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FCC Briefly Published iPhone 16e Schematics Despite Apple’s Confidentiality Request

Metadata errors likely triggered the posting, prompting calls to tighten authorization workflows.

Thanks to the leaked schematics, competitors can find out a lot about iPhone 16e, right, without reverse engineering.
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Overview

  • A 163-page PDF with board-level diagrams for four iPhone 16e models (A3212, A3408, A3409, A3410) appeared in the FCC database and was mirrored by FCCID.io before being pulled.
  • Apple’s cover letter dated September 16, 2024 asked regulators to keep schematics, block diagrams, and related technical materials confidential indefinitely as proprietary trade secrets.
  • Reporting points to an administrative mistake in the filing process, with both short-term and permanent confidentiality flags marked “no,” which likely auto-published the documents.
  • Neither Apple nor the FCC has issued public comments, and the files have already been downloaded and redistributed, making their circulation difficult to reverse.
  • The detailed diagrams could aid competitors, speed board-level repairs, and guide security research by revealing antenna locations, connector pinouts, test pads, and signal routing.