Broken iPhone? Apple’s DIY Repair Program Lets You Fix It Yourself

Apple announced the Self Service Repair program several months ago in November 2021. It was a huge deal because, for the first time ever, Apple was going to give you the tools to repair your own iPhone. No need to bring your broken iPhone to a professional at an Apple Store.

Well, fast forward to late-April 2022 and Apple has officially launched the Self Service Repair program. If you have a busted iPhone 12 or iPhone 13, you can access the online manuals and purchase the required tools to fix it.

According to the press release, the new online store “offers more than 200 individual parts and tools, enabling customers who are experienced with the complexities of repairing electronic devices to complete repairs on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups and iPhone SE (3rd generation), such as the display, battery, and camera.”

The self-repair program requires you to diagnose your iPhone’s problem — be it a cracked screen, a bad battery or a busted camera. From there you can assess an online manual and see how easy or difficult it will be to fix yourself. If you’re down for the challenge, you can then order the spare parts, tools and how-to manuals that you’ll need from Apple. Then when you’re done with your repair, you’re able to ship the broken or used parts back to Apple (for recycling); you’ll receive a small credit for doing so.

Apple

There are a few things to note about this new Self Service Repair program.

• First, it’s only designed for people who feel comfortable enough repairing their own iPhone (because there’s the possibility of damaging it further).

• Second, it’s not free, and won’t likely save you that much dough if you opt for repairing the iPhone yourself rather than just bringing it to a professional. However, the credit that Apple gives you for sending the busted packs back is the real benefit. (Although, you’ll have to use this credit when purchasing something from Apple.)

• Third, the Self Service Repair program is only designed to fix iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models. So it won’t let you fix an older iPhone.

Of course, if you think you can repair your iPhone yourself and you don’t want to go through Apple, you can always just order a repair kit through a third party source— like this one from iFixit — which will likely be more affordable. And you can do it right now. That is, if you can manage to source replacement parts, should you need them.

Apple says that it will extend this Self Service Repair program to the newest Macs (must have an M1 or newer chipset) “later this year.”

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