Samsung Galaxy S10e Back Cover Replacement

Written By: Adam O'Camb

Comments: 25

Samsung Galaxy S10e Back Cover Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

30 minutes - 1 hour

Introduction

Use this guide to remove or replace the glass back cover on a Samsung Galaxy S10e.

Tools

Parts

Step 1

Opening your phone will compromise its waterproof seals. Have replacement adhesive ready before you proceed, or take care to avoid liquid exposure if you reassemble your phone without replacing the adhesive.
Turn your phone off completely before you begin this repair.
Prepare an iOpener and heat the back of the phone along the right edge for about two minutes. This will help soften the adhesive securing the back cover.
You may need to reheat and reapply the iOpener several times to get the phone warm enough. Follow the iOpener instructions to avoid overheating.
A hair dryer, heat gun, or hot plate may also be used, but be careful not to overheat the phone—the OLED display and internal battery are both susceptible to heat damage.

L'écran OLED et la la batterie

Isidore LECHAT -

My s10e is 4 years old now and I found glue had weakend and heating was uneccissary.

ervan.hady -

I purchased my S10e refurbished, so the exact age and prior repairs are unknown. I believe it had ~200 charge cycles. After 2.5 years, the side adhesive started to fail and there was a noticeable slit under the rear cover. It was unclear if the lithium battery was starting to swell, which would have been a more dangerous thing. As such, 3 out of the 4 sides were easy to open just with sliding the pick.

I heated the iOpeners for 30s in my 1000W microwave and it reached a temp of 180oF. I placed this on the final corner and it released fairly easily.

WL1 -

Is 180 degrees a good temperature to set the air temperature to if a heat gun is used?

Gee Foe -

Mine released without heat, just caught the edge with a fingernail and was able to work it free without any tools.

Gee Foe -

I would definitely NOT use a heat gun; the iOpener is the right thing to use. I've repaired many devices and I have lots of heat guns, but a heat gun puts out a tremendous amount of heat, and spreads it everywhere instead of in a controlled manner. The iOpener is about 150 F -- just getting uncomfortable to touch -- and the heat is all in a thin strip. You want to gently heat the edges of the cover, not cook the battery and electronics. Smart phones are expensive and the iFixit tools are cheap. Don't risk your phone to save a few bucks.

MikeT-NYC -

Step 2

In the following steps, you'll be cutting through the adhesive securing the back cover.
The adhesive is laid out as seen in the first image, which shows the inside of the cover after it has been removed.
As seen from the outside of the phone, you'll be slicing through the adhesive in the highlighted areas.
The adhesive is the thinnest on the right side of the phone, just below the Bixby button.

glad to see Samsung has improved back glass quality since the tortilla chip on the Note 5. much friendlier to open.

Steve B - 05/09/19

My S10e was two years old so the adhesive was really weak, and it was really simple to open. Still, this guide was totally useful.

Rafael Sánchez Treviño -

That's encouraging, hopefully the older-than-2 years S10e I'm looking to do proves as easy to open-

Gee Foe -

Mine was fairly easy, 3 years old and I was able to just pick it open carefully using only my fingernails. The hard part was the battery, which I did slowly to reuse the original adhesive, getting it off in one continuous strip.

Gee Foe -

Step 3

Secure a suction cup to the back cover, as close to the heated edge as possible, just under the Bixby button where the adhesive is thinnest.
The suction cup will not make a good seal on the curved portion of the glass, so avoid putting it on the very edge.
If the phone's back cover is cracked, the suction cup may not stick. Try lifting it with strong tape, or superglue the suction cup in place and allow it to cure so you can proceed.

La ventouse n'adhérera pas correctement sur la partie incurvée de la vitre ,

Sur la partie incurvée de la coque.

Isidore LECHAT -

Step 4

Prop up the heated edge of the phone on something that is about 0.5 inches (13 mm) thick. This will angle the phone so that the opening tool is easier to insert.
Lift the back cover's right edge with your suction cup, opening a slight gap between the back cover and the frame.
This may require a significant amount of force. If you have trouble, apply more heat to further soften the adhesive, and try again. The adhesive cools very fast, so you may need to heat it repeatedly.
If you're using an iOpener, follow the heating instructions to avoid overheating it, or the gel pack may burst.
Press the edge of an opening tool into the gap.
The rear glass can break if you use too much force or attempt to pry with metal tools.

Step 5

Slide the opening tool along the right edge of the phone to slice through the adhesive securing the back cover.

I found that using opening picks for the entire repair was much easier then the pry tool, but that could just be me

Jake Simek - 25/02/21

You are criminals! This "tutorial" is full of destructive instructions. And whenever trying to make a comment, iFixid admin hides behind the bot personality telling: "Your comment was marked as spam"

People, do not trust them! They tell you everything to break your phone so you will need to bring it to service!

Someone fromjapan -

You are criminals! No one ever should use the triangular "mediator" pick for iPhones, or planar connector picks! The back cover is NOT gorilla-glass, and it will crack in multiple places immediately! Only very thin "watchmaker" opening plates(initial pickup) and 0.1mm rigid PP stripes (cut from cheap tool packages, or 7-eleven food packs) may be used there. Before that the side rim - not the cover itself should be heated to boiling point and constantly re-heated while tearing the two-sided scotch. The opening strip may be replaced 2-3 times while reaching the opposite side, because it collects the torn glue. This instruction from iFixit is a pure sabotage for tricking non-expecting users to repair-shops.
The same goes to battery, if you don't risk using solvents, which may damage the screen and the circuit. Only rounded PP strips may tear off the battery scotch. It should be preheated from the screen side, until the battery becomes hot.

Someone fromjapan -

The commenter who keeps saying "you are criminals" over and over may have been using this guide to repair a different phone, so he or she is confused. On the Galaxy S10e, I had no trouble heating and lifting the cover as described (though I had to reheat the iOpener several times). If you heat it gently with the iOpener and long enough, you're not stressing the back cover because the glue will come loose almost immediately. (I could have almost lifted it with a fingernail).

MikeT-NYC - 13/01/24

Step 6

Insert an opening pick into the edge next to the opening tool. Leave the pick here to prevent the separated glue from re-adhering.

Step 7

Apply a heated iOpener to the top edge of the phone for two minutes.

Step 8

Insert an opening pick near the top right corner of the phone and slide it around the corner and across the top edge of the phone.
The glued area is larger here, so you'll need to insert your pick farther into the phone to separate it.
Leave the opening pick in place to prevent the adhesive from re-adhering.

This was the only part on my phone that had viable adhesive after it started to naturally separate.

WL1 -

Step 9

Apply a heated iOpener to the left edge of the phone for two minutes.

Insérez un nouveau médiator à côté du bord

Insérer un autre mediator

Isidore LECHAT -

Step 10

Insert a new opening pick near the top left corner and slide it along the left edge of the phone.
Again, leave the opening pick in place in the left edge of the phone to prevent the adhesive from resealing.

Step 11

Apply a heated iOpener to the bottom edge of the phone for two minutes.

Step 12

Insert an opening pick near a bottom corner of the phone, and slide it along the bottom edge of the phone to separate the adhesive there.
The glued area is larger here, so you'll need to insert your pick farther into the phone to fully separate it.

Step 13

Use the opening picks to very carefully pry up the back cover.
If you encounter any resistance, stop prying and use an opening pick to cut any remaining adhesive.
Remove the back cover.

WARNING: Once the cover is off, protect both the inside of the camera window in the back and the camera lens in the phone itself with pieces of paper held on by masking tape. This will prevent accidentally getting cleaner or fingerprints on them.

MikeT-NYC -

Step 14

Follow this guide to reinstall the back cover and replace the adhesive.
Be sure to turn on your phone and test your repair before installing new adhesive and resealing the phone.
If desired, you may reinstall the back cover without replacing the adhesive. Remove any large chunks of adhesive that might prevent the back cover from sitting down flush. After installation, heat the back cover and apply pressure to secure it. It won't be waterproof, but the leftover adhesive is usually more than strong enough to hold.

This should be the very last step in the guide, but the edit button seems to only allow editing the content, not the positioning in the guide. Not sure how to fix this.

James Beegle -

The photo seems to show someone lifting the old glue off with tweezers. That certainly wasn't true for my glue! I scrubbed it off with isopropyl alcohol and fabric. (Don't use a paper towel or Kleenex because they fall apart. I used a postage-stamp-size square cut from an old athletic sock. With this and the alcohol I was able to get the cover and the phone as clean as they were at the factory.

When doing this, hold the phone at an angle in your other hand so any alcohol dribble to the outside and not to anywhere important.

MikeT-NYC -