iPhone 8 plus parts replacement

Hi Clark,

You're lucky with the iPhone 8 models that Apple hasn't really gotten into their parts pairing strategy yet. I'm working on an article about Apple phone parts pairing, but for now here's what I know about the 8 Plus.

The only part that is paired with an encryption algorithm is the home button, but you probably already knew that. The short story on that is that only Apple can replace the button and keep Touch ID working, and since home button replacement isn't a service they offer, the best you can do is pay for a whole screen replacement. The new screen will come with the home button and they'll pair it to your logic board at the time of repair.

Battery is not paired yet; that started with the iPhone XS and got worse with the iPhone 11.

I've heard technicians claim the Taptic Engine has data that needs to be copied from the original part, but I can't confirm that. I've changed Taptic Engines on 6, 7 and 8 models without a noticeable problem, but apparently it's some subtle functions that are no longer supported while the gross vibration and tap functions still work, so I don't know for sure.

The screen is not paired, but there is a piece of data called the MtSN that needs to be copied in order for the True Tone function to work. Screen pairing did start with the iPhone 11 where you have to remove the touch module chip from the old display to avoid a non-genuine warning message - whether or not it's a genuine Apple screen.

As your nemesis Mr. Lex has already mentioned, devices like the Qian Li iCopy or the JC V1SE programmer can read and write the data for the taptic engine and the screen, and on later models the battery.

So, short story is you can replace anything but the home button, and the only loss of function is True Tone if the screen is replaced without copying the MtSN. The iPhone X is the same if you substitute Face ID for Touch ID, but that's the last phone that doesn't have the most-often replaced parts paired to the logic board.

Needless to say, Apple does not get any points for reparability; in fact rather than getting better about it they're actively making things worse for repairers.