A broken iPhone screen, deceased microphone or antenna of your iPad that no longer works: all these defects are relatively easy to repair yourself. iPhoned gives you eight tips in this repair guide so that repairing your iPhone or iPad yourself is a breeze.
Fix iPhone: you should pay attention to this
Repairing an iPhone defect on your own has its advantages. It’s cheap, and you don’t have to leave your iPhone with a repair service. If it is the first time that you are going to fix an iPhone or iPad yourself, then a good manual or instructional video is indispensable. Many defects are easy to fix, although you also need to know which steps to take. So to know from A to Z how to do it, first look at how someone else does it.
Good preparation is very important to ensure that your repair runs smoothly. We’ll get you started by making all the necessary preparations with these eight tips.
1. Consider your Apple warranty
Have you just got a new iPhone and does it still fall within the standard year warranty that Apple gives to all devices? First think carefully about what you are doing. If you unscrew your iPhone yourself, the warranty will expire immediately. Is there a defect within one year of purchasing your iPhone? Always ask Apple first how they can help you.
If their offer is not the right solution for you, you can always consider repairing yourself. Fixing your iPhone yourself is therefore especially suitable if you have a device that is older, and therefore outside the standard Apple warranty.
2. You can easily fix this yourself
There are dozens of parts in an iPhone that can break. The difficulty varies per repair and per iPhone. The vast majority and most common repairs can be completed quickly and easily. Consider replacing a pre-assembled screen, battery or camera. Replacing the speaker, WiFi antenna and vibration motor, among other things, is more difficult, but certainly not impossible. In principle, everything can be repaired yourself, as long as nothing is broken on the motherboard. Always call in a repair specialist for this.
Learn how to find out what’s broken with your iPhone
3. This way you will find the right instructions and good parts
There are numerous instructions available at YouTube or at repair websites like iFixit and FixjeiPhone. Never take the risk of working without such instruction. Not even if you have experience with repairing another iPhone model: the repair differs per model.
In addition, be choosy about where you buy parts to repair your iPhone. Apple itself does not sell individual parts; so don’t fall for sellers claiming to have genuine Apple screens or frames. There are numerous Chinese suppliers of parts where you can order everything for a small amount, but the quality varies enormously per manufacturer.
Rather choose a webshop that imports the right quality parts itself, such as the aforementioned Fixje iPhone or iFixit. You probably pay a little more, but you are assured of good quality, and it is still cheaper than outsourcing the repair. Nobody wants a new iPhone screen that is only half responsive or stops working over time.
4. Don’t lose sight of your screws
Use a magnetic screw mat to keep track of your screws. Such a mat ensures that the screws you place on the mat do not move. If you accidentally bump into the mat, they will not get confused. Also handy is that you can get screw mats with an image of the interior of the iPhone on it. That way you get confused even less quickly. By replacing a screen, you will soon have 10 to 12 screws that need to be put back in exactly the right place.
Do you decide to operate without a magnetic screw mat? Make sure you keep track of which screw comes from where and especially put it back in the same place. Every screw is unique and it can cause serious problems if you change it. Before you know it, you are piercing a sensor or the motherboard with a screw that is too long.
5. Work calmly and clearly
Look and read carefully and step by step what needs to be done during the repair, before you simply unscrew or click something. Preferably use the aforementioned magnetic screw mat to keep an overview of your screws. Arrange parts clearly and not in a pile, to avoid confusion. Feel free to pause or rewind an instructional video if you are not sure whether you are working on the same part.
6. Watch out for the home button or Face ID
Do you have an iPhone 7 or iPhone 8? Then you transfer the home button separately during a repair to make it function properly. It is important that you do not damage the button while doing this. The home button itself cannot be replaced anymore. Repairing a faulty home button can then only be done by a motherboard repair specialist or by Apple itself. In such cases, you spend both more time and money to fix your phone.
From the iPhone X, you no longer have to take the home button into account, but you do have to face ID. Be careful not to break the so-called ‘proximity sensor cable’. This person is responsible for Face ID. So be careful when you take the screen off.
7. Difference in quality
Is your screen broken? You can choose between displays with different degrees of quality. A + quality means that a screen is partially original. The original Apple LCD is transferred to a new screen of the same quality. A ‘copy screen’ is the other choice. Copy screens are – as the name implies – copies, and of slightly lower quality.
In addition, a copy screen can contain a non-original LCD, which does not occur with an A + screen. The difference in the quality of the screen can be noticed in differences in reaction speed to touch, strength of the glass and color reproduction.
8. Don’t force and keep checking
Do not force anything during the repair. Are you unable to pop the screen off? Heat the phone briefly with a heat gun or hair dryer, but check videos explaining this properly first. Make sure you use the correct tools and apply force as instructed in the manual that this is necessary. Regularly check the instructional video or manual where you are and whether you are in the right place.
→ Want to know more? Repair your iPhone yourself: the 5 most important questions answered