Improvements in Apple’s Independent Repair Initiative: What You Need to Know

Apple bucked its reputation of being repair-unfriendly with the launch of its self-repair program, helping owners of Apple devices get official parts and tools for repairs. Now, it has added new devices — right as people started noticing the company wasn’t really caring about it .

Starting tomorrow, Apple’s self-service program will begin providing parts and tools for the iPhone 14 lineup, as well as for a range of M2-powered MacBooks, including the 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Notably, the newer 15-inch MacBook Air is not included yet, and neither seems to be the 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pros powered by the M2 Pro and M2 Max. Likewise, the newer Mac Mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro desktop computers are also not included.

It’s a start, though, given how many recent devices it lacked. Still, the most recent computers in the list are the M2-powered 13-inch MacBooks, which are already a year old. While you won’t run into problems if you have the newer iPhones, you might still be in for a wait if you’re looking forward to fixing your own (recently released) Mac.

The good news, though, is that if you do have a repairable device, it’s now getting even easier to fix. As part of this expansion, Apple is making a big change to how System Configuration, the post-repair software tool that validates parts after a repair, works. Now, it no longer requires users to call Apple’s support line to validate a repair — instead, all you need to do after a repair is done is to put the device in diagnostics mode and follow the on-screen prompts.

Source: Apple