Apple Responds to Criticism Over iPhone's 'Parts Pairing' Process

Apple today announced that customers and independent repair shops will be able to repair select iPhones with used genuine Apple parts starting later this year. Alongside the announcement, Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus spoke with TechCrunch about the iPhone's controversial "parts pairing" process.

iPhone 15 General Feature Black
Repair website iFixit criticized Apple's parts pairing process last year, and Oregon recently passed a law that would ban Apple from using a "parts pairing" process in the state for devices manufactured after January 1, 2025.

Ternus argued that iPhones still work with most third-party parts:

"'Parts pairing' is used a lot outside and has this negative connotation," Apple senior vice president of hardware engineering, John Ternus, tells TechCrunch. "I think it's led people to believe that we somehow block third-party parts from working, which we don't. The way we look at it is, we need to know what part is in the device, for a few reasons. One, we need to authenticate that it's a real Apple biometric device and that it hasn't been spoofed or something like that. … Calibration is the other one."

One exception is third-party parts related to Face ID and Touch ID, which do not work in iPhones for security reasons, according to Ternus:

"You think about Touch ID and Face ID and the criticality of their security because of how much of our information is on our phones," says Ternus. "Our entire life is on our phones. We have no way of validating the performance of any third-party biometrics. That's an area where we don't enable the use of third-party modules for the key security functions. But in all other aspects, we do."

Apple does alert customers if an iPhone part is not genuine. If an iPhone has been repaired, a "Parts and Service History" section appears in the Settings app under General → About, and it shows if non-genuine Apple parts have been installed.

Ternus said this transparency surrounding repairs is important:

"We have hundreds of millions of iPhones in use that are second- or third-hand devices," he explains. "They're a great way for people to get into the iPhone experience at a lower price point. We think it's important for them to have the transparency of: was a repair done on this device? What part was used? That sort of thing."

Apple says it will be expanding the "Parts and Service History" section to show whether a used part is a genuine Apple part later this year. For more details about used parts being allowed for repairs, read our earlier coverage.

Popular Stories

iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
watchOS 11 Thumb 2 1

Apple Releases watchOS 11.4 With Sleep Alarm Update

Tuesday April 1, 2025 10:34 am PDT by
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2. watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Visa and American Express Vying to Win Apple Card Deal in 'Fierce' Fight

Tuesday April 1, 2025 1:50 pm PDT by
Visa wants to pay Apple approximately $100 million to be the new payment network for the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. As of right now, the Apple Card is on the Mastercard payment network, but that is set to change because Apple is ending its partnership with Goldman Sachs. Both American Express and Visa are vying to replace Mastercard as Apple's card services provider, while...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

Apple Seeds First Beta of iOS 18.5 to Developers

Wednesday April 2, 2025 10:11 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming just two days after Apple released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4. iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. We don't yet know what Apple is introducing in the iOS 18.5...

Top Rated Comments

ThirteenXIII Avatar
13 months ago
Greed or not I don’t care, I don’t want non oem parts in my stuff be it tech or otherwise. I’m tired of all these trash parts out there that are used in repairs.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RickDEGH Avatar
13 months ago
You might not like the act, but the explanation does make a ton of sense, actually. I’d rather know a device has certain parts that are not genuine, than to have no idea at all. Often it’s the innocent less-tech-savvy people who suffer these things, not knowing what they’ve purchased is authentic or otherwise, not us on these tech forums or on YouTube.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AlastorKatriona Avatar
13 months ago
I can't support any argument that feels that cheap aftermarket parts need to be acceptable in such a device. Especially for any critical, security component. It's just wrong, and so are the people who advocate for it.

Edit: Imagine downvoting this comment. Just imagine it. Try to imaging actually believing that knock off security components are perfectly acceptable.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mannyvel Avatar
13 months ago
Those people defending "third party repairs" are full of it. You guys are substituting B/C grade parts and charging OEM prices, and you know it.

Apple isn't preventing you from doing that, Apple is preventing you from claiming your parts are "Apple Parts" and not "stuff I bought off of AliBaba."
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThirteenXIII Avatar
13 months ago

Greed or not I don’t care, I don’t want non oem parts in my stuff be it tech or otherwise. I’m tired of all these trash parts out there that are used in repairs.
Plus, how can a device be oem or continue to provide authenticity if any random ass part can be used. No thank you
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AlastorKatriona Avatar
13 months ago

Greed or not I don’t care, I don’t want non oem parts in my stuff be it tech or otherwise. I’m tired of all these trash parts out there that are used in repairs.
Imagine thinking it's OK to pass off knock off Face ID components as real, and then sell the device to someone as if it's still an iPhone.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)