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IFixit and Samsung were once leaders in device repair, but iFixit says it’s ending its repair partnership with Samsung because it believes Samsung simply isn’t participating in good faith. iFixit says the two companies “failed to deliver” on the promise of a viable repair ecosystem, so they would rather stop the project than continue. The repair site says that “flashy press releases and ambitious initiatives don’t mean much without follow-up.”

iFixit’s Scott Head explains, “As we tried to build this ecosystem, we constantly ran into obstacles that made us question Samsung’s commitment to making repair more accessible. We couldn’t get parts to local garages at prices and quantities that made business sense. Part prices were so expensive that many consumers preferred to replace their devices rather than repair them, and the design of Samsung’s Galaxy devices remained frustratingly stuck on, forcing us to sell batteries and screens in pre-glued packages, which drove up the price.

A good example of Samsung’s parts bundling is this $233 Galaxy S22 Ultra “screen” part. The screen is the part that breaks the most, but instead of just selling a screen, Samsung makes you buy the screen, a new phone frame, a battery, and new side buttons and switches. As we said when this was announced, it’s like half the common parts in an entire phone. It’s not a perfect metric, but the Samsung/iFixit parts store only offers three parts for the S22 Ultra, while the Pixel 8 Pro store has 10 parts and the iPhone 14 Pro Max store has 23 parts.

Even with Samsung’s partial bundling, however, iFixit’s complaint about high prices doesn’t seem to be reflected in the store’s prices. Pixel 8 Pro screen + fingerprint reader, without case, battery and buttons, costs $230. The iPhone 14 Pro Max screen is $395. (There’s a good chance Samsung is the manufacturer of all three displays.)

Samsung and iFixit have always had a rocky relationship. In 2017, the two companies were to partner on an “upcycling” program where Samsung found new uses for old phones. The original plan included things like unlocking the bootloader of old devices so Samsung’s operating system could be completely replaced, and hosting an open source marketplace where users could submit ideas and software for repurposing old Galaxy devices. In what now seems like a familiar strategy, Samsung was more concerned with looks than actually being useful, and iFixit said the upcycling program, launched in 2021, is “almost unrecognizable” from that. which iFixit originally endorsed and took on as its logo in 2017.

In 2019, after the “embarrassing” delayed launch of the Galaxy Fold 1 due to durability reasons, Samsung attacked iFixit for disassembling the defective device. Samsung forced iFixit to take down an article explaining some of the device’s shortcomings. Samsung didn’t have the legal authority to do this, but apparently threatened one of iFixit’s parts suppliers if the article wasn’t pulled.

Samsung is also reportedly cracking down on repairs even as it partners with iFixit. On the same day iFixit announced it was pulling out of the partnership, 404 Media reported that Samsung required independent repairers to hand over customer data and “immediately disassemble” any device found to be using third-party parts. Imagine taking your phone to a repair shop only to find out that it was destroyed by the shop as per Samsung’s requirement. The report also said Samsung’s contracts required independent companies to “daily” upload to a Samsung database (called G-SPN) the details of each repair “during each repair.”

With the last chapter of the affiliate store dying in just two years, in June 2024, iFixit says some changes are coming to its website. It won’t remove any information, but it will start offering clearly labeled third-party parts in addition to any Samsung OEM parts it can get. It will no longer cooperate with Samsung for manuals and will not need to follow Samsung’s quantity limit requirements.