Apple will no longer repair lost or stolen iPhones

Apple now refuses to repair an iPhone declared lost or stolen, in an attempt to make theft less attractive.

Since iPhones only depreciate very slowly, in other words they retain their value for a very long time on the second-hand market, it is not surprising that smartphones from the Apple brand are prime targets. for thieves. Today, the Cupertino company has a number of measures in place so that iPhone owners can remotely deactivate a stolen or even lost device, but it seems that the American giant has decided to go even further to deter thieves.

Apple now refuses to repair an iPhone declared lost or stolen

If we are to believe a report by MacRumors, which was able to get its hands on an internal memo sent by Apple to its employees in place in the Apple Stores, they would now be instructed to no longer offer their repair services to iPhones with been reported as lost or stolen in the GSMA Device Registry.

For those who don’t know, the GSMA Device Registry is nothing more than an international database on which smartphone owners can officially declare their devices lost or stolen. These declarations are based on the IMEI, a number that is absolutely unique to each device, which allows companies like Apple to check this database each time they receive a smartphone for repair.

This is to try to make the flight ever less interesting

Apple previously refused iPhones that were lost or stolen, but only if Find My was enabled. By thus extending the unsupported GSMA Device Registry, this allows Apple to also include devices that do not have Find My enabled. And that should, without a doubt, further limit the interest of stealing an iPhone.