Not easy to get iPhone 12 camera repaired as it requires Apple-exclusive tool

Looks like repairing the iPhone 12 camera is not as easy as it seems. According to a recent teardown by iFixit, the iPhone 12’s camera cannot be repaired without accessing Apple’s proprietary, cloud-linked System Configuration app. 

It has been said that after several testing and consulting repair technicians, it has been concluded that iPhone 12’s camera "is entirely unreliable when swapped between iPhones." This was pointed out by a YouTuber named Hugh Jeffreys in a video. Ifixit also found that while placing the camera of one iPhone 12 to another one works fine at the time of the launch but fails in actual use.

This also seems odd as it has been usually easy to swap between cameras of the same model, as per iFixit.

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“Apple, by design or neglect or both, is making it extremely hard to repair an ‌iPhone‌ without their blessing,” says iFixit. “It doesn't look good for independent repair. Apple is putting yet another question mark on a core component of the ‌iPhone‌. Why? Why does a camera need to have its serial number authorized remotely by Apple just to let someone take pictures with their phone?”

This also leaves a minor hope that Apple could address iPhone 12’s camera swap behaviour as a part of a future OS update but that’s highly unlikely.

“t's a part prone to malfunction and damage, and can be harvested from otherwise-broken iPhones. Putting an authentication check on a simple camera swap poisons the ‌iPhone‌ repair and resale market. With no obvious benefit for ‌iPhone‌ buyers, it reeks of greed. Or worse: planned obsolescence,” says the repair website.