Difficulty
Moderate
Steps
17
Time Required
40 minutes - 1 hour
- Back Cover 10 steps
- Google Pixel 3 Battery Disconnect 2 steps
- Battery 5 steps
Featured Guide
This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the iFixit staff.
Introduction
Follow this guide to remove and replace a worn battery for the Pixel 3. If your battery is swollen, take appropriate precautions.
For your safety, discharge your battery below 25% before disassembling your phone. This reduces the risk of a dangerous thermal event if the battery is accidentally damaged during the repair.
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Heat an iOpener and apply it to the bottom of the phone for one minute.
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When prying above the power button, be careful not to insert the pick too deeply, or you will damage the fingerprint sensor cable.
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Apply a suction cup to the heated bottom edge of the back cover.
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Lift on the suction cup with strong, steady force to create a gap.
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Insert an opening pick into the gap.
The initial opening/insert is the hardest part of this repair, and if you end up having to use a flat-head screwdriver (etc) to get the first gap opened, you’ll scratch the phone. But it works.
I don’t recommend using a screwdriver. I tried this and it shattered the glass in that area. I replaced the battery on my Pixel 1 recently and noted that heating the FRONT glass on that phone enough to get a gap for one of the pics takes a considerable amount of time AND patience. I was one of the few who didn’t break or otherwise damage the glass in that process. I would say the same rule applies here. Allow for significant time and patiences to heat the old adhesive enough to get a pick inside the cover.
Definitely, this opening/insert is the hardest part of the procedure. I was unable to open even a slight separation with a suction cup and even with tons of heat from a hair dryer. What worked really well, and what I would highly recommend to others who experience really strong adhesive, is to use a small X-acto knife with a #16 blade. Make sure it’s a #16 (find on Amazon) because it differs greatly in angle and rigidity from the usual #11 blade. The sharpness of the blade makes it really easy to find the crack and open a gap, where you can then insert a pick with no problem.
I really wanted to level off the back of the phone when pulling on the suction cup in this step, but found it was actually pretty easy once I used the opening tool to push down on the edge of the bezel, at the crack, barely putting any force on the back of the phone at all (just to keep it steady).
I have about a 2 year old Pixel 3. iOpener didn’t work at all on this step, but once I broke out the hair dryer, I was able to get the phone hot enough to insert the pick (no screwdriver or xacto knife needed)
I’m having trouble with the iOpener too. It is frustrating because I practiced on a bricked iPhone earlier this week and it was effortless. My Pixel 3 is also about 2 years old. Out of curiosity, were you replacing the charging assembly because of the charging cables fitting too loosely on the phone or for some other reason?
Edwin -
I used a stanley knive to get started and then a combo of opener and plektrums.
All went well till I used to much force on the camera corner and broke the back into lots of small pieces. Be careful on that corner, people.
But the new camera does focus, so for a first attempt at fixing a phone I am happy.
I heated the bottom up with the Iopener and then used a rectangular razor blade and the suction cup to lift the bottom. Place the entire blade edge into the crack and push/pry while lifting with the suction cup. As soon as you have a gap start to open, have a second person insert a pick into the corner. It was actually really easy. I had given up after a couple of tries without a blade. My Pixel 3 is 2 years old.
Agreed with many other comments here. My Pixel 3 is two years old and neither the iopener nor a blow dryer were capable of loosening it enough. I ended up using a VERY hot iopener for a couple of minutes, the suction cup, and then a wide-bladed razer blade (about 80% width of bottom edge to spread out the stress and prevent risk of fracturing the rear glass panel). Once adding the razer blade I was able to get the pick in and follow the rest of the instructions as written.
I also had to follow this process but resorted to a heat gun on its lowest setting as I couldn’t get the iOpener hot enough (I was afraid of overheating and bursting it). Other how-to videos also show using a thin piece of plastic or metal to slide into the corner, saving substantial time.
Helped me to notice that the focus here is to lift in the center (like right over the USB C connector). Was able to get it with just the iOpener and pushing down on the rest of the phone with the pry tool. My phone is over 2 years old though and it took about 50 minutes of working / reheating / repeating
Destroyed the glass back trying to take it off. This is not an easy phone to take apart.
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Heat the right edge with an iOpener and continue slicing the adhesive with an opening pick.
What is the required temperature to soften the glue? Can I just use a small bag filled with boiling water or a heat gun.
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Remove the two 4.1 mm long Phillips screws securing the fingerprint connector bracket.
A magnetic screwdriver tip helped here.
If you purchase iFixit’s kit for this replacement, their included driver is magnetic. Helped immensely!
after replacing my camera, my screen had a big green/white vertical stripe. I didn’t see the disclaimer about overtightening these screws. I think it may be related.
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Use the point of a spudger to slide the fingerprint connector bracket out from under the NFC coil.
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Remove the fingerprint connector bracket.
Re-inserting this is tricky and requires pretty good dexterity. The shiny metal frame of the wireless charger is also not held down, so you may wish to gently apply pressure to it as you try to re-position the connector bracket.
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Remove the back cover.
When reassembling is it better to first attach the new adhesive back gasket to the phone back or the phone chassis frame?
Hi Tom!
It depends on the adhesive. Carefully align the adhesive to the phone by matching the contours. Note which adhesive side is backed by a clear liner, and which side is backed by a colored liner. The clear liner should be removed first. Whichever component the exposed adhesive faces should be the first surface to apply to.
Hope that helps!
Two things:
1) I recommend attaching the adhesive to the Phone frame and not the back panel. As you attach, you can more easily see the gaps and guide the adhesive along the groove, leaving equal space all around.
2) To transfer the fingerprint sensor, you will need double-sticky tape to make a new gasket. Put the tape on the back from the inside, and trim with a blade to make the sensor hole. To attach the sensor, place it on something small to raise it off your working surface, then lower the back over it. You’ll be able to see the sensor alignment as you lower the back, which helps get a good position.
Oh, and be prepared: Removing the old adhesive is teeeeedious!! It will take you some time. :-b Alcohol is not a strong solvent, so don’t expect it to remove much; it is mostly for cleaning afterward. In the end, I used one of iFixit’s flat metal tools from the big toolkit to remove the final remains. Its was blunt enough to not cut metal shavings as I cleaned.
I ended up reusing the original adhesive as it was in pretty good shape. So far, no problems.
Does your IF356-119-1, Google Pixel 3 Rear Cover Adhesive, template use 2 sided pressure sensitive tape? Do I simply align it on the back cover and then press it to the device to reassemble the unit? If so, how long til the back cover is “glued” to the unit?
Hi Martin,
The rear cover adhesive is indeed two-sided PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive). Apply firm even pressure for a minute to bond the adhesive to the unit.
When scraping the adhesive off the back cover be careful and don’t apply too much pressure (and/or position the cover against the surface so that it’s supported against the tool used), especially in the corners, or the glass cover rounded edges could break.
My battery swelled and did all the hard work getting started popping the back open so I didn’t need the iOpener to get the back off, but now the iOpener is handy to heat up the sticky foamy factory original adhesive.
I found isopropanol ineffective. I found heat softens it considerably. Just very warm, like hot water warm, is effective. Use tweezers or a plastic blade to help pull it off. Metal blades will either gouge the plastic or, worse, create metal shavings that will wreak havoc.
Are there any solvents other than isopropanol that work and won’t harm the plastic? How do pros speed up this step?
I think pros often use heating pads or special jigs. They’d set the temperature, set the phone on the pad, and let the phone heat up for a few minutes. Heat guns are also a popular choice.
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Remove the five Phillips screws securing the wireless charging coil:
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Two 1.9 mm screws
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Two 4.2 mm screws
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One 4.3 mm screw
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Remove the wireless charging coil.
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Use the point of a spudger to pry up and disconnect the battery connector from its socket near the right edge of the phone.
The connecton board is quete flexible … be careful otherwise other connectors may get looze.
This is also valid when re-assemble … pusing battery conector may cause other conectors to “pop“.
The square connector directly below the battery connector came undone and will not pop back into place.
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Slide the point of a spudger in the crevice underneath the black tape bridging across the battery and the motherboard.
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Slide the spudger along the crevice to pry up the tape from the battery side.
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Carefully peel the tape from the battery and fold it out of the way.
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Insert the point of a spudger underneath the black battery pull tab on the left edge of the phone.
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Slide the spudger upwards along the edge to loosen the pull tab from the battery.
On very old devices, there’s a good chance these will just break before you get the strip out. The alcohol tip in the next step is quite likely going to be required.
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Pull on the black pull tab at a shallow angle with steady force. When the adhesive grows long, roll it around some tweezer tips and continue pulling.
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If the adhesive strips break, use an opening pick to help pry up and loosen the battery.
This was pretty tricky for me, required a reasonable amount of force as the bottom of the 3 tapes shown above ripped straight away, so I couldnt stretch to de-sticky it. There seemed to also be a fourth piece of adhesive on the bottom most part of the battery which was not shown in this guide, and did not have an external tab.
I also had issues with this step. The tweezers immediately caused the tape to break on all three strips (after working with my hands for a while) and prying up the battery was tricky with ~1/2 of the adhesive still in place.
Same here, all three strips broke with most of them left in place under the battery. The small foam buffer block from the left edge of the battery mentioned in the next step broke while I was working on removing the battery with the opening !$$&*.
same issue here … just pry the battery and hope for the best :)
I have iFixit plastic card (from MacBook battery replacement kit) … it made me more confident while removing the battery.
This was the hardest part of the repair for me. I wasn’t able to pull these out without them tearing. I would definitely elaborate more on how to do this in different situations.
Yeah, if you are going to have a catastrophic battery melt down, this will be the step. If your phone is older, those tapes will not stretch enough to release and you will need to gently pry. Watch your fingers and keep some water near by. Why on earth they feel the need to GLUE the battery down I will never understand.
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Remove the battery.
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Carefully pull and remove the small foam buffer block from the left edge of the battery and transfer it to your replacement part. If it begins to tear, use the flat end of a spudger to gently pry it off the battery.
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Lay some double-sided tape in the phone's battery well. Peel away any tape liners to expose the adhesive.
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Temporarily re-connect the battery's connector to the motherboard socket. This ensures that the battery is properly positioned.
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Lay the battery on the adhesive and press firmly.
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Disconnect the battery connector from its motherboard socket and resume re-assembly.
It’s very easy to tear the foam block off from the adhesive backing strip that holds it to the battery; I think it’d be good to talk explicitly about how you need to get under that adhesive strip if you want to re-attach it to the new battery… I think friction will work to hold mine in place, but I do wish I’d known that would be an issue.
I also found installing the new adhesive strips to be next to impossible. For other folks trying this with the iFixit adhesive strips:
Just cut the three strips apart as you remove them from the packing plastic; you only want to deal with one strip at a time. You will probably never get them apart (without stretching them out of shape) if they stick to eachother.
Hi Eugene,
Thanks for the comments! I’ll adjust the step to include your suggestions.
Directions/photos on how to use the iFixit adhesive strips would have been nice. I wish I saw your comment first.
Very good description. Battery replaced and working perfect! Thank you!
Seconding Chuck’s comment about making sure the connectors are slotted in at the end. In my case, the primary connector for the battery was finnicky plugging in, and I didn’t realize that it hadn’t actually clicked into place. Spent a couple days with my phone randomly powering down because the battery was touching the board just enough to turn on, but slight movement would jostle it out of place.
I was getting pretty worried until I took it all apart again and had the realization that it was never fully plugged in. No problems since (knock on wood)
What happens if I break the black foil tape on the top of the battery while peeling back? I notice there is a plus and minus positivity area on the battery here. Is this conductive tape? Will it not work if this area breaks?
Hi Brenton
The tape acts as a cooling pad for the motherboard and battery. It does not need to be in one piece to do its job.
Had a bulging battery and during removing the adhesive behind it I cut through the bottom portion of cable leading to the buttons.
All of this glue is an unnecessary part of smartphone design. I’d rather see a few screws in my phone (which always has a case on it) then ruin my phone attempting a repair because the designer thought it’d be a good idea to pinch this cable between two pieces of metal next to where they used tons of adhesive to make the battery so difficult to remove. We need a right to repair law in place already.
Nothing negative to iFixit. Directions and supplies are top notch.
Edit: Ends up the phone works but the volume keys do not, so that’s a plus. I’ll have a functional phone until I replace the cable.
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For optimal performance, calibrate your newly installed battery: Charge it to 100% and keep charging it for at least 2 more hours. Then use your device until it shuts off due to low battery. Finally, charge it uninterrupted to 100%.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
Take your e-waste to an R2 or e-Stewards certified recycler.
Repair didn’t go as planned? Check out our Google Pixel 3 Answers community for troubleshooting help.
For optimal performance, calibrate your newly installed battery: Charge it to 100% and keep charging it for at least 2 more hours. Then use your device until it shuts off due to low battery. Finally, charge it uninterrupted to 100%.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
Take your e-waste to an R2 or e-Stewards certified recycler.
Repair didn’t go as planned? Check out our Google Pixel 3 Answers community for troubleshooting help.
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17 Comments
Removing the adhesive from the rear glass can be a tedious process. I got my best results by taking fine point tweezers and pulling the adhesive back slowly, trying to get it to come up altogether as much as possible before using IPA to remove any residue.
How do you put the adhesive back (or put new adhesive on) when putting the phone back together?
@bfferraro, it depends on the type of adhesive.
If you are using a pre-cut adhesive sheet, follow this guide.
If you have a custom-cut adhesive, follow this guide.
Hi mpc,
The tape does not need to be thick at all. You can use standard double-sided tape, or the fancier stretch-release adhesive.
What adhesive is used to reapply the back to the phone when this is done?
Hi David,
Double-sided adhesive such as Tesa tape works well.
It looks like the 2mm width would be ideal for this, for future reference.
I just finished the Pixel 3 battery replacement. This guide covers all the steps well. For re-attaching the back to the case I used the 1 mm width tape available from this size. The precut card was not available at the time I was ordering parts. I guessed on 1 mm but after using it, it seemed to work well. I cut long, straight lengths for the sides and top & bottom, and then filled each corner with a short piece placed diagonally. Seemed to hold ok.
Thank you for the excellent guide.
mpc -
Thanks! Straightforward repair with this guide.
The warning about breaking the fingerprint sensor cable is important. I didn’t break mine… :-)
I had one small issue with putting all of it together. If you want to test the wireless charging you need to put a little space between the coil and the charger. I suspect their is a minimum distance between the coils to get them to couple properly and without this the charger talks to the phone but does not start charging.
Unfortunately my phone won’t boot correctly after replacing the battery. Fastboot Mode with Device-State: error! I must’ve damaged something while trying this process. Be careful, folks!
I’m having to replace the back glass as it cracked and i’m thinking of replacing the battery as well since I think it has swelling.
Do i need to be as careful removing the back since I’ll be replacing that anyway, or is there still a difference between the back glass and the battery door?
Hi Cabroncito!
The battery door/back glass are the same. You don’t have to worry about cracking it, since it’s already cracked. Be careful not to damage the fingerprint sensor cable shown in step 1! Replacing the battery at this point is a great idea! Good luck with your repairs!
Process went pretty smoothly. Only real issues I had were putting the new battery adhesive on (I got it all tangled before I set it in place). Removing the old adhesive was a bit annoying as well but after all that, it went together well and works. Thanks for the great guide!
Great guide, I had to check a youtube video too (extra caution). However, the main reference was this guide, thanks for the help. The rubbing alcohol (+90%) is a must, I can stress enough how complicated/slow was to remove the adhesive from the phone.
I feel that some instruction advising how to apply the adhesive for the battery would be helpful. I took mine off the protective film thinking that it would hold its shape and it immediately folded on itself. I was able to salvage a piece to hold the battery, but I consider that step a failure for me. Plus, showing how to clean the old adhesive from the back panel and applying the new adhesive would be helpful too.
Overall a really helpful guide that helped me to get the job done. Thanks!
Older devices may require 2 or more minutes with a very hot iOpener. Also note, the photo shows the opener on the FRONT of the phone. The heat needs to be applied to the back of the device!
Rick Johnson - Reply
I just realized that I was trying to pry apart the front of my Pixel 3… and have separated the class from the display. ??♂️ Even though the rest of the directions show the back, it would be nice for the first picture to also show the back, just to be safe.
JR Raith -
Agreed, I’ve done exactly the same and completely broken my display. I probably should’ve paid more attention to the initial steps before diving in but the step could do with a new picture for sure.
Daniel Fryer -
Thanks for the comments! I’ll add a note in the step warning people to make sure to pry the back cover, not the screen.
Arthur Shi -