iPad 9th gen cracked screen replacement: interactive 3D teardown

All 10 steps

1. 1Power off, warm the Smart Connector edge and lift a gap

   Switch the iPad off. Lay the warm heat pad along the Smart Connector edge, the long edge with the three small contacts, for about two minutes: the heat softens the adhesive that holds the glass to the case. Press the suction cup onto the glass close to that edge, halfway along, hold the iPad down and pull up steadily until a small gap opens. Slide the tip of the first pick into the gap, under the glass, and let go of the cup.

2. 2Cut round the camera end

   Slide a second pick in beside the first and run it along to the home button corner, then leave it there so that the adhesive cannot stick again. Run the first pick the other way, to the camera-end corner, and leave it too. Warm the camera end for about two minutes. A third pick goes in at that corner, no deeper than 7 mm, and along the camera end until just before the front camera. Pull it back until only its tip is under the glass, ease it past the camera, then push it back to 4 mm and run it round the volume-side corner. Leave it there.

3. 3Cut down the volume edge, stopping short of the cables

   Warm the volume-button edge for about two minutes. Put a fourth pick in beside the third, at the camera-end corner of that edge, and slide it along towards the home button end, then stop about 115 mm short of that end: the glass’s two cables leave its back under this edge, in its lower half, and a pick slid over them can cut them. Leave the pick where it stopped. The last of this edge comes free when the glass is lifted, not with a pick.

4. 4Warm the home button end and cut over the antenna trap

   Warm the home button end for about two minutes. Slide the second pick into the Smart Connector corner, but not round it: an antenna lies right under the glass there. Put a fifth pick into the gap on the home button end beside that corner and slide it over the antenna towards the home button, stopping just before the button. Only ever slide it towards the button: to go over a stretch again, take the pick out and start again at the corner. Avoid this trap: In each corner of the home button end an antenna sits on top of the speaker under the glass, stuck down with foam adhesive, its end just inside the corner. A pick slid towards the home button rides over it. Pushed in deeper and drawn back towards the corner, it catches that end, peels the antenna up and breaks it or its little cable. Nothing shows from outside: the glass goes back on and the iPad works, but its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth stay weak or drop out until the antenna is replaced. Slide towards the button only, and start again from the corner.

5. 5Only the tip under the home button, then over the other antenna trap

   Slide a sixth pick in beside the home button with only its very tip under the glass, and run it under the button towards the volume-side corner: the home button’s ribbon, which carries Touch ID, is stuck to the back of the glass just inside. Take the pick out, put it in again at the volume-side corner and slide it towards the home button, over the second antenna, stopping just short of the button. Leave it there: the whole home button end is free. Avoid this trap: The home button’s ribbon runs from the button along the back of the glass towards the volume-side corner, a few millimetres inside the edge and held by light adhesive. Pushed in deep under the button, a pick slices straight into it. The button may still click once the glass is back on, but Touch ID is gone: its sensor is paired to this iPad’s logic board, so a new home button does not bring it back. Keep only the very tip under the glass at the button.

6. 6Lift the glass and open it like a book over the volume edge trap

   Warm the volume-button edge once more. Twist the two picks at the Smart Connector corners to lift that edge a little, and take those two and three more picks out, leaving the fourth in the volume edge. Lift the Smart Connector edge slowly: the glass hinges on the volume-button edge, where its cables are. Holding it up, slide the fourth pick on between the two glass cables to free the last of the adhesive and take it out. Swing the glass up and over the volume-button edge like the cover of a book and lay it face down beside the iPad, its cables still plugged in. Avoid this trap: All three of the glass’s cables, its two digitizer cables and the home button’s ribbon, leave it under the volume-button edge and run down to the logic board just inside, with only a few millimetres to spare. Lift the glass at that edge and swing it over the Smart Connector edge, right to left, and they pull tight and tear within the first few degrees: a torn digitizer cable means another new glass, a torn home button ribbon loses Touch ID. Lift the Smart Connector edge and open the glass over the volume edge.

7. 7Unscrew the LCD and fold it over the home button end

   Peel back any tape over them and turn out the LCD’s four Phillips #00 screws, one at each corner, all 4.2 mm long, into wells 1 to 4. Lift the LCD out of its recess with the flat end of the spudger at the camera end only: its cable is at the home button end. Fold it over that end like the page of a book and lay it face down, its cable still plugged in.

8. 8Isolate the battery, then unplug the LCD

   The battery connector is a row of springs on the logic board pressing on the battery’s contacts, held down by one Phillips #00 screw, 2.3 mm long: turn it out into well 5. Slide the thin plastic card in between the springs and the contacts at about 35°, never forcing it, and leave it lying at about 15°: the battery is isolated. Turn out the three 1.4 mm screws of the LCD cable’s bracket into wells 6 to 8, lift the bracket off, lever the LCD’s connector straight up with the spudger and lay the LCD aside, face down.

9. 9Unplug the glass and the home button, then lift the glass away

   Peel the tape off the home button’s ZIF connector, flip its little locking flap up with the spudger and slide the home button’s ribbon straight out with tweezers. Lever the two glass cables’ connectors up by the connectors themselves, never by the sockets. Lift the foam buffer block out of the volume-side corner, minding the ribbon under it, and peel the ribbon off the frame. Lift the glass away and lay it face down on the mat, then peel the old adhesive off the case’s rim and clean the rim with isopropyl alcohol.

10. 10Move the home button to the new glass

    Only the original home button keeps Touch ID: its sensor is paired to this iPad’s logic board. On the old glass’s back, peel the button’s ribbon off the border and run a pick under it as far as the button’s bracket. Warm the bracket for about 30 seconds and pry it off evenly: a bent bracket loses the button’s click. Push the button out through the glass slowly, keeping its thin gasket whole, and set it down by the new glass with its bracket, ready to go in.

What you need

• Heat pad or hair dryer · about two minutes an edge
• Suction cup and six plastic opening picks · one marked at 1, 4 and 7 mm
• Phillips #00 screwdriver · for all eight screws
• Nylon spudger and blunt ESD-safe tweezers · no metal near the battery
• A battery isolation card · or a playing card
• A magnetic screw tray · a well for every screw
• Replacement glass digitizer and high-bond glue · and isopropyl alcohol, 90% or stronger

Questions

Safety

Run the battery below 25%, switch the iPad off and unplug it, and isolate the battery before you unplug the LCD or the glass. Keep metal tools away from the battery and its contacts. Cover cracked glass with packing tape and wear safety glasses: an iPad’s glass breaks into sharp splinters as it is lifted. Keep the heat pad moving from edge to edge rather than on one spot.

• Lithium-ion batteries: never bend, puncture or pry a battery with metal. A damaged cell can go into thermal runaway: it smokes, catches fire and can explode. Discharge it below 25% first; if it swells, hisses, smokes or gets hot, stop and move it somewhere safe.
• Static (ESD): work on an anti-static mat with a grounded wrist strap; a spark you cannot feel can kill a chip.
• Power off: switch the device off and unplug its charger before you open it, and disconnect the battery before touching anything else inside.

About this teardown

3D Spatial Reconstruction: Models are engineered from factual hardware measurements to visualize internal layouts, screw lengths, and hidden cable traps before you open your device. Always verify cable routing on your specific hardware revision.

The iPad is Apple’s iPad (9th generation, 2021, Wi-Fi), modelled at its published size of 250.6 × 174.1 × 7.5 mm, with none of Apple’s logos, names or printing. It is the iPad the brief describes best: a home button with Touch ID and a glass digitizer separate from its LCD. The order, the screws and the cables follow iFixit’s iPad 9 Screen Digitizer, LCD and Home Button Assembly guides and its iPad 9 LTE opening procedure: heat on each edge in turn, the first pick at the Smart Connector edge, 7 mm round the camera-end corner on that side and 4 mm round the other, only the tip past the front camera and under the home button, the volume edge cut only down to above its cables, the picks over the antennas slid towards the home button only, the glass opened like a book over the volume edge, the LCD’s four 4.2 mm screws, the battery isolated under its 2.3 mm screw, the bracket’s three 1.4 mm screws and the home button moved across.

Where the brief differed from the iPad, the iPad decided. It placed Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas glued to the bottom right of the bezel: there are two antennas, one in each corner of the home button end, stuck with foam adhesive on top of the speakers under the glass, not on the glass itself; iFixit’s caution is for both, and most of all for the corner on the Smart Connector side, which the pick must never round. It had the glass fold right to left like a hardcover book: its cables leave it under the volume-button edge, so it lifts at the Smart Connector edge and opens over the volume edge, left to right with the home button at the bottom; right to left is the third trap. Its home button cable is not only at the bottom centre: the ribbon runs from the button along the back of the glass’s border to the volume-side corner and a ZIF connector on the logic board. The four corner screws hold the LCD, as it said. Besides its heat pad, suction cup, six picks and Phillips #00 driver, the job needs a spudger, tweezers and a card to isolate the battery, which must be done before the LCD is unplugged.

Our estimates, not measured figures: the layout and sizes of the parts inside, where the antennas, the cables, the connectors and the buffer block sit, the corner radius, and a pick depth of about 3 mm wherever iFixit gives none (we read its “only the tip” as 1 mm). iFixit’s two iPad 9 guides stop the pick on the volume edge 3 inches and 4.5 inches from the bottom; we stop at about 115 mm, above where its photos show the cables. The 3D runs faster than real hands do.

Sources: iFixit: iPad 9 Screen Digitizer Replacement (Wi-Fi), iFixit: iPad 9 LCD Replacement, iFixit: iPad 9 Home Button Assembly Replacement, iFixit: iPad 9 LTE opening procedure (7 mm and 4 mm at the camera-end corners), iFixit: iPad 9 Front Panel Replacement (two antennas at the home button end), iFixit: iPad 9 Left Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Antenna Replacement (on the speaker, foam adhesive), iFixit: iPad 7 Teardown (glass and LCD separate), Apple: iPad (9th generation) technical specifications, GSMArena: iFixit’s iPad (10th generation) teardown (a non-laminated LCD), iFixit: iPad Air 5 parts (a one-piece screen), Price source: iFixit, iPad 9 Screen Digitizer $49.99, its fix kit $54.99 (27 October 2026), Price source: Apple, iPad (9th generation) out-of-warranty estimate, other damage $299 (27 October 2026).

The 3D models, drawings and text are our own. Apple, iPad, iPad Air, Touch ID, Smart Connector and Lightning are trademarks of their owners, named only to say which device this teardown is for; iTakeApart is not affiliated with them.