iPhone buyers want to be able to replace their batteries however they’d like. But Apple doesn’t want them to do so in an unsafe way — even if the replacement batteries are Apple-approved.
Controversy is heating up over an iOS feature that shows a service warning on your iPhone when a battery has been repaired or replaced by an unauthorized third party. Apple responded today in a statement to Tom’s Guide:
“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 which can lead to safety or performance issues. This notification does not impact the customer’s ability to use the phone after an unauthorized repair.”
You have two options: Take your iPhone to an Apple Store, Best Buy or more than 800 other authorized repair shops in the U.S., or take your battery replacement into your own hands. The latter will disable the battery health information you normally see in your iPhone settings, but your phone will continue to function as normal.
The service warning only affects the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR with devices running on iOS 12.1. To find an authorized service technician, you can locate one by going here.
iPhone owners around the internet seem to have mixed emotions about Apple’s decision to show the service message. The company obviously doesn’t want iPhones exploding due to faulty batteries. But suspending the battery health tool even if the battery is Apple-approved seems draconian to some.
If you recently replaced your iPhone battery at an unauthorized shop, you can take it to Apple or an Apple-verified repair store to replace it again for $69 if you want to see battery health information. Otherwise, you can use your iPhone as is and hope for the best.
