Motorola Moto G5 Plus Fingerprint Sensor Replacement

Written By: Nicole Klukowski

Comments: 11

Motorola Moto G5 Plus Fingerprint Sensor Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

1 hour

Introduction

The home button on the Motorola Moto G5 plus can stop working. If you find the home button sticks and is unresponsive, use this guide to replace it with a new one.

Tools

Step 1

Be sure to power off your phone before you begin.
Use a SIM eject bit, SIM eject tool, or paper clip to remove the SIM card from your phone.

Step 2

Prepare an iOpener and heat the front of the phone along its left edge for about two minutes, or until it's slightly too hot to touch. This will help soften the adhesive securing the display.
You may need to reheat and reapply the iOpener several times to get the phone warm enough to cut the adhesive. Follow the iOpener instructions to avoid overheating.
A hair dryer, heat gun, or hot plate may also be used, but be careful not to overheat the phone—the display and internal battery are both susceptible to heat damage.

Heat not only along the phone’s left edge, right?

Rémi Boissonnas - 21/02/20

I used two suction cups on the screen. Just above the finger print reader and the other near the top. Then used my heatgun set at 390 degrees. Low speed and had the wide, flat blade attachment so the heat spread to a narrow/wide area. Heated the left edge from corner to corner, then pulled up on the suction cups until I could work in a plastic triangle guitar-like-pic under the screen. Continued to heat and add another pick around the screen . Do not rush and take your time. Got the screen off and didn’t damage the adhesive too bad. Was able to reuse it. Once reassembled, I heated the screen around the edge and rubbed with a plastic tool to make sure the adhesive was working. So far so good with the adhesive. Good Luck!

strtrekbuf -

Step 3

In the following steps you will be cutting through the adhesive around the edge of the display assembly.
Refer to the second and third images and familiarize yourself with the width of the adhesive around edges of the display.
If you plan to re-use the display assembly, be particularly careful as you cut the adhesive on the sides of the phone. Don't insert your tool more than 2 mm into the phone, and angle it down (away from the display assembly) as much as possible.

2mm ONLY on the SIDES of the display. The top can have adhesive as far as 10mm from the edge, and at the bottom as much as 12mm. And there’s no way to cut this adhesive with the tools at 45 degrees. Once the left side is open, carefully insert the tool a little further at a time on the top and bottom, whilst attempting to keep a little pull force on the suction cup. Hard to do, and almost inevitably the on-off button will be hit at some point unless you’re really careful. The adhesive pieces are quite tough, and I used a tiny scissors to cut some of the adhesive “ropes” when the case was far enough open. A highly detailed photo of the adhesive locations top and bottom (and on both parts) would help here. This is likely the most difficult step (well, don’t know for certain, ‘cause I haven’t got further yet…), and warrants better photos and explanation IMO.

max barcalounger -

Step 4

Apply a suction cup to the display, near the middle of the left edge.
Pull the suction cup with firm, constant pressure to create a slight gap between the display panel and the rear case.
If the screen is cracked, the suction cup may not stick. In that case, try lifting with strong tape, or superglue the suction cup in place and allow it to cure so you can proceed.
If the display doesn't separate even with significant force, apply more heat to further soften the adhesive and try again. The adhesive cools quickly, so you may need to heat it repeatedly.

Step 5

Slide the tool along the left edge of the phone, cutting through the adhesive securing the display.
As you move on to cutting the adhesive around the rest of the display, it may help to leave an opening pick in place here and grab another for the following steps.

Step 6

Slide the opening pick down and cut the adhesive around the bottom of the display.
If the adhesive is too tough to cut, continue to heat it until it softens enough to cut fairly easily. Excessive prying or force used here could permanently damage the display or other components.
Be careful as you slide your pick around the top and bottom edges of the display. The display cables, fingerprint sensor, and fingerprint sensor cable are all housed fairly close to the edge of the display and can easily be damaged. Refer to this image to see the exact location of the cables.

Step 7

Continue cutting through the adhesive on the top and right sides of the phone.
The proximity sensor, earpiece speaker, and front-facing camera are all located along the top edge of the phone, but are housed beneath the display unit. You shouldn't come into contact with any of them as you insert your pick to cut the adhesive.

Pues se me fastidia la pantalla al hacer esto

Carolina Folgado - 25/05/21

This is a great guide except for one thing. My screen works fine but it is separating from the phone on both sides. I need to remove it just enough to clean up the old adhesive and reattach. The instructions on repeating the steps in reverse order to replace the screen doesn't help with getting the regluing right, what kind of glue or double sided tape to use, etc …

Gretchen Zimmermann -

Step 8

Once all the adhesive is cut, carefully lift open the display from the left edge.
Don't fully remove the display yet. There are still cables connecting the display assembly that can rip easily.
Prop the display unit at a 90 degree angle against a box to prevent the display and fingerprint cables from bending or tearing.

it should be pointed out that the fingerprint cable is easy to tear as it lays next to a sharp angle of the display unit.

Vincenzo -

Step 9

Remove the yellow sticker covering two of the black Phillips screws below the earpiece.

Attention must be paid not to lose the small rubber gasket around the proximity sensor - I found it best to collect it with all the screws of the midframe and reinstall it at the end during re-assembly.

Fabrizio Sassi - 04/04/21

Step 10

Remove the following Phillips screws from the midframe:
Sixteen 3.8 mm black screws
Three 2.4 mm silver screws

Esa placa se levanta por el otro lado, por donde estan los botones de volumen por ahi se puede levantar de una mejor manera.

Hector Juarez - 15/01/19

Step 11

Insert the flat end of a spudger between the midframe and the left edge of the phone and carefully pry to release the two clips holding the midframe in place.

Step 12

Lift the midframe up and away from the phone.

If replacing the battery, jump to that section at this step.

[deleted] - 14/10/18

Step 13

Use the point of a spudger to disconnect the larger of the two display cable connectors.

Step 14

Disconnect the smaller display cable connector.
This cable houses a display controller chip encased in yellow tape. You do not need to remove the yellow tape. The chip is lightly adhered to the motherboard, but should come up with minimal effort.
Gently continue lifting the cable to break the adhesive seal and pull the cable away from the motherboard.

Step 15

At the opposite end of the phone, disconnect the fingerprint sensor cable.
The fingerprint sensor cable is taped to a shield above it. As you lift the cable, lift the tape up with it. You can also remove the tape before disconnecting the cable.

Step 16

Remove the display assembly from the phone.
Before you reinstall the display assembly, thoroughly remove any remaining adhesive and glass from the frame of the device with isopropyl alcohol.
Be sure to turn on your phone and test your repair before installing new adhesive and sealing the display assembly.
If your replacement display doesn't have touch functionality and you're sure that it has been installed correctly, back up your data and perform a factory reset.

If your digitizer appears to be "dead", power down the phone (which you can't because the digitizer is dead) and disconnect the battery connector by prying the connector up out of its socket (with something NONE conductive like your spudge tool) for few seconds. (It does not "slide" out, but pries straight up.) This will FORCE a cold boot and initialize the digitizer WITHOUT a factory reset, preserving all setups and all your files. :-)

Glenn Hagfors -