According to pulsestacks on May 1st, many Apple users may have experienced the need to disable the "Find My iPhone" feature before sending their iPhone for repairs ever since the introduction of "Lost Device Protection" in iOS 17.3. Apple typically imposes a delay, usually around an hour, for sensitive options, leaving some customers unfamiliar with this setting waiting at the store for an hour before being able to turn off "Find My iPhone."
9to5Mac discovered in the unpacking of Apple's latest iOS 17.5 Beta4 release that Apple is developing a new feature similar to the "Repair Mode" offered by other phone manufacturers, which we can refer to as "Repair Mode" here.
Thanks to this new feature, users will no longer need to disable the "Find My iPhone" feature before sending their iPhone for repairs in the future. It's worth noting that currently, this "Repair Mode" is only applicable to iPhones and not yet available for products like iPads.
Simply put, when a user activates "Repair Mode," they can confirm with their Apple ID and password that they will be sending their iPhone in for repair. This allows Apple technicians to verify that the user owns the iPhone and proceed with repairs legally, without needing to disable the "Lost Device Protection" and "Find My iPhone" features.
However, it is currently unclear how to deactivate "Repair Mode" on a device. This may be because Apple has not yet implemented an option to disable it, or perhaps only Apple technicians can confirm that the repair has been completed and remove the device from this mode. Therefore, as a precaution, it is advisable to resist curiosity even if you come across this feature on your phone.
