Introduction
The earpiece speaker is the speaker that outputs sound at the top of the device. This speaker is enabled when you receive phone calls. Be sure to check our troubleshooting page to see if the problem is within the software of the device.
If the problem happens to be within the actual hardware of the device then follow this guide to replace the earpiece speaker.
Be forewarned- replacing this part involves breaking your phone's waterproof seal. If you want your phone to keep its waterproof capabilities, you will need to replace the seal.
Tools
Parts
No parts specified.
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Before you begin, switch off your phone.
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Apply a heated iOpener to a long edge of the phone to loosen the adhesive beneath the rear glass. Apply the iOpener for at least two minutes.
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Press a suction cup onto the back cover.
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Lift the back cover's bottom edge with your suction cup, opening a slight gap between the back cover and the frame.
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Insert an opening pick in the gap you created and slide it to the bottom right corner.
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Insert a second opening pick and slide it to the bottom left corner.
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Insert a third opening pick to prevent the adhesive from resealing during the rest of the removal procedure.
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Take out the SIM card by using a SIM card remover or unbent paper clip to depress the release lever.
this is one more screw on the motherboard that you must remove before prying it out! it hold the board to the midframe. it is located just near the curve of the battery ribbon cable.
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Remove the motherboard by prying it out with the spudger.
There is another connector on the back side of the motherboard at the very bottom left that you must pry apart with a spudger before removing the mother board.
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Remove the earpiece speaker by prying it off of the front display with the spudger.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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3 Comments
Replaced ear speaker but ended up being a software issue ☹️
So do you have a software issue now, or did you not need to replace the earpiece speaker? Asking so I can help troubleshoot if necessary.
Hey, I just replaced the earpiece speaker as well and it does not work in phone calls, however, it does work to play music. I’m not sure what the issue could be here besides software related issues, however, I will try to reset the phone and let you guys know if that fixes it. If anyone has any ideas, I’m all ears.
Nightmare. Impossible to get the back off so far. Being trying using the iOpener with hair dryer for last 1hr. No chance.
Chris Bunney - Reply
You’re right Chris. I’ve tried on 3 separate occasions now and haven’t been able to budge that back. All that has happened is the pick has taken a piece out of the glass back leaving a rough edge now.
grahamcatto - Reply
it was not easy but doable.
Clinton Stark - Reply
It’s difficult, but the trick I did to get it was to wrap the hot iOpener around a bottom corner, apply the suction cup, then I covered the opener and phone with a paper plate, better insulating the area. Then I set my blow dryer to high heat and low velocity and heated the area under the plate for about a minute. Right after turning off the blower, I took off the plate and pulled the suction cup with a cutter at hand. You’ll hear a bit of a cracking/popping noise when the adhesive is starting to give, just apply a little more force and push the cutter at the seam. This method worked great for me, so good luck and just keep at it — you’ve got this!
Nicholas Weger - Reply
I used nearly boiling water in a storage zip bag on the phone for 10 minutes. I can’t really recommend this method, but thankfully the bag did not leak - an iOpener is probably a much better way to go. Regardless, the bag covered the entire back of the phone, and the phone was too hot to hold, but I still could not get the glass to budge with the suction cup after struggling with it for about an hour and multiple reheats. I ended up epoxying a 2”x2” square of PVC board to the bottom of the cover and built a relatively complex fixture that pulled on the PVC with the turn of a screw while it held down the frame by the edges. After heating the edges up again It did lift the glass enough to get a pick underneath it, but it cracked the glass and it was a pain to slide a pick around the edge while the glass was cracking all the way around. Once I finally got all the glass off, I spent the next 30 minutes (which is what this entire process is supposed to take… what a joke!) cleaning the adhesive off the phone.
drbenton815 - Reply
Heavy Duty Heat Gun from popular discount tool store for the win!
Jesse Meyer - Reply
Well, it is not obvious how to do this. I have no iOpener, but a heat cushion for remedy hurting muscles and sometimes a backpain. It is filled with grain of some kind and it is to be heated in a microwave oven for about 3 minutes. After that I enveloped this cushion round the phone and brewed myself a cup of tea. After ten miutes the phone was warm (almost hot) and I was able to press the tip of a small (very small) knife above the charging port into the connection between the phone body and the backplate. A very small opening emerged slowly (this is the critical point in this process) and I was able to start using the iFixit opening picks. It became obvious to me that the opening picks are too blunt to achive this with them. But after starting carefully with the (very small and very sharp) knife, everything went straight forward. Thou I had to give the phone a second heatpush with my heat cushion before the backplate came loose.
borutberg - Reply