Last year, third-party repair places and right-to-repair campaigners were up in arms because unofficial screen replacements would prevent Face ID from working on iPhone 13 handsets.
This was down to something called "serialization" or "parts pairing," and it’s a tactic Apple is increasingly using to combat unauthorized repairs. If the digital serial number doesn’t match, the donor component can be rejected in a number of ways. And while Apple has proprietary software to approve new serial numbers within a device, third parties don’t.
