What Does iPhone Warranty Cover? Defects, Battery, and Liquid Damage

Every new iPhone comes with a free one-year hardware warranty from Apple that covers defects in materials and workmanship. So what does the iPhone warranty cover in practice? Manufacturing problems: a display that fails on its own, a speaker that stops working, a button that quits, a battery that’s defective rather than just aged. It does not cover accidental damage, liquid damage, cosmetic wear, or problems caused by unauthorized repairs. If Apple confirms a covered defect, it will repair the phone with genuine Apple parts, replace it with a new or functionally equivalent unit, or refund the purchase price, and Apple chooses which.¹²

The coverage period starts on the date of original retail purchase and also protects any Apple-branded accessories that came in the box.³¹ You can confirm your device’s status at checkcoverage.apple.com.

What Counts as a Covered Defect

“Defects in materials and workmanship” means problems that trace to how the phone was made, not how it was used. Dead pixels appearing on their own, an internal component that fails without external cause, a port that stops responding despite normal handling: these are the kinds of failures the warranty is built for. If Apple’s technicians confirm the issue is a defect, the fix is free, and any replacement parts or service work Apple performs are themselves guaranteed for 90 days or for the balance of the original warranty, whichever is longer. Replacement devices may include new or previously used genuine Apple parts that have been tested to meet Apple’s functional requirements.⁴

What the Warranty Does Not Cover

The exclusions matter more than the inclusions, because most disputes come down to which side of the line an issue falls on.

Accidental damage from drops, abuse, or misuse, including cracked screens.
Liquid damage. iPhones carry IP68 water resistance ratings, but Apple treats water resistance as a feature that can decline with wear, not a warranty promise. The company explicitly advises against swimming, bathing, or intentionally submerging the phone.⁵
Cosmetic damage such as scratches and dents, unless it resulted from a manufacturing defect.
Normal wear and tear from ordinary aging of the product.
Consumable parts. Batteries and protective coatings that diminish over time are excluded unless the failure is a defect.
Damage from unauthorized service or from modifications made without Apple’s written permission.
Damage caused by using the iPhone with accessories or components that don’t meet Apple’s specifications.
Software. The hardware warranty does not cover iOS or any app, and Apple does not treat data recovery or software reinstallation as warranty services.¹
Damage from opening the device.

Battery Coverage

Batteries sit in a category of their own. A defective battery is covered. A battery that has simply aged through normal use is not, because Apple classifies batteries as consumable. Apple designs iPhone batteries to retain up to 80% of their original capacity after a set number of complete charge cycles: 500 cycles for the iPhone 14 and earlier, and 1,000 cycles for the iPhone 15 and later.⁶ If your battery drops well below that curve during the first year in a way that looks like a defect, the warranty should cover replacement. You can check battery health in Settings, which will recommend replacement if the battery has degraded significantly.⁷ Once the year runs out, battery replacement is a paid service.

How Apple Decides Liquid Damage Claims

iPhones made after 2006 contain Liquid Contact Indicators. They sit inside the device and appear white or silver normally, turning fully red on contact with water or another liquid. Apple states they are designed not to trigger from ordinary humidity or temperature changes. When you bring an iPhone in for warranty service, a technician checks the LCI as part of the inspection. A red indicator generally means the damage is outside warranty coverage, though Apple advises users who suspect liquid is causing the problem to seek a professional inspection either way.⁸

Third-Party Repairs

A screen repair done by someone other than Apple does not automatically void the warranty on the whole phone. Under an Apple internal policy that became public in 2017, eligibility for continued coverage after a third-party screen repair is decided case by case, so long as the outside work did not damage other internal components. Any damage the third-party repair itself caused is not covered, and Apple Authorized Service Providers are instructed to decline warranty work on functional failures tied to third-party components in critical areas such as the logic board, battery, and Lightning connector.⁹

Federal law backs this up. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act generally prohibits manufacturers from requiring consumers to use specific branded parts or authorized service as a condition of maintaining warranty coverage, unless those items are provided free or the FTC has granted a waiver.¹⁰ In July 2024, the FTC sent warning letters to eight companies over warranty practices the agency said improperly restricted consumers’ right to repair.¹¹

How to Get Warranty Service

Start a claim at getsupport.apple.com. Apple will walk you through troubleshooting and, if the issue looks like a covered defect, set up service through one of three paths:⁴

In person at an Apple Store Genius Bar or an Apple Authorized Service Provider, where a technician inspects the phone and performs the repair.
By mail, using a prepaid shipping box Apple sends to your home.
Express Replacement, where Apple ships a replacement before you send the original back. This requires a credit card authorization hold for the replacement’s value, released once Apple receives your phone and confirms it qualifies. You have ten business days to return the original.¹²

Apple Authorized Service Providers use genuine Apple parts and can process whole-unit replacements. Repairs done by independent, non-authorized providers are not covered, and any damage those repairs cause is excluded.¹³

The warranty is generally honored worldwide, but Apple states it may restrict service to the country where the iPhone was originally sold, and international service can involve customs duties, taxes, and shipping costs you are responsible for.¹¹⁴

What Requires AppleCare+ Instead

Because the free warranty is limited to defects, the situations most people worry about most, dropping the phone or getting it wet, are exactly the ones it doesn’t cover. AppleCare+ is the paid plan that fills those gaps. It covers accidental damage with a per-incident service fee of $29 for screen or back glass repairs and $99 for other damage, and an optional Theft and Loss add-on covers up to two loss incidents every 12 months for $149 per claim.¹⁵ AppleCare+ also replaces the battery at no charge if capacity falls below 80% of original, a lower bar than the free warranty’s “defect” standard.¹⁶ AppleCare+ can be added when you buy the iPhone or within 60 days through the Settings app.

Regional Coverage and Your Statutory Rights

Apple’s one-year warranty is the norm in most countries, but there are exceptions. The warranty runs two years in Türkiye and in the United Kingdom and Ireland.¹⁷¹⁸ In California, the warranty period may be extended by the number of whole days the phone spent in Apple’s possession for warranty repairs.

Apple’s own warranty is only one layer of protection. In the European Union, Norway, and Iceland, EU Directive 2019/771 gives consumers a minimum two-year legal guarantee against faulty goods, and a defect appearing within six months of purchase is presumed to have existed at the time of delivery.¹⁹ A 2024 EU directive on repair of goods, which member states must implement by July 2026, will extend the legal guarantee by an extra year when a consumer chooses repair over replacement and will require smartphone makers to repair devices within a reasonable time and at a reasonable price.²⁰

In the United States, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act does not force Apple to offer a warranty, but because it does, the law requires clear disclosure of terms and bars Apple from eliminating implied warranties, which include the basic expectation that the product will be free of defects and work as advertised.¹⁰ State laws can add further protections, and Apple’s own documentation notes that its coverage exists “in addition to all rights and remedies conveyed by” local consumer protection laws.²¹

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