Apple's Activation Lock for iPhone components will make a huge dent in the market for stolen iPhones, though it introduces another barrier to DIY repairs
Apple's latest theft-prevention measure went live for beta testers yesterday: Activation Lock for iPhone components.
Beta testers encounter Activation Lock for iPhone components, making parts from stolen iPhones less useful in resale or reuse markets.
DIY repairers face another ownership or component-status check that can complicate otherwise straightforward parts swaps.
Second-order effects
Used-parts sellers and independent repair shops may need stronger component-provenance checks to avoid inventory that cannot be activated.
The policy raises the relative value of traceable, legitimate replacement parts while adding another point of friction versus Apple-controlled repair channels.
Third-order effects
If expanded broadly, component-level locking would shift anti-theft controls from the handset to its parts supply chain, reducing incentives to dismantle stolen devices.
It also sharpens the enduring trade-off between device security and repairability: ownership verification may increasingly determine which repairs remain practical outside authorized channels.
The trend: Apple is pushing theft prevention deeper into the device lifecycle, tying the viability of reused components more closely to verified ownership.
Replaceable parts such as Battery, Display, Camera, etc., in iPhone 12 and later can now be linked to your Apple Account and activate Activation Lock if they are installed in another iPhone. This feature is now active in iOS 18 RC. [image]
@nicolas09F9 ... I don't have time to spend 2 hours giving you the basics. Go watch my videos where I've already explained everything: https://www.youtube.com/rdklinc
@BetaProfiles What a way to circumvent right to repair! This is a wolf dressed in a sheep's clothing! Firstly wouldn't you only enable this feature if the phone was marked as lost? So what happens if my phone screen is broken and I give the phone to someone else to use for parts?…
@nicolas09F9 ... Most corporations/schools don't do this, and that results in millions of devices getting bricked... And now you can't even use them for parts, great job Apple. If you actually care about how this happens, @RDKLInc has great Videos on this.
Important changes coming to iPhone repairability in iOS 18: - When you get your battery or any other component replaced by a third-party, you can configure it to be a genuine Apple part in settings, provided it is genuine. (Like before, it won't give you an error message of
Forty two percent of iPhones were see are locked and bricked . What does this “right to repair ” movement actually accomplish with phones and computers ?
@LukeMiani @rhod_durre How are they activation locked in the first place though? They get stolen for parts. This feature will help stop iPhones from getting stolen, making it unprofitable to steal. What's better than reusing parts? Using the iPhone for as long as possible.
@LeakerApple @rhod_durre Yes using the iPhone is of course the best, but activation locked prevents that. Millions of phones get recycled without being unlocked, then parts are the next best thing
@rhod_durre Millions of activation locked but perfectly functional iPhones are scrapped unnecessarily. Reuse is 100x better than recycling and taking your phone to Apple does not mean that there is no waste or environmental impact
People saying this is anti-repair cannot be more wrong. This pairs parts to the OWNER not to the device. This will help decrease iPhone theft because criminals can no longer sell the parts. Once your iPhone is at end of life or you're about to upgrade and you reset your device,
@TWArecycles Did you read Apple's announcement from April or is everyone learning about this only now? They are allowing used parts (even biometric sensors) that were previously not usable with their official calibration and pairing system. As long as the source device is not loc…
Apple will start locking iPhones with parts from stolen smartphones The new version of iOS 18 will have a security system that will be able to recognize “donor parts” and if there are such, the phone will require the password of the Apple ID from which they were removed. If the […
The fact is, you can tap Cancel and continue using the iPhone without entering the previous owner's Apple Account. However, the replaced part will be labeled as “Unknown Part” in Settings. Learn more about the new parts calibration process in iOS 18: https://www.apple.com/... [vi…