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I’ve had apple do several screen repairs for me over the years.
Half of the time they admitted that they couldn’t put it back together properly so they issued a new unit.
I think this is more of a rarity than a commonality. If you think about the times that Apple successfully can repair a phone with a battery/display replacement, it’s often more successful than not. So it’s possible whatever store you visited has incompetent/poorly trained employees too.

Keep in mind, screen repairs generally mean the phone was dropped if the display is shattered, which also means there could be ‘other unknown internal damage’, I wouldn’t necessarily blame the Apple employees here, when they probably believed it was just easier to replace the display initially, but found out that your phone may have had other problems where they just replaced it for you.

What change does a regular user have?
I think you mean “What chance does a regular user have to make these repairs”?

I would say depends on how extensive the damage is to the phone. For example, let’s say the phone is dropped, and the user replaces the display, but the phone is still indicating a fault. Well therefore, there could be more internal damage that’s beyond anything the user could repair. However, if it was just a simple battery replacement, then that may be significantly less challenging with a higher successful rate of completion.
 
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Unboxing Apple Repair Manual


5B59EC52-1A76-418C-9920-D3111523F6D5.jpeg
C8BD8B48-485D-41BB-93ED-518AA6AFC19A.jpeg
 
I hate Apple's marketing art. People look like mutants with arms and legs waaaaaay longer than in real life.
This was actually really funny.

I was thinking that the graphic that Apple is using, makes me think of like a really bad Saturday morning cartoon that nobody watched, and the art Director must’ve hired like a 14-year-old to design the characters due to ‘budget issues’, only hoping that nobody would point out how bad it really looks. Well….we all know what happened to that Saturday morning cartoon, it was pushed to the 5 AM timeslot and eventually disappeared.:D

(I know, I know, I went really deep with that, but I had to.)
 
About time.
Unfortunately Siri can't be fixed.
Hey Siri, can you fix yourself.
ummm
Where is HAL...
 
This is Apple’s way of saying: “Are you sure you really want to repair yourself?”. Haha

“Many of Apple's repairs require a toolkit that is priced at $49 and weighs in at 70 pounds, so major fixes like swapping out a battery or replacing a display are rather involved compared to visiting an Apple retail store.”
 
So you can only self repair an iPhone if it is a 12 or 13 model?

What about the awesome iPhone 8 Plus? with it's ATT iPhone evolution 5G which is actually much faster than the iPhone 13 Max with REAL 5G.

What a joke. this repair your own iPhone. And have to RENT 90 pounds worth of tools and send back.

Are they joking?
Agree...What could go wrong?...LOL
 
Why is sand involved? I honestly don't see it anywhere else in the manual ?

Edit: Never mind it's for a bad battery event. I can't wait to hear about the local man who burned his house to the ground
Because when Apple tells us to pound sand, they want to make money from it.
 
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I'd like to buy the torque drivers & bits for myself and I'm sure they are cheaper elsewhere on the web...

Has anyone bothered to figure out what the "real word" part numbers are?

The manufacturer is Wera from Germany and it appears that Apple is using the Series 9 (4mm half moon drive) bits
but I can't seem to locate the colored torque drivers. They look like series 1430/1460 customized?

The complete list:
923-0248 - Black Torque Driver Kit (0.35 kgf cm)
923-00738 - Gray Torque Driver (0.55 kgf cm)
923-00105 - Green Torque Driver (0.45 kgf cm)
923-0448 - Blue Torque Driver (0.65 kgf cm)
923-01290 - Micro Stix Bit (Wera 05066850001 or 05066855001)
923-02066 - Super screw Bit
923-0247 - Torx® Security Bit
 
I was a Mac Genius for 7 years. My team and I screwed up plenty of iPhones on the bench -- and would have to replace the entire device. They're among the hardest Apple product to repair because the tolerances are so tiny and precise.

The average person has neither the patience, dexterity or attention span for this stuff. 99.9% of DIY home repairs are easier and more straight forward than working inside an iPhone. The only trade requiring more precision is watch/jewelry work.
 
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there is no satisfying some people….where does it end? i Don't think some people will be happy until all parts are replaceable using nothing but a butter knife and toothpick.
 
There will be SO many ****ed up iPhones!
Maybe it's all part of the plan...
"Here you go, general public who can barely operate their TV remote - repair your own iPhone! Exciting, isn't it?" And then, when these do-it-yourselfers mess their phones up to the point their only option is forking over cash for a completely new device, Apple grins. It's the Slow Burn iPhone Upgrade Program (SBiUP).
 
Why not do this for Mac? I've swapped battery on my Mac laptops many times, MBA and Late 2013 MBP. Saved bunch of $$$.
I miss those days too. Batteries, mem, HDD...even did a modem or two back in the day. Batteries these days are a little different though. Used to be a battery pack like a deck of cards, now they are designed to fill every available space in the enclosure. There is also almost no wiggle room inside those things. I've looked into it a few times with this 2012 MBP but always decide my time and level of effort required is worth the extra $50. I understand that's subjective tho... not to mention I've waited so long it's now on the obsolete list.
 
It's self repair, not third-party repair.
exactly my point.

Apple has been abusing the indie repair shops for a long time and this self repair was a way to deflect criticism from that. all without actually solving their policy problems with non-apple repair shops.

it's time for apple to support self repair AND indie repair shops.
 
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exactly my point.

Apple has been abusing the indie repair shops for a long time and this self repair was a way to deflect criticism from that. all without actually solving their policy problems with non-apple repair shops.

it's time for apple to support self repair AND indie repair shops.
They started supporting them about 4 years ago by creating a parts supply chain where they can buy direct. Were you not aware of this?
 
there is no satisfying some people….where does it end? i Don't think some people will be happy until all parts are replaceable using nothing but a butter knife and toothpick.
I have used both on occasion to get the dam screen off of iPhones. Also razor blades, suction cups, hair dryers, paint scrapers, pins, tape, prayers, other things. I’ve probably done about 10 iPhones for myself and friends. Haven’t messed up... yet. But I’ve been doing this kind of stuff since I was a little kid, so I have a better feel for it than most.
 
So you can only self repair an iPhone if it is a 12 or 13 model?

What about the awesome iPhone 8 Plus? with it's ATT iPhone evolution 5G which is actually much faster than the iPhone 13 Max with REAL 5G.

What a joke. this repair your own iPhone. And have to RENT 90 pounds worth of tools and send back.

Are they joking?
You know, you don't have to rent their gear. I've always McGyver'ed my way around--sometimes good, sometimes bad, often times ugly. "T'is but a scratch." IMO, it's worth to rent the proper equipment if you're gonna do the job. It cuts down on the repair time? and colorful metaphors.? Also it drastically reduces the chance things going south.
 
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