Samsung Galaxy S6 Active Rear Camera Replacement

Written By: Lucia Valbuena

Comments: 11

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active Rear Camera Replacement

Difficulty

Difficult

Steps

Time Required

50 minutes

Introduction

Use this guide to remove and replace the rear camera lens from your phone.

Tools

Step 1

Insert your fingernail or a plastic opening tool into the pivot on the side of the SIM tray.
Pry open the tray to get it out of the socket.

Step 2

Remove the SIM tray with SIM card from the phone.

Step 3

Heat the front face (sides, top, bottom) of the phone with the iOpener, a hair dryer, or a heat gun for 60 seconds to loosen the adhesive around the edge of the glass.
If using an iOpener, heat it in a microwave for thirty seconds.

Heat the phone in the microwave??? I really hope you meant to say heat the iopener tool in the microwave.

rusty bongwater - 01/11/20

Step 4

Attach a suction cup to the lower half of the screen.

Step 5

Using the suction cup, pull gently the lower half of the panel.
If you pull too hard you may break the display. If you still feel resistance repeat Step 3, leaving the iOpener on longer.

Pulling too* hard :)

seth15599 - 10/08/17

Step 6

Once you’ve opened a large enough gap, insert a plastic tool at the bottom, between the glass and the rest of frame of the phone.
Slide the plastic opening tool around the screen, prying the display gently away from the body

My phone had a substantial amount of adhesive between the copper area on the back of the display assembly (see pic in step 10) and the frame (see pic in step 13). There was no way to have known that as I started to remove the glass, but this made it difficult to lift the glass up and eventually led to the glass cracking as I tried to work the plastic opening tool up along the side of the phone (about in the spot shown in the second picture of this step). In hindsight, I think it would have been extremely difficult to remove the front glass undamaged without first starting to separatie that adhesive from the frame, but I’m not sure what would have been the best way to do that. My guess is I would have needed to slide a tool with a thinner/sharper edge upward from the bottom while pulling on the suction cup to start separating the back of the display assembly from the frame, and worked on both that and the edges of the glass at the same time.

Rob Asher - 19/12/20

Step 7

Pull the lower half of the screen screen with the suction cup while holding down the frame of the phone to separate both components.
Only lift the lower part of the screen. It is connected with a clip to the top of the motherboard and can rip off if you pull too hard.

Step 8

Once the glass is off, you will see a small clip covering the screen connection to the motherboard at the top of the phone. Use tweezers to grab the clip by the crease on its side and pull it out.

Step 9

Undo the screen connection with a plastic tool.

If possible, disconnect the battery BEFORE you undo the screen connector. The battery flex is on the left, just under the LCD cable assembly.

Jeana Morales - 24/10/19

Step 10

Remove the display assembly (LCD and Digitizer).

All that copper/tin foil, whatever it is, stayed glued to the case and tore off the screen. I hope it isn’t important. What is it for anyways?

Reed Deemer - 04/12/17

Good Question. Mine ripped a little bit 2.

floris brocaar - 23/12/17

Probably heat displacement, you’ll find them on the back of most Samsung OEM LCD assemblies & high quality replacements. It’s probably not a big deal if you tear it, after all where’s the heat supposed to go from there? Pat yourself on the back for getting the LCD & glass up in one piece, don’t be surprised if nobody else shares your enthusiasm.

NxG Walpole - 04/07/18

Step 11

Use the Phillips Head Screwdriver sized PH000 to remove the sixteen 4mm screws from the frame.

PH00 size screwdriver fit the screw heads better on my phone.

Missing intermediate step: the screw just above the battery holds a little plastic cover that hides the battery connector. Take the cover out and carefully disconnect the battery using the tweezers.

Sergiu Partenie -

Step 12

Put a little pressure on the top, on the bottom, and on the sides of the phone to separate the rear case.
You will hear the clips start undoing themselves.

Step 13

Once all the clips have popped, pull out the rear case to separate it from the frame with the battery.
The battery will be on the back side of this frame.

Step 14

Insert a plastic opening tool on the side of the frame and pull out the battery.

The battery was glued quite well on mine, I had to slowly go around the whole edge about 3 times. Exercise care at this operation, especially if the old battery is swollen.

Sergiu Partenie -

To loose the battery it helps to add isopropyl alcohol drop by drop with a syringe all around the batery and on both sides. Give some time to the alcohol to do its job. You may try to heat gently as well.

Jose Luis -

Step 15

Remove the battery from the frame.

Step 16

The rear camera will be attached to the motherboard on the rear case.
Use a plastic tool to undo the connection of the rear camera from the motherboard.

Step 17

Use the tweezers to remove rear camera from motherboard.

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

Author

Lucia Valbuena

Member since: 15/02/17

2412 Reputation

One comment

I replaced the S6 Active’s old battery, and never touched the camera (that I know of) but now the camera does not work. I get ‘Camera Failure' error statement. Clearing Cache did not fix it.

Is the camera connection easy to accidently disconnect? Or to test? Don’t want to take my S6 Active apart again unnecessarily.

Susan Jamieson - 20/05/19