It's cool but I wish it didn't only cover the stuff in their store. Imagine if their repair guides just had a list of parts and their respective numbers for that device. Then you can decide where you want to purchase the part from.
this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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That would require starting a database with the purpose of cataloguing every single part number in every single device that exists, which while technically possible, is rather unfeasible without extensive manufacturer cooperation.
What iFixit is doing is the other way around, they are telling what device a certain part number they carry fits in - as in their example, what Lenovo laptop that specific battery is compatible with. That's a problem multiple orders of magnitude smaller in scope.
In a perfect world though that information would be available in the repair manual and schematic that came with your device, as they usually did a few decades back. Alas, that's something that's never going to happen again because it hurts profit margins.
ifixit is such a wonderful company. I downloaded all their repair manuals so I should be able to repair 'anything'. And it does seem to be everything.
I love that they are still adding more resources for the general public. An actual ethical company imo. But please let me know if there is some controversy I am not aware of.
Is an archive of their repair manuals available for download? Would you mind sharing the link?
I used https://kiwix.org/en/ to download wikipedia originally.
Then I saw in the desktop app that you can download a lot more "wikis" other than wikipedia. This is their library. https://library.kiwix.org/#lang=eng
https://library.kiwix.org/viewer#ifixit_en_all_2024-12/home/home
It includes computers, phones, game consoles, appliances, vehicles, tools, even medical devices and apparel.
Absolute legend. Thanks so much.
High quality comments 👍
Less guesswork. Of course it’s not going to be complete. But it’s nice.
My experience with compatibility checkers hasn’t been stellar. I’ll check this out.