If you need a cheap repair for your iPhone 12’s camera, you’re out of luck. You’ll have to take it to Apple for a replacement, or you’ll be met with an endless warning telling you all about it.
iPhone Camera Not Working? 6 Ways to Fix It!
If you take your iPhone 12 in for repair outside of Apple’s official repair network and you’re running iOS 14.4, you won’t be able to go to a third-party repair shop to get a replacement camera. Or rather, you can replace the camera module, but you’ll be met with a warning message. This continues a worrying trend of Apple devices becoming increasingly unserviceable.
"Apple's camera warning points to serious failures and the gross incompetence of independent repair," iFixit's Kevin Purdy told Lifewire via direct message. "Combined with similar warnings on displays and batteries, it points to Apple's insistence on fully controlling repairs of its products — something no one should want to see."
Apple has published a support document describing the reasons for these warnings. They are twofold. First, Apple uses only genuine Apple parts, which of course implies that third-party repair shops are using inferior counterfeit parts.
