Nexus 6P Display Replacement

Step 1

It is possible to remove the back cover with an iOpener as seen in this guide but it's a lengthy and difficult procedure. We recommend a heat gun or something similar. The adhesive in the Nexus 6P is extremely sticky and especially the glass and plastic cover on the backside break or bend most of the time whilst doing this repair.
Use a SIM card eject tool, to pop out and remove the SIM card tray.
Use an iOpener to loosen the adhesive underneath the small plastic cover at the bottom of the phone.

For the heat gun users — any approximate temperature, and distance from phone, to not damage it?

Kamal - 03/05/19

Hi Kamal,

my advice is the be very, very gentle with a heat gun. Especially the small plastic cover at the bottom end deforms within seconds. Try the lowest heat you can, with a good distance to the cover. Then try to remove the cover. If it doesn’t go off, lower the distance of the heat gun to the phone and try again and so on. I recommend to rather pry a little bit more than to use to much heat. If the cover deforms you’ll need a new one.

Dominik Schnabelrauch - 08/05/19

Is their a particular time i should have my heat gun on it like for ex: 10 secs

PlayStation Studios - 01/07/19

Hi,

there’s no particular time but I advise you to go only for a couple of seconds and then try to remove the plastic cover. If you can’t manage to remove it, repeat the heat gun process and so on. Under strong heat the plastic cover deforms very fast and is not usable anymore.

Dominik Schnabelrauch - 04/07/19

Hi,

I used a hair dryer (exhaust air about 60°C) instead of a heat gun: this temperature was sufficient to soften the glue. The plastic and glass cover could be removed without damage.

Daniel Demuth - 26/09/19

The Ifixit SIM removal tool is a bit rough for the 6P SIM eject opening I suggest a small paper clip and its easier for aged fingers to use.

Terry Ess - 18/08/20

The IOpener may need to be applied more than once in cold weather. Even for a first time repairer it is possible to remove the small lower rear cover without damage.

Terry Ess - 18/08/20

Step 2

The knife is really sharp. Take care, not to cut yourself or your phone.
Insert a knife between the phone and the plastic cover. Pry up the plastic cover until you can insert an opening pick.
Slide the opening pick underneath the plastic cover to cut the adhesive.

How I did it was to heat the plastic to around 65C (150F) with a hair dryer, then managed to get one of my metal prying tools in and under the edge to pull it up.

Michael Lerro - 11/08/19

Request to give some specification/link to the knife used in this process. I dont want to buy a knife too thick for the job. Thanks in advance.

onkararadhye - 09/09/19

Hi onkararadhye,

the knife used in this process was from the Technician's Razor Set in our shop.

Dominik Schnabelrauch - 11/09/19

The Ifixit knife has a curved sharp edge. I used this edge in the middle of the outer long side of the lower cover and pushed it straight down. The natural curve in the now softened plastic allowed it to buckle/bend a little further. I then slowly rolled the top edge of the knife out and away from the phone. There was then sufficient gap to insert a Pick. Heat it again with the IOpener and then slide the Pick further in and along from end to end.

Terry Ess - 18/08/20

The bottom edge of the panel is the easiest place to pry the knife into. I used the heat pad first and then hair dryer. There is a solid backing under the panel as well so no worries on getting the knife in. Edge of knife instead of tip will prevent you from mangling the panel. Get the panel lifted up enough to pry a pick in between the bottom of knife and phone case and continue trying to get 2-3 picks in along the bottom. Work slowly, none of these steps will go quickly.

JimmyJames - 16/03/21

Step 3

Use an iOpener to loosen the adhesive underneath the glass cover at the top of the phone.
Insert a knife between the phone and the glass cover. Pry up the glass cover until you can insert an opening pick.

Used a fan on high heat. Worked great.

Tilen Travnik - 25/05/20

A heating pad works well for these steps

Russell Sloan - 16/08/20

This has to be the hardest part. I really did not want to damage the glass. My phone has had a rough life and there is some minor damage despite having a double layer cover. I decided to prise the glass off from the end opposite from the camera after many unsuccessful attempts from near the middle. With the knife I was able to scrape the metal edge near the end of the glass cover - keep the blade facing out. With the metal out of the way the knife tip was able to get under the glass followed by a Pick. I heated it all up again with the IOpener heat tube. Using reflected light keep an eye on the bend in the glass. If you can see a bend then slow down and let the glue separate. The reward for patience is unbroken glass.

Terry Ess - 18/08/20

Step 4

Glass may break. Wear protective glasses and protective gloves.
Slide the opening pick underneath the glass cover and use it to cut the adhesive underneath.
Pry off the glass cover.

I had a really hard time getting under the glass using the iOpener. I just don’t think it got hot enough to really loosen up the adhesive. So, I got my wife’s hair dryer and used that. I put it on the highest heat and held it to the glass for a couple minutes. That loosened it up pretty well and I was able to get enough space to put in a prying pick. Once I got one of those in it was pretty easy.

Davin Studer - 28/07/19

The way I did this bit was to heat the glass up to around 70C (160F) with a hair dryer, then use a razor blade to get in under the glass, then used a playing card and pushed that along underneath the glass to seperate the glass from the body. I started with my razor blade at the curved edge of the glass on the side of the phone, rather than at the straight edge at the top as they show here, because it was a bit easier for me.

Nothing else in my toolkit had a fine enough edge to get in under that glass except for a razor blade. The gap is very small.

Michael Lerro - 11/08/19

The good news is that my phone works fine. And it now has some battle scars that make it look like I repaired it. Let’s be honest: bragging rights are half the reason we tried this instead of buying a new phone anyway. My camera and flash still work, though the latter needed its lens glued separately.

The bad news is that I broke my glass. I started from the corner away from the camera, and about halfway along the width of the phone, the glass utterly shattered. It stayed together, so its coating worked. I used some scotch tape to further control the shards, and i slid a small flathead along under the top and bottom edges to scrape the glue. I think that would have been my technique in the first place if i had x-ray vision. I also would have started camera-side.

I think my mistake was not maintaining heat while prying. The glass started hot, but when it broke it was barely warm to the touch. I think If I had kept it hot, it would have been more flexible.

Best of luck, everybody.

Seth Battin - 11/04/20

Go slow and it’ll work out. I used hair dryer in combination with the heat pad. Glass panel has some flex but not a lot. I used hair dryer at first to gently warm the glass and prevent heat pad from possibly shocking glass (may not be necessary but added 1-2 minutes). There will be some location around the panel to use the knife as a pry bar against the case/glass. Placing the phone face down on a silicone baking mat will provide a heat proof non-slip surface to keep your 2 hands on the phone. Only places you should be careful is at the camera and the flash. Flash area has a plastic add on the back of the glass that recesses down into the phone and prevents knife or picks from sliding in there. It’ll come up, just takes a while. Probably 20 mins for just this step.

JimmyJames - 16/03/21

Step 5

Remove the six Phillips #00 screws.
Use tweezers to remove any stickers covering the screw to allow better seating for the driver.

Step 6

Insert a razor knife between the metal back cover and the front glass to create a gap. Insert an opening pick into the gap and slide it to the top right corner.
The knife is really sharp, be careful, not to cut yourself or your phone.
Insert a second opening pick and slide it to the top left corner.
Slide the opening picks along the edges to seperate the plastic clips, holding back cover and midframe together.
Remove the rear cover.

There is a black plastic band around the front glass. So stick the razor between the metal back and outside of the black plastic that is around the front glass. If you look closely at the first picture you can see the black plastic strip outside of the front glass. If you stick it between the black plastic and screen you could leave the mid frame in the metal case and only lift up the the glass and screen.

igolten - 07/06/18

Definitely try to get the knife as close as possible to the aluminum body. It will spare you damage to the plastic band… wish I would have read the comment before trying this myself… ah… and don’t get tricked by a possible space between the display and the plastic band it looks tempting to put the knife in there however that will possibly damage the plastic band. That’s where I thought I could get in between the display and the body and did damage my plastic seal. Btw, I got my device open from the left side away from the power and volume buttons.

Marcel Duda - 24/11/18

I couldn’t even find room for the knife, ended up using a suction cup to lift the bottom left corner enough to get a plastic shim in. Worked around from there. Damaged a good deal of the plastic around the edge trying to get the knife in—would recommend just using a suction cup.

Alexander Haase - 14/12/18

Blow dry the viser and stick an exacto knife under it. Gently pry. The bottom plastic is the same process, it is more difficult.

Easyway to push the unibody/screen apart is pushing hard on the fingerprint reader. No bending/scraping. Going between the screen and body with a pick or blade is stupid.

If you DONT put the 5 screws back in, it makes future servicing easy. The device has dovetail joints that will snap into place and still hold everything together. The phone is easy to bend/shatter anyways. This kind of gives you a removable back.

Yazan Sakran - 24/03/19

That is a terrific suggestion and it’s what I’ve done. Put the cover back on and guess what, those six screws aren’t even needed.

In fact, thank you all for your input. (I echo Alexander Haase above; there’s no real need for a blade when separating the front.)

Also, am I the only one who found the “iOpener approach” more effective than using a hairdryer? I don’t have an iOpener and I used one of those blue gel ice/hot packs. Simply placing it on the target area may indeed not be enough, but I covered my hand with a towel and kept it firmly pressed against the surface for a couple minutes. The visor then came off very smoothly on prying, with all the adhesive stuck only on one side.

Never was there the slightest chance of either part cracking or warping. The operation is far less scary than (and certainly not as Difficult as) the guide would suggest.

Ω Gsazraetr - 11/10/19

I had a lot of trouble with this, and the trick that worked for me was to do something similar to Alexander Haase above (minus the suction cup, I couldn’t get my suction cup to stick well enough to pull up the glass enough for a gap).

The bottom left corner of the phone - at least on mine - seemed to have the biggest gap and be most the ameanable to prying open. I used a razor blade and pushed it in at the very corner (as close as you can to the aluminium, so that you don’t wreck the plastic band around the glass), then jimmied up the glass with the blade until there was a gap. I placed a plastic prying tool / guitar pick in the gap, and pushed it around the edges to seperate the clips.

Michael Lerro - 11/08/19

I tried to use the suction cup method, but ended up separating the glass from the phone. The glass cracked and now my screen is broken.

Louis Kruger - 24/11/19

Same here, separated screen glass, now is damaged. WTF!

Malcolm Zaloon - 19/05/21

Well I wish this guy had been a little more detailed in where to pry and how the friggen screen just separates and the fact you need to slide the picks pointing more down than in or your going to spilt the screen apart. Now I have a brand new broken phone with custom shattered screen, a brand new replacement battery and a bunch of overpriced brand new ifixit tools I can use as paper weights. Thanks guys.

loki - 11/03/20

Bottom left of phone also worked for me. Read notes about going between black plastic and metal, not plastic and glass. Use suction cup on top of glass to pull up steadily as you work knife edge (not tip) in between the metal and screen assembly. snap joint is located about 1 inch up from bottom left corner. Work on the left side first so that when you lift off back, you are putting less stress on the buttons.

JimmyJames - 16/03/21

Step 7

Unscrew the Phillips #00 screw.
Use tweezers to remove the metal plate.

While I performed this step, the three ribbon cables from the next step came up attached to the metal plate.

troy2000me - 30/06/18

As a head’s up the metal plate needs to be removed from the left side first because it does slide under another piece of metal close to the fingerprint scanner. Upon reassembly insert the right side first and then push the left side down. You will know if you have it in correctly if the plate cannot move freely if the screw is in even a little bit.

Michael Stefanchik - 09/08/18

There is glue on the underside of metal plate that made it a little harder to pull up the plate than we expected. The flex cables did not come up with the plate, but it was a surprise.

Catherine Adams - 03/09/18

Step 8

Use the flat end of a spudger to disconnect the three flex cables.

While I was performing this, the three flat ribbon cables were stuck to the metal plate and came up with it. Watch out for that possibility.

troy2000me - 30/06/18

Step 9

Use the flat end of a spudger to disconnect the interconnect cable from the daughterboard.
Use an iOpener to loosen the adhesive under the battery.

Step 10

Warning: do not insert the spudger or plastic card too deep underneath the battery. The display cable runs underneath the battery.
Scroll down to the next step to see where the cable is.
Insert the flat end of a spudger as deep as the notch and carefully slide along the edge to cut the adhesive…
Use a plastic card to cut the remaining adhesive on the left side underneath the battery.

The display cable seems to be completely attached to backing, not free to move at all. The warning made me think it would be floating between the battery and the back of the battery area, however this is not the case. You shouldn’t need to worry too much about it, but you also don’t need to stick anything that deep since the adhesive isn’t where the display cable is. You can see where the adhesive is in the picture for the next step. It’s the black sort of rectangular-ish pad to the right of the display cable. There’s a second taller adhesive pad on the left side of the display cable which must’ve stuck to the battery when they removed it for this guide. When I took the battery out both of the adhesive pads stayed attached to the battery.

Cory Miller - 16/07/18

Thanks, Cory. This is exactly what we saw, too!

Catherine Adams - 03/09/18

How is the new battery secured to the phone? Is there enough adhesive left after removing the old battery to make it stay in place?

Carolina hiker - 14/02/19

My battery came up pretty easily:

I heated the battery to around 60C (145F), then used a plastic prying tool and an old credit card and pushed them in to cut / seperate the glue. Then just pulled the battery up. Be aware of the display cable underneath and where it is (see picks below), but in my case it was fine.

For the replacement battery the existing black adhesive sticker things in the phone were enough (if yours come up stuck to the battery, pull them off and put them back into the phone), I just heated it up a bit again after inserting the new battery to reglue it back down.

Michael Lerro - 11/08/19

The glass top cover was shattered, but otherwise, worked like charm!

Samudra Banerjee - 15/08/20

There is a kind of pry slot on the left (when looking at back of phone, camera up) which can be used to start the process. Mine was terribly stuck in and battery started bending while I was prying. Graphic cable is located in about middle third of cavity and there is adhesive on the entire left third and bottom portion of right third. Prying and heating with hair dryer will work .

JimmyJames - 16/03/21

Step 11

Remove the battery.

You’re gonna want a heat gun and a scalpel for this one, for sure. All steps in this guide are accurate. I followed it, and my new battery fires up my old device just fine.

As far as new adhesive is concerned, I forgot to bring home double sided tape, so I cheated and used super glue to secure the new battery to the chassis.

thewilliemac - 09/05/20

Unlike the phone pictured above my (international) phone had another larger glue strip on the other side of the display cable. The rather soft battery was a little more damaged after removal. I had trouble aligning the battery connector after putting locating the battery in its recess. I ended up connecting the battery first. The result was a very slight buckle in the flat ribbon. I put a small patch of sticky tape in the back cover above the buckle in case there was some movement or a sharp edge. I left out the screws ( I think I might be able to remove the rear cover with just a couple of Picks now. The small scar near the rear glass is now hidden by my much more damaged cover. ?? Will I do this again? Probably not to this phone as the OS is old and neglected by Google. I really thought that I’d get more updates out of them.

Terry Ess - 18/08/20

Just want to let you know that the Nexus 6P has a very active custom ROM development scene. I’m running Android 10 on mine with NO issues. And the updates keep coming.

Ω Gsazraetr - 29/11/20

When putting in new battery, I noticed that the ribbon cable coming off of it was not oriented perfectly for new install. I had to remove/cut back some of the yellow film at the top of the battery to allow for the cable to rotate a little more and then when inserting into phone, noticed there was some play top/down in the placement so I made sure to stick battery down where the cable would have the least amount of stress. I also noticed the interconnect plug for the battery didn’t give a satisfying “snap” back into place. I checked a few times to verify it was seated correctly and should be stable after placing hold down cover back on but it had me slightly worried at the time.

JimmyJames - 16/03/21

That really is some adhesive under the battery. Was finally able to get it off, but it wasn’t easy! While not the most delicate part of this guide, it was the hardest to complete for me because I had to carefully judge how much force I could apply.

Christian B -

Step 12

Remove the two Philipps #000 screws.
Remove the metal plate.
Use the flat end of a spudger to disconnect the display flex cable.

Step 13

Use an iOpener to loosen the adhesive under the display.

Step 14

Work an iFlex opening tool between the display and the midframe to create a gap.
Insert an opening pick into the gap and carefully slide it to the top right corner.
Insert a second opening pick and move it to the top left corner.

Step 15

Slide the opening pick from the top left corner down the left side of the smartphone to the bottom left corner.

Step 16

If the adhesive felt hard to cut, reheat it with your iOpener.
Slide the opening pick from the top right around the corner and down along the side to the lower right.
Move it around the corner and towards the charging port to separate the rest of the adhesive.

Step 17

When all the adhesive is cut, separate the display from the midframe at the top of the phone.
Thread the display flex cable through the gap in the midframe.
Remove the display.

Nexus 6P Display Replacement

Introduction

Tools

Parts

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Step 10

Step 11

Step 12

Step 13

Step 14

Step 15

Step 16

Step 17

Author

Dominik Schnabelrauch

0 comments