I was also blown away at CNC grinding step. Perhaps he did it because heat gun would have impacted other parts of the PCB. With grinding the impact was limited to Nand chip only. He eventually had to use heat to cleanup the residue.

It's more so the 128GB package is not worth that much, so it's easier to just delete it.

You also need to be pretty precise with attaching the phone in an exact position, and grinding things with a very low margin of error, say, 0.05 mm along the vertical axis, in order to remove the chip but leave the PCB intact. Not for the faint of the heart.

I suppose they have had several training rounds using badly broken phones first.

That's trivial for a machinist to check before starting the milling operation though.

Yrs, as long as the milling machine is adequate. Hobby-level CNC devices may have harder time doing that, and pro / industrial devices cost many times the iPhone.

Could even be automated if they have probes handy. :)

> I suppose they have had several training rounds using badly broken phones first.

Can't be very many of those yet. The iPhone 16 only became available for sale last Friday.

Obviously he meant other broken phones, like older models or other brands entirely

Yes, the flash chips are approximately the same in their mechanical properties. Milling speed, debris removal, depth of milling to keep the PCB intact, treatment of the PCB.afterwards to clear it and attach another chip. It all is best done several times on dead bodies before attempting a modification of the expensive target phone.

> Perhaps he did it because heat gun would have impacted other parts of the PCB

Most of all the components on the other side of the PCB.

Even if the NAND was not additionally covered in resin, due to the large amount of contacts (and probably large amount of grounded pins, which dissipate heat faster), alot of heat would be needed. More than the smaller components underneath need to just fall off then...

The components underneath shouldn't fall off. The surface tension of the solder should be enough to keep them in place. (That's how it's generally possible to reflow solder components to two sides of a board.)

Of course, reflowing the components in an ad-hoc way is quite likely to cause other problems, so it's probably still a good idea to avoid it.

With only hot air you would need a lot of heat and pulling, potentially displacing other parts nearby, because it seems like the nand flash is not just soldered, but additionally glued with some kind of adhesive.

Fwiw, you can get a desktop CNC for a few hundred dollars (I mean they're very similar to 3d printers in design). You can get pretty good ones for under $5k.

But yeah, getting that chip off with just heat looks pretty hard without affecting anything else. I'd still want a heat sink to pull away heat from other parts but I'm not at this skill level and overly cautious. But this does look doable.

And since it's HN, I do encourage everyone to give more repair a go. Things like micro soldering are easier than you think. And remember than your phones can be turned into servers (raspberry pi? How about my old nexus?). Though I'd love to hear if people know how to do this stuff on iPhones because I plan on switching over. I guess no more bash scripting for automatic backup of all my photos and stuff to my server :'( someone please tell me there's a way )':

https://all3dp.com/1/best-cnc-router-desktop-cnc-machine/

> Though I'd love to hear if people know how to do this stuff on iPhones

Very little in the realm of "server" or "raspberry pi alternative" could be done with modern iPhones despite even a 2-year old iphone being OP in terms of hardware for most home server tasks. They really work hard to prevent any use besides what's officially blessed by Tim Apple himself. Whether that's "for your own good" or not is a matter of opinion, I happen to think it's lame but don't want to debate it.

I'm not too worried about old iPhones since by then it's pretty likely to be jail broken and no issues there. I mean even if I brick it (and somehow can't recover; so, very unlikely) it was going to be e-waste anyways, right? As far as recycling goes, turning your old phone into a server is a big win.

But I'm more interested in being able to use my current bash scripts that run on my Pixel. Backup is really the only important one since I can connect to my computers from anywhere to do anything else

Don’t count on that. There are still holes where certain iOS version ranges or iPhones to this day do not have a jailbreak available.

Good to know, but do you have more specific info? I see plenty of lists like this and I'm not quite sure what's missing from it.

https://theapplewiki.com/wiki/Jailbreak

Can you still install Linux on them? That seems like what OP is actually looking for.

It's not exactly what I need but yeah, linux would be best.

But it does look like there is some success

https://konradybcio.pl/linuxona7/

Some of us do do this stuff with iPhones, and it’s do-able, sort of - TrollStore (available up to iOS 17.0 currently) + NewTerm/bootstrap gives you a native CLI, add Filza in there and you can do almost whatever you need (with some manual work). I must admit, it’s much easier/potentially more functional on iOS 16 and earlier, but what can you do…

Alternatively there is iSH or a-Shell.

I've been playing with iSH and aShell on my iPad. I'm not particularly happy with them and there seems to be a big lack of documentation (e.g. the `mount -t ios idintmatter dest` was quite odd and I think surprising to anyone that's terminally terminal)

Idk if I'll feel comfortable jailbreaking a new 16, but yeah apple is fucking weird.

  ==== Apple engineers, I know you're here ====

What the fuck guys? I want to throw a match case into my ssh config based on the SSID of the network I'm on (I can't rely on IP being static).

  - Airport
    Deprecated. 
  
  - networksetup
    Not associated with AirPort network

  - wdutil 
    Not only requires sudo, but you redact the SSID. To a root user‽‽‽
  
  - ioreg -ln Airport driver | perl -lne 'print $1 if $_ =~ /IO80211SSID.*"(.*)"/;'
    Redacted
 
  - system_profiler SPAirPortDataType | awk '/Current Network/ {getline;$1=$1;print $0 | "tr -d ':'";exit}' 
    Takes 10 seconds to run but at least it fucking works and doesn't require sudo!

       What
           The
              ᵃⁿᵈ ⁱ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵐᵉᵃⁿ ᵗʰⁱˢ ˡⁱᵍʰᵗˡʸ
                  FUCK
                      ‽‽‽

Seriously! What is going on here? Why are you __hostile__ to shell users‽ I don't know how to tell you that knowing the SSID of a machine that you already have access to is not a security risk. Seriously, what is going on here? I have a dozen ways to do this on Linux and you redact it with a sudo command but not with a user level command? Come on..... Have some balls and stand up to your bosses

Try `ipconfig getsummary en0`. It's instant on my machine and dumps plenty of info about the current state of the connection, including the SSID and BSSID.

THANKS!!!!!! This works!

I have been amazed at how little information there is about this. Maybe I just don't know the right areas to look. But I tried google, reddit, stack, several LLMs[0] and never once did I come across ipconfig. Where should I be looking?

[0] Of course LLMs were just repeating the same stuff as reddit and SO and would continually forget that airplay got deprecated despite being in the prompt and me telling them multiple times after it suggested it over and over....

I use Windows, Mac, and Linux systems regularly, and frequently get ipconfig and ifconfig mixed up. So I was vaguely aware that both commands existed on macOS and your comment prompted me to try both to see if either exposed the SSID.

Makes sense. I'm mostly a Linux person myself, but strongly prefer a Mac laptop over a Windows laptop.

And for those that just want SSID, try either of these

  ipconfig getsummary en0 | grep -e '[^B]SSID' | cut -d " " -f5
  ipconfig getsummary en0 | grep -e '[^B]SSID' | sed -E 's/^.*: (.*)/\1/g'

Second will be better if your SSID has a space in it for some reason. You'll also be able to grab the domain name if you want it for similar reasons.

Split horizon DNS can help you solve this for all services, not just ssh, and not be at the whims of Apple.

Thanks, I didn't know any this. I'll look into it more.

But I'm still just confused by the decisions being made over at Apple. I understand hand holding those who don't know much but they do realize that the reason their device is so common among engineers is because it's not too dissimilar from Linux, right? Why attack power users? What's being gained? That's what I don't get.

I long ago concluded that the overlap with Apple products and power tech user desires was a happy coincidence, and/or a hangover of their past, rather than an indication of their future.

The Mac is the exception in their current product lineup: every other platform is heavily locked down, and the user’s behaviour heavily restricted.

I strongly believe the Mac is heading in the same direction. See the progression from run what you want, to optional signing of binaries, to right click to run unsigned things, to disable a setting to be able to run unsigned binaries; or “worse”, the way spctl and csrutil no longer function after deploying Sequoia.

I mean I hate Windows more and that's the choice unfortunately. I'd love a Linux arm book though.

I do think part of the problem is not enough engineers asking their bosses why. Or not enough engineers thinking decisions through. I hope to god it's not a lack of engineers that are power users because that's even worse in many ways, but I wouldn't be surprised.

> And remember than your phones can be turned into servers

I wouldn't turn a cell phone into a server without also disabling the wireless chipsets somehow. Knowing that some unknown number of people working for your phone manufacturer, your wireless carrier, and Google or Apple have privileged access, including the the ability to remote into your phone at any time and add/delete/modify files and install software, without any notice or even indication to you that something has been done isn't the kind of security/privacy I'd want on a server.

I believe that this is actually possible, but I'm curious if there is there any hard evidence that it has ever been done?

It happens all the time on the OS/carrier/manufacturer side. I've personally seen settings reverted, software installed without notice, etc. It's a lot harder to say what any random cell tower in range is able to do but the chipsets are closed source and have their own OS.

Manufacturers and carriers have had it in their terms of service that they can do it.

Here's what tmobile had in their ToS:

We may remotely change software, systems, applications, features or programming on your Device without notice. These changes will modify your Device and may affect or erase data you have stored on your Device, the way you have programmed your Device, or the way you use your Device. You will not be able to use your Device during the installation of the changes, even for emergencies.

On a 5+ year old device that no longer has a data plan? T-Mobile's TOS doesn't apply during that time.

Plus, you know this is about software updates, right? It's generic but that's what it's about. Yes, upgrading means removing files at times as things get refactored or become obsolete, but they're not going to touch your main data, not that software isn't shitty and accidents happen.

For an android, you can always just flash the ROM. It's also very easy to remove physical devices like radio.

I'd also like some source on that deleting file part. These companies aren't spending money editing your software post security updates.

While technically it would be a CNC machine, desktop CNC are really just routers, and for most of them even soft materials like aluminium push them, requiring crazy spindle speeds for the tiny endmills they can handle due to the limited stiffness. And those high speeds create horrible fine metal dust

Yes you can but operating one CNC without major snafus takes some practice and selecting the proper bit and speeds for such a delicate operation isn't exactly easy. It is actually very easy to puncture the iPhone through and through.

Sure, but I don't think it is as hard as people make it out to be. It definitely is a tool you should not take lightly and use precaution with. But people act like vim or baking bread is really hard. Sure, mastery of them takes quite a long time, but ability to do at a competent level is more dependent on if one can read instructions than time or skill.

Meh, I replaced the battery in a 1st gen (2016) iphone SE, per the ifixit instructions. The home pushbutton didn't work afterwards. Repeated disassembly and reassembly didn't help. No useful advice on ifixit forum. Unclear what if anything to try next. Luckily the phone was long obsolete by then, so replaced. Repairability of these things sucks and I miss swappable batteries.

> Repairability of these things sucks and I miss swappable batteries.

They become mandatory in the EU after 2027 so I expect them to make a strong comeback at some point.

The EU requirement is pretty weak and it basically says you can take the phone apart and replace the battery without iphone-like hassle levels. So when the battery reaches EOL, you can order a new battery and do the repair yourself at home. What I miss is being able to swap batteries whenever you feel like it, with no tools, like you would with a flashlight. That means you don't have to mess with power banks or worry about your phone's charge level. Just carry a spare, charged battery with you. I'm old enough to remember when basically all mobile phones were like that.

> Disconnect dozens of cables and parts – wow, it's going to be hard to remember how everything goes back together

We didn’t invent writing, drawing, and photographing for nothing.

1. Have small storage boxes numbered 1 through 1000.

2. Before and after detaching anything, take photos (multiple, if needed)

3. Draw arrow/circle/… indicators on the photos to help you remember what to look at.

4. Whatever comes loose, put it in the next labeled box.

5. Take a photo of the filled box and the tool(s) you used to detach that part.

6. When putting things back together, work backwards through your photos.

we live in the future, just start recording video of everything. You probably have an old cellphone you could use, and you'll wish you had more angles if you do end up being to go back into the footage for something

I think that would make it a multi-person job. Keeping the relevant part in focus while you’re manipulating the device distracts from figuring out what to do next.

I don't think a GoPro can focus close enough to take detailed enough pictures of tiny components like these.

okay, edited to say old cellphone

Doesn't really adress the basic problem, most old phones (and many new phones) don't have the sort of macro autofocus you'd need to keep a video recording at a high enough fidelity to keep track of millimetre-sized objects. Looking at various youtubers, even with semi-professional gear it can be a multi-second struggle to focus on much larger pieces of mechanical devices.

Do that for 20-30 steps and you need an assistant or two to not lose track of what you're doing, and spend an hour in post editing out all the times you side tracked fighting the camera.

I wouldn't have thought to do it, but after seeing it, i think I could do this on a Bridgeport. I'm only so-so at machining, but I can make a Bridgeport grind with great precision in a rectangle!

I was actually thinking the same thing; a maintained milling machine can easily grind at those tolerances. Get your Z level be the most important so you don't cut too deep into the solder pads.

The being said, I'm wondering if he used something like a cheap SainSmart CNC... sounded like a dentist drill

Even so, the solder pads are surely at least like 0.05 to 0.1mm thick, across the size of the 2cm chip that shouldn't be hard at all to get level enough

CNC grinding part is so wild, it took my several replay to understand what is that

> Disconnect dozens of cables and parts – wow, it's going to be hard to remember how everything goes back together.

It's not going to be hard. You won't even need to note where everything goes. The sizes of the cables/parts are different and as a result you'll be able to match them up.

If you visit cities in China that are heavily invested in the electronics industry you could buy a cheaper iPhone 16 pro with 128GB and upgrade it to 1TB.

But if you do that regularly, you probably have the money to buy the 1TB version outright.

make a friend there or friends with a booth worker and just ship it there talk over wechat shipping cost quite low

there should be an audio socket hidden somewhere, you can open it by drilling a hole.... (old joke)

Inb4 someone does it on a 4jaw chuck in a lathe

> CNC grind the existing 128GB NAND to dust – I should probably stop watching now...

Ah yes, Apple, the king of repairability!

hahaha yeah