Apple's Repair Assistant in iOS 18 is (pretty) far from perfect right now

By now, you've probably heard about Apple's Repair Assistant. It's part of iOS 18: the new feature is designed to assist iPhone users in setting up replacement parts after their device has undergone a repair. The Repair Assistant is compatible with official Apple components and ensures that the iPhone continues to function properly when repaired with authentic Apple parts.

For instance, if you replace a display, the Repair Assistant helps you configure it so that features like True Tone, auto-brightness, and other display-specific functions are correctly enabled and work as expected. Similarly, when replacing a battery, the Repair Assistant ensures that the Battery Health feature accurately reflects the status of the newly installed battery.

When we talk about repairs, we simply cannot not ignore what iFixit's team has to say on the matter. And what they've got to say is that iOS 18's Repair Assistant is "promising" but "buggy" right now. Like, a very "buggy" experience.



On a side note: iFixit's team has been vocal in their opposition to the issue of parts pairing, and this year, both Colorado and Oregon passed Right to Repair legislation aimed at curbing the practice. These new laws will place restrictions on parts pairing over the next few years.

They also note that refurbishers strongly oppose Apple's Activation Lock and similar systems, such as Samsung’s Reactivation Lock and Google’s Factory Reset Protection, as they create major obstacles to the reuse of secondhand devices.

While these systems are intended to prevent theft, they often lead to perfectly functional devices being discarded because the previous owner forgot to disable the lock. This results in unnecessary waste of materials and energy, contributing to environmental harm.

The issue is worsened when Activation Lock is extended to individual parts, making it even more difficult for refurbishers and recyclers to repurpose devices.

Refurbishers like John Bumstead argue that extending Activation Lock to device parts renders every component within a locked device useless, preventing them from being reused for repairs. He criticizes the practice, pointing out that Apple promotes the pairing of a few unlocked used parts as a positive, though the availability of such parts is minimal.

Back to iOS 18 and the Repair Assistant.

Two members of the iFixit team put the new feature to the test – Teardown Technician Shahram Mokhtari and Repairability Engineer Carsten Frauenheim. They each took two iPhone 15 (Shahram used two iPhone 15 Pro phones, and Carsten used two "vanilla" iPhone 15 units) and swapped their logic boards to simulate a replacement of every part in the phone. This is the procedure they've used to determine the extent and severity of parts pairing in new iPhones.

How it went

Shahram began testing by swapping the logic boards between two iPhone 15 Pros that were initially on iOS 17.1. After the swap, the phone booted up, but typical parts pairing issues occurred, such as missing features like battery health and True Tone.

After updating the phone to iOS 18, a new "Service History" feature appeared, offering the option to restart into diagnostic mode to complete repairs. However, the phone faced multiple failed restarts due to network errors – not a great experience so far.

When it finally restarted, the device identified the replaced parts and prompted for calibration. Unfortunately, the calibration process caused the phone to repeatedly reboot, and Shahram was stuck in a loop with no progress.

Even after swapping the camera with the one paired to the new logic board, Face ID remained disabled, and the front-facing camera stopped working.

Ultimately, Shahram resolved the issue by reinstalling the original logic board, which cleared the parts replacement history and ended the boot loop. However, he noted that most repairers wouldn’t have the luxury of returning devices to their original state, likening the situation to a "freedom from parts pairing but at a terrible price".

To further test the situation, Carsten used two standard iPhone 15 units, updating both to iOS 18 before swapping the logic boards. Initially, he encountered similar issues, with parts being listed under service history and repeated network errors during calibration. However, by switching Wi-Fi networks, he was able to get through the configuration process, and several components, like the back glass and rear camera, passed calibration.

Face ID, however, remained locked, and despite logging in to remove the Activation Lock, the front-facing camera stopped functioning. Carsten concluded that Apple has not yet enabled full functionality for camera swaps, which they promised would come in 2024. After reinstalling the original logic board, the phone worked fine with no issues in the service history.

Carsten noted that while Repair Assistant shows promise, it's still buggy, particularly with Face ID and camera swaps, which remain problematic in this initial release. He hopes future updates will resolve these issues.

Are you ready to channel your inner repair master with iOS 18's Repair Assistant?