While it is quite rare in a perfectly good iPhone, it is not strange that some people have reported some problems with their iPhone’s backlight. A faulty iPhone backlight may be due to many reasons. Some of these reasons are discussed below.
1. Hardware issues
Usually, your iPhone’s backlight may malfunction or stop working totally if you have dropped the phone or exposed it some form of breakage or damage. This means, if you observe a backlight problem with your iPhone after the phone was dropped, hit with something or came in contact with water, this is a hardware problem that can be fixed manually.
2. Software issues
On rare occasions, your iPhone's backlight may malfunction or just stop working without any form of physical damage or impact. This is a software problem which may be corrected with some troubleshooting suggestions. Sometimes, it’s even possible to get your phone replaced if it’s still within the warranty period.
How to Check Your iPhone for Backlight Damage
Although there are many other symptoms, but the telltale sign of a backlight problem is when your iPhone’s display totally goes dark. However, your iPhone may have backlight issues and not show this particular symptom. Sometimes, your phone’s backlight can be so low that you can only view the display in direct light and it’s barely visible at night. This is a clear indication that your backlight is damaged.
As a first aid, you should check your phone settings. Try to adjust your backlight settings and observe if there’s any change. If this does not brighten your phone’s display enough, then your backlight is broken and you’ll need a permanent fix to your iPhone’s backlight problem.
How to Repair your iPhone’s Broken Backlight due to Hardware Damage
The following steps will guide you if you want to fix your phone’s broken backlight by yourself in the event of hardware damage.
Ensure that your iPhone is turned off before disassembling.
Repairing may cause data loss. Don’t forget to back up your iPhone data before the repair!
Step 1: Push the rear panel of the phone to the top edge of the phone to remove it.
Step 2: Remove the screw(s) holding the battery connector to the logic board.
Step 3: Pry the battery connector up from its socket on the logic board using a plastic opening tool.
Step 4: Gently lift the battery from the phone.
Step 5: Remove the SIM card from its holder.
Step 6: Pry the lower antenna connector off the logic board.
Step 7: Remove the screw connecting the bottom of the logic board to the inner case.
Step 8: Remove the screws connecting the Wi-Fi antenna to the logic board and lift it carefully from the board.
Step 9: Carefully lift the rear camera connector from the board.
Step 10: Lift the LCD cable, digitizer cable, headphone jack, top microphone and front camera cable.
Step 11: Detach the logic board from the iPhone.
Step 12: Detach the speaker from the phone and then remove both screws holding the vibrator to the inner frame.
Step 13: Remove the screws on the button edge of the iPhone.
Step 14: Remove the screws along the SIM card side.
Step 15: Once all the screws have been removed, lift the top edge of the front panel assembly.
Step 16: Detach the display from the screen.
Now you can see the faulty plastic part responsible for the backlight issues.
Step 17: Replace this faulty part with a new one and re-assemble your phone.
You can fix your backlight by following the steps above. However, this will only work if the problem is hardware related.