iPhone 12 Camera Will Stop Working If Replaced By Third-Party Components

Karamchand Rameshwar - Oct 29, 2020

It seems like Apple has now locked repairs for iPhone 12's cameras even if they are replaced by components from another genuine iPhone 12.

Apple products are famous for being easy to use, but it is always a pain for users to repair them. Because, over the years, Apple has always locked repairs for some of the components in its products so that no one, except Apple itself, can fix them.

Iphone 11 Display Warning — You will see this message if your iPhone 11 is using a third-party display.

In the past few years, many important components such as the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, the Face ID sensor, the display, and the battery are no longer replaceable by a third-party shop and still have full functionalities. It means users have no other choice but to go to Apple’s authorized shops and get their devices repaired.

For example, with last year's iPhone 11/11 Pro, if the screen of the device is replaced, the message "the screen is not genuine" will appear, even if the screen is taken from another iPhone. Likewise with batteries, if users let a third party replace the battery on the iPhone Xs / XR onwards, the message "Non-genuine battery" will also appear.

With the iPhone 12, Apple continues to prevent third-party repair and adds one more component to the list, which is the camera.

Specifically, Youtuber Hugh Jeffreys bought two identical iPhone 12 and swapped components between each other to check for compatibility. When exchanging the mainboard of the two devices, a series of warning messages like Face ID cannot be activated, the screen is not genuine, the battery is not genuine ... immediately appeared. This is expected because it is something that people have encountered in previous iPhone generations.

Iphone 12 Camera Replace 1 — A warning popped up on the iPhone 12 when its screen and battery were replaced

However, not only that but the cameras of both iPhones were also affected. The camera apps on both iPhones were constantly frozen, and some tasks such as switching to the ultrawide camera, taking panorama or portrait photos were also not working.

Iphone 12 Camera Replace 2 — The camera app also didn’t work when the components were replaced

To ensure that the problem was not software-related, Hugh Jeffreys tried to factory reset the device, but the issues were still there. When he swapped the camera back to the original, both iPhones were able to take pictures normally.

Iphone 12 Camera Replace 3 — The cameras went back to normal when the original hardware was swapped back.

Thus, after Face ID, screen, and battery; the camera is the next one on the list. If the iPhone 12's camera is damaged during use, users will no longer be able to rely on third parties to repair it.