Samsung Galaxy S7 Rear Glass Replacement

Written By: Adam O'Camb
  • Comments: 26
Samsung Galaxy S7 Rear Glass Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

7

Time Required

10 - 30 minutes

Introduction

Follow this guide to replace the glass back for your Samsung Galaxy S7.

After removing the rear glass cover, you will need replacement adhesive to reattach the back cover to the phone.

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    • 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.

    • Apply a heated iOpener to a long edge of the phone for about two minutes.

    • 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.

    I used a heat gun and heated it a little too much. The color of the rear glass is just a sticker on a clear cover. Due to this I tore the sticker off. Now the back cover is see through, which isn’t a bad thing but the repair was for a customer.

    Kevin Bishop -

    When using the iOpener, you may need more than 30 seconds, especially in compact or low wattage microwaves. Take this slowly, though, and be extremely careful, as it is easy to overheat your iOpener. Remember, you can always heat it up a tad more, but you cannot undo overheating it.

    Jacob Pratt -

    I used an adjustable heat gun and set it to 400 degrees (F). That was enough to seperate the glass without having to worry about exposure times of the heat. The front of the phone was just fine. Just be ready to use a bunch of picks to slide in between because they will be needed this way.

    Ryan Schumerth -

    I went from the bottom center up, using one ifixit tools, one suction cup and one pick.

    Pick just popped in with some minor pressure.

    Laid heat pack along base of phone 2 mins first and worked up slowly, rotating picks as I went. Had to heat iopener over several 30 second bursts

    Lauren Burt -

    This is useless because the phone does not recognize the new battery and will behave like on the old one

    Search for “battery count xda"

    Albert Einstein -

    That is an interesting discovery! Thanks for pointing it out—I’ll have to look into it.

    Even if this is true, replacing the battery should still give restore a significant amount of life, since the max voltage affects a minor amount of the battery’s capacity. If you charge a worn battery and a new battery to the same lower max voltage, the worn battery’s voltage will dip more under use and will be depleted faster.

    Arthur Shi -

    Thanks for the guide! It helped me replace a friend's battery with no problems!

    Darren Crook -

    I will never replace a screen again, and don’t recommend it. Not for phones nowadays. Once upon a time everything was screwed together, and you might even get the same quality or better screen when buying from eBay. And having the phone repaired was nearly the cost of the phone. Now, it’s the reverse. Removing the glued back and screen and cleaning off all the glue for a clean re-seal is an ordeal that takes multiple hours, AND, often the screen you buy on eBay is NOT OLED, but an LCD, and a blurry one at that. And the local phone repair store will replace the screen with an OLED, reliably, same day turn around, for not much more than the cost of an actual OLED screen, because they have the parts in bulk, and the tools and experience to do it quickly. Never again!

    domarius -

    have you ever had one that just wont open at all? i can not get mine to open to replace the battery i have heated with a heat gun and attached suction cup and it will not lift at all

    Carla James -

    Hi Carla,

    I've definitely had that experience before. The adhesive is very strong, and the curved back makes getting the initial seam very difficult. I'd suggest focusing on one small area on the edge. Apply steady force when you pull, and repeat a few times to loosen the adhesive. Eventually it will give and present a small gap.

    Arthur Shi -

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    • When the back panel is warm to the touch, apply a suction cup as close to the heated edge of the phone as you can while avoiding the curved edge.

    • The suction cup will not make a good seal on the curved portion of the glass.

    • 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.

    • Lift on the suction cup and insert an opening pick under the rear glass.

    • The rear glass can break if you use too much force or attempt to pry with metal tools.

    • Due to the curved glass, you will be pushing up, rather than inserting parallel to the plane of the phone.

    • 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.

    • Optionally, once the pick is inserted, you can add a few drops of isopropyl alcohol into the gap to help weaken the adhesive in the following steps.

    Because of the metal lip around the phone the picks were to thick to get under the glass. Couldn’t get the glue loose enough with the iOpener or the glass lifted high enough with the suction cup despite using a lot of heat and stength on the suction. Ended up having to use a thin piece of metal to get the first separaration. After that the picks are ok to use.

    loadinglevelone -

    This step is certainly giving me trouble. I don’t have enough hands to be able to both form the space and to insert the pick. In order to even form the space, I need to use the double-sided plastic scraper-thing.

    Damian Amerman-Smith -

    Turns out that three hands was the answer. I had my dad insert the pick while I pried open a gap, and it was smooth sailing from there.

    Damian Amerman-Smith -

    How do you pull on the suction cup? I.e. what's the right technique to pull up the suction cup? Just pulling up is going to lift the entire phone, unless I had some kind of double sided suction cup up keep the phone stuck to the table.

    Thank you

    A X -

    I'm going to try it Jerry rig everythings technique. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kHzmFPoZbC... unfortunately every iFixit video seems to use the clamp which seems like an oversight for a tutorial. But it is not fair for me to be too annoyed since they have really good repair kits and the repair guides are nice.

    A X -

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    • Once you have the pick firmly inserted into the glass, reheat and reapply the iOpener to soften the adhesive.

    Use a heat gun or hair dryer to soften the adhesive to remove the back cover. The Iopener that you heat up with the microwave takes a very long to accomplish the same task.

    michael kotarba -

    Keep the heat gun in motion at all times and check the surface temperature of the phone with your hand every few seconds to ensure it does not overheat the plastic and glass and electronics. Use several blue guitar picks to brake the seal of the cover once you have softened the adhesive and popped the seal initially with the suction cups.

    michael kotarba -

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    • Slide the opening pick down along the side of the phone, separating the adhesive.

    • Go slowly so that the tip doesn't slip out of the seam. If sliding becomes difficult, reheat and reapply the iOpener.

    • Leave the pick in place and grab a second pick as you proceed to the next step. Leaving the pick inserted can help prevent the glue you just separated from re-adhering.

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    • Repeat the previous heating and cutting procedure for the remaining three sides of the phone.

    • Leave an opening pick in each edge of the phone as you continue to the next to prevent the adhesive from resealing.

    At about this stage, as I was working on the fourth side, the layer of black paint on the inside of the glass started to separate from the glass, near the edge. I may have overheated the phone (I used a heat gun). Most of the paint layer ended up left behind, attached to the body of the phone, as the glass came away - along with the lens covers of the camera and flash. I removed and discarded as much of the paint as I could using tweezers, a spudger, and cautious heating with the heat gun. I hope the back glass will work OK without it; a clear back cover will be a distinctive design feature! If not I’ll have to get a new one. (Note, some battery repair kits from other suppliers such as Amazon include a replacement back glass, which would help with this issue).

    Michael Field -

    Hi Michael,

    The glass back would definitely work without the black paint. In fact, there are tutorials online that instruct exactly how to do that in order to have a cool transparent glass back look!

    Arthur Shi -

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    • Lift the glass and remove it from the phone.

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    • To reinstall the back cover with a custom-cut adhesive strip, follow this guide.

    • If you're cleaning the midframe surface with isopropyl alcohol, be careful not to get any alcohol on the wireless charging coil. The coil coating will break down if it contacts alcohol.

    • 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 glue is usually more than strong enough to hold.

    Apply heat with iOpener/blower or the isopropyl alcohol on the adhesive you want to remove.

    I did not and noticed I peeled off pieces of the paint coating from the cover glass together with the adhesive.

    Eduard -

    Do not hold the glass as shown. I did that, and the glass cracked when I tried to pull the adhesive because the adhesive was on tight. Always keep the glass down on a flat surface so that you don’t apply any bending forces to it.

    blicher -

    I'm sorry to hear that! That's a good suggestion—I'll modify the photo slightly to deter people from holding the glass in the air.

    Arthur Shi -

Conclusion

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

Author

Adam O'Camb

Member since: 11/04/15

195421 Reputation

4 comments

They don’t tell you this, but be careful with the picks when you are trying to separate the back cover from the chassis. It’s very easy for the pick to get between the backplate, which is really clear plastic, and the foil-ish lining that makes it look like sleek black glass- I’m sure the heat doesn’t help keep the foil laminated to the backplate. Then your only option will be to replace the entire backplate, or remove the foil-ish lining and let the back of your phone be au natural.

Douglas Shaw -

When I removed the back cover, I found the adhesive had stayed adhered to the phone and separated from the back cover. This actually made it easier to remove cleanly with the forceps.

David Wood -

Should you not replace the adhesive tape? If so, what type/brand/size should one use? Would this be appropriate? 4mm 3M red Strong Sticky Glue Tape for Samsung (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P1J...) ?

Bryan P. -

Hi Bryan!

You should definitely replace the adhesive. You can use some custom-cut adhesive made specifically for the S7, or you can use double-sided tape like Tesa tape. For this situation, the precut card would be more than enough.

Arthur Shi -