Apple bricking iPhones that have been 3rd party repaired

[Leithen]

AC43 said:

Yup - same as any music you've bought through iTunes.

Or the frickin contacts that my wife was unable to retrieve from the Apple ecosphere once she'd decided to ditch Apple. Just before commissioning her new Android phone she lost her wonderful iPhone and that was that; goodbye contacts.

Apple removed DRM from music purchased from iTunes in 2009 IIRC. They needed the music labels agreement to do so.

Is there no way to retrieve contacts from a backup or iCloud?

[ZesPak]

Leithen said:

Is there no way to retrieve contacts from a backup or iCloud?

There is... Needed safari to export them though.

[Don]

Leithen said:

Is there no way to retrieve contacts from a backup or iCloud?

There's a plethora of ways to get contacts into Windows etc. Windows 10 will just pick them up for you given an Apple Id in the "People" app.

I can't believe that Android is so st it can't do it...there must be a way...

[ZesPak]

Don said:

I can't believe that Android is so st it can't do it...there must be a way...

It's more to do with Apple not allowing it on other mobile platforms, just like the unavailability of Google and Apple services for Windows Phone.

That said, I've done it more than once: export contacts from icloud, import them into gmail and bob's your uncle. No more messing about with icloud.

[NDA]

AC43 said:

Or the frickin contacts that my wife was unable to retrieve from the Apple ecosphere once she'd decided to ditch Apple. Just before commissioning her new Android phone she lost her wonderful iPhone and that was that; goodbye contacts.

My contacts and calendar, like my emails, are stored elsewhere and accessed by my iPhone.

Apple is a heavily curated ecosystem, they make it easy to put your data in, but hard to take it out. However, with a little foresight, it's easy to use the hardware without being dragged into the Apple system. I store almost nothing with Apple - no music, no photos, no contacts etc.

[Don]

NDA said:

Apple is a heavily curated ecosystem, they make it easy to put your data in, but hard to take it out.

That hasn't been my experience. They provide APIs that allow developers on other platforms to access iCloud data. Windows 10 will address your contacts in iCloud in the "People" app. Windows 10 can natively include iCloud calendar appointments. My iPhone happily picks up mail from my Outlook.com 'mail account. In general I have found my Microsoft kit and my Apple kit talk to one another really quite well, considering that they are different ecosystems.

I have no experience of Android or ChromeOS and so can't really comment, although I do have a Google account.

Mind you Apple did create that Android app to make it easy to transfer your data onto iPhone. I haven't heard of Google writing the equivalent iOS app - although it should be easily doable.

[AC43]

Don said:

There's a plethora of ways to get contacts into Windows etc. Windows 10 will just pick them up for you given an Apple Id in the "People" app.

I can't believe that Android is so st it can't do it...there must be a way...

It's got nothing to do with Android being st. Although it may be user error from me as I don't really get iOS. My OH had lost her handset and as far as I could tell the main way to get contacts and so on transferred was to connect the phone to a pc, dump the contacts into something (iCloud? Outlook?) and then download them from there onto another handset (assuming you still had the old iPhone and were moving to new one).

I didn't have that option and so tried to do it from the phones backup in iTunes on her laptop. I could fine music, films and all sorts of other cr*p but no contacts. Got hold of some 3rd party software and tried that but it was crap and so I gave up.

To be fair I once tried to do a similar thing with an old Blackberry of mine with similar results so it's not just Apple that make this sort of thing very hard.

I personally used Google for all this kind of thing and just hop from device to device (Apple, Android, Windows) and it's all just there all the time

[AC43]

NDA said:

AC43 said:

Or the frickin contacts that my wife was unable to retrieve from the Apple ecosphere once she'd decided to ditch Apple. Just before commissioning her new Android phone she lost her wonderful iPhone and that was that; goodbye contacts.

My contacts and calendar, like my emails, are stored elsewhere and accessed by my iPhone.

Apple is a heavily curated ecosystem, they make it easy to put your data in, but hard to take it out. However, with a little foresight, it's easy to use the hardware without being dragged into the Apple system. I store almost nothing with Apple - no music, no photos, no contacts etc.

Yeah that what I do for all my stuff and my kids's stuff but my wife just did the "Apple thing" and subsequently lost all her stuff when she lost her phone.

No she hadn't figured out all the tricks and traps of the Apple ecosystem but thankfully I've finally weaned her off her final Apple device All I need to worry about now is Google for my stuff (which is ultra-straightforward and totally device-independent) and Windows for work stuff. And my (work) Apple devices are just lenses onto those two worlds.

[Leithen]

Apple apologises.

[jimmyjimjim]

George111 said:

Bricking the iPhone is THE ONLY way to deal with it, what else could they do, pop up a little message saying don't worry, you may or may not be a thief trying to access the bank account of Mr iPhone owner but if you tell us you're not by placing a tick in this box, we'll let you carry on but if we find out later that you are a thief we will have to report you to the plod ?

I think you probably don't understand the issue hence you're not letting go . . .

Apparently even Apple disagreed with you.

[wolves_wanderer]

jimmyjimjim said:

George111 said:

Bricking the iPhone is THE ONLY way to deal with it, what else could they do, pop up a little message saying don't worry, you may or may not be a thief trying to access the bank account of Mr iPhone owner but if you tell us you're not by placing a tick in this box, we'll let you carry on but if we find out later that you are a thief we will have to report you to the plod ?

I think you probably don't understand the issue hence you're not letting go . . .

Apparently even Apple disagreed with you.

Fanboys will justify anything.

[Digitalize]

Looks like the fix will make it work as it should have in the first place really, and disable Touch ID.

[Don]

So Apple have worked out a way to securelyre-enable the phones. That's good. But you still need to get your TouchID fixed properly at an Apple store...that hasn't changed at all...and fair enough.

[jmorgan]

What should have happened from day one. The cynical in me says their plan for greater lootage has failed.

[AC43]

jmorgan said:

What should have happened from day one. The cynical in me says their plan for greater lootage has failed.

Isn't it odd that the attempted money grab happened to take place at the exact same time that iPhone sales fell for the first time in history?

Obviously completely coincidental. Those nice people at Apple wouldn't suddenly go looking for additional revenue streams to bolster the P&L, would they?

Would they?

:-)

[HorneyMX5]

AC43 said:

Isn't it odd that the attempted money grab happened to take place at the exact same time that iPhone sales fell for the first time in history?

Obviously completely coincidental. Those nice people at Apple wouldn't suddenly go looking for additional revenue streams to bolster the P&L, would they?

Would they?

:-)

I love how so many people see a conspiracy everywhere. I work in IT supplying mobile based products and we have added services we sell on top to generate more revenue.

If Apple wanted to do as you suggest and drive all repairs through their repair loop they would not have done the Error Code 53. It's messy, only shows the error in iTunes and bricks the phone. That has far too much reputational damage and frankly no one would let through QA as a suitable process.

What they would have done is make it do what the fix has done and stop the TouchID from working and pop up a nice little message on the phone telling you it's got a problem and to see a genius.

[Leithen]

HorneyMX5 said:

AC43 said:

Isn't it odd that the attempted money grab happened to take place at the exact same time that iPhone sales fell for the first time in history?

Obviously completely coincidental. Those nice people at Apple wouldn't suddenly go looking for additional revenue streams to bolster the P&L, would they?

Would they?

:-)

I love how so many people see a conspiracy everywhere. I work in IT supplying mobile based products and we have added services we sell on top to generate more revenue.

If Apple wanted to do as you suggest and drive all repairs through their repair loop they would not have done the Error Code 53. It's messy, only shows the error in iTunes and bricks the phone. That has far too much reputational damage and frankly no one would let through QA as a suitable process.

What they would have done is make it do what the fix has done and stop the TouchID from working and pop up a nice little message on the phone telling you it's got a problem and to see a genius.

Stop being so sensible! Don't you realise Apple are Evil Masterminds bent on domination of the Universe!

[anonymous-user]

Don said:

That hasn't been my experience. They provide APIs that allow developers on other platforms to access iCloud data. Windows 10 will address your contacts in iCloud in the "People" app. Windows 10 can natively include iCloud calendar appointments. My iPhone happily picks up mail from my Outlook.com 'mail account. In general I have found my Microsoft kit and my Apple kit talk to one another really quite well, considering that they are different ecosystems.

I have no experience of Android or ChromeOS and so can't really comment, although I do have a Google account.

Mind you Apple did create that Android app to make it easy to transfer your data onto iPhone. I haven't heard of Google writing the equivalent iOS app - although it should be easily doable.

Samsung made an app to switch from other phones inc iOS - not sure how well it works, Google rating is OK, but not 4.5+


Smart Switch

[AC43]

HorneyMX5 said:

AC43 said:

Isn't it odd that the attempted money grab happened to take place at the exact same time that iPhone sales fell for the first time in history?

Obviously completely coincidental. Those nice people at Apple wouldn't suddenly go looking for additional revenue streams to bolster the P&L, would they?

Would they?

:-)

I love how so many people see a conspiracy everywhere. I work in IT supplying mobile based products and we have added services we sell on top to generate more revenue.

If Apple wanted to do as you suggest and drive all repairs through their repair loop they would not have done the Error Code 53. It's messy, only shows the error in iTunes and bricks the phone. That has far too much reputational damage and frankly no one would let through QA as a suitable process.

What they would have done is make it do what the fix has done and stop the TouchID from working and pop up a nice little message on the phone telling you it's got a problem and to see a genius.

Fair enough. But I've spent nearly 3 decades working for large corporate and they do actively look at ways of hitting their revenue targets. And if product sales are down and they can't stuff the channel any more (its illegal these days) they turn to service lines, support revenues, etc.

It happens all the time.

It may not have happened on this particular occasion, of course, but I just find it odd how sow many people venerate Apple when to me it's just another corporation with great marketing, OK but expensive products and a hugely restrictive ecosystem.

I use loads of different devices - in this house there are two iPads, two Windows PC's, three Android phones, one iPhone and one Chromebase.

If pushed I'd err on the side of the Android OS and the Google ecosystem but in time they may of course become as expensive and restrictive as Apple. But they're not there yet.

Edited by AC43 on Friday 19th February 12:36

[Leithen]

AC43 said:

It may not have happened on this particular occasion, of course, but I just find it odd how sow many people venerate Apple when to me it's just another corporation with great marketing, OK but expensive products and a hugely restrictive ecosystem.

What continues to surprise me is the apparent complete lack of middle ground when is comes to all things Apple.

They really are not much different from all the other tech companies. Some of what they do is good, some bad. Being hardware and software manufactures has always differentiated them to an extent I suppose and they stuck their neck out in the retail space. But in the end they make as many cock ups as they do triumphs.

I choose to use their kit at the moment because it suits me. Didn't use to, and I'd be entirely unsurprised if I didn't in the future.