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…
guys,
just an update to my above comments on fixing my iphone glass
the removal of oring has started to have adverse effects on the phone now as lot of dust has seeped through the extra gap between glass and the phone itself which im not able to clean so try not to destroy the o ring, will have to open clean and close the gaps some time i guess rest everything is working fine…
http://www.techinsider.info
Zylene worked very well for me. the bigger pieces of glass I was able to break up by putting the razor inbetween the two pieces and turning. I still have the ghosting effect on the backlight/LCD but it’s still alot better than having broken glass! I’m pleased to report a complete success
[...] upon further looking I chanced upon this…….. Getting Hitched Blog Archive Fixing the broken glass on my iPhone maybe u can……just replace the protective [...]
I did the glass swap about a week ago and am now starting to notice some of the glitches. The screen will become unresponsive pretty often, and like someone said before, locking and unlocking it fixes it. Also, smaller buttons now require more accuracy and sensitivity to activate. Small bits of dust are now entering the gap between the screen.
I found this: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16101
Would this be a better fix? I know the glass and digitizer are fused together, but is the LCD behind the digitizer fused as to it as well? Doesn’t seem like to bad of deal, assuming the swap can be done fairly easily. Do you think the swap can be done from the front of the phone, similar to the glass swap? Also, what can be done about the seal around the glass?
Just finished a screen replacement on a 2g iphone, screen fitted form the outside of the phone (did not dismantle the phone) glass and a iphone tool kit from DX. Now one thing every body has not used is a HOT WATER BOTTLE, filled with boiling hot water and a towel over the top to work on this keeps the phone nice and hot, and makes the glue that holds the glass nice and soft and make the removal of the glass a lot easer, now for some tips,
My glass was very badly smashed, the smaller fragments could be removed very easy, larger pieces are very hard to remove, so pieces larger than 4mm start getting hard to remove, and as some one else said get a glass cutter and score the glass so it will crack up as you remove it, Don’t try to brake the glass just score it, it should brake as you pry it out. I did NOT do this as I had no glass cutter but would recommend you to do this as larger pieces above 6mm were very hard to remove, It took me 2.5 hours to get all the glass off.
Now for the glue left on the touch screen, in the repair kit that I got from DX there is a guitar plectrum, make sure you phone is nice and hot (Boiling water is only 100c Max)
now just start pushing the glue about on the glass and it start to Ball Up and can be remover very easy as it looses tack, using this method I got 99.9% of the glue off just using the plectrum and my fingers,took about 25 min’s, the rest of the glue and glue marks
was removed using a cotton but with the smallest amount of glue remover, keep away from the edge’s of the screen and only do the edge’s last, with cotton but nearly dry of glue remover, then I polished the screen with some CD cleaner ( isopropyl ).
Known problems with reassembly, the air gap between the new outer glass and the touch screen should be ZERO ( No gap at all, or should have clear contact glue in between) or the touch screen will go out of calibration and you will have to keep sending the phone into stand by and back out to get the screen to recalibrate itself all the time.
For now I have put the screen in with very thin sticky back tape (the type that is just glue when applied) and only four small bits on the corners under the black parts, so if I ever need to remove the screen at a later date it will be easy to remove, you could even use this type of tape to seal all the way round as it east to cut and apply ( get from any craft shop ).
Well phone works 100% for now, so just take your time and read all the tips that you can find to help you, and the HOT WATER BOTTLE is my tip along with the GLUE REMOVING plectrum.
Dave
hi, i have removed my screen with great ease actually on a 3g phone, LCD is in perfect condition, the only thing im worried about it the orange bit behind the screen….is this the digitizer? On the 3g it has glass below this orange bit attaching it to another part of the phone, and that glass is shattered and i cant get it out. Will this mean that I will have to get the orange bit replaced? Help would be much appreciated
I’ve been searching for hours and just want to say that this is the most helpful blog/forum I’ve read. Thanks to everyone for contributing.
The day it came out, I upgraded to the 3G phone from my 1st gen one. My little brother is still on my parents’ plan, just graduated from college, and doesn’t have the credit or money to enter a new plan for the subsidized 3G. So, I sold him my 1st gen phone dirt cheap. I got a phone call last week from him to let me know he dropped it and cracked the screen. Great. Well, big brother is researching ways he can play hero.
I’m going to attempt to disassemble the phone and replace the glass. Hopefully, this will negate the o-ring issue; although, it may create several others. All the materials are (hopefully) on their way from ebay sellers. I’ve purchased replacement glass, case tools, and an adhesive strip. I still need to pick up a glass cutter, hobby knife, and acetone.
I plan to use Dave017’s tips for hot water and glue-removing plectrum (this really threw me off – I’ve never heard a guitar pick called a plectrum). I also plan on using the full sheet of adhesive between the glass and the LCD. I recognize that this could (and probably will – and I’ll regret it) result in some bubbles, but I hope that using the spray that came with my InvisibleShield will reduce the odds. I think the full adhesive sheet may prevent some of the issues I’ve read regarding calibration.
I’ll do my best to share photos and the results with everyone afterward. Wish me luck!
Billy
Hi,
Thanks for this great blog. I used it to replace the glass on my iphone. I am now experiencing some of the calibration problems mentioned here. It is actually quite annoying. Sometimes it freezes up right as I am getting a call and I can not answer….
I just used 4 dabs of rubber cement in the corners to secure the glass but I am thinking of trying to take it off and glue down the whole screen. I am a bit concerned that I will break the glass again trying to remove it.
I will let you know how it goes but if anyone has another fix that has worked for the calibration please post it!
Thanks,
Bo
Bo,
I don’t think you will have any problems removing your screen again, I was able to do it without any problems.
I don’t think I had many calibration issues, but I did have a non-responsive row on the touchscreen, roughly right in the middle of the lens. I removed the glass it to see if maybe it would help, but it did not. I think restoring the phone could help. Also, I have heard that there is a way to increase the sensitivity of the touchscreen using some jailbroken software.
Well…I gave it a shot today and it started off smoothly. Taking the phone apart was a pain (especially the aluminum back). The smaller fragments of glass came off easily without any solvent or heat. I attempted to score the larger pieces with a glass cutter and it didn’t work at all. In the process of trying to break the larger pieces of glass, I ended up cracking the LCD (even after using some acetone and applying direct heat to the glass). The corners were especially susceptible to cracking. I spent about two hours and removed about 40% of the glass from the LCD. This is a painfully slow process and only one slip up out of the literally thousands of knife movements you may make can ruin the LCD.
This was a tricky one, but I’m glad I tried it. Time to scope out ebay for a new LCD/glass rig.
Thanks again.
took away all of debris on LCD (with 12cm knife, no aceton, nothing
, but it is not anymore reacting, device even cannot start, is it ok? will it start after I put glass on it? (havent bought it yet)
Well, this method works, just make sure you do something different for big pieces (maybe use the heat gun, as noted in the comments above). I got all of my little pieces of glass up slowly, but just fine, for the first hour. Then I tried to get some big pieces up with too much pressure (without heat) and broke the LCD/digitizer below. whoops! I should have waited and done it correctly.
Good luck everyone! Be patient and do it right!
Hey Everyone. First, thank you, Ken, for blogging about this.
My iPhone 2G was dropped onto its top right corner and it now has a cracks in the glass running up,down and diagonal. The LCD image looks fine and the cracks in the glass are only hairline. However, the touchscreen doesn’t work. I can only slide the “slide to unlock” slider about half an inch… i think only the bottom left corner of the touchscreen is responsive. Will replacing the glass fix this situation? Thanks in advance!
hi,
I just broke my iPhone.. about 30 minutes ago. and am relieved that you can replace the glass and not have to use plastic. The phone still works perfectly, everything runs great, just the screen has alot of damage to the bottom left and a large crack running diagonally from the bottom left up and curving back to the top left. Should i still bother with replacing the screen?
Dean – Sorry to hear that. My guess is that you’re out of luck. If the screen isn’t responding, I don’t think that scraping the glass off and replacing it is going to fix your problem. You’re probably going to need a complete LCD assembly.
Mariel – It sounds like it is worth a try. If the screen is not completely shattered, you may have a hard time removing some of the larger pieces. I’ve heard several people say that they break the glass more using a glass cutter before removing it.
As I mentioned before, I replaced my glass and then bought an entire LCD assembly to compare the processes. I still have the old LCD assembly (still works) and replacement glass sitting on my desk. I’ve been planning to sell it on eBay, but if someone wants it, I’d sell it for $100 delivered. The glass and the LCD are not bonded together. If you’re interested, just email us at sales(at symbol)hitchsource.com
Ok, I figure I’ll try it anyway, since either way if this doesnt work, i’ll end up paying $250 to fix it or upgrade to the 3G. I’ll take pictures and keep you updated on how it goes! Thanks so much!
Been looking at some of the posts that have been left by people looking for a answer to there smashed screens, I have repaired two so far with 100% success, Don’t think that you can replace the screen easy and in a short time, this is not some thing that you can do in a hurry,it takes time to do and a lot of patience to be successful, If your touch screen is not working replacing the glass alone will not help, if your touch screen is not working fully as it should, same again waist of time replacing the outer glass, you need touch screen and outer glass. read my other post for how I succeeded and advice I gave as to how I repaired the two I have done so far, both the one’s i have done have had very badly smashed screens, and both had there touch fully working despite the damaged to the outer glass, when the outer glass has been removed from the touch screen, if you look very closely at the touch screen glass you will see a very fine grid pattern on top of the glass made up of hundreds of lines, that are virtually transparent, scratch one of these and the touch screen will loose line’s of sensitivity, with the outer glass removed the touch screen should work fully, if not putting a outer glass’s will not improve the matter. I do not repair phones for a living and only repaired the two iphone’s as no one else could at a fare price, if it takes you a week to remove the outer glass no problem, four week,again no problem, damage the touch screen and your bust. to fit the outer screen tokes 5 minuets, to remove the damaged outer screen takes hour’s and hour’s, on the second iphone I applied more heat to large pieces of glass with a soldering iron, just enough to get the glass lifting then kept it under constant pressure so the glue slowly de-bonded and released the glass, None of the iphone I repaired were dismantled in any way apart from removing the outer glass to replace it.
So remember,take your time, lots of time, and it will cost £12 ($18) to repair, do more damage and it will cost a lot more and you will have to strip the phone and it may still not work when all said and done. one other thing buy a silicon case for it, may not look all that good but looks better than a bust screen.
Dave017
[...] kan… Getting Hitched Blog Archive Fixing the broken glass on my iPhone Maar als ik jou was zou ik toch even [...]
Ok. I had a broken iPhone 3G. I think the assembly is quite different between the description of the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G. My experience is with the 3G.
What I found was:
——————————–
Glass on top level (in my case shattered)
——– GLUE ————-
Touch panel
———-NO GLUE ——-
LCD screen
——————————–
This differs from above descriptions of the original iPhone, where the LCD screen was glued to the touch panel / digitiser, if I read correctly.
First, I tried the method descripted here: replacing the top layer of ordinary glass that was shattered. £13 for the glass panel. Unfortunately, the glass pieces were too large, and the leverage required to lift through the glue put too much pressure on the layer below, and the touch panel below shattered.
The iPhone LCD screen was fine, but there was now no touch functionality.
So, I ordered the top two layers from eBay (£25). That’s the glass and the touch panel. These arrived in one piece, glued together. I followed a YouTube video to see how that iPhone 3G pulls apart. Had to fiddle a bit, but it eventually opens.
The 3G pulls apart into two pieces, with the LCD/TouchPanel/Glass in one half, and the motherboard/battery/etc in the other half. So, it’s then just a matter of unplugging the connectors between the two halves.
The LCD panel comes away easily, with the removal of 6 of the tiniest miniscule screws (I actually lost one on the floor, in the process). It’s not glued to the glass layers above.
I had to lever the broken glass & touch panel out of the casing. Once done, I then used some glue to attach the new glass & touch panel unit to the casing, connected all that to the LCD again with the miniscule screws, fiddled a bit to get the connectors back in place on the motherboard, and that was about it.
Held my breath a bit when turning the phone on, had to open it up again a couple of times to fiddle with those connectors, but eventually got it all right.
Phone seems to work well! Will see over the next few weeks if there’s any long term degradation.
hey guys I heard a couple of people say that they broke the screen into smaller pieces for easier removal. What kind of pressure is needed to smash the glass? I am scared I will ruin my digitizer
Dave017, so you didnt apply any goo gone to your iphone? you just applied heat? what did you guys use to remove the glass pieces? I really dont want to scratch the digitzer haha
Hey guys i removed the glass with out any goo gone. My glass was already broken into many pieces, i recommend using a glass cutter to break it into many pieces if yours is in bigger pieces. Once it is in many pieces use a sharp knife and pry the glass off starting from the top or bottom black part. This is important because removing these pieces will not put pressure on the digitizer. Once some of the glass is removed use the knife to get slightly under the glass over the main part of the screen. CAUTION take your time with this it took me over 3 hours to remove all of the glass and my hands were sore as hell afterwards. When you remove the glass try to remove the smallest pieces first pulling it back slowly, i left the LCD on during the process so u can c how much pressure u r putting on the digitizer by how much discoloration shows up if it starts to turn black relax the pressure. Take your time very slowly, i know its very frustrating but u r saving $250 for 3 hours of your time. Once the glass is removed I used rubber cement in the four corners of the phone. The calibration is not as bad as others have posted its not a big deal at all and only messes up about once every couple days and all u do to fix lock and unlock by pressing the power button. Good luck and yes it is possible I was scared too believe me. I hope this will help you as your iphone under goes surgery. My phone looks brand new and so can yours.
one more thing is to turn off auto lock and leave your iphone on with the screen on for a couple of hours this will provide enough heat to ease the glass off the glue, once again i used no goo gone just a sharp gerber knife and some patience. I recommend running the flashlight program from the app store, its free, it can change colors on the screen every couple seconds so u dont burn an image on your screen.
I have an iPhone 2G, and I was wondering: can I replace just a part of the screen? the top right part of the screen is cracked enough to carefully take the glass off, but the other portions of the glass are not cracked, and are too big to take off. how can I go about getting a custom fit and putting it in for JUST the part that’s cracked? and yes, my screen still is fully functional, just cracked in ONE section. also, I was researching acetone, where can I go about getting this adhesive? (ex: website?)
hei, device is again working, with the costs of 14$ for new glass and 1-2$ for 4x 1×1cm pieces of adhesive film + ca 6hours of time
thank you very much!
Wow, I tried this with several screens, since I was looking for a solution for the smartphone repair company I work for http://www.portatronics.com, but I was never close to this result. The issue is that the glue is extremely strong. It can be softended by using heat, but the heat will affect the liquid crystal in the screen and the remaining glue has a very negative effect on the visual appearance of the screen after the glass replacement. The glue remover is the solution.
Hey Guys, just wanted to post an update. I finally got the courage to do this and it wasn’t that bad, just VERY VERY time consuming. I did not use any goo gone or any glue removing materials.
I started from the speaker hole and started prying glass up with an xacto knife. Dave017’s idea of using a hot bottle is an amazing one. What I did was fill a bowl of water and put it in the microwave to get it hot and just put it on my phone. It made the glue so much softer and definitely helped removing the bigger pieces. So after I did all that, I didn’t have a guitar pick on me, but the edge of a credit card helped me get off all the glue that was still on my lcd screen.
The old glue made some marks on the digitizer, that I couldn’t seem to get of with windex or anything. What I am talking about is shown in the third picture of this article. Under light u will just see marks that the glue made.
The screen works fine, but I have problems press too hard on the screen, it seems to put the digitizer out of whack and I have to relock the phone to reset the digitizer. So I can’t get too into the games I am playing or else I will have to start over haha. I am assuming I could possibly have a gap between the lcd and the glass, but the glass is flush with the chrome bezel, so I am assuming it has to do with the glue that was in between the digitizer and glass originally that is creating my gap now because I only put glue on the corners. It doesn’t feasible to make the glass touch the digitizer, because there is probably a space where the old glue used to be
Anyone else have an idea of what I could do to fix the touchscreen problem or reduce the supposed gap that I have that is in between the glass and the LCD?
to Steve, November 17th, 2008 at 12:27 am
had exactly the same problem with pressing on screen, very easy solution: have bought screen protector and cut it exactly for screen on top and bottom, then put it on the digitizer (between digitizer and glass) and put glass on top, no problem with pressing on screen anymore
I would like to thank KenW and all of you guys for giving me the solution to my problem.
I went to Fryes and bougth a sharp hobby knife, a bottle of thinner solvent cleaner from MG Chemicals, a small glass breaker brand “General”.
I took me 2 hours because I was very afraid to do something wrong.
You have to pass the glass breaker all over the screen without pushing too hard, no need, just mark the screen. Then you start from one of the black ends. I made my way slowly pushing the blade under the glass, removing pieces little by little. Never pry ! I remembered that advice. There’s no risk to scratch the LCD with the knife while pushing the glass from below. The Thinner comes with a brush so I passed the thinner over the broken glass, you see how it disappears throught the scratches and dissolves the glue. Super effective. You really need to get that stuff to ease the job.
I managed to preserve most of the o-ring seperating it from the glass pieces. Once all the glass removed, I used the thinner on a cloth to clean all the glue again and again. On the black ends also, bottom and top.
I left the iPhone like that overnight so that the thinner could dry and evaporate. Maybe not necesary but as I said, I went extra cautious considering KenW problems.
In the morning I placed four drops of Krazy glue at the 4 corners of the black ends. Sitted the new glass…
Power on…
Works perfectly !!! THANKS AGAIN
Nick
Hey guys, I’ve finished the screen replacement process, everything went well and we’ve been extra careful. Used tweezers (!) to remove the parts, and of course a glass breaker to break it into small pieces. There was no need to use goo-gone but i cleaned and wiped the glue remnants using medical alcohol 95%.
Now there’s only one problem left: My screen isn’t responding to touch everywhere on it. There’s quite a big spot on the lower left and the upper left that aren’t responding to touch (I cannot unlock screen and access the menus) but the rest of it works perfectly (I do succeed in turning it off and on again to access menus) and is well calibrated. I’m trying to figure out what to do, thanks for helping if you can!
I was thinking what about a
1) heat gun on low heat
2) leave phone on so that you can if getting to hot
3)use a suction cup to pull off glass instead of prying
4)glue on suction cup if needed
or
1)get a piece of flat metal with a handle like a pipe in the center weld on maybe about the size of the screen
2)glue it to the glass
3)add heat to the metal handle and rock side to side untill the glass come off
I never tried this as I dont have this problem with my phone so I bought a broken iphone off ebay and waiting for it to come in. I will update if it worked for me. Where is that digitizer? is it in the lcd screen or on top?
F2 – You can certainly try that, but that glass is stuck on there pretty well. The amount of force you would need to put on the phone would be extreme. I’d be surprised if you didn’t break the phone in the process. Even pulling a little chunk off at a time takes a lot of force. The digitizer is between the LCD and the glass.
AH – My guess is that your digitizer is damaged. The digitizer has a series of metal lines on it and you probably broke a couple of them. My guess is that you’ll need to get a new screen/digitizer module.
Well Kenw thanks for helping. Got any link to buy a new one at a good price?
Is it easy to install?
AH I saw some on ebay for $159 from USA with free shipping and $137.46 from hongkong with $29 shipping. Do not get the one that says iphone lcd it is without glass and no digitizer. On utube there is a vid to take the phone apart looks hard but doable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rketY38L46M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1z0pw2VK7M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho0ZqoyOtW0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtmUnZB8-lY
Maybe if you reglue it you might get lucky like air pocket or some thing.
Can the phone work with no glass? like to test it. I was also at frys looking at some glue I dont know if it dries clear so I sprayed the shelf next week I will check it. They have a website for specs http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/422a.htlm it is silicon conformal coating any thoughts on that?
On ebay I just saw the front glass glue for 9.99. It looks like 2 way tape I bought it and will try if I dont brake the lcd. The seller name is drsalty04.
@F2– bro. let me know if you get that working. I just cracked my iphone screen ( 1st gen ) . Even i was planning to get that 9.99 $ front lcd panel. let me know which method you did it with. good luck with your phone..
I cracked mine too lol. I was so close I tried to brake glass a little more then broke the lcd. The suction cup dont work. I was using a heat gun that was good but goof off was better I was on it for 4 hrs and had just few piceces left I broke it with the glass cutter. I will order new lcd maybe on friday. I will buy another cracked glass iphone and try again. The glass glue that I ordered off ebay was 2 way clear tape looks good and the glass looks good too. I saw more lcd sreens on ebay for $148. The antena cover seems to be on real good I might bust it and get a new one. Well good luck I will be back when I have update.
Ok i dont understand this water bottle tip, how is it supposed to work??
Is this the 3g??? Does it work on the 2g??
The water bottle is used to keep the phone warm to make the glue soft on the 2g. The 3g is diff the parts is not glued. hope that helps.
Hy, I am Szebi from Hungary, and would like to hear your opinion about glueing the whole glass of the iPhone. I succesfully removed the broken glass, and I also have the same experience about the touch panel. I always should look the phone and than slide to unlock and after it the touch screen works again. I did not gule the glass on the phone, there was only a test day. I bought glue on ebay:http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-iPhone-Front-Glass-Adhesive-Glue_W0QQitemZ190273276181QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPDA_Accessories?hash=item190273276181&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50
but what do you recommend me? Should I glue the whole glass. How could I glue it without bubbles? Have you got any ideas?
I am waiting for your answere!
Regards, Szebi
The glue I saw on ebay is 2 way clear tape. It looks like it will work well.It fits the glass part perfect but does not go on the black parts.It comes with instructions you need to stick it to the glss first and work out the air bubbles then put it on the phone. I bought it but did not use it yet because I broke the lcd. I have another phone on the way to try again on. The phone that I broke the lcd on is almost fixed I replaced lcd but broke the home button when take out home button I broke the ringer speaker. I got new home button on the way and I will repaire the speaker connection. The hardest part is getting the case open. The next time I should not break as much stuff as I now know what to avoid
Hey you guys, I just dropped my iphone and sounds like I’m in the same boat as many of you. I’m gonna try to replace the glass part. Has anyone used anything other than cement glue? What other glues can you use. Can you use super glue?
I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you created this article, I’ve been lookin for over two weeks on stuff about this and for info from people that have actually done this, I’m going to give it a try tomorrow after buying a glass breaker, I’ll update shortly after and hopefully report success.
I went into a apple store and they replaced the iphone for free after I broke the glass. Feel very lucky after reading some of these stories.
I broke 2 lcds trying to take off the glass lol I will look for another iphone on ebay and try again. I now have 3 iphones lol. Well good luck. It is hard to break the glass with glass breaker. Break it good befor removing glass I was breaking as I went along thats how I broke the first lcd. the last one I broke trying to heat and pry on a piece that was to big. Small pieces come off good I found a heating pad a big help.
alright well, that didn’t work, haha, so I took heed and bought a glass breaker, that didn’t help, atleast I don’t think it did, the bottle of water helped as well, I eventually started using a lighter, haha, I would heat up small sections for 5-7 seconds and it would loosen up the glue to where I could pry it up with my finger nails, the problem I ran into was that the LCD turned out to be cracked already once I got the glass up, so the original damage was worse than I thought previously, this honestly wouldn’t bother me because the picture is still fine and the crack in the LCD is minimal and doesn’t really impair the visibility much, the problem I ran into is the digitizer stopped working altogether, and it stopped before I had even gotten past the top black part of the glass, I have no idea why? I must’ve cut something in the very beginning, there is a small black cloth-like piece of material under the ear hole and I cut it off in the process of getting the glass off, as far as I know that is what stopped the touch from responding, so watch out for that, this otherwise would’ve been a success, but now I have two iphones that don’t respond to touch, I will most likely just sell both and buy a new one, it was fun/frustrating to try this out though, good luck to all and remember patience my son, much patience
Has anybody used the 2 sided tape as adhesive with any luck? It seems that would be a better option so the calibration wouldn’t get messed up and it would eliminate dust getting between the lcd and glass.
Seems like this Apple iPhone Front Glass Adhesive Glue had already sold out on ebay.
….What should I do then……My friend got this glue and got a brand new iphone after use it….
good new, I found a article said someone used 3M™ VHB™ Tapes to use as glue. And it works perfectly. Did anyone know where can I buy this kind of tapes>?
thanks.