Apple has introduced a remote iPhone lock feature in iOS 18 with almost zero chance of self-unlocking. Repaired devices in which spare parts from stolen or lost smartphones were installed will be disabled. Customers of service centers are not immune to this. The problem will not affect only those whose iPhones have already stopped receiving updates.
Switch in Apple's hands Apple
has learned how to remotely lock iPhones around the world. According to the profile portal 9to5Mac, it built in iOS 18 a virtual switch that will disable smartphones that contain spare parts from stolen or previously lost smartphones.
Apple does not officially confirm this, but many messages have already appeared on the Web from iPhone owners who have installed the beta version of iOS 18 on their devices. Each of them says that such a function does exist in the system. Moreover, some of them even tried to install allegedly stolen spare parts in their gadgets on their own, after which their smartphone was blocked.
Of course, Apple has provided the ability to unlock such a device on its own. However, the chance to do this is small, especially for those users who gave their iPhone for repair, and instead received a "brick" with components from an iPhone stolen from who knows who.
How everything will work
In iOS 18, the user can activate linking to his account not only the entire smartphone, as it has been for more than 10 years. Now you can also link individual components of the iPhone to the profile, after which, if the smartphone is lost due to theft or loss, it will be possible to use its electronic components in other devices only under one very difficult condition.
When you turn on an iPhone assembled from stolen spare parts, a password window will appear on the screen - you will need to enter the password of the account to which these components were linked. Thus, the chance of getting a "brick" with a painted apple instead of a working iPhone repair field in an unauthorized service center will increase dramatically, especially in Russia, where there are almost no authorized Apple service centers left. The company fled Russia two and a half years ago, after which the official workshops almost immediately began to have problems with spare parts, especially with the most popular ones - with screens and batteries. By mid-2024, the situation had not improved at all.
When to expect, and what Apple
is trying to achieve So far, Apple's new feature is part of the public beta version of iOS 18, which became available for installation on September 9, 2024.
According to 9to5Mac, Apple's goal in this case is to destroy the global underground market for the sale of spare parts from stolen iPhones. Since the iPhone could be locked and linked to a specific Apple account all these years, stolen or simply found smartphones get to the secondary market in the form of individual parts.
Touches Not all
of them each year Apple deprecates one or more of its devices as obsolete. Software updates stop coming out for them, and the iPhone is no exception in this regard - not all Apple smartphones will receive iOS 18 firmware, as well as the new component locking feature.
These are the iPhone XS and XS Max, the second and third generation iPhone SE, the iPhone XR, as well as all models from iPhone 11 to iPhone 16 inclusive. Even the anniversary iPhone X, released in 2017 and timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, was left without a new version of the OS, as it is already seven years old.
Forewarned - forearmed
The first information that Apple would begin to crack down on the underground market for stolen iPhone parts appeared in April 2024, then the company only hinted that it plans to build a similar feature into iOS closer to the fall of 2024.
But in the future, she did not mention such an innovation anymore. Even at WWDC 2024 in June 2024, when iOS 18 was presented, Apple did not say a word about the possibility of locking, for example, the camera or battery.
At the time of the release of the material, she also did not confirm (but did not deny) the presence of such a feature in the beta version of iOS 18. But it is important to note that in 2024 she kept silent about a lot of innovations, and not all of them are beneficial to anyone but herself. For example, the box with the new AirPods 4 headphones, as it turned out, will not contain a charging cable.
Apple didn't say it at the presentation and only quietly wrote about it on its website. Now those wishing to buy an original meter-long charging cable will have to pay it at least $19 (1730 rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank as of September 13, 2024). Apple's most basic 20W power supply will cost the same amount.
Switch in Apple's hands Apple
has learned how to remotely lock iPhones around the world. According to the profile portal 9to5Mac, it built in iOS 18 a virtual switch that will disable smartphones that contain spare parts from stolen or previously lost smartphones.
Apple does not officially confirm this, but many messages have already appeared on the Web from iPhone owners who have installed the beta version of iOS 18 on their devices. Each of them says that such a function does exist in the system. Moreover, some of them even tried to install allegedly stolen spare parts in their gadgets on their own, after which their smartphone was blocked.
Of course, Apple has provided the ability to unlock such a device on its own. However, the chance to do this is small, especially for those users who gave their iPhone for repair, and instead received a "brick" with components from an iPhone stolen from who knows who.
How everything will work
In iOS 18, the user can activate linking to his account not only the entire smartphone, as it has been for more than 10 years. Now you can also link individual components of the iPhone to the profile, after which, if the smartphone is lost due to theft or loss, it will be possible to use its electronic components in other devices only under one very difficult condition.
When you turn on an iPhone assembled from stolen spare parts, a password window will appear on the screen - you will need to enter the password of the account to which these components were linked. Thus, the chance of getting a "brick" with a painted apple instead of a working iPhone repair field in an unauthorized service center will increase dramatically, especially in Russia, where there are almost no authorized Apple service centers left. The company fled Russia two and a half years ago, after which the official workshops almost immediately began to have problems with spare parts, especially with the most popular ones - with screens and batteries. By mid-2024, the situation had not improved at all.
When to expect, and what Apple
is trying to achieve So far, Apple's new feature is part of the public beta version of iOS 18, which became available for installation on September 9, 2024.
According to 9to5Mac, Apple's goal in this case is to destroy the global underground market for the sale of spare parts from stolen iPhones. Since the iPhone could be locked and linked to a specific Apple account all these years, stolen or simply found smartphones get to the secondary market in the form of individual parts.
Touches Not all
of them each year Apple deprecates one or more of its devices as obsolete. Software updates stop coming out for them, and the iPhone is no exception in this regard - not all Apple smartphones will receive iOS 18 firmware, as well as the new component locking feature.
These are the iPhone XS and XS Max, the second and third generation iPhone SE, the iPhone XR, as well as all models from iPhone 11 to iPhone 16 inclusive. Even the anniversary iPhone X, released in 2017 and timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, was left without a new version of the OS, as it is already seven years old.
Forewarned - forearmed
The first information that Apple would begin to crack down on the underground market for stolen iPhone parts appeared in April 2024, then the company only hinted that it plans to build a similar feature into iOS closer to the fall of 2024.
But in the future, she did not mention such an innovation anymore. Even at WWDC 2024 in June 2024, when iOS 18 was presented, Apple did not say a word about the possibility of locking, for example, the camera or battery.
At the time of the release of the material, she also did not confirm (but did not deny) the presence of such a feature in the beta version of iOS 18. But it is important to note that in 2024 she kept silent about a lot of innovations, and not all of them are beneficial to anyone but herself. For example, the box with the new AirPods 4 headphones, as it turned out, will not contain a charging cable.
Apple didn't say it at the presentation and only quietly wrote about it on its website. Now those wishing to buy an original meter-long charging cable will have to pay it at least $19 (1730 rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank as of September 13, 2024). Apple's most basic 20W power supply will cost the same amount.
