Apple launches do-it-yourself restore program in Canada

Canadians who wish to restore their very own Apple AAPL-Q units can now get components, instruments and manuals from the tech big, which introduced its self-service restore program to the nation on Tuesday.

The program provides clients free entry to manuals and diagnostic software program that assist troubleshoot points with iPads, iPhones and Macs. Customers are then in a position to buy any components and lease or purchase the instruments essential to make repairs.

Brian Naumann, Apple’s vice-president of AppleCare service and restore, mentioned this system is aimed toward “broadening device longevity, reducing waste, and empowering both customers and repair professionals with quality, secure repair options.”

Canada is the thirty fourth nation to get entry to this system that makes components starting from batteries to glass display covers accessible. Tools on supply embody torque drivers, adhesive cutters and screw bits.

However, Apple web sites present that the self-repairing route usually has a better upfront price than having the corporate do it in-house.

A battery and screw package for an iPhone 16 will set you again $135 plus tax, in response to an internet site Apple has arrange for patrons to purchase instruments and components from. Another web site it runs providing estimates for repairs accomplished by Apple workers exhibits clients pay about $99 to have their batteries changed by the corporate’s workers at one in every of its shops.

A digicam and screw package for a similar iPhone prices $219 – a complete that’s greater than the $169 Apple estimates it is going to cost to restore a rear digicam on the cellphone for a buyer.

In most situations, clients can obtain a credit score after they return their used or broken components to be refurbished or recycled responsibly.

For instance, returning your outdated iPhone 16 battery will get you a $64.80 credit score, knocking the restore price right down to $70.20. Sending again the components to your digicam restore will land you a $52.56 credit score, making the restore price $166.44.

“It’s not like you’re saving yourself a lot of money by doing it yourself, said Alissa Centivany, executive director at the Canadian Repair Coalition, a non-profit advocacy organization promoting legal and regulatory reform around repairs. “You’re basically paying the same price as you would be paying to have somebody else do it for you.”

Anthony Rosborough, a regulation professor at Dalhousie University who co-founded the Canadian Repair Coalition, felt equally.

In situations the place repairs are doable or simpler, he mentioned clients usually discover doing a repair themselves is “barely worth it or not worth it.”

Replacing a digitizer – the piece that converts your fingerprint pressed on a display to a digital format your system can learn – typically quantities to half the price of a brand new iPad, usually pushing clients to exchange what they personal somewhat than restore it, Rosborough mentioned.

While he applauded firms that make it simpler for patrons to do their very own fixes, he mentioned right-to-repair advocates within the U.S. have discovered it to have a variety of deficiencies.

For instance, Rosborough mentioned the MacBook Air with an M4 chip, which was launched in March 2025, nonetheless has a battery that’s glued into it, making it extraordinarily tough to restore.

“As promising as that (self-repair program) may be, it doesn’t really change the fact that products like that are still being designed and produced and put on the market,” he mentioned.

The program additionally doesn’t change the sturdiness of Apple merchandise, mentioned Centivany, who desires to see the corporate make their units much less susceptible to issues.

“They’re very fragile,” she mentioned.

Rather than depend on firms like Apple to launch their very own self-repair packages, Rosborough thinks legislators ought to introduce insurance policies that dictate exactly how far producers must go to assist clients repair merchandise.

In addition to launching the self-repair program in Canada, Apple additionally began providing Tuesday restore suppliers who wouldn’t have a direct service relationship with Apple entry to real Apple components by means of wholesale distributors.

The components embody shows, batteries and charging ports for iPhones and iPads and can be found by means of MobileSentrix, a retailer primarily based simply north of Toronto in Concord, Ont.