iFixit

iFixit App Pulled from Apple’s App Store

You might have noticed that there’s no longer an iFixit app in the Apple’s App Store. We are sorry for anyone this has inconvenienced.

Not too long ago, we tore down the Apple TV and Siri Remote. The  developer unit we disassembled was sent to us by Apple. Evidently, they didn’t intend for us to take it apart. But we’re a teardown and repair company; teardowns are in our DNA—and nothing makes us happier than figuring out what makes these gadgets tick. We weighed the risks, blithely tossed those risks over our shoulder, and tore down the Apple TV anyway.

Apple iPhone teardown

A few days later, we got an email from Apple informing us that we violated their terms and conditions—and the offending developer account had been banned. Unfortunately, iFixit’s app was tied to that same account, so Apple pulled the app as well. Their justification was that we had taken “actions that may hinder the performance or intended use of the App Store, B2B Program, or the Program.”

Live and learn.

The good news is we’ve been working like gangbusters on our mobile site. All the functionality you need for mobile is already there. Obviously, we’d love it if our app was in the store. But our small team has limited resources, and for the past months we’ve chosen to improve our mobile website—to benefit all mobile users—instead of making improvements to our app. The app that Apple pulled was outdated, and iOS 9 introduced some major bugs into the system. Fixing them would require a substantial rewrite to a bunch of iOS 4-era code.

Will we rewrite the app? Right now, we’re not planning on it. Our APIs make it easy for anyone else to build one, though. (Our old app is open source if you’d like an example to build upon. Just respect our license and don’t put ads in it.)

In the meantime, we will continue to support our Android app, which includes native guide creation. And you can always access repair guides and troubleshooting help from any mobile device (including iDevices) on our mobile site.