Your iPhone won’t be repaired if its marked stolen or lost: Apple

Apple is not going to repair iPhones that have been marked as lost or stolen on the GSMA Device Registry. All Apple Store employees and Apple Authorized Service Providers have been asked to deny repairs to users who bring in iPhones that have been marked as missing or lost in the MobileGenius or GSX systems.

According to MacRumours, the company has sent an internal memo to the employees who work at Apple Stores and at Apple Authorized Service Centres that mentions that Apple is going to now use the GSMA Device Registry database to check if an iPhone brought in for repairs is marked as stolen or lost before they proceed for repairs. If the iPhone in question has been “reported as missing” on that database, the technicians in both the centres must deny repairs.

The GSMA Device Registry that Apple is going to use to check the lost/stolen status of an iPhone is a global database that contains the serial number of devices that have been lost or stolen. Once a phone is reported as lost or stolen, the police mark it as such on this database. Mobile companies also use this data and match it with the device’s IMEI number to check the device status.

Essentially, Apple already has a policy in place that denies repairs for lost and stolen devices and is applicable to iPhones that have the Find My feature enabled, and that will still hold. Additionally, this new memo extends that policy to cover iPhones that have the Find My feature disabled.