Right to repair: all the latest news and updates

Military contractors are trying to thwart a widely-supported right-to-repair provision in the annual defense policy bill — and their efforts may pay off. A source familiar with the negotiations tells The Verge that there are significant concerns that the bill’s right-to-repair language will be replaced by a “data-as-a-service” model, potentially requiring the Department of Defense to pay for access to equipment repair information.

The move, which right-to-repair advocate and YouTuber Louis Rossmann also highlighted last week, would go against the Trump administration’s stance on access to repair materials. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in May that he wants to build right-to-repair provisions in contracts with military equipment manufacturers, something the Army and Navy have both expressed support for.

Would you call the Nintendo Switch easy to repair, what with its infamously drifting joysticks, glued-in battery, tiny and easy-to-damage ribbon cables, and lack of official repair instructions and replacement parts?

iFixit doesn’t think so anymore. After giving Nintendo’s handheld a rosy welcome at its 2017 debut, the online repair site says the Switch no longer lives up to 2025 standards — and so iFixit is cutting the Switch’s repairability score in half, from 8 out of 10 to 4 out of 10.

Texas moved closer to becoming the next state with a right to repair law on the books, as the state Senate unanimously voted 31 - 0 to finalize HB 2963 this weekend. It would require manufacturers to make spare parts, manuals, and necessary tools available for equipment sold or used in the country’s second most populated state.

As more states have passed right to repair laws, we’ve seen repair options and information becoming more widely available nationwide from companies like Apple and Samsung. If the bill is signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, that will add another significant market with these requirements in place.

The US Army is done relying on contractors to repair its equipment. Earlier this month, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll committed to including right-to-repair provisions in all existing and future contracts with manufacturers, a change Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told The Verge will “put an end to our dependence on giant defense contractors who charge billions of dollars and take months to repair critical equipment.”

For now, only the Army has committed to securing right-to-repair provisions in contracts. But Warren is pushing for other military branches to adopt the requirement, addressing long-standing repairability problems across the armed forces. She’s also hopeful that it could have a broader impact across industries and serve as a model for how other companies and organizations can advocate for similar repair-friendly provisions.

John Deere’s “unfair” practices raised repair costs for farmers and kept them from being able to make repairs on tractors and other equipment they own, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleges in a new lawsuit.

The FTC and attorneys general for Illinois and Minnesota filed suit today in a long-running fight for the right to repair — a battle that’s become more heated as Deere increasingly incorporated software into farm equipment. The complaint accuses John Deere of “decades” of unlawful practices that forced farmers to turn to the company’s own network of authorized dealers for repairs.

A bipartisan group of senators is calling out the auto industry for its “hypocritical, profit-driven” opposition to national right-to-repair legislation, while also selling customer data to insurance companies and other third-party interests.

In a letter sent to the CEOs of the top automakers, the trio of legislators — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) — urge them to better protect customer privacy, while also dropping their opposition to state and national right-to-repair efforts.

iFixit now sells genuine Xbox parts you can use to repair your Xbox Series X or S and offers official guides to help with fixes. You can browse what’s available from iFixit’s Microsoft Repair Hub.

“We’re excited to be working with Microsoft to keep Xboxes running longer and out of the waste heap,” Elizabeth Chamberlain, iFixit’s director of sustainability, says in a statement to The Verge. “We now offer official Microsoft parts and step-by-step repair guides for Xbox Series S and Series X, including both the all-digital and disk drive editions.”

Apple has begun selling repair parts for iPhone 16 and 16 Pro phones on its self-service repair store. That includes replacements for commonly damaged parts like cameras, displays, and back glass, and follows the release of official Apple iPhone 16 repair manuals in September, as MacRumors notes.

A replacement camera assembly will run you $169 for the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus or $249 for the 16 Pro and Pro Max. And new displays range from $279 to $379, depending on the model. Batteries are either $99 or, for the 16 Pro phones, $119. And if you don’t have the tools, you can always rent out one of Apple’s heavy, specialized repair kits for $49.

McDonald’s always-broken ice cream machines might finally get easier to fix. That’s because the US Copyright Office granted an exemption allowing third parties to diagnose and repair commercial equipment — including the ones that make your McFlurries.

Now, franchise owners will be able to break through the digital locks that have blocked them from repairing McDonald’s ice cream machines for years. According to the Copyright Office, the exemption will allow people to diagnose, perform maintenance, and repair “retail-level commercial food preparation equipment.” McDonald’s ice cream machines have become so notorious for breaking that someone even created a tool to track broken machines.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is probing whether John Deere used unfair practices related to the repair of its agricultural equipment that might violate the FTC Act.

The investigation into John Deere’s restrictions on customers’ right to repair agricultural equipment was revealed by data analytics company Hargrove & Associates, Inc. (HAI), as it fights a subpoena-like civil investigative demand (CID) from the FTC to hand over sales data. As reported earlier by Reuters, the company fears sharing the information the FTC seeks about agricultural equipment sales could harm its business relationships.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is pressuring John Deere to update its manuals to better enable customers to repair their tractors. By omitting information about repair rights and pollution control systems, Warren alleges that John Deere could be in violation of the Clean Air Act.

John Deere has been at the center of an ongoing battle over the right to repair, especially as it incorporates more software into farm equipment. Warren’s office contends that the company is making it almost impossible for farmers to fix their own equipment or turn to independent repair shops.

Ever seen one of those “warranty void if removed” stickers covering the screw holes on a gadget? Today, the FTC is reminding ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac that they’re illegal.

In fact, the FTC sent letters to ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac that suggest the FTC’s concerns aren’t just skin sticker-deep. Each letter tells the manufacturer to change its warranty and review its customer support practices to make sure they aren’t illegally threatening your warranty.

Apple’s putting renewed focus on its repairability efforts today. The company has extended its self-service diagnostics tool to Europe, giving customers in 32 countries an easier way to test products for potential issues.

But perhaps more interesting is the fact that Apple also published a new whitepaper — “Longevity, by Design” (PDF link) — that explains “the company’s principles for designing for longevity.” I’m sure there’ll be a lot of analysis about every page, but within the paper is actually some news: Apple says that later this year, it will extend more software features to third-party iPhone components.

Colorado now has some of the broadest right-to-repair laws in the US thanks to a new bill signed by Governor Jared Polis on Tuesday. The HB24-1121 “Consumer Right to Repair Digital Electronic Equipment” rules require all manufacturers to make it easier for consumers and independent electronics businesses to purchase the necessary equipment needed to repair devices themselves.

“Under this bill, when an item is broken, it could be a cellphone like this, a dishwasher, a washing machine, or a laptop, Coloradans will have the information they need to repair their own equipment or use the repair provider of their own choice,” Polis said at the bill signing, as reported by the Colorado Times Recorder.

iFixit just broke up with Samsung over its shaky commitment to right to repair, but things may be worse than we thought. Samsung is apparently forcing independent repair shops to give up your personally identifying information — and report you for using aftermarket parts.

404 Media has now obtained a leaked copy of a contract between Samsung and an independent service provider, which states that for every repair, an independent repair shop must send Samsung your name, address, telephone number, your phone’s unique serial number and IMEI, your “customer complaint,” and all the details of your repair.

iFixit and Samsung are parting ways. Two years after they teamed up on one of the first direct-to-consumer phone repair programs, iFixit CEO and co-founder Kyle Wiens tells The Verge the two companies have failed to renegotiate a contract — and says Samsung is to blame.

“Samsung does not seem interested in enabling repair at scale,” Wiens tells me, even though similar deals are going well with Google, Motorola, and HMD.

The new iPads are out, and they’re terrific. They’re also expensive, and they’re a lot of iPad. Do you really need an OLED screen, an M4 processor, all that engineering to make it so thin and light, and the increasingly great but also increasingly expensive new controllers?

On this episode of The Vergecast, we explore that very question with The Verge’s Chris Welch, who uses the iPad in as varied and powerful a way as you’ll find. We talk about the upsides of OLED, the pros and cons of huge screens, and what really makes an iPad an iPad.

The first laptop with LPCAMM2 memory is finally here. The folks at iFixit got their hands on the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 (Gen 7), which uses LPDDR5X memory in an LPCAMM2 module that you can upgrade or replace by simply unscrewing from the laptop’s motherboard.

That’s a major change from existing LPDDR memory in most modern laptops. This type of memory is typically soldered onto the motherboard, making it much more difficult to upgrade. LPCAMM2 — or Low-Power Compression-Attached Memory Module — offers modularity without losing the power efficiency of LPDDR.

E-readers might be relatively cheap when compared to your typical smartphone, but it’s still a bummer when they break, given how hard it is to find parts for them. Now, iFixit has announced that it’s offering OEM replacement parts for certain Kobo e-readers, along with detailed guides on how to install them, starting today. The first e-readers being supported are Kobo’s latest: Kobo Clara Colour, the Clara BW, and the Libra Colour.

Kobo owners can buy OEM batteries, motherboards, front and back covers, and screen assemblies for those devices on iFixit’s new Kobo Repair Hub page. iFixit has a detailed guide for installing each part.

The European Union has officially adopted a new set of right-to-repair rules designed to encourage people to repair broken devices, rather than replace them. One of the rules extends a product’s warranty by one year if it’s repaired while still covered.

The European Union already requires companies to offer a two-year minimum warranty on products, but these new rules take things a step further. Even after the warranty period ends, companies are “still required to repair common household products,” including smartphones, TVs, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and other items. If a product breaks while under warranty, consumers can choose between a replacement or a repair. If they choose to repair, the warranty will be extended for a year.

Apple is finally making it easier for users to repair their iPhones with used parts. In an update on Thursday, the company announced that this fall, owners of “select” iPhone models will be able to repair their devices with used, genuine parts while retaining full functionality.

When repairing a phone, Apple requires iPhone users to go through a process called parts pairing, which makes them match the serial number of their device to that of a new part sold by Apple. If a user replaced a part with an aftermarket or used component, the iPhone would display pesky notifications saying that Apple isn’t able to verify the newly installed piece. In the case of Face ID and Touch ID sensors, the part might not work at all.