This new development was first discovered by a YouTuber named Justin. Through his videos, he demonstrated the error message displayed on the screen of an Apple’s device when he replaced an iPhone XR battery with an unauthorized Apple battery by himself. Subsequent to this when it was restored to the genuine battery, the phone still displayed the ‘service’ error in the Battery Health section. What’s more, the Battery Health section showed an additional message that interpreted, “Unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple battery. Health information not available for this battery.” The said error message appeared immediately after the user reinstates the authorized Apple battery. The user cannot by themselves withdraw the error message unless he/she gets the battery stand-in through an Apple Authorised Service Provider or else Apple Genius store. According to the YouTuber, the company has done this so as to bind the users to compensate Apple for restoring the batteries. In addition to this, he revealed that the reason behind this is the Texas Instruments microcontroller that too has the certification mark. According to ifixit, Apple uses its own proprietary version, but pretty much all smartphone batteries have some version of this chip. The chip used in newer iPhone batteries includes an authentication feature that stores the info for pairing the battery to the iPhone’s logic board. In simple terms, if the battery doesn’t have the unique authentication key the iPhone’s logic board is expecting, you’ll get that “Service” message. Technically, it is possible to remove the microcontroller chip from the original battery and carefully solder it into the new battery you’re swapping in, restoring the Battery Health feature—but the procedure isn’t for the faint of heart, and it’s an unreasonable requirement for any repair, much less something as simple as a battery swap. After this, the user will not be able to view its battery’s health and know when it’s time to replace it. “Then again, this is a huge problem for iPhone owners who may not know about this new, sneaky lockdown, and it will undoubtedly cause confusion: they’ll replace their own battery and notice the “Service” message, then begin troubleshooting a problem that isn’t there. By doing this Apple is making the repair more and more intricate. For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also stay up to date using the Gadget Bridge Android App.
