Replacing the battery to a iPhone 5

I had purchased a used iPhone 5 back in 2014 while the iPhone 5's were officially released in 2012. I knew it was two years old then and so I had purchased a replacement battery in advanced for it. I finally came to the point where I felt the originally battery has come to its last leg. Keeping busy with the phone for about 20-30 minutes at 80%-90% of battery life, left me with about 10%-30% battery life as of late. So I felt it was time and figured I should document the battery replacement process as well.

Hope you all enjoy just as much as I did.


Time to open up the phone carefully.




Here's the original Battery.




The original battery has been removed.




Here's a shot of both the original and replacement battery.







Can you guess between the two, which one is which?




Carefully installed the new replacement battery.




Phone needed to be left alone for a full charge.

Very nice.

Was there any adhesive, or just screws & pull it up? Adhesive is what worries me most about these kind of battery replacements on newer phones. I have no problems thinking I could get the phones apart, but getting them back together without replacement adhesive strikes me as the hard part!

hokiealumnus said:

Very nice.

Was there any adhesive, or just screws & pull it up? Adhesive is what worries me most about these kind of battery replacements on newer phones. I have no problems thinking I could get the phones apart, but getting them back together without replacement adhesive strikes me as the hard part!

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Thanks Hokie.

To answer your question, both. I had to first get some screws out before I was able to get the battery out. I had to pry the battery away from the body carefully as it took a bit of time. Luckily the adhesive stayed in place and so I didn't have problems in that end. There were three designated areas where I used the opening tools on otherwise from what I've read, you could risk damaging the phone.

From what I experienced, this replacement for me was fairly easy, passing the nerve racking phase in the beginning since its my first time doing surgery to a smart phone. For newer iPhones, I've seen tutorials where it can get a bit more complex. I wish they made it simple on all smart phones for battery replacements but it seems to get more complicating as things get smaller. I couldn't tell you how small the screws were. I don't think I've ever experienced anything like that. The iFixit magnetic mat is a great investments as well as all of their other products for projects like these.

Thank you for the guide, my elder kid has a iPhone 5S that the battery is starting to complain, might just do the replacement myself. How long did it take ?

Kenrou said:

Thank you for the guide, my elder kid has a iPhone 5S that the battery is starting to complain, might just do the replacement myself. How long did it take ?

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Without taking the time to document this process, no more than 15 mins.

Very nice. My success rate on these types of repairs is slightly better than 50/50. I was looking to repair phones for extra cash but decieded against it fairly quickly. I'll repair my own or a firend if they beg me but not for a client.