Apple has recently issued a hardware recall on some iPhone 5 batteries. If you purchased your phone between September 2012 and January 2013, then you may be eligible for replacement batteries, as your tech was produced during the time frame when the bad batteries found their way into some iPhones.
I May Be Impacted, What Do I Do?
To find out if your battery is eligible for replacement, all you’ve got to do is enter your iPhone’s serial number into the iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Program Website (https://ssl.apple.com/support/iphone5-battery/). If you’re like most people, you’ve got no idea what or where your iPhone’s serial number is. Fortunately, Apple makes it fairly easy to find. Simply navigate to Settings, then look under the General section, and tap the About option.
Note that if you’ve been impacted but you’ve already replaced your battery, you are still entitled to a refund. Also, and this should go without saying but we’ll say it anyway, if your battery cannot be replaced because of some other technical issue with the phone, you’ll have to foot the bill for the other repairs in order to get the new battery.
The good news?
If you own an iPhone 5c or and iPhone 5S, there’s nothing for you to do or worry about. You are not impacted, these models are perfectly fine and have no battery issues.
With regards to preparations before bringing your phone in for the replacement battery, Apple makes two specific recommendations. First they ask you to turn off the “Find My iPhone” feature. Second, back up your phone’s data, either using iTunes or iCloud. That way, should the worst happen, all your data is preserved.
Replacements are available for free at Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers. This is the second hardware recall for the iPhone 5. Earlier in the year, the company instituted a replacement program for a faulty Sleep/Wake button that would intermittently stop functioning on devices manufactured through March 2013.
It’s worth noticing that even though product recalls are always a nightmare for manufacturing companies, if they are handled honestly and quickly, and if the steps taken to right the wrong are fast, fair and transparent, then you can turn a positive into a negative. Apple have dealt with this battery issue well, and have come up looking like the big, reliable, wholesome company that they in fact are.
