iPhone 17 Pro scratches can be fixed by... a common condiment

The iPhone 17 range has only been around for a few weeks, but it has already grabbed a range of headlines. Many of those have surrounded the various features on offer, though there has also been a scandal along the way.

The so-called "scratchgate" concerns the iPhone 17 Pro model, specifically. That sees the back panel pick up scratches particularly easily, which has caused a great deal of concern among new owners – rightly so, given that their £1,000+ phone is scratching in less than 24 hours!

Fortunately, there appears to be a solution – and it's one you definitely weren't expecting. In fact, the material used to fix the problem is so commonplace, I suspect it's sat in your kitchen cupboard right now.

As shared in Mark Gurman's Power On newsletter, employees at Apple's retail stores are being told to clean the devices more frequently, with a mix of their usual cleaning solution and salt. That's based on the notion that these scratches are, in fact, just materials being transferred from dirty MagSafe attachments.

While the exact solutions being used by Apple aren't public knowledge, 9to5Mac did test it using common sea salt, and found it to remove the material in question. So while it's not necessarily the most ideal scenario, it does look like a little TLC can clear things up.

We will, of course, caveat that by saying that you're always better off referring these kinds of things back to Apple. While a DIY solution may work, it could also cause more problems, and with a device that is still under warranty, that seems like an unnecessary risk.

What this doesn't fix is the scratches in the aluminium, which has also been prevalent around the camera bump on these models. According to an expert, those scratches are the result of the anodization not adhering as well on the sharp corner.

Still, it's going to quell some of the concerns users have over the issues, and the speed of the response should also save some face.