Yeah, I know this is off topic… This is not about trailer hitches, towing, or bike racks, but it is a resource sorely needed and what better place to put it than here.
My iPhone dropped out of my pocket onto some rocks the other day. It only fell about 2 feet, but it smashed the screen to smithereens. The screen still worked and I put packing tape over it to protect my face while I considered my options for fixing it. There were some vague tutorials out there on this subject, and I was a little apprehensive, but decided to give it a go. Apple wants almost $300 to fix the screen, which seems steep for a $400 phone. I ordered a replacement glass face off of eBay for about $25 and it arrived in about 10 days.
This morning I did a run to the local hardware store and Radio Shack to pick up the required tools. I bought an X-Acto knife with a flat, stub-nosed blade for prying the glass off the LCD, some Goo-Gone for helping to loosen the glue holding the glass to the LCD, some cotton swabs for applying the Goo-Gone, some Windex for cleaning the LCD, and some Elmer’s rubber cement for glueing the glass on.
In the image above you can see how I’m using the blade to gently lift the glass shards while using the q-tip to apply Goo-Gone to loosen the adhesive. It takes a long time… Set aside 2-3 hours if you want to do it right. I recommend applying the Goo-Gone liberally before lifting the glass so that any air pockets created will be filled with the solvent. Be very slow and deliberate and let the glass lift itself as much as possible. If your screen is not shattered as badly as mine, it will be more difficult or nearly impossible, as the larger chunks are very hard to remove. I thought about trying a hair dryer to soften the glue, but didn’t have one handy.
Once the glass has been largely removed, I used the same blade to scrape off the adhesive. I think I went a little overboard with the Goo-Gone. More on that later… You can also see some O-ring sticking out of the sides of the phone. That o-ring was damaged pretty badly getting this apart since it was glued into the adhesive in places. I’m not sure how important it is, but I’m not going to worry about it.
Above you can see the pile of debris I’ve created and the tools I was using. The replacement glass is shown, too. The LCD is now ready to be cleaned with Windex.
I applied a little rubber cement to each of the four corners under the black portion of the glass and stuck the face on. I decided not to try putting glue between the LCD and the glass, as it would be almost impossible to do without bubbles. I cannot tell the difference between a phone with glue and a phone without glue, so other than sealing it up, there is no visible need for it.
Pressing the button and watching the phone come on was a great relief. However, when I tried the touch panel, it didn’t work at first. OMG, I destroyed my phone!!! Fortunately after waiting a few more minutes it was working just fine. It must have been the windex evaporating off. The touchscreen now works just like new. However, there is some strange shadowing on the screen that is new. I think I must have applied a little too much goo-gone and had it go behind the LCD. It doesn’t affect the performance, but you can definitely see a slight shadow. That said, it is 50X better now than it was before and I saved $250, so I can live with the shadow. Maybe it will go away, too over time.
This was a difficult and time consuming process, but I’m happy with the result. If I had destroyed the phone in the process, I was planning to buy an LCD/Glass unit for $165 as my backup plan. Fortunately plan A did the trick.
**** UPDATE 06/23 ****
The shadowing that appeared on the screen seems to be slowly healing itself. I think the adhesive remover is slowly evaporating out from between the backlight and the LCD. The pattern has changed substantially and is getting lighter and lighter. Hopefully it will disappear all together. I’m thinking about leaving it in the sun for a while to see if it speeds the evaporation.
Also, the lack of the o-ring is noticeable. Some lint has already made it behind the screen. At some point, I’ll remove the glass again and do a better job of sealing it. I think a large gauge syringe could be used to squirt a small bead of rubber cement all the way around the screen to take the place of the original o-ring without getting it under the visible part of the screen.
**** UPDATE 07/12 ****
The dark spots on the screen continue to disappear, albeit slowly. I still have not sealed the glass up, thinking that the goo gone needs a way for the vapors to escape. Compare the picture below to the original image. You’ll see it is much, much better. Maybe a few more weeks and it will be clear… Be careful not to use too much solvent so this doesn’t happen to you.
**** UPDATE 09/25 ****
Well, the display stopped healing itself about where the last image shows. Overall I’d say the project was a success. Some weird things that resulted from this project… The screen worked great with two exceptions. First, the display calibration seems to wander more than before. When you play a game, or use an application for an extended period of time (~>5 min), the screen sometimes stops recognizing your finger. To fix, you simply lock the phone and unlock it again. This seems to reset the calibration. The second thing is that the auto-dim feature when you hold the phone to your face is sporadic. That means you sometimes will mute the phone with your face.
The first problem is probably due to the lack of adhesive between the LCD and the glass. It means there is more variation in the capacitance between the touch panel and the user’s finger. Finding a way to glue it would probably solve this problem.
I’m stumped about the second problem. I’ve since verified that my light sensor works, so it must be related to the new glass somehow.
Tinkering is a hobby of mine, so I decided to buy and install a new LCD/touchpanel/glass assembly to see what that process is like as well. Found one on ebay for ~$175 delivered. Being an electrical engineer by training and having pretty good motor skills, I have to say it was much more difficult than I expected… At one point, I thought the phone was dead for good.
My notes from the job:
1) Getting the antenna cover off was a big challenge. Both “disassembly tools” that came with the LCD broke before I got the antenna cover off. I ended up using a chisel to pry the cover off and that seems to have worked pretty well.
2) Getting the aluminum backing off made the antenna cover look easy! With both disassembly tools already broken, I used a small jeweler’s screw driver to pry and pry until I finally got it to come loose. In the process I scraped and bent the case pretty badly. I was able to bend it back into shape, but it’s definitely a little dog-eared. All the videos on youtube made it look easy and it was anything but easy for me. Maybe my phone was unique…
3) Getting the rest of the phone apart is not very difficult, but putting it back together is. There is a ribbon cable with no connector that slides into a connector on the motherboard. It is very difficult to reseat properly. Don’t forget to reconnect it when you reassemble. There are a total of 5 connectors that need to be seated with great precision in a very tight space. It took me about five attempts before all the connectors were finally seated properly.
The phone works like new now, but it was a big job. Having done both repairs, it’s a tough call which way I’d go in the future. Both have pros and cons. The prospect of paying $175 for a new screen and still risking that the phone won’t work when you’re done is a tough one…
Thanks for this. I have recently purchased an Iphone off of ebay with a broken glass panel; I haven’t received it in the mail yet, and I was worried as to how difficult it would be for me to repair. I wonder if there is a better adhesive to use so that it doesn’t cause the shadowing, hmm
Oh, and that o-ring is most likely there to prevent dust and dirt from arriving inside the phone. You might notice it build up between the glass and the LCD after a while.
Thanks for publishing this. I read the instructions on Somethingawful, but didn’t notice what kind of adhesive he used. Now those instructions aren’t available anymore. I’m surprised that a little rubber cement is all it took. I’m going to try your suggestion for running a bead around the edge to replace the o-ring.
By the way, even just laying the new glass on works – the phone works fine.
Cool, I love my iPhone and though I don’t need the fix now, it’s good to know! Thanks
I am so glad I found this tutorial because on Monday my iPhone’s glass screen met its demise. The damage isn’t nearly as bad as yours though. I bought a replacement glass screen immediately off of eBay so now I have been studying up on how to repair the stupid thing.
So what I would like to know is what is all this talk about an o-ring? What does it look like and how can I replace it if I damage it during the repair?
Kindra – The o-ring is a very small rubber gasket that goes all the way around the silver faceplate on the phone. It is very difficult not to damage the o-ring when you pull the glass off. I ended up just cutting out the damaged portions of the o-ring.
I’ve been waiting for my phone to dry out, as I got some of the adhesive remover between the backlight and the LCD. It keeps getting better every day. Once it is fully dried out, I plan to use a syringe to lay a small bead of rubber cement all the way around the silver faceplate where the o-ring used to be. Then, when I set the screen in place, it will seal up the LCD from the elements and protect it from lint. The only trick is to avoid getting too much cement in there, as it could squish under the visible portion of the glass which wouldn’t look good. It wouldn’t be hard to remove and redo it, though.
Also, you might have better luck saving the o-ring than I did.
I fixed my broken glass similarly, but used Ifixit.com website to take off the bevel (outside silver frame) from the phone to get at the broken glass from the side. I used an exacto knife with the angled blade and put goof off on the blade to loosen the glue. Too much of it and it seeps under the LCD screen. It all went perfectly until I twisted the knife towards the end of the process in a rush and made a small crack on the LCD screen (over $250 to replace). I left the small crack and glued my new glass cover with liquid nails from home depot. It was too thick and I had to take off the new screen (liquid nails has about an hour til it is too hard to remove) I had to apply very little dots and then scrape them smooth to get the glass close enough. Anyway, if you are doing this replacement, be careful to not break the LCD and be patient – it takes some time to do. Good luck all! Great article and pictures BTW! Teresa
Hi Ken, Thanks for the o-ring info. Over the past week I have been doing a lot of research and I am hoping that I can help folks out here by what I have learned.
If you break the glass on your iPhone, but you are lucky (as you and I were) to have a 100% functional phone, you can make a complete repair of your phone for less than $100 (in my case, $88) by purchasing the glass cover and the lcd digitzer separately through eBay. This will spare you the time and grief of trying to whiddle your way through removing the broken glass off the screen without risking the screen’s functionality. If you are not a risk taker, this is the way to go!
Once you have received the glass and the lcd/digitizer, you will need to first disassemble your iPhone using the video instructions found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F38GcWUoTPM
I found this video to be the most comprehensive one with regard to replacing the screen. Follow each step carefully and all should be well.
Once you have reached the end of the steps shown in the video, set aside your poor iPhone and begin carefully inspecting how the lcd and glass screen are attached. I suggest making a diagram on a piece of paper and make notes as to what goes where, how the lcd is positioned on the screen, etc. Then turn to your new glass cover and lcd. Take *a little* rubber cement (make sure you get some that says it will bond to glass–crazy glue and stuff like that is not strong enough) and place three tiny equidistant dots on the top, bottom, and sides to *to the edge of the backside of the glass*. Now, carefully affix the lcd digitizer so that the cable plug ins are exactly how your broken glass/lcd assembly looks *face down*.
Its important not to over do it with the cement. All you need is enough to affix the glass to the lcd digitizer. Don’t ask me why the original is glued entirely on there. As long as the lcd and the glass are making contact, that’s all you need.
Now, its time to reassemble the phone. Plug your cables back in using the video as your guide, thinking in reverse (I have a hard time doing that, so I made a diagram of the innards and how everything connected together as I was taking it apart so I could work backwards). Those antennas that you had to pry off will easily be glued back into place with a bit of that rubber cement. If there is one thing I am grateful that the manufacturers did do was attach the battery to the motherboard, so at least you can’t mess that up! After everything is put back together again, hold your breath, say a prayer, take a drink, whatever…and turn it on. *Hopefully* everything will work ok. If it doesn’t, hope is not lost yet. There are several folks online that will repair your iPhone for the cost of a new 3G…notably http://www.pdasmart.com.
After all was said and done, I bought myself a new invisible full body shield to protect from knicks and scratches through http://www.zagg.com, and to prevent this from ever happening again, I bought an InnoPocket full body aluminum metal case that will withstand a drop from my kitchen table. Total price of repair, plus accessories: $138. Not having to buy into a iPhone 3G with a new contract, hidden fees, and waiting in line for a day…priceless.
Hope that helps anyone out there looking to avoid spending too much on repairs or total replacement. Good luck!
Hi everybody,
I have a question for Kindra: you said you bought a lcd digitizer and glass from ebay for about 80$. The thing is that i can find these packages but it says it only contains the lcd and glass. So, what is the difference between what you bought and the complete screens that sell for 180+ $.
I also have another question and its concerning the lcd itself. I have a shadow in my lcd and i want to change it for a new lcd that i can get from ebay for 40-50$. My question is how do separate the lcd from the glass. There is a diagram here http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/iphone2.htm . My glass and toutchscreen are working perfectly but i cant seem to find anyone that has performed this fix.
Thank your for your input!
To Phil:
I am 95% certain that there is no difference between buying the parts seperately versus buying them as a single pre-assembled unit. Now, if you buy the whole lcd/digitizer and glass screen as one preassembled unit, you get to bypass the work of gluing the glass and lcd unit together.
The main difference will be that in the preassembled lcd/glass unit, the glass is glued onto the lcd entirely, the same as the original. If you buy the pieces separately, then unless you know how to correctly apply a silicone-based room temperature curing adhesive paste that dries crystal clear…your option is to simply glue the edges together.
To separate the lcd from the glass, see the main article above. To my knowledge, the unit has to be replaced in its entirety, or you can scrape the lcd off the glass as Ken did in his blog article using goo-gone liberally (found at your local hardware store). Then you will have to reaffix the lcd to the glass.
Also, everyone need to keep in mind that there are really only two parts here in question: The glass (which is simply a 1/32 inch thin piece of glass), and the lcd and digitzer, which is the lcd and “touch screen”…and its stuck together as one unit. The glass itself has no “touch screen” capabilities…all of the touchscreen functionality is in the lcd/digitizer unit. So when you need to replace your glass and lcd, you have essentially three options:
Buy the glass and lcd/digitizer seperately and assemble it to make one complete unit.
Buy the glass and lcd/digitzer preassembled together (this makes replacement easier, but $100 or more expensive).
Or, if your lcd/digitizer doesn’t function or looks bad…buy a new lcd/digitzer unit, scrape the old one off the glass *carefully* and then glue the new lcd/digitzer to the cleaned glass face plate.
Hope that helps!
Did the shade on your screen go away finally? It looks very similar to what I saw when LCD is water damaged. It is probably caused by moisture in the back of LCD, and sometime it will be permanent. I wish it is not the case in this repair.
I just updated the post to show how much the shading has improved. It’s not quite gone, yet, but it seems to be slowly healing itself. I can’t wait for it to finish healing so I can glue and seal the screen. Having the dust under there makes viewing in the sun more difficult.
Hey everyone. I’m thinking if something else works to separate the glass from the LCD. What if I use a Hairdryer to heat the glass and try to slide a steel string between them. Would that work and is the heat going to damage the LCD?
Hi!
Did you just put you glass over the LCD after pulling off all the glass? , Or did you need to take it all apart, and the put the glass on?
My iphone have a crack on the screen, but the glass is still in place.
Linuxbox
Hi. The way I did it, you don’t have to take the phone apart. You simply remove the glass from the front of the phone and glue a new glass panel over the top of the LCD.
BTW, I did some heat testing while I was trying to get the solvent to evaporate. I turned on my oven to the lowest setting (150F), turned it off and let it cool a little bit, then I put the phone in there. I didn’t realize how hot it was, but when I pulled the phone out several minutes later, it was too hot to hold… No damage done, though.
Did the oven trick help?, how did you get the solvent to evaporate?
No, the oven trick did not seem to make too much difference. I think temperature is a factor, but the vapor needs to escape. I would probably try it again with the glass face off to see if that helped the vapor escape. The best luck I had was to leave the phone in the sun on my desk for an hour or so a day. It slowly got better over time.
Ok, So you didnt have a sucsessfull removal of the glue-shit that keeps the glass and the LCD together?
I have the glass, but I cant find any easy way to do this. People are having real trouble of changig the glass without breaking the LCD-Touch panel.
I removed all the glue that holds the glass and LCD together. I did it without damaging the LCD. However, the solvent that I used to help remove the glue got behind the LCD and that is what caused the shadowing in the pictures above. The heat was just to try to accelerate the evaporation of the solvent. The shadow is much, much better now, but it is still visible in a couple areas of the screen – as shown in the pictures in the post.
were can I buy the New Glass? you can email me at oroman@pbsj.com if some one can let me know thanks
Nice!
I basically did the same thing to fix my friend’s Iphone. Except I disassemble everything (very time consuming).
I used a heat gun to soften the adhesive so I can lift bigger pieces of glass. You can heat until the lcd turn black. It will return to normal condition as it cool. I used also varsol to dissolve the remaining adhesive.
For replacing the adhesive I used 3M 467MP adhesive film. I will try to find 3M 2000MP #8142 optically clear adhesive film.
And I had also the same can of shadow in the back lighting.
Maybe I will post a video on youtube (maybe)
http://www.youtube.com/user/1943vermork
Hey Guy,
Thx for your tut…Was afraid about destroying the thing between glass and lcd display, which recognises the touch…but it all worked fine!
For all ppl who dont know which thing to use for the adhesiveglue…I did it with acteone…Use some cottom to get it underneath the glass…it works perfectly…DONT FORGET: TAKE YOU TIME!:)
Acetone didnt do anything to my display no shadows and more…
Greeting lobo
well, i got a free iPhone!!!!! my cusion had let a friend borrow it and her friend dropped it in the driveway. the next day it got ran over. lol. it still works though! just cracked, pretty bad and the back is scratched. she already canceled the service so i have to unlock it. but anyway some googling i found this site for replacement iphone parts. http://www.kokopellimusic.us
Nice guide. My screen had to big pieces. Broke the digitizer
wow, this is the first time i am coming across a replacement technique just for glass screen, i have seen many for the whole lcd /digitizer/ glass in one unit but first one for just the glass. if i am able to do this for my phone will save roughly $ 140 based on the ebay price of the digitizer right now.
will try it out.
My screen cracked after a short fall of of a table. SO much for durability. I was able to fix it with a razor blade and liquid resin, followed by a mylar sheet with adhesive as an additional protection.
Working great.
Do you think it would be better to glue the whole screen on? I’m not sure if i should use the iphone screen adhesive or not. Is the touch sensitivity any degraded?
Wait! Why is this on a trailer hitching blog? LOL
I think it would be better to glue the whole screen on, but doing so without getting bubbles under the screen is a challenge. The touch screen is sensitive without it, but the calibration does tend to wander a little bit. If I do a lot of typing or browsing, the screen sometimes stops working. I then have to lock and unlock the phone which seems to run a calibration routine that gets it working again. Not a big deal, though.
Well, unfortunately my only blog is a blog about trailer hitches. Not too relevant to trailer hitches, but oh well.
Well its your blog and you can do whatever you want with it lol. Have you tried the sheet of adhesive off ebay? Thanks for the answer by the way.
This is lie…i tried remove glass from LCD and LCD has broke. its almost imposible remove glass from LCD…its glued…my iphone death and im pissed…dont do it at home…trust me
Just finished doing this project. I ordered the new glass from ebay, the listing said it was glass, but what I got was plastic! Still went through with it. First I tried to take off the front bezel following ifixit tutorial. Wound up breaking the plastic opening tool trying to pry off the back panel (dented the panel as well) Was about to give up but figured I’m in it this far already so I went ahead and tried Ken’s technique. My glass was only shattered by the home button with some spider webs an inch or two out, so I smashed the hell out of the rest of the screen with the back of a glass cutter, and boy did it take some force to get the rest to shatter! Four hours later using ‘goof off’ and a flat blade exacto knife I managed to get all the glass removed with minor damage to the o-ring and no damage to the LCD. Used a few drops of rubber cement at the top and bottom and hoped for the best. The right side of the glass is slightly elevated and not sitting firmly against the bezel, it looks like it could use some cement, but I don’t want to risk it spilling over into the viewing area. Because of this its difficult to access the apps on the right side, it takes alot of pressure and sometimes too much pressure makes it launch an app from the dock instead?? I can live with that since the phone was free from a friend who didn’t want to bother with the repair..Thanks for the info Ken, I don’t think I would have attempted this if I had not come across this blog!
“This is lie…” – Sorry to hear that it didn’t work out for you. I can assure you it isn’t a lie. I suppose it is like surgery. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. If you’re not prepared for the possibility of further damaging your already damaged phone, then I don’t recommend trying this. Also, if you short on patience, then I would also steer clear of this project. It takes time and patience to do it right. The worst case is that you have to buy a complete digitizer/LCD/glass replacement for ~$170 or pay somebody ~$250 to replace it for you. Best case, you save $145 by just replacing the glass yourself.
Mike – No, I haven’t tried the adhesive off ebay. I tried something similar on my old blackberry and it was a real pain to work with. If someone else has used it, please comment on the blog!
Yea, this isn’t “a lie”. Many other people have done and succeded and may others failed like you andy. So FAIL! I got the same problem with the plastic lens. It said Iphone Glass Lens (Made of Plastic) lol. I talked to the seller and they were going to give me a glass one but I talked to them too late. They already shipped it but they said if i wanted a glass one I could talk to them. I think I might just keep the plastic and put a invisibleShield on it.
KenW-I’ll just use the rubber cememnt around the side then. Thanks
Wow. It worked! I have to admit that it wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but definately feels nice to have a like new iPhone again for less than $25. Mine had large long cracks instead of the smaller web cracks. I had to use a glass cutter to break into smaller chunks. Definately not something for the faint of heart. I used a flat exacto blade and no goo gone. If you can get small enough pieces they come out fairly easily. After the glass was removed, I used acetone to clean the LCD surface and glass cover. No streaks. No problems. Thanks for posting your success! I would have spent $180 for a new LCD and digitizer if not for this.
In a followup, the touch screen works great, unless I press down with some force for some reason on the screen. This seems to throw the calibration of the touch screen off, and the screen becomes unresponsive or does some weird things with an occasional return to normal operation. Locking and unlocking the iPhone fixes the problem immediately. Not too big of a deal. I think it maybe due to some invisible air pockets between the lcd and glass. So, I’m going to try to re-install the glass with a dab of acetone or alcohol in the middle of the digitizer and force all of the air out between the lcd and glass, tonight.
I tried the procedure. I was a little to rush, now there are some scratches in the LCD an some display errors.
My Problem is that the touchscreen is only working on the upper side. I can shut the phone down. but the butten to unlock it is unuseable.
Are there any hints for the touch. Is there anything what have to be between the glass and the dispaly ?
Make sure you clean as much of the goo off the face of the phone before you put the glass down. If the glass is raised by any debris left from removing the adhesive, it can be unresponsive. The glass should be as close to the LCD as possible. Once you get it flush it should work. At least that is my experience.
I have dropped my iphone on carpet and now the screen is light gray with a darker grey line on the side. Do i have to buy a new LCD and digitalizer? i had my phone for 2 weeks only and now i can’t even use it, the phone rings but the screen is blank
Can someone help.
If the glass is still intact (not shattered), then I would highly recommend bringing it back to the closest Apple Store. A phone should not break when you drop it on carpet and when there has not been enough force to dent the case or break the glass. I would be surprised if they don’t replace it for free.
Hey,
you are the best followed your procedure and fixed my phone for around 26 bucks.
18 bucks for the glass
and
8 bucks for adhesive remover + rubber cement
excellent, watch videos through the following link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l7ooWQqCig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7scvLT_a-M
thanks a lot
http://www.techinsider.info
want to add another comment here,
i did not open the phone or silver bevel (outside silver frame) i just used the blade shown in the above video to scrape off the glass. also i damaged some of the oring as it is very difficult to not to damage while removing the glass, but the stupid thing i did was to remove the remaining undamaged oring myself. ( soo stupid).
also i used goo gone instead of windex to clean the screen, but goo gone was not very useful to remove the glass as it wont go inside the gap well.
thanks again
http://www.techinsider.info
also takes a lot of time to do, started at 12:30 and ended by 2:30 so if you are rushing through it or have reached the end of the process much before this you are definitely exposing the lcd to a crack, new lcd digitizer is $ 180 on ebay.
patience is the last word with this process
Thank you Ken, i will try the apple store and see what they tell me.. i hope they don’t ask me for a invoice because i purchased this phone on ebay.
I got a free i phone with official apple glass replacement, and a note that said, perhaps you can fix this. My idea though is , what is the best solvent for the glass, and can you just soak the 1/32nd’s of glass top in 1/33’s of solvent to break the glue under it. Will the solvent seep in to the glue area and break the glue free? Which solvents wont damage the digitizer. My idea is to leave it sit overnight in solvent and the next morning pry the glass free.
yesterday i dropped my iphone and cracked the lcd screen..i’m studying in Malaysia but here is no Apple store…how to buy from ebay?someone tell me plz
thanks for this.Just dropped my iphone out of my side pocket on a fairground ride in Donegal from about 40 or 50 feet.Screen is completely shattered but still works.Will (try) post a pic later.
Hi,
I was wondering where you bought the GLASS version (not the plastic) of the glass screen for the iphone? My screen broke but it works fine. Thanks for the help.
I bought the glass version on ebay, but I don’t remember the seller. What I do is find a seller that does a good job specifying the product, making sure it is what you’re looking for. Then, click on their feedback and look for other people who have bought the same product. If the feedback is positive from others who have purchased the item, then you’re good to go. Also, if a seller has less than 98% feedback, I’d keep looking… My seller was located in China, but the glass arrived in about 10 days.
Thanks for the help.
Shawn