How to Replace the Battery on the iPhone 5S (Complete Guide) (Video)

Posted by David Cogen

Wednesday, July 20th, 2016

Eventually it’ll happen. If you have your phone long enough, the battery life will just not be what it used to be. Instead of getting a brand new iPhone, why not replace the battery in your iPhone 5S instead? Apple might say that the battery is non-removable, but – enough effort – it’ll come out alright. It’s not the easiest thing to do but considering you can get a replacement battery for under $25 and do the work yourself in under 20 mins, it’d might just be worth it. And, hey, you get that satisfying feeling of learning a new skill and doing something yourself, right?

Here’s how to replace the battery on the iPhone 5S in detail from beginning to end:

I. Get a Replacement Battery

The one I used in the video is one I made after getting frustrated with crappy batteries on Amazon, you can get that here if you want.

II. Remove the Screen

Once that battery arrives, you can begin to open up the phone so we can replace the battery using the kit that comes with the new battery.

Turn off the phone.
Unscrew the two screws at the bottom of the phone and set them aside (make sure to keep track of all of the screws and where exactly they go throughout this process).
Stick the included suction cup to the bottom part of the screen as low as you can without going over the home button (doing so will create an air bubble and that’ll cause the cup to lose suction.
While pulling up on the suction cup, use one of the pry tools that came with the kit to create a small gap between the screen and the housing of the phone. Once you get it in a little, you can rotate it to wedge the rest of the screen up. Make sure not to bend the screen back more than 90 degrees or you’ll damage the cables holding it to the motherboard.
At this point, you can optionally remove the screen by undoing the screws that hold down the metal plate that is over the cables connecting the screen to the motherboard. Then you can pop off the connectors (just make sure which connector goes back where). I, personally, don’t remove them as it just makes it faster, but if you don’t make sure to not bend them back too much.

III. Remove the Battery

Disconnect the battery by removing the two screws and metal plate where it is connected to the motherboard. Pop off the connector after that.
Here comes the hard part. You need to carefully and slowly pry up the battery from the glue underneath. Do not bend or rip the batttery or you’ll have a puff of smoke and some bad smells to deal with.

IV. Replace the iPhone Battery

After you remove the original battery, you can easily place the new battery in where the old one sat.
Connect the battery’s connector back to the motherboard and replace the metal bracket and two screws to lock it into place.

V. Put the Screen Back On

You can now reattach the screen’s cables and put the bracket back over it if you chose to remove it or you can just slowly lower the screen down until it fits snug. It usually helps to snap it in place starting with the top edges and working your way down.
As you get to it being almost all the way down, reconnect the cable that is coming from the back of the home button to it’s connector and finish closing the screen.
Once it’s in place and flush, you can screw the two hex screws back in to the bottom of the phone while holding the screen tightly to the phone.
After that you can turn it on and make sure it works!