iPhone lightning port replacement

[Jonny69]

Apologies if this regularly gets covered. I tried the search and had a quick skim through recent threads but I couldn’t see anything obvious.

Is there a forum approved high street chain who carries out iPhone repairs? I need to get the lightning port replaced on my iPhone 13 as I damaged it a while back doing an emergency charge when wet. I’ve been using a MagSafe charger but could do with wired access again for backing up and changing my music etc.

Looking at the threads here, it looks like Apple will do batteries but I can’t work out if they do repairs like this at/through one of their shops.

I got burned using one of the local vape shop / phone repairs places. Learned that the hard way and don’t want to chance using one of them again.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Unless the backroom repair techs at Apple Stores have upped their game, a charging port that’s flow soldered to at least one PCB is beyond their capabilities.

You might get offered a refurb unit or trade in against a newer model depending on if you have some flavour of Apple Care. Apple refurbs in the UK used to come from the Cork facility, but that might have changed.

 

[Jonny69]

Unless the backroom repair techs at Apple Stores have upped their game, a charging port that’s flow soldered to at least one PCB is beyond their capabilities.

It comes as an assembly on a ribbon cable and the whole lot is replaced. But I’m not prepared to try and tackle it myself.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Fair enough. Ping Apple Support and ask if they can replace in store.

It’s worth remembering that if Apple don’t supply the new part, it probably isn’t genuine.

 

[Feek]

I wouldn’t trust anyone to do this sort of repair except Apple. If you go to a high street store and they mess it up, you’re left with an even more knackered phone but if Apple damage it, they’ll simply replace it with a refurb. They may even just do a straight swap anyway.

 

[Jonny69]

I wouldn’t trust anyone to do this sort of repair except Apple. If you go to a high street store and they mess it up, you’re left with an even more knackered phone but if Apple damage it, they’ll simply replace it with a refurb. They may even just do a straight swap anyway.

I think this is my main worry, because that’s what happened on another phone when I used a local phone repairs (vape) shop. I’m concerned I’ve currently got no way to back it up before I hand it over to someone.

So far Apple (iStore) want £280 (£80 for battery + £200 for port) and Timpson want £120 (£40 for battery + £80 for port). I don’t need the battery but my one is tired and I may as well get it done while the phone is open.

A VGC iPhone 13 with battery better than 83% is around £220. I’ve actually already tried two of these, with the logic being I’ll sell on the one with the faulty port, but they keep arriving in not as good condition as the seller makes them out to be and I’ve sent them both back.

I could just keep trying this route; they’re from an eBay shop, so it’s theoretically zero risk to me. It’s just getting annoying and it might just be peace of mind to get this one fixed. Better the devil you know etc [kylie.gif]

 

[Feek]

A VGC iPhone 13 with battery better than 83% is around £220. I’ve actually already tried two of these, with the logic being I’ll sell on the one with the faulty port, but they keep arriving in not as good condition as the seller makes them out to be and I’ve sent them both back.

So far Apple (iStore) want £280 (£80 for battery + £200 for port)

Sixty quid more for a guaranteed working phone, with a spanking new battery, three months warranty and no risk.

Go to Apple.

Better the devil you know etc [kylie.gif]

Exactly

 

[On Holiday]

Give you can buy a refurb iPhone 13 Pro for the same money, why would you have it repaired? (I'm sure you can find an actual good one)

Buy one then sell yours for spares/repairs.

 

[Feek]

Give you can buy a refurb iPhone 13 Pro for the same money

Where from? Most 'refurbs' are phones that have been bought, given a physical clean over and sold. The battery almost certainly won't have been replaced. The only refurbs I'd trust are Apple refurbs and they don't go back as far as the 13.

 

[On Holiday]

Fonehouse or Giffgaff tend to be realistic with their grading.

The other way to look at this is that's a potential £280 for a repair in the pot plus £150 value for the current iPhone 13 that needs repair.

£430 is enough for a new iPhone 14 and not very far away from a brand new iPhone 16e from a retailer.

 

[Jonny69]

Where from? Most 'refurbs' are phones that have been bought, given a physical clean over and sold. The battery almost certainly won't have been replaced.

This has been the issue with the two that I’ve seen so far. The first one had a couple of deep dings in the screen which had been polished out, plus it appeared to have taken a fairly hefty impact at some point because the haptics transducer was making a pinging noise like it had come loose. The second one simply wasn’t as cosmetically good as the seller made it out to be; the screen was described as ‘like new’ but it had deep scratches on it.

Mine has a scratch on the screen, so for the secondhand route to make sense, for me it needs to be in better cosmetic condition and for the battery to be in better shape, and I can wipe and sell the old one on. But because the iPhone 13 is teetering on that line of becoming obsolete I don’t think it makes financial sense to spend £280 getting it repaired.

 

[Jonny69]

The secondhand/refurb route also gets round the fact that I can’t back the phone up. I don’t pay for iCloud and the free 5gb isn’t enough for a backup, so I have no way of backing things up before I hand the phone over for a repair. That’s a big risk imo.

 

[Penfold101]

The secondhand/refurb route also gets round the fact that I can’t back the phone up. I don’t pay for iCloud and the free 5gb isn’t enough for a backup, so I have no way of backing things up before I hand the phone over for a repair. That’s a big risk imo.

Just pay a few quid for iCloud and peace of mind. You’d only need it for a month.

“Apple offers 5 GB of free iCloud storage. For more space, you can upgrade to iCloud+ with monthly paid tiers starting at £0.99 for 50 GB, £2.99 for 200 GB, £8.99 for 2 TB, £29.99 for 6 TB, and £59.99 for 12 TB. All paid tiers support Family Sharing with up to five others.”

 

[slinxy]

Have you tried contact cleaner or IPA spayed into the port and the plunging in and out the cable a few times to clean out the port?

Obvs have the phone switched off and the cable not connected to anything at the other end…

I assume you are using a wireless MagSafe charger at the moment to charge?

 

[Manbatius]

That seems a ludicrous amount for a repair. Just watched a repair video, I reckon they can do that in ten minutes and the parts are cheap.

I am not a fan of tech being binned when it can be repaired, but in this instance I would probably:

1) if using magsafe like above, keep using, put away a bit each month, replace when you have the amount for the iphone of your choice.
2) Apple refurb to reduce the time above
3) sell current phone (it will not be worthless)

I think these are my suggestions for you.

 

[Jonny69]

Have you tried contact cleaner or IPA spayed into the port and the plunging in and out the cable a few times to clean out the port?

Obvs have the phone switched off and the cable not connected to anything at the other end…

I assume you are using a wireless MagSafe charger at the moment to charge?

I have. I also made a micro scraper and dressed all the contacts under a microscope at work in case any of them had just got corroded. No joy unfortunately.

Currently using a MagSafe, yes.

I’ll be honest though, I find wireless charging more of a PITA than the problems it solves.

 

[slinxy]

TBH, I would be tempted to have a go to fix that myself.... it's just a case of being able to get the right part.
Have you looked on fleabay to see if there's any smashed up phone that you could use as a donor?

There's an shop in manchester, never used them myself but they always seem busy when I walk pass and I think they part of a big chain..

iSmash - Home of the cheeky refurbs

iSmash specialises in repairing phones, tablets & computers including iPhone, iPad, Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy, in 38 locations across London and UK. Our express repairs take as little as 30 mins, with a lifetime warranty.

www.ismash.com

the other option is to use your phone insurance via your bank account, with a phone of that age.. (mines old) they will just likely send out a replacement.. see what the conduction is like and send it back if it's crap.. send your back if theirs is better.

 

[Penfold101]

This is simple - get some iCloud storage, backup the phone and just give it to Apple to fix.

 

[Jonny69]

Slight update to this. So if the genuine Apple repair costs £280, it seems you can get a basically unused iPhone 14 for that. Posting this from an iPhone 14 which arrived with what looked like its original paper screen protector attached, has 100% battery health, no original box and what looks like a genuine Apple USB C to Lightning cable. Described as ‘ex display pristine’.

If it’s not what it says it is it’s got me fooled. Not a single mark on it and the screen has that slippery feel that a brand new iPhone has. I’m going to use it for a couple of days to make sure, but it looks legit so far.

Hoping to sell the old one on for £100 or so. So it looks like this is the current price point for anyone with a dying iPhone 13.

If spending that much, why not just go for an iPhone 15 or newer? Well, it’s simply that all my existing hardware is Lightning / USB A and the cost of switching all my cables etc to USB C would sway it. Assuming this turns out to be legit, it’ll be USB C next time.

 

[whitecrook]

If this is a 13 and not a 13 mini, just get a newer iphone . One with usb c would be very convenient.

Consider iCloud it really makes iphone experience much better.

Whoops ive no idea how i necrod this thread after the op update. Glad it sorted.