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Repair information and guides for the iPhone 8 that was released on September 22, 2017. Model: A1863, A1905

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iPhone 8 Taptic Engine replacement only vibrates with home button

I recently gotten inside my phone and replaced my iPhone 8’s battery, loudspeaker and earpiece. While doing that, I had accidentally ripped the Taptic Engine’s ribbon cable, rendering the part unusable. The phone worked fine without the engine, but there was no vibration, whatsoever. I had then proceeded to order a replacement for the Taptic Engine, put the new one in, and turned my phone on. The haptics for pressing the home button work perfectly fine, but all other haptic feedback doesn’t work for the phone at all still. Is there anything I’m doing wrong?

Something of note here is that I’ve been looking across the web for solutions for this, and it seems that I may need to transfer/write the serial number of the old Taptic Engine to the new replacement Engine digitally using some kind of small device that typically only people that repair phones for a living have access to. They aren’t super cheap, either. If this is the case, why isn’t this reflected in the replacement guide? (Or any of the Taptic Engine replacement guides for that matter) I bought the replacement engine with confidence that I wouldn’t need anything extra to have it work again.

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Backup your phone, and then restore it.

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You are correct, there is a special programmer you’ll need to reprogram the Taptic Engine. While iFixit didn’t add that disclaimer in the guide, I don’t see the need for Apple requiring that piece to be programmed in the first place. Especially since you could replace it in older models without an issue and without programming. But in your situation, you’ll need more than just the programmer to restore it properly as you’ll need a means to read the serial number from the old unit. There are shops that specialize in micro soldering like iPad Rehab, STS Telecom, Rossmann Repair, and VCC board repair that might be able to help.

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Thank you for this. I also don't see why the piece needed to be programmed. I fully expected to be in the clear once I replaced the engine. Oh well. You live and you learn, I suppose. I'll look into those shops and see what can be done from there. (Rossman Repair has a YouTube channel I'm subbed to, so I am familiar with him already)

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@treechenho the others have channels as well. Rossmann does work with Jessa from iPad Rehab.

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Tae'jaun Williams will be eternally grateful.
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