Google Pixel 3 Back Cover Replacement

I also went for the hairdryer, dental floss, and then the provided picks and this worked. Not easy to get that initial seal broken but once that's done the rest is pretty easy.

I needed 20 nerve wracking minutes with a hairdryer

My battery had bulged and opened the case for me!

Warmed it up a bit with hairdryer

Floss helped also.

I found I wasn't able to get the edges hot enough. I ended up using my heat gun (for shrink tubing) instead.

I gave up with the iOpener and pick, I tried >5 times for over an hour… After heating with theiOpener, I used and X-acto knife instead and that worked like a charm, except it did leave a few scuff marks unfortunatly. I used a size 22 blade.

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 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.

So I didn’t use a blade, but I did get my fingernail in before the plectrum haha. Happened by accident as I was trying to push down on the bezel to counter the suction cup force.

I also heated the sides and corners as well as the bottom, which may have helped it budge.

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.

The Jimmy tool from the iFixit toolkit worked like a freakin’ charm. Took me 10 mins to open the phone and it came out unscathed.

I have a 2-3 year old phone. The “heating pad” and blue picks did not work. I tried for two hours. Two weeks later I tried again using a hair dryer on high heat and low fan, and a rectangular utility razor blade. Start at the bottom of the phone, heat, and insert the razor blade into the gap and use it to cut the adhesive back a little at a time. Do not insert it more than about a 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. Once you start getting a separation, use the blue picks to hold it open. Go up both sides an inch or two on both sides at a time. Do not pry the back open more than an 1/8 of an inch or so until you get it separated all the way around. Be patient. Work slowly. This took about 30 minutes once I got the hang of it. Do NOT pull the cover away from the phone after you separate it all the way around!! Read the instructions several times. There is a cable to the finger print sensor attached to the cover!

Re-read these entire set of instructions and ALL of the comments TWICE before you start.

I used and iOpener and the iFixit tool (the one with the metal spatula). Ended up inserting about 10 picks, but it worked.

I couldn’t get the pick in so I tried the sharper pry tool. Got it in and slid it sideways towards the corner —- BLAM, the back shattered. Not a good home repair experience.

Similar experience with others, iOpener would not heat up the phone enough to separate the adhesive. Had to use a hair dryer to finally insert the blue pick. After sliding the pick past the corner, the back glass scattered… Time to get a new phone and give up on this battery replacement i guess.

On a 3 years old Pixel 3 phone, after unsuccessfully trying iOpener and the suction cup, I used a piece of dental floss, and it worked perfectly.

To make the process easier - tie little loops on both ends of the floss, put a finger or a screwdriver through the loop to help pulling the floss. Pull it through to one side and then to another, continue until you’re 1/2 inch in. At this point it should be possible to insert a pick

This was the hardest step. I could not get the pick in at all. I tried dental floss and it slid in no problem. I eventually stuck the very tip of a razor blade in which allowed me to slide in a pick. Also be very careful when sliding the picks around as my wife broke the back glass of her phone, try to keep pressure as even as possible without bending the glass much.

I like the dental floss idea. I set edges of the phone-back and also the blunt metal tool on an electric cooktop on low heat, and the adhesive softened enough to be workable. SAFETY TIP: the tool and phone were hot to touch, I wore cotton gloves throughout this task.

3.5 year old phone. Just wanted to confirm that dental floss, combined with the iOpener, does the trick to get the first pick in.

I was able to slide the floss under the bottom right corner if you are looking at the phone. I alternated between sawing with the floss and applying heat with the iOpener. Eventually I was able to get a pick in that corner and was able to remove the rest of the adhesive by applying heat with the iOpener and sawing with additional picks around the perimeter of the phone.

My Pixel 3 is 4 years old. I tried using the iOpener heat pad for 2 minutes. Didn't work. Then I tried using a heat gun on low for about 30 seconds. Didn't work. Then I used the heat gun on high for about a minute, then the suction pulled it off. I used the picks to peel the rest off. I thought about using the floss which would have work well. I also though about letting the phone sit in the car when it's hot outside. The key is to be patient and try not to use something besides the plastic tools. If I can do it then anyone can. Heat guns are very cheap and a good tool to have.

After unsuccessfully trying all prying tools including metal ones - I finally hit the motherlode with the most inane thing possible-a stiff plastic collarbone-it has a slight angle at one end that gives it the required amount of rigidity and prying power.

Yes, a heat gun is an absolute must!

3.5 year old phone. Thank the gods you guys recommended floss. I broke 2 nails trying the picks. Unfortunately I used extra slippy floss so I couldn't even tie it into loops to help. Even with the floss I couldn't saw my way through or get a pick in so I ended up just adding more and more floss (and more and more hairdryer) until I could get the pick in. After that it was just careful muscle.

Despite several frustrating tries across several days, I had zero success creating a molecule of seam gap to begin to remove back cover without breaking it! Suction cup ineffective (needs 3rd? hand to pull-and-insert pick); heated iOpener doesn't U-fold to cover perimeter (soon cools off in 63F room); hair dryer likewise too-brief heat; Exacto or utility knife blades useless. Dental floss no luck. But only! once I tried keeping the Px3 on my electric 1980s food warming tray (Lo heat ..hands resting on insulating hot pads ..it also! keeps iOpener hot) ..would dental floss fit into corners (No chance midpoint at charge port per foto); then blue pick. But! floss was too slippery to pull/grip strongly ..one must tie loops at each end, then use old-style 'peg' clothespins (or pen with clip) to roll-up floss length to enable pulling right at insertion point. With fingers/hands preoccupied manipulating floss, it was awkward to simultaneously tug suction cup upward effectively at all. Didn't break rear cover ;-)

I had no luck with just a suction cup and heat. Heat and a razor blade as others commented worked well; HOWEVER, while working the blue opening picks around the bottom I cracked the glass. The back glass is more delicate than I anticipated. :-( Be very careful/gentle with the back glass! If I attempt this with another glass-backed phone I will plan to work on an actively heated pad for this step.

The plastic opening pick was to thick to get into the (almost nonexisting) crack. I had to use a thin sharp metal knife, which scratched the paint a little bit but finally made the crack wide enough for the plastic pic to fit in and finish the job. Perhaps one thin metal pick would be helpfull in the kit for this first step.

As others have said, this step was by far the most difficult and time consuming. DO NOT RUSH THIS STEP THOUGH. Take it slow and do NOT bend the back glass to try and speed things up. Keep slicing your way though, patiently being aware of the fingerprint sensor cable. On my phone it required a lot of force and im not even sure the puller was able to make a gap.. I found that the plastic picks were too thick to get a crack started. I ended up using a piece of plastic from a clamshell plastic container to finally make it through the crack and through the adhesive. I tried the plastic backing of one of the adhesives but that wasn't rigid enough. Once though I made my way about half way through; and in haste I made the fatal mistake of bending the back glass to much and shattered it. Yes it is in fact made of glass! It will NOT BEND. I ended up getting a replacement back glass kit on Amazon for $16 which had a new sensor and the adhesive pre-installed which was very nice.

Didn't have guitar picks. I grabbed some plastic packaging from my recycle bin and cut it into a bunch of triangles to hold the gap open as I worked my way around.

Leaving the pick in the bottom as described while using another to slide up for the next steps shattered the back cover - these instructions should be clear to only leave the pick in the bottom with as little inserted into the phone as possible as it does not take much flex at all to shatter. Also beware that there are no replacement back covers available from iFixit either :(

I ended up reusing the original adhesive as it was in pretty good shape. So far, no problems.

I found that an opening pick worked well to scrape the glue off the inside of the curved edges of the back cover

The adhesive on mine took some effort to clean off all the way. During reassembly I did notice that my replacement back panel adhesive was larger than I expected and based off of product photos it looks like I received the 3 XL adhesive instead of the 3. That ended up having me fiddle with the adhesive to try and get it to fit right and unfortunately the camera side now has a bit of a gap that I can still press down on without having it stick. I’ll see how it stays but I fear I might have to get another adhesive. The guide was very helpful though!

Does the replacement back come with all the sticky bits I need to replace it, including the fingerprint sensor, led and camers cover?

I decided not to bother with new adhesive. The seal doesn't seem great but I tend not to drop my phone in toilets as often as other people.

The actual back glass cover part is missing from the parts list and it appears iFixit doesn't sell it anymore.

It used to be there, and I ordered one months ago and used this guide successfully then. I broke it again and the part is no more.