Apple has expanded its self-service repair program to include a new slate of desktop Macs, as spotted by Six Colors. The move has increased the number of people eligible to get hands-on and fix their Apple computers at home using official components and guides. Previously, only a handful of MacBooks qualified for the program.
The devices freshly inducted into the program include the M1 iMac, M1 Mac mini, the Mac Studio, and the Studio Display. Owners of these Macs and displays will now get access to official parts and manuals to help them fix up their products without needing to go to an Apple Store or a third-party repair shop.
The news follows a similar announcement from Apple in August 2022, when the company revealed that MacBooks running on the “M1 family of chips” qualified for the repair program. That included 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with M1 Pro or M1 Max chips, but not older Intel MacBooks, nor those containing M2 chips.
Apple’s self-service repair program launched in April 2022 and marked a substantial break in Apple’s long-running self-repair stance. For many years, the company had infuriated Right to Repair activists by refusing to allow customers to repair their own devices.
In recent times, however, Apple has changed tack, not only by creating its self-service repair program but by making its devices easier to open and fix. The iPhone 14, for example, was rated 7/10 for repairability by tech experts iFixit, the highest score an iPhone had received in years.
For now, the Mac portion of the self-service program is only available in the U.S. In early December 2022, Apple expanded its iPhone repair program into Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K. Customers in those nations will have to wait a little longer to be able to repair their Macs, though.
Whether this latest move will allay concerns of the Right to Repair movement is unclear, and the self-service program as a whole has received a mixed response. Advocacy groups, including iFixit and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, have said they are “cautiously optimistic” about the program but have criticized Apple’s tight grip over the process and the “hoops” customers are required to jump through.
