Apple Internal: false? Does anyone know what it means?

This is one example of where I’ve seen it. Just one of the shorter ones. My device seems to think that it is not Apple internally, which I know that hardware, software and firmware can different places and brand names so this is probably a ridiculous question. I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max, and was wondering if this was common among other iPhones? Another person in the community answered this question partially last night, and told me to repost with a screenshot so I did, and marked out the sensitive information.

iPhone 14 Pro Max

Posted on Feb 29, 2024 4:43 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 29, 2024 5:08 PM

Yes, an Apple developer with access to the iOS data dictionary and a log file processing application can determine what it means. Mere mortals like us don’t have a snowball’s chance in heck making sense of any diagnostic log.


That looks like a startup process that first defines a set of properties, then defines a set of services to be started.

Apple_internal:false is a boolean parameter that says whatever is being started is not an Apple process.


But without knowing what process is being invoked you can’t learn anything. But even if you knew what process was involved you still couldn’t learn anything from a parameter list.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 29, 2024 5:08 PM in response to KimB820

Yes, an Apple developer with access to the iOS data dictionary and a log file processing application can determine what it means. Mere mortals like us don’t have a snowball’s chance in heck making sense of any diagnostic log.


That looks like a startup process that first defines a set of properties, then defines a set of services to be started.

Apple_internal:false is a boolean parameter that says whatever is being started is not an Apple process.


But without knowing what process is being invoked you can’t learn anything. But even if you knew what process was involved you still couldn’t learn anything from a parameter list.

Feb 29, 2024 5:10 PM in response to KimB820

Google search for "AppleInternal" turns up mention of folders on some Macs and iPhones that store tools that Apple engineers use for internal development and testing purposes.


I can't find documentation for that property, specifically, but I think it probably indicates whether the phone has one of these AppleInternal folders (which might be the case only for a phone belonging to Apple, that's running internal firmware) – or whether the phone is internal to Apple and might have prototype hardware – or something like that.


So it would be normal for the property to be false on production units running production firmware.


I don't think that "AppleInternal => false" means that you have a fake iPhone.

Feb 29, 2024 7:01 PM in response to Servant of Cats

@Servant of Cats

Thank you for a genuine answer! I never even knew imposter iPhones were a thing until recently. And I don’t even know where these files come from. They’re just randomly in my files app or in my Siri searches. I’m not some “mere mortal” sticking my nose in analytics. I don’t understand that stuff, hence why I turned to people who might. I appreciate you for actually making an effort to find an answer for me!

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Apple Internal: false? Does anyone know what it means?

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