iPhone 4S Front Facing Camera Replacement
crwdns2944107:0crwdnd2944107:0Walter Galancrwdnd2944107:0crwdnd2944107:0crwdnd2944107:06crwdnd2944107:0crwdne2944107:0
crwdns2944111:0Maw 21, 2025crwdne2944111:0
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crwdns2942287:0crwdne2942287:0Use this guide to replace a broken front facing camera.
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Power off your iPhone before beginning disassembly.
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Remove the two 3.6 mm Pentalobe P2 screws next to the dock connector.
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Push the rear panel toward the top edge of the iPhone.
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Pull the rear panel away from the back of the iPhone, being careful not to damage the plastic clips attached to the rear panel.
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Remove the rear panel from the iPhone.
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Remove the following screws securing the battery connector to the logic board:
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One 1.7 mm Phillips screw (PH00)
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One 1.5 mm Phillips screw (PH00)
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Carefully push the pressure contact away from the battery connector until it slides free from its position.
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Remove the pressure contact.
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Use a plastic opening tool to gently pry up the battery connector from its socket on the logic board.
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Place the tip of the tool between the loudspeaker enclosure and the metal cover of the connector, and lift the bottom edge of the connector first.
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Insert the edge of a plastic opening tool between the battery and the outer case near the bottom of the iPhone.
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Run the plastic opening tool along the right edge of the battery and pry up at several points to completely separate it from the adhesive securing it to the outer case.
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Wait about one minute for the alcohol solution to weaken the adhesive.
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Use the flat end of a plastic opening tool to gently lift the battery.
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Use the exposed clear plastic pull tab to peel the battery off the adhesive securing it to the iPhone.
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Remove the battery.
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Remove the following screws securing the dock connector cable cover to the logic board:
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One 1.5 mm Phillips screw
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One 1.2 mm Phillips screw
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Remove the metal dock connector cable cover.
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Use the edge of a plastic opening tool to pry the dock cable up from its socket on the logic board.
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Peel the dock connector cable off the adhesive securing it to the logic board and the side of the speaker enclosure.
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Use the edge of a plastic opening tool to pry the cellular antenna cable up from its socket on the logic board.
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De-route the cellular antenna cable out from under the metal fingers attached to the logic board.
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Remove the following four screws securing the cable cover to the logic board:
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One 2.7 mm Phillips screw
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One 2.6 mm Phillips screw
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One 1.3 mm Phillips screw
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One 1.2 mm Phillips screw
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Use the edge of a plastic opening tool to pry the cable cover tabs out of their slots cut into the EMI shield on the logic board.
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Lift the cable cover from its edge nearest the top and remove it from the iPhone.
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Use the edge of a plastic opening tool to pry the rear camera connector up from its socket on the logic board.
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Remove the rear camera from the iPhone.
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Use a SIM eject tool or a paperclip to eject the SIM and its tray.
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Remove the SIM and its tray.
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Remove the five cables near the top of the logic board in the following order:
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Headphone jack/volume button cable
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Front facing camera cable
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Digitizer cable
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Display data cable
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Power button cable (located underneath the headphone jack/volume button cable as shown in the second picture.)
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Remove the 1.5 mm Phillips screw securing the grounding clip to the logic board near the headphone jack.
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Use the tip of a spudger to pry the small grounding clip up off the logic board.
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Carefully grasp the grounding clip and remove it from the iPhone.
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Remove the 4.8 mm standoff screw near the headphone jack.
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Use the edge of a plastic opening tool to disconnect the Wi-Fi antenna from the logic board.
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If present, peel the piece of black tape covering the hidden screw near the power button.
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Remove the 2.6 mm Phillips screw securing the logic board near the power button.
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Remove the following screws securing the logic board to the case:
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One 2.5 mm Phillips screw near the vibrator motor
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One 2.4 mm Phillips screw
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One 3.6 mm standoff along the side of the logic board nearest the battery opening.
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Carefully lift the logic board from the end closest to the speaker enclosure and slide it away from the top edge of the iPhone.
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Remove the logic board.
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Use the edge of a plastic opening tool to carefully pry the metal front facing camera retainer away from the case of your iPhone.
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Remove the front facing camera retainer.
This is really hard to get out. I broke 2 plastic spudgers (cheap/free) trying this
it might be an idea to mention that the retainer has three tiny little clips that point outwards from the camera and while taking it off is hard, putting it back on is even harder
Step 26 cause me great pain as well. I couldn't get it loose with the plastic spudgers. I had to break out a tiny metal screwdriver. I was so paranoid that I was going to break the part or the clip. The trick is to get under the clip's "fingers" that fasten it on the sides. The issue is that even my small my plastic spudger was too big to fit in the available space. Ultimately I got it to work with a micro flathead screwdriver, but it wasn't without serious concern.
Using a micro flathead screwdriver did the trick. I found that prying from the top right corner worked best.
Yes, this is hard. It would be a lot easier if the guide had a picture of the retainer clip. I was successful with a spludger by lifting it on the upper left hand corner. Once you have it off, have a good look at it before putting it back on. Remember that it clips to the outside of the camera housing.
The clip has a hole and a groove. This is good enough to grab it with some pin tweezers from the top when replacing it.
DO NOT DO THIS,
it is unnecessary to remove this plate or the front camera. its very difficult to remove and very difficult to replace. totally unnecessary step. just be careful moving the flex cables around, that's the only thing that is in the way, the camera does not hinder the power/sensor cable.
fyi my comment is based off replacing the power cable not the front camera, apparently the guides are just copied off one another. again, this is one of the hardest things ive done on an iPhone. if you are fixing the power cable, DO NOT pull out the front camera, NOT NEEDED and VERY HARD. im currently still trying to re-install the cover plate.
Andrew -
YES, DO NOT TAKE THIS PART OFF. The reason the guide says to take it off is because in step 30, it might get in the way. If you be a little more careful, the cable coming from the camera won't be a problem. However, if you do take the retainer and the camera off, you should expect your repair to last a couple more hours. I have spent several hours on some repairs trying to put the retainer back on, and then realized that it was 90% useless to do so.
I totally agree with Andrew, when changing the power and sensor cable, do not do this step. It is absolutely unnecessary and only increases the pain when reassembling your phone. That step should not be in the guide for the power cable replacement.
I agree with Andrew, this step is not needed.
If you are replacing the headphone jack, DO NOT DO THIS STEP! It's totally unnecessary.
Based on comments here, I skipped this step fixing the power button and it was fine, you have a little less room to remove the earpiece wrapped in the power cable but if the removal was as hard as people describe, it was easily worth it.
I could not reassemble the retainer. The legs would not go back to where they were meant to go and I badly bent one in the process. I replaced the retainer with a small dop of Blu-Tack ("a reusable putty-like pressure-sensitive adhesive"). This gets squashed down when you replace the logic board. This keeps the camera correctly positioned and works OK so far.
If youare changed the earpiece you can skip step 26 till 31. got to step 32 and remove the black clip without disassembly the earpiece assembly and then tear of the speaker. follow the steps of the crazyphones on youtube guide.
thank you!!!
I think the key to getting this clip on is knowing that the fingers do not clip on the inside of the retainer, but slide over the top and the 'elbow' locks in the retainer openings. This makes it a ton easier.
There is no need to remove the front facing camera or power button/flex. At this point you can just remove the retainer clip over the sensor assembly, pry the sensor assembly from it's holder, bring it back over and clear of the earpiece speaker, carefully pry the speaker from the frame, replace the speaker with new one, reassemble.
Getting this off with a micro flat head is best - putting it back on you need to slightly flare out the little fingers on the side two (facing top and bottom of phone-just enough to make getting it back on easie. Then using ifixit flat tweezers you can get in and pinch the fingers closed again once it's on.
I quickly regretted not having read the comments to this step and the next one. When replacing the power/sensor cable, this step isn’t necessary, provided you are careful enough with the earpiece speaker and the sensors which are next to the front facing camera.
DO NOT DO THIS unless you are sure you have to. This step and the next one are not necessary when replacing the power and sensor cable.
It is very very difficult to fix the front camera retainer again after removing it.
are the metal clips on the bracket supposed to go inside or outside?
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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What if I can't put the two initial screws back?
desarme el telefono para cambiar la camara frontal y ahora no me funciona me aparace en negro que sera?
I did it and it worked. But be prepared and patient. :)
Nicely documented, a very nice graphical explanation, thumbs up!
My phone is not restarting after removing front and rear cameras
Well, after taking it apart I discovered why the front facing camera probably went bad - during production assembly the front camera cable got forced under the logic board, crimping it badly. I am sure this added to the tension placed on the cable which already has to make a couple of tight turns to reach the connector. Poor engineering.
