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Hey, I'm Donald Bell, and recently I noticed that the pictures I was taking on my Apple iPhone5 were turning out hazy.
I looked closely at the back of the lens and noticed that there was actually dust trapped inside the glass.
I don't know how I got there, but I'm gonna show you how to clean out your iPhone 5's rear camera.
You're gonna need some tools for this project.
I've got a P2 Pentalobe screwdriver I picked up from iFixit.
I also got this spudger tool though a credit card can also work in a pinch, this suction cups here.
I'm gonna use this screwdriver help pull on one of those suction cups.
Got a lens cleaner pen and some compressed air.
All right now to start off we're gonna remove the two pentalobe screws from the bottom of the iPhone.
I'm using a little screwdriver here and this is pretty easy to do but the tricky part is not losing the screws.
I'm glad I have a white table here.
If you don't have a white table to do this.
Get a nice sheet of white paper and try not to do this over a floor or a carpet or anywhere where you're gonna lose these screws.
Once you've got those out next step is we're gonna separate the screen from the base of the phone.
Now I notice that it comes up best when you've got the suction cups here near the home button.
You know, kind of pull up this way.
The first time I tried it, it was really tough.
It didn't seem like it was going to come off.
But, subsequent attempts were a little bit easier.
I'm gonna use the screwdriver here to kind of loop into this hook.
Whatever kind of suction cups you have, it's probably going to be a different thing.
Let's see.
The trick is to get it going but not pull too hard.
Where you're gonna rip this thing right off cuz there's some very delicate little ribbon cables in here that if you ripped out, would be very bad.
So now I've got just a little bit of an opening here on the end.
I'm gonna use this [INAUDIBLE] tool.
Gonna come in here, move it around.
Kind of will unclip it from the sides.
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Take the suction cups off.
What we have here, the innards of my iPhone.
Now when you first lift up under the hood, you're probably going to notice some dust right away.
You can use the compressed air to clean some of that out.
If this were a full camera replacement, we'd be tempted to pull out these cables, and be able to take the screen entirely off to really get access to the camera.
But, since we're just gonna be cleaning it out, what we can do is just twist this gently.
And, you'll notice the camera's right here.
You can use your fingernail, or.
One of these tools you can just, pluck it out, a little bit.
Pull it back, and then you have access to the glass cover for the lens, and the lens itself.
I can use the lens cleaning tool.
First clean the lens very gently, then move over to the glass covering the lens.
[INAUDIBLE] if you see any other dirt and grime around there you can just rub that away.
Or you can even use the compressed air to [INAUDIBLE] blast out anything that might be remaining.
Alright once it looks good, gonna fold that camera back into place.
Gently, alright you're twist the cover back into place too.
Now starting with the ear piece side, you're gonna plant that back in, and then slowly squeeze back towards the home button, kinda like you're squeezing out a tube of toothpaste.
All squeezed back into place the last thing we need to do is put those little tiny screws back in the bottom little magnetic tip on the screwdriver helps hold the **** in place.
IFIXIT also sells a little Iphone LIBERATION KIT that replaces these little pentalobe screws.
With standard, Phillips style screws, will make it a little easier if you ever need to access the innards of this phone again, later, but for now, putting the old ones back.
Working just fine, going to power the phone back on, check out the camera, and, if all went well Your lens should be crystal clear.
So there you go.
That's how to clean out the rear camera on your Apple iPhone 5. For more tips like this, you can go over to cnet.com/how-to.
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