A tiny chip makes third party iPhone 13 screen repairs nearly impossible

Screen repairs by third parties on the iPhone 13 lineup are more difficult because of a tiny chip pairing an handset to its screen, and there is concern that it could permanently damage the repair industry.

On the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, screen repairs lead to a loss of Face ID functionality. In a blog post Thursday, iFixit has tracked down the apparent culprit of the change.

Specifically, it's a microcontroller chip about the size of a Tic-Tac tucked into the bottom of the screen. The chip pairs — or "serializes" — an iPhone to its display, which causes Face ID to become disabled if a third-party screen is installed.

Apple Authorized Service Providers are able to get around this serialization by using proprietary Apple software to log a repair and sync the new display serial number to the microcontroller. As iFixit notes, this allows Apple to approve or deny repairs.

There's a workaround that could allow non-authorized repair shops to perform screen replacements, but it isn't an easy one. It involves removing a soldered chip from an original screen onto a replacement screen.

According to iFixit interviews with some in the repair industry, there's a sense of "trepidation" among technicians at the change. The only options they appear to have are to buy new equipment for the workaround, join Apple's authorized repair network, or quit.

That's because screen repairs are a bedrock of the smartphone repair industry. One repair instructor told iFixit that the industry "was built on iPhone screens."

However, it isn't clear if the change is intentional. In iOS 15, a third-party screen repair would quietly disable Face ID. In later versions of the operating system, it displays an error message.

A source close to Apple told iFixit that the behavior would be fixed in a future update, but whether that will happen remains to be seen.

36 Comments

MplsP 4020 comments · 8 Years

About 3 years ago

Does the screen include the FaceID module? If not, I can think of no reason to justify this. It’s another example of why we need right to repair laws. Ironically, it’s the type of move that makes an iphone less desirable. If you buy an iphone at your local store and the screen breaks, what do you do if there’s no ‘authorized’ service center near you? You’re stuck mailing it off, paying more money and waiting longer to get your phone back. There are thousands of independent repair shops that can replace a screen in less than a day, often in a few hours. If you’re trying to decide between an Android phone and an iPhone and the iphone is a pain in the ass to repair, it doesn’t make it more attractive.

jtmbin 3 comments · 4 Years

About 3 years ago

MplsP said:

Does the screen include the FaceID module? If not, I can think of no reason to justify this. It’s another example of why we need right to repair laws. Ironically, it’s the type of move that makes an iphone less desirable. If you buy an iphone at your local store and the screen breaks, what do you do if there’s no ‘authorized’ service center near you? You’re stuck mailing it off, paying more money and waiting longer to get your phone back. There are thousands of independent repair shops that can replace a screen in less than a day, often in a few hours. If you’re trying to decide between an Android phone and an iPhone and the iphone is a pain in the ass to repair, it doesn’t make it more attractive.

I disagree. As an Apple user and stockholder, it is not Apple’s responsibility to design their products so that other people can make money from repairing them. That’s total nonsense. They don’t need to “justify” how or why they design and build products. It’s amazing the number of people who think that Apple should be forced to help them make money, like that fool at Epic.

elijahg 2823 comments · 18 Years

About 3 years ago

Again and again Apple does things that provoke the ire of regulators. It's like they *want* to be the target of regulation.

elijahg 2823 comments · 18 Years

About 3 years ago

MplsP said:

Does the screen include the FaceID module? If not, I can think of no reason to justify this. It’s another example of why we need right to repair laws. Ironically, it’s the type of move that makes an iphone less desirable. If you buy an iphone at your local store and the screen breaks, what do you do if there’s no ‘authorized’ service center near you? You’re stuck mailing it off, paying more money and waiting longer to get your phone back. There are thousands of independent repair shops that can replace a screen in less than a day, often in a few hours. If you’re trying to decide between an Android phone and an iPhone and the iphone is a pain in the ass to repair, it doesn’t make it more attractive.

No, it does not. In a similar fashion, previous phones have disabled TrueTone with a display swap, despite it being the exact same TrueTone sensor being used, since you swap the original TrueTone sensor onto the new display. There is a crack for it though, which is to flash the new display with the old display's serial number.

I completely agree with the second part of your post - iPhones are expensive as it is, and so people keep them longer, therefore they're more likely to need repair. Then when they do need screen repair, it's $269 at Apple vs $69 from Amazon. Whereas an Android phone can be had for the same price as *just* the screen repair from Apple. It's absurd.

Cook is so absolutely obsessed with increasing profit he'll draw unwanted attention to Apple's practises just so he can pocket a few more dollars. It's very short term thinking. The more Apple pulls this shit the more seriously I'm thinking of leaving the Apple ecosystem. Cook is gradually pushing the company back to the ideology of 90's Apple, and we all know how well that went.

elijahg 2823 comments · 18 Years

About 3 years ago

jtmbin said:

MplsP said:

Does the screen include the FaceID module? If not, I can think of no reason to justify this. It’s another example of why we need right to repair laws. Ironically, it’s the type of move that makes an iphone less desirable. If you buy an iphone at your local store and the screen breaks, what do you do if there’s no ‘authorized’ service center near you? You’re stuck mailing it off, paying more money and waiting longer to get your phone back. There are thousands of independent repair shops that can replace a screen in less than a day, often in a few hours. If you’re trying to decide between an Android phone and an iPhone and the iphone is a pain in the ass to repair, it doesn’t make it more attractive.

I disagree. As an Apple user and stockholder, it is not Apple’s responsibility to design their products so that other people can make money from repairing them. That’s total nonsense. They don’t need to “justify” how or why they design and build products. It’s amazing the number of people who think that Apple should be forced to help them make money, like that fool at Epic.

No one is asking them to design phones "so that other people can make money from repairing them", but people are rightly pissed off that Apple is designing their phones with the express intent that they're harder to repair. They have intentionally added a chip to the display purely for the purpose of restricting repairs. No doubt someone will chat some crap about "security" when they have no more understanding of IC level security than a man off the street.

So much for being "green" when they do everything they can to encourage you to buy a new phone over fixing an existing one. That's the definition of talking out both sides of their mouth.