How to Tell Your iPhone Has Internal Damage (What to Do About It)

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Dropping your iPhone is a common experience that happens to all of us. I must have dropped my iPhone several times the past week. However, if curious about how to tell if your iPhone has internal damage and needs to be repaired, let me walk you through the tell-tall signs of iPhone internal damage.

If your iPhone does the following: the phone is not working as it should all of a sudden, battery does not last as long, the screen has discoloration, applications constantly crashing, the iPhone is slow, the camera taking too long to take photos, the iPhone continually shutting down and rebooting then, these are signs you should make an appointment at your Apple Store Genius Bar and ask them to run diagnostics on the iPhone.

You can see the location of your closest Apple store here.

Keep reading this article to discover more about your iPhone‘s problems and how to diagnose the issues.

How To Know Your iPhone Has Internal Damage

1. Your iPhones touchscreen is slow/unresponsive.

If your iPhone 12 or newer, it’s made of a tough type of glass called a ceramic shield which is tough to break. Older phones used gorilla glass like most other smartphones.

If your iPhone shows any brands or vertical lines across the screen or does anything weird like flickering, that’s a sign the internal components were damaged when you dropped your iPhone. Your only option is to book your iPhone to your nearest Apple Genius Bar for them to take a look at it.

Other issues are less obvious. For example, if your iPhone regularly ignores your taps and swipes or is very close to responding to your inputs, that’s another sign your iPhone has internal damage. Sometimes internal damage takes a while to surface, as the internal chips of your iPhone become more damaged over time.

2. Your iPhone constantly crashes & reboots.

If your iPhone crashes randomly, this is a tell-tale sign there’s a problem with your battery. It could be a connector has become loose due to internal damage from dropping your iPhone.

One drop likely wouldn’t have caused the damage. However, several drops on different surfaces (like concrete) loosened your iPhones battery connectors over time.

Curious if your iPhone is under warranty? To learn more about iPhone warranties, you can read my detailed warranty guide.

3. The battery life cannot get through a day.

Your iPhone lithium-ion batteries are not meant to last forever. Still, if your iPhone easily lasted full-time without charge and cannot last a day in a short time frame, the battery likely got internal damage from being dropped.

In my article, you can learn more about how long your iPhone’s battery is expected to last if it’s iPhone 11 or older.

Replacing your iPhone’s battery is the number one thing you can do to transform your iPhone. Unlike replacing a touchscreen, it isn’t that expensive. In my detailed article, find out why it’s worth it and how much you’re expected to pay.

4. The iPhone overheats when you’re not using it.

If you play games or edit 4K video on your iPhone, it is normal for it to heat up, but if it’s getting hot when you’re doing low-intensive tasks like browsing the internet, this is a bad sign.

It could be a faulty battery, a bad battery that outputs energy incorrectly, or you left your iPhone in the sun too long. Direct sunlight can permanently damage electronics.

Regardless of your iPhone, overheating is a big sign it has internal damage and needs to be repaired or replaced.

5. Camera takes a long to take photos or the photos are blurred.

If your iPhone’s camera takes a long time to take photos, or the images come out blurred or discolored, these are signs your iPhones camera parts are damaged.

If your iPhone is 11 or newer, you will be paying at least $399 to replace your camera due to the technology inside the camera. At this price point, you are better off buying another iPhone. Take a look at the best iPhone prices on Amazon.

7. The iPhone is extremely slow and cannot be sped up.

It isn’t necessarily a sign your iPhone is damaged. If you update your iOS to the latest version, get rid of unnecessarily large files like large video files, reset your iPhone. It should speed it up.

However, if you’ve done all these things, chances are your iPhone has some form of internal damage and needs to be replaced or taken to a genius bar.

Did you know even if your iPhone is damaged, it has a lot of trade-in value for Apple? To learn more, please read my complete guide on iPhone trade-ins.

8. The iPhones buttons stop working.

If any of your iPhone’s buttons like the volume or home button stop working, this could be a sign that the connectors have become loose from getting dropped.

To see five potential fixes for a broken home button, you can read make use of the helpful article.

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