The iPhone 4 Front Glass Digitizer and LCD is manufactured as one unit. Apple has used epoxy strength adhesive to adhere the LCD to the digitizer. This design change was made to completely solve the issue with dust and derby accumulating between the glass digitizer and the LCD. Their is no way to remove the glass digitizer from the LCD without causing damage and grief, period.

**Beware many internet sites and companies will try and sell you a cheap quick fix. Their is no cheap solution at the moment, you will have to purchase the glass digitizer and LCD as one unit assembled.

The answer should be NO of course we can always try to heat things up and break the bond of the adhesive etc, but ultimately that would involve more luck than skill and is in my opinion not a good repair. Just my 2 cents

No, it's glued to the display. The Glass+LCD+Digitizer are all one unit.

I was also very curious about the possibility of getting this task done. So I got a good deal on ebay. 10 working lcds with cracked screens for 20.00. My first mistake was to try to remove the lcd without the black layer described above. It comes off easily, it tooke me a couple of minutes and with no cracks but that black layer is part of the lcd. Just when you buy a 3GS lcd and it has that black plastic on the front part. There is some liquid between the lcd and the black film. After that the lcd would light up but all I could see was a white screen. I thought I had broken it somehow and tried again. Again the same problem.

My third try was to peel the glass off. All that time I had my own iphone with the back removed to test the lcds. I started peeling off the glass and what a painful process. Each 10 minutes or so I would test it again to make sure it was still working and after about 30 minutes even though I was really careful the bottom showed some cracks.

I still have 7 more to play with but my conclusion is: it might be possible to peel the glass off but it is not worth it. Nowadays the complete assembly goes for $30.00 on ebay and even if someone is able to get the task done, it is just too much time consuming. Not worth it at all.

my concern with using a heat gun is simply this: if the epoxy used is able to be heated to release the digitizer, how does the LCD accept the same heat temperature? ...surely the LCD isnt designed for the extreme temps a heat gun would produce.

what do you think?

Hi all,

to let u know that ive replace almost 10pcs iphone 4 screen complete set ofcurse, so i have some broken digitizer but fone lcd attached.then ive tried to use a very sharp blade and seperate the lcd from digitizer. it was like piece of cake and lcd come out with no crack.

but.....

there is a black/dark layer on iphone 4 lcd that one still is attached to broken screen and my lcd is just naked.and the dark layer is very tough and noway to separate even now im using any tools to see how get it work.

so im agreed with ifix, dont think its possible to separate the lcd from glass,bu sure u can but both separately and glue them together if u wish.

Just changed the complete unit and tried to separate the broken glass from the old digitizer and LCD. Silicone remover seemed to be a usable choice. After a good beginning, probably with too less care and too much solvent, first the digitizer started cracking, because it is much thinner than the protection glass, shortly after this the LCD decomposed into all its layers. I would say it is not impossible to separate glass, digitizer and LCD, but as long as there is no simple and safe method, it isn't worth the effort.

Next time (hopefully never) I probably will install a separate LCD without glueing.

One more point: It took me a long time to remove all the very small chips of broken glass from the adhesive strips on the frame above and below the display area. It would be good to have them as replacement parts.

We was able to separate the glass from LCD but it took us almost 2 hours of very complicated work, not worth spending that much time.

http://www.bnytech.com/Iphone-repair-new...

I cracked my iphone 4 glass, but the phone still works. One of the cracks ran right through my front-facing camera. About a month later, I decided to pick the shards off of the face where the camera is, and I was able to do so with ease. I'm wondering if I can pluck the rest of this glass off and replace it with a $30 glass display instead of blowing $150 on a new glass+LCD panel. If I do this, I will record it. I might be the first to pull this off and document it. For now, I have started a blog page to talk about the frequency of broken iPhone 4 glass displays. Check it out at http://carltonzone.com/blog/cracked-your...

Update

When I broke my 3GS, you had to use a heat gun just to loosen the glue at the top and bottom of the digitizer screen. This was not easy at all, and was a frustrating process. You either don't heat it up enough, or you can over do it and warp the parts. I watched a video of a guy in Europe who took a first generation iPhone and a sharp knife, and he cracked and scraped the broken glass digitizer from the LCD without damaging the LCD. I still think this is possible, because at the top of my iPhone 4, where the front-facing camera is, I was able to pluck off at least 1/2" of the top strip of glass with relative ease. My question is, will it be as easy to pluck the glass off of the digitizer? If the glue is as weak as it is on the top part of the phone above the display, this should not be hard to do! Has anyone else tried this, and if so, can you confirm that the strength of the glue is the same on the LCD as it is on the top 1/2" of the phone?

Update

Mostafa, thank you for sharing that! I have not heard any reports from someone separating the LCD and digitizer that gave this level of detail. Someone reported on another site this week that they successfully removed the glass without breaking the LCD, but the point you are making here is significant. If the dark layer on the LCD doesn't come off and is not on the replacement, that would definitely be a problem. I wonder if some suppliers are selling the LCDs with this dark layer attached already?

I'd like to hear more about that too. Thus far, I have only found one person who has attempted something similar. A gentleman managed to chip away the glass digitizer from a 1st-generation iPhone, which also has the glass glued to the LCD panel. He said it took over 3 hours, but he managed to get it done by cracking and chipping away the glass piece by piece.

I've tried and it shouldnt be done. You should try to replace the complete front assembly with the LCD included. I emailed this company about just replacing the glass and digitizer and they said its not recommended, only for professionals with the right tools. http://iphone4parts.com/shop/iphone-glas...

They said they mostly sell the digitizer alone to manufacturers to be assembled. Save yourself time and trouble and just replace the complete front screen with digitizer and LCD all in one piece.

YES IT IS POSSIBLE!! i did this on a very well shattered glass screen.

Follow these steps:

1. DO NOT HEAT

2. slide sharp blade between glass and adhesive (this way you will not damage LCD)

- start at bottom by home button. Work your way up and to the sides (doing it this way prevents LCD cracking)

3. It will look like it bubbles a little. this is good!!

4. Go very slowly (remember, the more shattered the better)

- i would recommend wearing goggles, long sleeve shirt and gloves. Glass splinters and goes everywhere when doing this.

5. Once you have taken all the glass off the screen use acetone to dissolve adhesive. Use a blunt non-metal object to remove adhesive. Those plastic repair tools work quite well.

Good luck!!

Well, after reading all the posts, and also ordering the full glass and digitizer replacement, I decided to go ahead and give this a go as I already did a tear down on my iPhone4 and had the replacement part on the way. I took some hints and tips from almost everyone who's posted. The short of it is I was able to get all the glass off the digitizer in about 15 minutes. I used a product called Un-Du to loosen up the epoxy. This is a fantastic product for removing stickers/glue/labels/tape etc. and I use this stuff all the time on other projects. Now my screen was very badly cracked so the solution could work its way through the broken glass. Un-Du dries fairly quickly and is very safe on electronics. I then used the heat gun/blow dryer on low for a few minutes, after which I did another application of Un-Du. Let it sit for a minute or two to dry and applied a little more heat again. Then once again another application of Un-Du. Then I took a straight razor and began to slide underneath the glass and it scraped off fairly easy from here. The gotchas are the larger pieces of broken glass. Just use more solution and work the razor. Be careful around the edges of the screen working the razor underneath the glass towards the center. All this being said, I sit here with my screen clear of glass but I've not tested it yet. So, maybe this will help someone out there. If it works I'll post an update.

You can separate it by taking apart the screws that hold the LCD to the glass. Then you can just easily slide it off (the LCD) and TA-DA there you go, its separated i have a business doing this so I have a LOT of experience:)!

Tip: Don't forget to do this VERY CAREFULLY and as gentle as you can because you may break the LCD if you don't

Have a great day and i hope your iPhone works!