The iPhone 14 battery health meter may be disabled if the battery isn't replaced correctly. (Photo ... [+]
If you are one of the seemingly many iPhone 14 owners who has experienced faster-than-normal battery health degradation, Apple's authorized-parts requirement means incorrectly replacing the powerpack could disable the battery health meter in iOS.
To quickly recap: some iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro users reported that their battery health had dropped significantly after less than a year of use. That chorus included tech reporters, reviewers and many people across social media. Tech reviewer Lon Seidman said that his iPhone 14 Pro is losing between 1% and 2% “every two weeks or so,” with it currently sitting on 88%. Several iPhone 13 owners on Reddit claim they have similar, or higher, battery percentages after almost two years of ownership.
Apple says this level of degradation is normal and it won’t replace your battery under warranty if capacity is over 80%. If you do want to switch out the battery on your iPhone 14 then you will have to pay Apple $99. The other option is to pay a third party, but this comes with an additional risk because of Apple’s policy of serialization.
Apple is adding integrated circuits to individual components with unique serial numbers. If you want to replace your iPhone 14 battery, you will need to use a genuine part—that can only be bought from Apple—with a corresponding unique serial number and the parts have to be synced-up using proprietary Apple software.
If you use an unofficial battery (known as an aftermarket part) certain features may not work correctly. That may be the case even if you repurpose a genuine battery from another iPhone 14. If the parts aren’t paired using Apple’s proprietary software (which syncs up the serial number on the logic board and the new part) some features may be disabled, according to repair specialist Ricky Panesar, founder of iCorrect.
“You immediately lose the function of battery health. You will get the message in settings to say that it doesn't know if the new battery is an original Apple part,” Panesar explained to me.
The Battery Health meter has been disabled on this iPhone 13 because the handset didn't recognise ... [+]
This dramatically restricts the options available to people who want replace their batteries to either paying Apple $99 or finding a repair shop that specializes in micro electronics, who can transfer over the ICs to make sure the device and new battery recognize each other. They will also have to have another iPhone 14 battery in stock to take the battery from.
The latter option is often cheaper than buying a new part from Apple or sending it to Apple for a repair, but the amount of companies that can do this are few and far between. “Repairs have to go through specialists and there are not many of us in the U.K. and there's not many of us globally." Panesar previously told me.
Serialization isn't restricted to the iPhone 14. Panesar previously found that the Apple Pencil can struggle to draw straight lines on the iPad Pro, while a small white shadow might appear on the MacBook Pro if the screen is replaced without syncing up new parts to the logic board on both devices.
