could breath, really the deserve it. I have a neighbour who has apple efing everything and seems to have *$@%*#@ every time Steve Jobs in mentioned on TV or the new gadget comes out, what a vvanker!!!
De Gueb - Responder
Please, whoever wrote this, have a sit down and watch this video that Louis Rossmann uploaded basically admitting (by the title) that he was wrong about the issue:
https://youtu.be/6IEJPmMbHA4
If you couldn’t be bothered, here’s a quick summary
iPhones aren’t checking serial numbers against an apple database and disabling the iPhone if they don’t match
iPhones aren’t checking battery status indicator flags and reducing performance or battery capacity if they’re not set by apple since the last battery replacement
All iPhones are doing is saying “Hey, someone’s replaced a battery and no-one ran the thing to turn off the check-engine light, you can still use it to its full capacity, it’ll still work as normal, genuine or not, but we can’t report battery health”
What you’re suggesting with your title is that apple has a database of every apple genuine battery ever made and iPhones authenticate against this. This is fear mongering, a lie, and this would be far worse than what is actually happening.
Sky Velleity - Responder
Rossmann seems to be fixated on painting Apple as the evilest company that has ever exist, no matter what. He does ask some good question though, but nevertheless, Jessa is the only one actually providing valuable arguments. It's odd to me how some people get so fixated on this even though the battery health feature is a very new feature in iPhones anyway (I mean specifically in system preferences, not apps). Also keep in mind that change in XS, XSmax and XR , has not been a secret. All this sheds a different light on Rossmann's notion in regard to "trust” between consumer and repair shop. If any costumer is really adamant, all you have to do is literally point out how this changed, and show them Apples official page/info here:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208387
As I initially assumed, this is really all about sensationalism. People still have the right to repair. Rene Ritchie also provided a way more reasonable approach to the topic here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmoRJEI-...
agathon -
Yes, it will still work, right now. However, that’s not to say that Apple can’t roll out a firmware update that will disable the phones. If you bother to read your EULA for the iPhone OS, you’ll notice that they reserve the right to arbitrarily make any changes they want, just like with nearly every EULA. Even still, if you replace the battery yourself, and then go to an Apple store to get the “check engine light” turned off, they will refuse to do so unless you to buy a replacement battery from them. That is anti-consumerist pro-corporate methodology.The reason they are being sensational about this is because you should be sensational about any thing that threatens your rights as a consumer.
Steven Moeller -
How’s my right as a consumer threatened if I buy a battery in an unauthorised shop and have it replaced? That's a simple decision, and people know what they're doing when they chose to do so. Either I go have it replaced at an authorised place or I have it replaced otherwise. If I change something on my device, I have no right to ask that it be restored to it's original condition. Any company has the right to apply any changes they want to their own products. If Apple truly wanted to actually shut off the phones after an unauthorised replacement, they probably would’ve done so, and they could’ve done so years ago. Which I am not condoning, but fact is, they didn't. So that's a complete hypothetical and doesn't bare relevance to the topic - anything is possible, so...
agathon -
Anyway, as I've mentioned elsewhere: There's plenty of Apple Authorized Service Providers, and there's also third party shops like ifixit.com, who sell the genuine parts regardless of authorisation, so there's always ways to get what's needed.Why should any company be obliged to make parts available to anyone and everyone regardless of authorisation? I don't get it. What am I missing? Why do people stick with this notion? No company is obliged to provide any type of solution for any artificial circumstance. Is an apparel company obliged to authorise everyone to resell their shirts & designs, or what have you? No, they also have authorised vendors - they chose who they want to partner or work with. Same goes for other companies. That's how partnerships work, obviously. Besides, for those who really need it, the battery health feature can probably be easily "brought back to life” by simply installing an app.
agathon -
Also, isn't the battery health feature a very new feature in iPhones anyway (I mean specifically in system pref)? So I don't get how customers would be so accustomed to that it would “ruin” the trust between them and repair shops. As referenced previously, it's all official, and doesn't really need that much explanation. On another note: I'm not so sure this measure can be equated to car maintenance, as a lot of people have done. From what I gather, Apple repair prices are for the most part either on the same level as third party or even less, depending on where you are. So unless you repair stuff yourself, you're not really getting off that much cheaper anyway in most cases. Not that I would recommend Apple Geniuses generally, but the price thing isn't really an argument. There is literally nothing on the interface that affects or disturbs the user - so the check-engine-light thing is pretty much nonsense too.
agathon -
Honestly, I think there's other things that bare way more relevance when it comes to crappy "management” decisions, than this topic. So yeah, why would you want to be sensational about something when there's no veracity or sensibility involved?
agathon -
I did a battery replacement on iPhone 6s around ten months ago on iOS 12 something with third party battery and the battery health feature was disabled. HOWEVER, I factory reset my iPhone and the battery health feature restored. Simple as that. I don’t know whether it will work with the latest iPhones on latest iOS but you should try it out. Also, I replaced the screen on the same iPhone a month later and auto-brightness was disabled despite using the same camera and sensor. Factory reset it and auto-brightness is back.
[deleted] - Responder
Reportedly for $15K you can buy the necessary equipment to "calibrate" the battery. So it isn't that consumers can't replace their own battery and avoid the issue, it's that most can't afford the equipment to do it properly.
Leon Shaner - Responder
not in defense of Apple, but many other companies have employed this strategy, particularly Auto and PC manufacturers, and continue to do so except even more assertively, with each passing year - because they are enabled to and unchecked from doing so, by inefficient/corrupt/ineffective legislative measures that leave loopholes open to exploit, and by widespread customer un-awareness generally fueled by misleading marketing tactics and behind-the-scenes misinformation and concealment campaigns and legal tactics. Apple delivers such a charicaturized form of this widespread, two-faced corporate approach, that it actually deserves even more heat (much much more, actually) than it’s been getting, in recent years.
Ben Markedson -
I also did a battery replacement on iPhone 6s, about a month ago. Opposed to others, I had no issues, and didn't have to do a factory reset to restore the battery health feature or anything. It all worked fine just after start. Did you guys properly calibrate the battery before using the device? Maybe that's something to think about in regard to the new devices as well - has this been taken into consideration by those who reported on this new battery info? Personally, I'm going to wait and see how this thing turns out, because there's seems to be a bit of conflicting info. The fact that people seem to have similar issues with their older 6s iPhones, tells me that the info we have so far might be a bit on the sensationalist side. Or maybe I'm wrong, we’ll see.
agathon - Responder
Needless to say, it's crap if Apple management actually decided to implement this nonsense. Though it should be noted, that these types of decisions from upper management affect every industry - it's not so much an “oh, Apple…” type of problem. These people/managers have infested a plethora of companies. People need to cool it with the "apple fanboy” malarkey and rather stay on topic.
agathon -
Yeah, as I assumed this is all just sensationalistic nonsense.
agathon -
Is there an exact version of iOS or what I have an iPhone XR on iOS 12.1.1 beta 3
Andrew Nguyen - Responder
What part of the phone is “locked down”? Throw in a new battery - and the little indicator in the settings app doesn’t go away. Ok - But tell me exactly what actually cripples or “locks” the phone in any sort of unusable state? Does the indicator flash on the screen like a car’s check engine light? No? Does it even have an indicator that is a distraction while using the phone/device? No?
Then what in the world is everyone freaking out about? I’ve got printers that have a similar warning if you use 3rd party inks… big harry deal.
thebattman - Responder
Why is this article so dramatic? LOCKING iPhones? No it does not it simply disables a feature in the settings there are no pop-ups, nothing that affects the general everyday use of a users iPhone so why is this such a big deal? Do you really expect Apple to know and guess what possible things can be plugged into its ports? It’s just ludicrous. People moaning about how it can’t recognise its own battery at least it has a feature which alerts its users that it cant recognise what battery it has used. This is a useful feature that other phones don’t have, even if the authentication check isn’t that advanced to check Apple Authorised parts at least it has a form of authentication which is a feature that Samsung, Huawei and other phone manufactures don’t even bother trying to do so give apple credit for having this feature. Yes it may not be perfect but at least they are trying.
Shane Evans - Responder
This feature may be being enabled in older iphones - I have a iPhone 4S that is now a brick. I was installing the latest update (iOS 9.5.3?) and the phone gets to a point where it is updating the firmware and then gives error 29 and is now in a ‘plug into iTunes’ loop.
I am not sure but I think that this error is something to do with the battery - I replaced the original battery ages ago. Others who have received this error have the old battery, reinstall it and then the update finishes and then they can put the newer one back in.
If it is the case that Apple is effectively destroying my old phone which is really worth zero to them, I do wonder if it is legal for them to do this? Is it allowable to break an old but workable device in order to sell a new one? Morally dubious to me at the very least.
John Dravnieks - Responder
If you replaced the battery “ages ago” (I am assuming that means years?), opposed to recently, it's probably not a battery issue.
Have you tried any of these solutions?
Problem with the Antivirus - If the iTunes Error 29 shows up due to a software bug, then it could be for the antivirus software installed on an iPhone. If the error-showing smartphone has an antivirus software, then the users should prompt the following – update the antivirus first from the iTunes App Store, restart the device and check whether the error has been fixed. If it’s not, then complete removal of the antivirus program might work. This is the most popular and accurately working fix for the Error 29 trouble.
agathon -
Problem with iTunes - Software update or factory reset using iTunes requires the iTunes software installed on a computer to be updated to the latest version as well. A backdated iTunes may fail to recognise the newer hardware characteristics and produce a false error 29 message. Upgrade iTunes and restart the computer before attempting to update the phone.
Old School Technique – Restart! - Sometimes, the old school technique of restarting both the computer and your iPhone really helps solving troubles like error 29. Power down the iPhone completely and also restart the computer. After the computer turns on, turn on iTunes. Turn on the iPhone again and start connecting the iPhone to your computer to see whether it works or not.
agathon -
Update Computer Programs - Older OS or other older versions of other problems could arise a conflict between platforms and as a result, miscommunication might happen between iTunes and iPhone interface causing error 29. To avoid this trouble, keep your computer up to date. Maybe install a latest service pack, or update to the latest version of Windows or Mac OS X – whichever applies to your setup.
Restore Without Sim Card - Remove the sim card from your device, then restart the device (you can hard restart it), now connect to iTunes and start the restore process.
agathon -
Factory Reset iPhone - If all of the above solution fails, erasing all the contents and settings stored on an iPhone could do the magic. It’s not a full-proof solution and even after a factory reset the problem could prevail – but the attempt to solve the problem this way is worth a shot. Since factory reset deletes everything from an iPhone and makes it fresh like new again, it’s wise to back up everything. Then Settings > General > Reset and approve.
In Case of a Hardware Problem - Well, you gotta have the phone checked.
agathon -
Must be just another coincidence apple to start a accepting iphones for repairs, even if it had a 3rd party battery installed and release an OS update shortly after which messes up that battery. Bring your iphone to repairs and it¨ll need whole lot of work to be done, the logic board, the display and so on..it¨ll cost ya just about the same as buying a new 1000+ iphone. EASY MONEY.
edit: https://9to5mac.com/2019/03/06/apple-thi...
Minipossu Poliisiautossa - Responder
Could they be doing this across the board even with older devices via OS upgrades? A little over a year ago I bought an iFixit battery for an old MacBook Pro and it worked great until I upgraded to El Capitan (again, really old hardware). As soon as I upgraded the battery health started to deteriorate and soon enough I got the “service battery” status. It’s currently at 52,7% of its design capacity according to CoconutBattery, which also displays the “Check Battery” status. The thing is, I barely even notice that drop, and apart from being unable to suspend when it runs out of battery, everything else seems pretty functional about the battery.
Emanuel Botelho - Responder
Oh well, batteries blowing up :O https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH9yVmMI... What are the chances of that happening after this new battery “feature”
Yu Tub - Responder
woah, at first reading the title made me feel quite disappointed at apple, but reading this article (mainly the put simply sentence) im not that angry, what apple is doing is in way good, its making sure that apple customers directly replace there battery from apple, as from going to other sellers could result in many bad things, eg knock off battery= resulting in the happenings of the note 7, this ensure that customers are safe.
But the only people I feel sorry for are people living in a country where there isnt a apple store (getting the apple product eg by abroad) then they really are the ones I feel a slight sadness for.
concluding: if apple was doing this if a person went directly to apple, then I would be deeply and extremely angry at apple, and advice people to bring a law suit, but this isnt the case.
ben - Responder
This is happening to me but on an iphone 6. Is it normal?
David Bermúdez - Responder
Now I hope for their share price to plummet! Fix that Apple.
Apple are the enemy of a repair and recycle society. They need to fall a few pegs.
rich - Responder
My family Have twice been the victim of ppl who fixed broken phones with non-approved repairs so they could sell them at a premium. We are fully behind Apple’s new move. Both my girls ended up with unusable phones, one within four months, the other died in two.
This police allows ppl to fix the phone at their own risk but stops but stop Fraud and ensures a buyer will know what they are getting and pay accordingly.
it may need tweaking to allow connection to iturns for batt condition monitoring via a message but the idea is sound.
Neil Bartlett - Responder
That sucks for
Mark D Schlossman - Responder
To be honest, the battery thingy is a little bit overblown, both by Apple and by iFixit. Yes, it is out of complete madness and unreasonable, but no, just a warning does not mean that iFixit should rush out of the door and make a huge fuss about it.
To be honest, if DELL, out of all curiosity, banned the ability to calculate the remaining capacity of the battery after replacing it with a non-genuine battery, I won’t blow such a fuss. But if they block me from using the trackpad if I replace it then sure, I’ll blow this fuss.
Disabling true tone flash and Error 53 is another thing …
Xavier Jiang - Responder
i stand with you on this, finally someone knowledgeable here
Mateen Ahmed -
Does iphone 7’s battery option will get desibled if i replace my battery by myself?
Rohit Kumar Mahato - Responder
Yet another reason to never buy an iPhone.
Sri vari - Responder
I am from Trinidad and Tobago and the Apple Authorized Service Provider does not have the authorisation to repair iPhones. If they really loved and cared for their customers, Apple would have taken the steps to improve access and authorisations to Authorized repair centres so that their customers can easily get their devices repaired using original apple parts since they don’t want their customers to repaid devices themselves. It’s as thought they enjoy seeing people go out of their for the company rather than then going out of their way for their customers after they claim to “care” about their customers.
Daniel Sookoo - Responder
Hello everyone! Hoping I can get some feedbacks on a problem I’m having. I’m doing a screen replacement on an XR but the bottom half of the screen is unresponsive to touch. The replacement screen is from another XR with original Apple screen. When I put the replacement screen back, it works fine so it can’t be anything that’s damaged on the replacement screen. Also this replacement screen does the same thing to any iphone XR I put in so I know it means there’s no problems with the logic board. The replacement screen only works with its original but not on any other XR.
abooismail1234 - Responder
actually people don't like to get screwed by apples dictatorship. We are all sick of this bs and those that defend them. Someone at apple should go to jail for doing this
Jeremy Smith - Responder
Correct. If an individual human being, or un-incorporated group of humans (not a protected commercial entity) acting in coordination, were caught doing anything comparable to this, even once, they’d be charged and convicted in criminal court for some form of fraud, theft, racketeering, etc - serious felonly-level offenses with serious legal repercussions (jail time + $$$ + criminal record), and lifelong residual repercussions that include damage to any person’s viability for employment, overall reputation, and potential eligibility for and access to important things ranging from bank loans to government benefits, plus the permanent sacrifice of whatever individual autonomy they might have had previously - thanks to biometric processing and registered in government and 3rd party databases with criminal profile (though would happen anyways, to an extent, whether convicted of crimes or not). Really, there are so many companies disguising thievery as legitimate business practice, it’s become the standard way..
Ben Markedson -
Can 3U tools read the battery health?
Corey S - Responder
I can only say Apple is very unfair,and being a monster for NOT letting us,or the customers to repair their own smartphone or take them to repair by other repair shop.Apple might be f###ed up by this.
Kevin Tung - Responder
I have a iPhone 8 Plus after the med update , my Phone needs battery service even when it’s working great before. So now it can’t charge the battery, do they block the charge also?
tizy1 - Responder
I just had my iPhone 8 battery replaced by Apple for £49. Amazing service and they also decided to replace the display themselves with no extra charge. Sent and back within 5 days. Well impressed. If you buy into the Apple system you need to stick with them to look after it. Why would you risk a third party at these prices?
Martin bromley - Responder
Can you use a programmer to use like you do with the screens for True Tone? That would be great…
Bernardo Sampaio - Responder
I sold all my and my family’s iphones 5, 6+, 6S, 7, XS and samsungs Notes and S7s… We now use Huawei Honor 8X, 9X and the P30 pro. Much faster, very long battery life. Very peaceful now. Fault repairs with original parts are cheap. Samsung is worse than apple, any issue and you have to trash the samsung.
Muhammad Zakria - Responder
Apple are never consistently “tops in the industry in product quality and reliability” Who checks “ the industry product quality and reliability” ? Apple phones are sub standard, bad low pixel cameras, poor batteries, buy the wrong phone and you get an LCD screen which is iphone 5 technology… It´s so easy to spot Apple brainwashed peoples comments. Most of the decent parts in iPhone have been stolen by Apple too… The antenna from Nokia, iOS from HTC, the cameras from Huawei. If they had been innovative and come first with multiple cameras no other company could have done it after as Apple would have sued their @%^!*. But Apple copy and steal all the the time… In my humble opinion,
Eugenius NPC - Responder
2 of 2 NOT necessarily the opinion of iFixit or anyone connected to their website. Microsoft didn´t buy Nokia for the sales, they bought them for the patents Apple have been infringing upon. Far from working n the users behalf against the depp state etc… APple work withthem. They made the first phone that was wholly trackable. The first phone where the owner couldn´t remove the battery… When your battery in iPhone says 0% and turns off, do you really think it´s ZERO %… Not enough left to silently, remotely turn on your microphone??? Your GPS location etc etc…
Eugenius NPC - Responder
Actually there is a hardware solution now. It’s all about the BMS on the battery. Transplant BMS on the original battery to the replacement battery and the message will disappear.
Phryne - Responder
does it give the health for the new battery or old one?
Mateen Ahmed -
I replaced my iphone X battery today. and when i plugged it in first everything was fine and showed that is has about 50% of charge..then i shut it down and was closing the screen that I opened, and restarted it again, and now it says service. Doesn’t show any percentage or anything..battery shows red an sign like i have about 10% or below. Is the battery lockdown still there? that if you change your battery yourself the they will lock it down? i thought apple stopped doing that.
Sakib Al Saba - Responder
suppose the health % works after a replacement, what kind of algo on earth would you use to calculate health for the replacement battery accurately?
does the aftermarket battery conforms to the same behavior and data sheet as does the original batt?
if its an original batt, how does the phone know how much torture did the batt suffer from the previous owner? how many deep charge-discharge cycles did the batt endure?
calculation of health from 100% down to the current percentage is accurately performed by some of the algorithms, but you cant just toss in a alien battery and expect the phone to tell you its percentage. even if its programmed to do so, the estimate would be far from being accurate.
also suppose you put in a non genuine battery and the phone reports 97% you then sell it. wont it be fraud?
apple is not responsible for providing you with health% for batt they didnt put in.
i have never bought an iphone and dont intend too, neither am i a fan, these are just engineering design considerations i wrote
Mateen Ahmed - Responder
Is it safe to replace iPhone’s 8 battery with an non-official Apple battery?
Jorge Narganes - Responder
Apple blackmail: So I just purchased an alternative Phone and will never use Apple again:
Robert Stott - Responder
I just replaced the battery on my IPhone 11 Pro Max cause the original one failed and expanded to 3times its size. I went to Apple to get my battery replaced. When I asked if they would replace the seal where the screen separated from the battery failure they said oh. You must have water damage then can’t fix it. You can buy a replacement phone for $600 only. My phone was only 14 months old at that point, 2 months out of warranty. So I did it myself. The replacement went fast and easy cause when it expanded it separated the adhesive to the battery and screen. I read the issue with battery health not working but didn’t care. But now my phone won’t update. It will download the program but when you click install after 10/20 seconds a warning pops up that it lost connection to the internet. So that’s a extra issue too they are stopping you from doing. Apple is a scam company selling defective phone batteries.
scott barger - Responder
This is absolutely insane. Now the error message even shows up as a banner notification on the lock screen?! There’s no way to get rid of it?
Chris - Responder
Yet, I have never replaced the battery and have the original battery in my XR. After my phone has been being glitchy for almost 24 hours and finally came back on, it now says this non-genuine battery message. And the glitch problem has been happening on and off for a year without the battery message and yesterday was the worst of this glitch. I wonder if this could be an opportunity for a class action lawsuit. And I am still under a two year contract with CSpire as well with only almost one month to go.
Ericka Ingram - Responder
I have never replaced my battery as well and share similar issues with you, with the only difference being that the glitches on my XR basically started happening a few days ago and by the last day, auto-rebooted and is now practically unusable (insane lag, faceid/password setting disappeared, phone automatically reboots if you try to perform any task, battery not genuine banner, phone cannot be charged).
Diagnostics can’t be run, can’t get through the entire process of “Erase all settings and content” without the %#*@ phone rebooting. DFU mode + restore was my last option which essentially has it stuck in a boot loop.
I don’t know about your device specifically as you mentioned it has been glitching for a period of time now… but definitely perform a backup if you care about the data - as things may go south at any moment.
*P.S. Hate “stuck in a rut” situations like these which has me wondering if I should attempt to fix the iPhone or just sell it for parts?! Neither seems like an advantageous situation for me.
nuuuitsjdragon -
Comment faire pour ne plus que le message d'erreur batterie s'affiche plus ?
lamiauxjulien - Responder
That’s why you need to use a Chargie device - it will keep your battery charging level in check throughout the night and battery will live much longer.
Ovidiu Sandru - Responder
For an XR, to get rid of the unable to verify message and resume battery health monitoring, is the solution a factory reset?
Or is the only solution swapping a piece of hardware?
Jon Brock - Responder
Apple is garbage to begin with , why anybody would pay money for this kind of phone is beyond me. I'd rather have a Alcatel.
Trevor James - Responder
It’s now March 2022. 2 days ago I went into the apple store to get by iPhone 11 battery replaced. I am having this issue with my phone now. I would like to know my battery health. This is how I know that my phone needed a new battery. This isn’t good business & I’m really disappointed. I will be going back into the apple store because the store manager assured me that this message will disappear in a few days…as I walked away I thought to myself, he must think I’m stupid. Well, I’m not. I knew I would find something that explains this crap.
Nisa Wilson - Responder
Does anyone know if this Battery Health problem affects the iPhone 6s plus ?
diytermalert - Responder
No it doesn't
onnyt -
So sad that when I did take my item to the Apple store to have the battery replaced, they told me it would be 14 days to complete. Who can give up their business computers or phones for that long?!? Needless to say, I can replace it myself because they won’t even sell you the parts. I’m not even under a warranty anymore. They did tell me I could buy a new product and return it within 14 days for a refund… crazy and no thank you! What a hassle.
Amy Bouchard - Responder
Me too here in the Philippines. Was getting a battery replacement for my 11 Pro Max and it would take at least 3 weeks. How can they expect a person to go on for that long without the most important gadget that almost everything in our lives are dependent on. I never replaced the battery. After all I can still get a whole day out of it anyway.
onnyt -
Gee, there are some dumb arguments on here going against 'right for repair'.
Honestly, the person who argued that 'if you needed your tyers replaced on your car you wouldn't do it yourself, you'd take it somewhere ...' - Well, yes, most of us would, however there are people perfectly capable and have the right tools to do this on their own if they wished. And using tyres as an example ... look, it's so ridiculous that I'm just going to stop there.
Bottom line is if I have purchased it, and paid for it and own it, I should be able to repair it as I see fit, whether that be back at the manufacturer or their authorised reps, or a more competitive third-party repairer, or even myself, and I shouldn't be punished in any way (even if it is the removal of a simple menu after i replace a battery) for doing so. Manufactuers can ADVISE but they shouldn't be able to mandate like this, and most self repairers are aware that any damage I caused myself, well then I'd cop the consequences. Easy as that.
Matthew Young - Responder
Meanwhile, the fanboys it Mac rumors are cheering this on.
“This is a great thing. These restrictions will stop shady unqualified repairmen from cutting corners with imitation parts and prevent people from accidentally ruining their devices“
Yes, Apple needs to do more to protect people from themselves.
rickcostel - Responder
Went to the Apple store recently bought a new phone and wanted to replace the battery in my old phone in which I had already put a non-Apple battery. The non-Apple battery was showing the error message. It was also not holding a charge very long, so I thought I’d have better luck with an actual Apple part battery. Going to the store to have this done big mistake. They gave me the runaround and said it was unsafe for them to replace the battery but then tried to upsell me on a brand new Version of the same phone. What a racket. I said well if the non-Apple battery tech can take out the battery safely why can’t your tech? The woman got defensive. She wasted my time. She should’ve just told me that they couldn’t get any money for the non-Apple part and that’s why they don’t replace non-Apple part batteries in their store. But she was too greedy and dishonest to tell me that upfront and save us both time and energy.
Chai - Responder
There is, of course, a simple solution to the problem. Stop buying Apple products if you are tired of dealing with Apple problems.
Jeff Eustice - Responder
In March I gave my 4+year old iPhone 6s to Grandma from Ukraine - she is with us due to the war... In July the battery started giving troubles: fast and sudden discharges, etc. So on the apple.com with this issue I was sent to an appointment with an "Authorized Service Providers" to replace the battery. But apparently all the Authorized Service Provider could do is send the phone to Apple own Repair center in Elk Grove, CA. So after 2 weeks Apple sends back the un-repaired device with a latter saying: "Our technicians carefully inspected the product you sent to us. They found an issue that wasn't mentioned in the original repair request." [end of quote] Basically the SP could not - and they tried - COULD NOT get from Apple what was that "issue". The only thing they got from Apple is that it will cost me additional $300+ BEFORE they would start changing the battery (which is another $49.99+tax). Well, $20 battery/kit + 1hr of my time and the phone's working fine. The Grandma's happy. But, APPLE, you SUCK.
leo.t13v - Responder
HOW. DO. I. GET. RID. OF. THE. %#*@. RED. NOTIFICATION. BADGE. ON. MY. SETTINGS. APP. ICON?!!?!?!?!??!?!!!??!?!?!?!?
I get it -- there's no battery health meter. Ok, fine. And when I open the settings app, it tells me it can't verify that it's an Apple battery. Great. Whatever. I don't care.
BUT THE %#*@ SETTINGS APP ICON HAS A STUPID RED BADGE ON IT NOW, AND THAT'S DRIVING ME NUTS!!!!! HOW DO I GET RID OF THAT?!!!!!!!
Laurence MacNeill - Responder
Hi - I performed a battery replacement on a second generation iPhone SE. I was forced to transfer the battery PCB from the old battery to the new battery. That went well. However, even after transferring the original Apple PCB to the new battery, iOS has not updated the message saying that Service is required. I expected the internal software to update this after a few charge cycles, but it has been 3 weeks and no change. To me it seems that even after transferring the battery encryption circuit the iOS refuses to update the health status. Any ideas or feedback would be helpful.
MakerUser - Responder
Same here with second generation iPhone SE. But the good news is Apple has said it is abandoning this policy sometime later this year (2024) and Battery Health will work for most 3rd party batteries. Maybe the EU DMA and new battery rules from 2026 are finally persuading Apple to do the right thing for consumers.
rockjapan - Responder
Does this affect 11 pro max iPhones ??
Silver Angel - Responder