With iPhone’s becoming so expensive, people are holding onto their older models a bit longer than they used to. It’s not uncommon for someone to keep an iPhone for 4 or 5 years before considering a replacement. Unfortunately, because we use our mobile phones on a daily basis, you’re probably going to land up breaking something on your iPhone, either through a drop or just general wear and tear. Instead of having to get a new phone, we’ve put together a list of the four most common iPhone repairs which you can do yourself without having to spend a fortune on parts or tools. You could even look for an old damaged iPhone online and repair it yourself to get yourself a good deal on a newer model phone or to make some extra money on the side.
While you need to be reasonably competent with a screwdriver and have some basic DIY knowledge, you don’t need to be an expert with mobile phones to be able to carry out these repairs.
So lets have a look at the five most common iPhone repairs which you can do yourself.
1) Replacing A Broken, Cracked or Shattered iPhone Screen
This is by far the most common repair which you may need to do to your iPhone, and also one of the most expensive to get done by a repair shop. It’s actually a relatively easy repair to do yourself and it has become even easier on the newer model iPhones, as there are fewer components mounted onto the screen since they’ve done away with the touch ID sensor.
All you need for this repair is a replacement screen kit, available online from sites like E-Bay and Amazon. These replacements are often sold with a small toolkit to help you out with the repair and while these are not the best quality tools, they’re usually good enough to do the repair once or twice.
Here are our guides to replacing the screens on some common iPhone models. Depending on your iPhone model, this repair should take you between 30 to 45 minutes to complete.
2) Replacing Your iPhone’s Battery
The second most common iPhone repair is a battery replacement. While this one is not usually due to a drop or misuse, your iPhone’s battery slowly degrades with time and charging to the point where it only lasts a few hours before needing to be recharged or dies completely. In iOS 11.3 or later, you can find information on your iPhone’s battery health under settings, we’ve put together a guide on understanding what your iPhone’s battery health means.
A replacement battery is relatively cheap to buy online and its one of the easiest components to replace. The battery in your phone is held in place by two thin adhesive strips between the battery and the back (body) of your phone and simply plugs into the logic board with a small ribbon cable connector which snaps into place.
Here’s a guide to replacing the battery in an iPhone 6. The procedure very similar for other iPhone models as well. This replacement should take you around 10 to 15 minutes depending on how difficult you find it to remove your old battery.
Once you’ve replaced your iPhone’s battery, make sure that you prolong your replacement battery’s life by charging your iPhone battery the right way.
3) Replacing Your Home Button (Touch ID Sensor)
On older iPhone models, especially the iPhone 5 and 6 models, it was fairly common for the home button to eventually fail. The touch ID sensor still worked but the button behind it, used to return to the home screen and close apps, stopped working. This can be really frustrating to work with and is quite a common reason for people getting rid of an old iPhone.
This repair unfortunately offers a choice between two options, keep your touch ID sensor or keep your home button. The touch ID sensor is paired to your iPhone’s logic board for security reasons and therefore can only be officially changed by Apple. This doesn’t stop you from replacing your home button though, so if you’d prefer to keep your home button functioning (at the expense of losing touch ID) then this is a worthwhile repair.
The replacement home button is really cheap, often a couple of dollars and it’s quite a simple replacement to do, taking around 15 minutes to complete.
4) Replacing Your Lightning Charger Port
The last two repairs are a little bit more complicated and you’ll need to be careful with surrounding components and patient in carrying out the repair. You’ll likely be charging your iPhone almost every day, and with music docks, Apple Carplay and wired headphones, your lightning port gets a fair amount of use and may eventually stop working, leaving you unable to charge your phone.
A replacement lightning charger port assembly is relatively cheap but it is quite a bit more complicated and takes a lot longer than some of these other repairs. That said, it can still be done at home and you may find it worth it to keep your old phone going a bit longer.
Here’s a guide to replacing the lightning charger port assembly on an iPhone 6.
5) Replacing Your Volume and Mute Button Assembly
The volume buttons on your iPhone usually last for the full life of the phone, but the mute button tends to eventually wear loose and doesn’t stay in the muted or normal position. A cheap volume and mute button replacement assembly can be bought online which replaces the three buttons behind the physical buttons you see on the outside of the phone. This is one of the cheaper repairs on the list but probably the most difficult and the one which takes the longest as you’ll need to remove the battery from your iPhone as well in order to get to the bracket which holds the buttons in place.
Here’s our guide to replacing the volume and mute button assembly on an iPhone 6.
There are a couple of other less popular repairs which you can do on your iPhone, have a look at our iPhone repairs section for a full list of repair guides we’ve done.
If you enjoyed reading about these repairs, you may be interested in these 5 Secret iPhone Codes You Didn’t Know About or find out how to Charge your iPhone Battery the Right Way.
