CNET

iPhone repair: Should you be able to fix it yourself? (Right to repair)

Should you be able to fix the stuff you own without going to the original manufacturer? That’s one of the central points around the growing right-to-repair movement. 0:00 – Right to repair explained 0:21 – What does right to repair do? 1:00 – History of right to repair 2:50 – What manufacturers say 4:06 –…

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Should you be able to fix the stuff you own without going to the original manufacturer? That’s one of the central points around the growing right-to-repair movement.

0:00 – Right to repair explained
0:21 – What does right to repair do?
1:00 – History of right to repair
2:50 – What manufacturers say
4:06 – FTC report to Congress
5:16 – FTC and the ‘safety’ argument
6:34 – What right-to-repair advocates say
7:52 – What’s next for right to repair?
8:54 – President’s executive order

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74 Comments

  1. Idris Bukar

    July 23, 2021 at 8:13 pm

    John Deere’s argument is just ridiculous “endanger machine performance”, it’s a damn tractor not a life support machine. And Apple, cmon guys you make an awful lot of money from sales alone, and besides cosmetic damage, your devices don’t break easily as the build quality is top notch. So why hold on to that relatively small market?

  2. Sunny Death

    July 23, 2021 at 8:19 pm

    Look before this I was buying my own parts for fixing my tablets that I break often for only $20 and an hour of my time, I sliced my finger in half and couldn’t do it anymore, few days ago I went to a Apple authorized shop they wanted $50+ for the part and $130 for work, do you still think I’ll care about the right to repair when I could get most parts for 2times lower than they say, about 80% benefit for just replacing a touch screen?..

  3. Wilfredo Rosario Ortiz

    July 23, 2021 at 8:22 pm

    Wonderful statement by the Vermont State Senator. If we drive in our cars everyday at 60 and 70mi per hour and can take our cars to a third party to repair it, there’s no reason in the world that could justify a company’s safety argument for their electronic devices. Pure nonsensical excuse to have full control of every single aspect of their sold devices.

  4. Crawdaddy

    July 23, 2021 at 8:37 pm

    Right to repair is a stupid argument

    • Taltech chip

      July 23, 2021 at 9:38 pm

      True, Until it happens to you.. When a small part breaks and nobody want to sell it to you

  5. Matty krosschell

    July 23, 2021 at 8:40 pm

    The right to repair is a fundamental human freedom in my book

  6. Kern Boris TV

    July 23, 2021 at 8:50 pm

    I live in the Caribbean that do not have no Apple Store in the Caribbean so if I buy Apple phone on on a part go bad in it I will have to order parts with will have to wait two months for it apple on shirt

  7. christopherkise

    July 23, 2021 at 8:55 pm

    When hard demands for responsebility hold by the brands, demanded by the costumers is still active there is a problem when replacing parts without proper education, or with counterfeit or not as good parts. Say batteries, how big case would it be if a iPhone goes into fire on a airplane. Or how much trouble is it for tesla if a car kils a kid on the sidewalk because of a fake sensor. In Norway there is a right to repair kinda deal with cars, it is not allowed to sell cars as a company without a repair shop. And parts needs to be available for at least 5 years. It might be time for a rights for repair – but as we demands so much from the companies in regards to safety and security, we need to deal with this through laws of availability of parts. Fake or not good enough parts is a big problem, even airplane business end up with counterfeit parts, resulting in plain crashes. I am actually educated as a craftsman in electronics, and my craftsmanship is almost nothing worth anymore. As there is nothing stopping anyone to repair electronics – even when they do not know what they are doing. At least there is a demand here In Norway have the right inhouse education to run a car repair shop to be allowed to have one.

  8. JUICEbaseball

    July 23, 2021 at 9:14 pm

    You spaz, not a single mention of Lou Rossman… Shame.

  9. Luke

    July 23, 2021 at 9:17 pm

    Right to repair could also help with invitation because people may find better ways to improve on something.

  10. The Observer

    July 23, 2021 at 9:34 pm

    I miss the old days when you can just open your phone anytime you want.

  11. zlerner716

    July 23, 2021 at 10:08 pm

    This would help with the McDonald’s ice cream machines as well

  12. S_time

    July 23, 2021 at 10:11 pm

    the right to repair one’s own devices is the key to a good future for the world

  13. Blood Angel

    July 23, 2021 at 10:29 pm

    I don’t mind medical devices not being fixed by the janitor, but not for personally owned items.

  14. Mike Camille

    July 23, 2021 at 10:39 pm

    This shouldn’t even be a conversation. Right to repair is just that. It should be our right.

  15. kj3283w

    July 23, 2021 at 10:41 pm

    Enough anti consumer practices, these companies need to let us fix our devices wherever we want, wether at home or at a repair shop. Imagine how many more jobs there would be if they provided the necessary parts to those small repair shops

  16. Henry Rivera

    July 23, 2021 at 11:06 pm

    Absolutely you should be able to take your product anywhere you want to get it repaired a song is there are qualified to do the repair.

  17. Just Me

    July 23, 2021 at 11:09 pm

    Oh God :/ all our iPhones ,John Deere and every medical devices will be like McDonalds ice cream machine “broken 50% of the time”

  18. Nefertiti Akhenaten

    July 23, 2021 at 11:14 pm

    9:15
    Seriously?
    Do u really need to ask that? 🥴

  19. Mariachee Bandidos

    July 23, 2021 at 11:38 pm

    do people ever think, maybe these strict policies, restrictions, design decisions, … is part of what gives these companies and their products, the appeal? 
    if this is such a big deal why don’t competitors cease on it as a sales pitch, like apple seems to be doing with privacy?

    of course it cost more to change battery at apple than a third party. is there any company where this is not the case?
    some people tend to lose perspective when it comes to apple.

    and it is not always about more money, some of these designers truly prefer minimalist designs.

  20. Piotr Król

    July 23, 2021 at 11:47 pm

    New EU rules have been introduced that require manufacturers of electrical goods such as fridges and televisions to make their products repairable for at least 10 years after first coming to market.

  21. Kingsley Sun

    July 24, 2021 at 12:13 am

    I am 200 percent support on this. The OEM are using all the excuses to maximize their profit by either forcing you to change to a new device on something that can easily fixed, or charging you excessive price for sending back to OEM for repairs. Tesla and Apple are both prime examples of which are exploiting the two methods above to rob consumers blind.

  22. sanjuansteve

    July 24, 2021 at 12:56 am

    The world has lost its mind to LIMITLESS CAPITALIST GREED at any and all costs!

  23. E Walker

    July 24, 2021 at 12:58 am

    The right to repair will decrease the number of electronic equipment that is in land fills. Making it difficult to repair a device leads to discard followed by new purchase.

  24. LameMarksman

    July 24, 2021 at 1:09 am

    EPA evaluation of e waste in developing nations is a problem. Such a smartass whitewashed agenda. While the fact remains developing nations stand no where compared to per capita emissions or electronic waste.

  25. michael ansbro

    July 24, 2021 at 1:22 am

    great vid !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  26. Samrat Babu Koirala

    July 24, 2021 at 11:03 am

    This is why I hate apple!

  27. Ro

    July 24, 2021 at 11:37 am

    Thank you Louis Rossmann

  28. Raymond Rivera

    July 24, 2021 at 11:38 am

    I didn’t know about this, but the only one I feel okay with is the medical one.

  29. Thenessh

    July 24, 2021 at 11:56 am

    Apple says they care about the environment……
    But only to the extent of reducing manufacturing costs 🤣🤣

    If they open apple keynote halls again every one when wwdc should just directly tell tim to give rights to repair (atleast to the consumers with parts n video guide necessary in order to make sure the customer doesnt buy oem part and preventing their so called damages the product or comprise safety of the customer point)

  30. Arif Munshi

    July 24, 2021 at 12:06 pm

    All these big companies are just worried about the ‘safety’ of their bottom lines.

  31. Surge P

    July 24, 2021 at 12:37 pm

    I’m going to play the devil advocate just for entertainment.

    If John Deer tractor are repaired by none authorized mechanics. Some of these tractors are not controlled by people. They are already autonomous through GPS. What if they get configured wrong and end up in a park. Mowing down people.

    For Apple: what if third party batteries are poorly manufactured and iPhone start to explode. You know all that people will hear is Apple phones are exploding. It will diminish their brand.

  32. Matthew Garber

    July 24, 2021 at 1:13 pm

    Bricking is way to much but I would like to be notified if Touch ID (or Face ID) was compromised. If it was replaced by me or cause I asked a repair shop to do that I would know that. But I would like to know if it’s non-genuine if I didn’t initiate that change. It would be really nice if I could tell the iPhone to recognize this new (non-genuine) component as the new real component via a 2FA method to not get alerted every time

  33. Gabbz737NEW

    July 24, 2021 at 1:19 pm

    If we can repair our cars we should be able to repair our phones.

  34. Zuberee Rahman

    July 24, 2021 at 1:41 pm

    Devices must be easy to repair..

  35. humble 1 1

    July 24, 2021 at 1:45 pm

    fixing is LIFE….

  36. STF YVR

    July 24, 2021 at 1:45 pm

    It’s 2021 and we still can’t replace the battery of an iPad

  37. Tiago Barbosa

    July 24, 2021 at 2:43 pm

    I personally think that if the issue is data, then we should be able to repair and a warning sent to the user via software. If the issue is physical security, then there should be information on how to define safe and none safe parts in the manual and licenses and let the user decide what he wants, even if their choices may impact others, but then, have regulators preventing unsafe manufacturers to produce parts that might compromise safety. That way, either way we have the right to repair and lift the responsibility off the user and on regulation and the manufacturers whilst making the user aware of the risks. Right now, because there’s no clear and strong laws against it, manufacturers such as the two main mentioned can make their own rules.

  38. BasementMinions

    July 24, 2021 at 3:19 pm

    Thank you for covering this!

  39. Leon Zane

    July 24, 2021 at 3:38 pm

    I do hope that now apple has peaked in design they can now focus on making repairability the next real future, the dream would be a modular phone, but that has been attempted and failed 🙁

  40. Juan Carlos Araujo S.

    July 24, 2021 at 5:28 pm

    This is why the ice cream machines at McDonald’s NEVER WORK. The company enforces the use of certain machine models that are hard to repair, diagnose and use and MUST be repaired only by the manufacturer… repairs are too expensive and inconvenient for restaurant owners, so they just prefer to let the machine damaged.

  41. Rafayel Islam

    July 24, 2021 at 5:34 pm

    People buy Apple despite all these issues. So they became a trillion dollars company and now going against the people. Stop purchasing their products would be a good response.

  42. william everets

    July 24, 2021 at 5:40 pm

    Yes!

  43. Harry Wild

    July 24, 2021 at 7:06 pm

    I am backing Apple! When you buy an Apple device, you are only renting it! Apple still owns the device forever! Read the agreement that you agree to by “X” the box before you can go further in the setup procedure!

  44. Galo Aguirre

    July 24, 2021 at 7:56 pm

    wouldn’t intelectual property also be a concern?

    • Marcin Berman

      July 25, 2021 at 2:18 am

      Of course. But it is not a given right. Food manufacturers have to disclose (print on the box) the “ingredient list” athough some would prefer not to.

    • Galo Aguirre

      July 25, 2021 at 3:21 am

      @Marcin Berman , right, yeah,

      but they don’t tell you the recipe though,

      i suppose puttin out repair manuals might spill the beans on some stuff?

      i dunno

  45. happy7090

    July 24, 2021 at 10:01 pm

    My product my right, up for Right to Repair

  46. Alexander Zaiarnyi

    July 24, 2021 at 11:07 pm

    Absolutely. It’s completely ridiculous to limit a persons ability to repair a product they already paid for. The manufacturer doesn’t own a product a customer has purchased. So they should not interfere with a customer’s ability to use it as they see fit. The safety argument is complete bologna, the only reason manufacturers are limiting repairs is dollar signs.

  47. Doug Grinbergs

    July 25, 2021 at 1:24 am

    Authorized Apple repair vendors have shared users’ private naughty pictures

  48. Doug Grinbergs

    July 25, 2021 at 1:24 am

    Authorized Apple repair vendors have shared users’ private naughty pictures. We shouldn’t have to surrender devices to Apple or 3rd-parties for simple battery replacement or other repairs.

    • Marcin Berman

      July 25, 2021 at 2:19 am

      3rd parties have same access to batteries as you do. Meaning no access.

  49. Doug Grinbergs

    July 25, 2021 at 1:25 am

    IMHO phones should have user-swappable batteries like LG G5

  50. Doug Grinbergs

    July 25, 2021 at 1:30 am

    DFE Design for the Environment

  51. Doug Grinbergs

    July 25, 2021 at 1:30 am

    Dude… PIRG pronounced perg

  52. Marcin Berman

    July 25, 2021 at 2:06 am

    There is one point you are missing. Manufacturer canrefuse to help you fix your device and get your data. Even if it is perfectly feasible.

  53. Shevket Duran

    July 25, 2021 at 3:14 am

    I had my iPhone screen replaced at Chinatown (NY) and it just worked fine. So it is possible. But if I am having lasek surgery, I want to make sure that the machine was repaired by some conpant that knows their own product.

  54. Jon Potter

    July 25, 2021 at 12:29 pm

    I would like to add that allowing third party parts, repairs and upgrades allows us to innovate. Loading your own software on devices allowed for the creation of Linux, and that introduced many new advancements. Android is based off that. Now rooting or jailbreaking a phone is hard, and manufacturers want it to be illegal. Imagine if pc manufacturers did that – no Linux.

  55. Glenn Rossi

    July 25, 2021 at 12:29 pm

    Our governments should protect the rights of consumers to repair the products we purchase!

  56. Mohamed Aathif

    July 25, 2021 at 12:46 pm

    Phone is dangerous device only when its working not when its malfunctioning .it become eco harzard when its its wasted this is just typical business tactic to improve their income

  57. Btrfly Efct

    July 25, 2021 at 12:49 pm

    Safety is essential. They should allow people to repair stuff on their own, but it should be okay to void the warranties if they choose to do so.
    Also, there may potentially be a grey aria about intellectual rights when it comes to stuff like “iOS systems”. apple sells you the product, but they may argue that they didn’t sell you the rights to use and exploit their systems.

  58. cattigereyes1

    July 25, 2021 at 1:41 pm

    When governments work against Americans for corporations! You have a government that needs to be taken down!

  59. Sasha S

    July 26, 2021 at 4:13 am

    Does this mean you can now legally install custom ROM’s on tablets?

  60. Lowbarr Kate

    July 26, 2021 at 9:45 am

    When companies are more powerfull than countries…

  61. Geribaldi's Games

    July 26, 2021 at 3:44 pm

    We should have a right to repair our own equipment BUT with the caviot that if we damage the equipment further by doing so the manufacturer can refuse to fix the device afterwards and limit their service offered to replace only.

  62. Christopher Montoya

    July 26, 2021 at 4:01 pm

    All of these money grubbing corporations who have profits reaching record levels still can’t afford to pay their workers a living wage. Now they want all the workers who struggle to pay living costs to pay outrageously high prices to repair a device or buy a new one. How is this sustainable?

  63. N Y

    July 26, 2021 at 11:42 pm

    Yeah we should be able to replace the glass back with some stronger and even lose the wireless charging.

  64. Bush Lee

    July 27, 2021 at 9:13 am

    Right to repair isnt about “Should you be able to fix it yourself?” but about “Should anyone except the manufacturer be able to fix it ?”

  65. Gstamp

    July 27, 2021 at 12:28 pm

    I fix things around my house why? Because I can do it and it’s my house I paid for it .why can’t I fix my own iPhone? I paid for it in full?

  66. Xamimus Oliveirites

    July 27, 2021 at 1:32 pm

    Spread this video like a repairable wildfire! *Everyone* needs to hear this!

  67. R T

    July 27, 2021 at 1:33 pm

    If you can’t fix it, you don’t own it, it’s just part of another subscription service.

  68. DD

    July 27, 2021 at 3:15 pm

    After seeing how stupid people are the last few years I agree they are too dumb to repair their items. I think it’s fine to allow people to do it just remove the warranty if they do and problem solved, if theirs a safety issue it’s on them.

  69. DD

    July 27, 2021 at 3:16 pm

    We aren’t comparing a mechanic to a dealer we are comparing a normal person off the street trying to repair something they aren’t qualified for and don’t have the correct tools to do

  70. HumNYC

    July 27, 2021 at 5:08 pm

    It’s like a car — you can repair, but it’ll cost you depending where you go to get it fixed. Apple has opened up more approved vendors as they don’t want that headache of getting sued if an unapproved third-party did more damage in an attempt to fix. Is it better to trade-in an old device for a new one? Of course — much better margin for Apple, but also customer experience. Do the math for trading-in, or iPhone Upgrade Program. You don’t need the fanciest and largest device; they’re continuing to sell the older models longer, and have options at all price points.

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