Apple iPhone 4S disassembly

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Tools required for disassembly: iPhone tool kit

• Before starting disassembly it is advisable that you first backup your phone in iTunes as you may need to restore the phone once you've put it back together. Secondly, make note of the order and position of everything you remove. The easiest way to do this is to position the parts in the order that you remove them, like below. There are number of different size and length screws so it is very important that you put the parts aside in the order and position you found them.

• First remove the sim and sim tray from your phone. If you don't have the original pin that came with the phone, push the end of a paperclip into the circled hole.

• With the sim tray removed, your phone should look like below.

• Now remove the two pentalobe (star shaped) screws at the bottom of the phone.

• Turn your phone over and push the battery cover in the direction shown by the arrows in order to remove it.

• With the battery cover removed, your phone should look like below. Remove the two circled screws. The cover for the battery connector will come away with the top screw.

• To release the battery connector (cicled below), simply lever it up away from the phone. It has a simple plug and socket type connection. Below you can see the disconnected plug. Now remove the battery by pulling the transparent tab.

• With the battery removed your phone should look like below. Remove the five circled screws in order to release the EMI shield.

• With the EMI shield removed, your phone should look like below.

• Six ribbon cables now need disconnecting, indicated by the six arrows. They all have a plug and socket type connector and can be levered up, away from the circuit board. The ribbon cable indicated by the green arrow in underneath another cable so you won't be able to see it or disconnect it until you have disconnected the other five ribbons. Once you've disconnected the ribbon on the far left you can lift the camera away. Also remove the circled screw.

• With the camera and ribbons disconnected and the screw removed, your phone should look like below. Three more screws (circled below) need to be removed.

• To release the battery connector (cicled below), simply lever it up away from the phone. It has a simple plug and socket type connection. Below you can see the disconnected plug.

• Next remove the screw circled to the bottom right of the image below. The antenna cable, circled to the left, looks different from the previous connectors but has a similar plug and socket type connection. Carefully lever this up. You can then release the antenna/speaker box at the bottom of the phone. It should lift away without force.

• With the antenna/speaker box removed your phone should look like below. Lift the long, orange ribbon over to one side to reveal another screw.

• Now remove the two circled screws.

• Also remove the two screws at the top of the phone, circled below.

• Your phone should now look like below. Now carefully lift the circuit board away from the main body of your iPhone 4S.

• With the circuit board removed, your phone should look like below. Now carefully lever free the part indicated by the arrow. It's held in place with double sided tape and a little force is required.

• A number of screws now need to be removed. These hold the screen in place. The screws circled in blue are a different size to those circled in red and also have washers behind them.

• With the screws removed, your phone should look like below. There are a number of other screws but they don't need to be removed at this stage.

• Now run an opening tool along the join of the screen in order to free it.

• With the screen removed your phone should look like below. If you only want to replace the LCD screen, you don't need to follow the guide any further. Reverse the whole procedure for reassembly.  If you've found this disassembly guide useful, please support us and order the tools and parts you need from our site. We ship worldwide!

• If you want to remove the home button, flick the black latch up, in the direction indicated by the white arrow and carefully pell the home button away from the housing on the other side. To remove the charger socket, remove the two circled screws then carefully peel away the long orange ribbon.

• The other ribbons cables, such as the power button (top left) and volume keys (right) can be removed by removing the remaining screws.

• Below you can see the phone having removed the home button, front facing camera and charger socket/long ribbon cable, power button and volume keys. Disassembly is now complete. Reverse the whole procedure for reassembly. If you've found this disassembly guide useful, please support us and order the tools and parts you need from our site. We ship worldwide!