Moto Z Battery Replacement
Introduction
Go to step 1This guide shows how to open the Motorola Moto Z in order to replace an old or dead battery.
Before you begin, download the Rescue and Smart Assistant app to backup your device and diagnose whether your problem is software or hardware related.
The display assembly is extremely fragile and has no reinforcement. There is a significant chance that you may break the screen. Work slowly and methodically when handling the display assembly.
Before you begin, discharge your battery below 25%. A charged lithium-ion battery can catch fire and/or explode if accidentally punctured.
If your battery is swollen, take appropriate precautions.
What you need
Fix Kit
This kit contains all the parts and tools needed to complete this guide.
Parts
Tools
Show more…
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Heat an iOpener and apply it to the left edge of the phone for at least 90 seconds.
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Lift the earpiece end of the display up to provide access to the display cables.
It says lift home button end of display but the photo shows lifting the earpiece end.
Good catch! I have fixed the step.
When I finally got mine opened, all I see is a white piece of metal. Nothing like you photo…UhOH…
Oh no! It sounds like a different model! Motorola phones are notorious for their similar sounding naming conventions.
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Remove the display assembly.
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After removing all traces of glue and glass from the frame, clean the adhesion areas with 90% (or higher) isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth or coffee filter.
By removing the traces of glue from the frame, you will also remove the protective covers of the microphone and whatnot at the home button side,, as well as the speaker cover at the other side, because the glue does its duty…
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Tool used on this step:Tweezers$4.99
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Use tweezers to peel the black tape securing the battery to the frame.
Well. ithis is multilayer tape - at least three *very* thin layers. Expect ugly results, if any.
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Tool used on this step:Tesa 61395 Tape$5.99
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Remove the battery.
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Remove any remaining adhesive from the phone, and clean the glued areas with isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth.
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Apply pre-cut adhesive strips or double-sided tape to the exposed, silver part of the battery compartment, not on the black foam layer.
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Press the battery firmly into place for 5-10 seconds.
Really need to include how to apply the adhesive for this device, I had to go find a video on youtube which happened to be an iphone 6 video that gave me an idea on what to do, but even then, it was still guess work.
Check out the link to the adhesive card guide in the last step—that should you a pretty good idea of how to prep the phone and battery for installation and how to use our pre-cut adhesive card and apply the adhesive. Let us know if we can change something to make it easier to use!
Only just noticing the reply now since I am redoing the adhesive on a second Moto Z I have (screen adhesive failed on its own) and while that guide is pretty good (and something I may well use now on the original one if it fails again!), I was more thinking about how to apply the display adhesive that comes within the kit. There were no instructions on how to use that.
Hi Andrew,
Here’s a guide you can use as a guideline! Hope that helps!
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Compare your new replacement part to the original part. You may need to transfer remaining components or remove adhesive backings from the new part before installing.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
After completing this guide, calibrate your newly-installed battery.
Take your e-waste to an R2 or e-Stewards certified recycler.
Repair didn’t go as planned? Check out our Motorola Moto Z Answers community for troubleshooting help.
Compare your new replacement part to the original part. You may need to transfer remaining components or remove adhesive backings from the new part before installing.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
After completing this guide, calibrate your newly-installed battery.
Take your e-waste to an R2 or e-Stewards certified recycler.
Repair didn’t go as planned? Check out our Motorola Moto Z Answers community for troubleshooting help.
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32 other people completed this guide.
28 Comments
Kindly link me to the suitable adhesive tape for sticking back the screen…
Thank you
Hi Anwesh,
You can use Tesa tape for that purpose.
I have a Moto Z Droid from Verizon. You have instruction for the Moto Z and Moto Z Droid Force. Battery replacement on the Droid Force is much easier. How do I know which one I have?
Hi Budbradley,
According to Phonearena, it looks like one easy way to tell is the rear camera:
The Z has a 13MP camera, while the Z Force Droid has a 21MP rear camera.
The built-in internal storage are also different:
The Z has 32GB while the Z Force Droid has 64GB.
Hopefully you can check your specs with those and figure out which version you have.
The hardest step in this guide is when you remove adhesive glue behind the LCD panel.
Second is clean residue glue [For this i use lint-free cloth soak with alcohol and rub on glue]
One more note - Moto original battery is su..k. Mine is degrade in 6 moths.
The hardest part about this repair was definitely removing the screen ( the rest is easy once you’ve opened the phone). I believe I would not have ruined my screen had I used a heat gun rather than the iOpener provided in the kit. The iOpener did not properly heat the adhesive and caused me to have to pry a little harder than I would have had to if I used a heat gun. That little extra force causes a big difference when the screen is so thin. On this particular repair, save yourself the money and don’t buy the whole kit. Buy the battery somewhere cheap and use a heat gun like I should have. Paying the extra money for the kit also cost me the price of a new screen $100+… not a happy camper.
The hardest part for me is sourcing a battery that is the right thickness for an xt1650-03!
I am on the 3rd different gv30 manufacturer/ brand --on 2 different xt…-03 and they're all too thick. My last hope was a “Cam…Sin…” brand that was 3.3mm thick. Noooooope; that still didn’t work!
Please help!
P.S. the heatgun did make the prying WAY easier (especially if you drop the extra repair money on some suction-cup-pliers) —BUT— if you heat it too long (or even graze the inside of the semi-opened phone), you seriously risk “scorching" the screen, wilting the speaker diaphram, and/ or the mic screens.
…like i did the first time.
I have the exact smae problem. On my battery, it says it is an original Motorola Part. So did the seller on eBay. Model-Number and Code are exactly the same, so is capacity. Still, the new battery is to think and has a slighlty different design. This is really annoying, the phone works again, but I cannot glue it back together.
Can you check if your original battery is actually thinner than 3.3 mm? If so, I’ll need to look into the guide to see if something needs to be fixed.
I have to change the battery of my xt1650-03, too. All sellers on a|_iexpress have negative comments from at least one or more buyers complaining that the battery is a few mm too thick. How can I find the right one?
This phone starts to annoy me so bad… it dies at 60 ish percent when drawing too much power…
You can order a battery from iFixit here. We actually sell OEM Motorola parts, and this would be an OEM battery. If it doesn’t work out, we have great customer service! Plus, I would be interested to hear if the OEM battery is for some reason non-compatible.
I followed the instruction, and I could replace the battery, but no image is shown on the screen. When I push the power switch, the mobile vibrates, so I think battery is Okay. Did I damage the screen when I remove the screen from my mobile?
The screen was connected to the mobile but not glued with adhesive tape yet. Is that the reason why?
Hi Takeo,
The screen does not need to be glued in before you test the phone. I would suggest checking the display connector, re-connecting it to see if that helps. Otherwise, it may be a broken screen.
Thank you very much for your reply. I re-connected the screen three times, but there’s no change, no image is shown on the screen. I followed the instruction, but I may have applied strong force to the screen when I remove it from the mobile? It was really hard to remove the screen because the heater does not heat the mobile to soften the glue. I will replace the screen and see the result.
I replaced old screen with new one, put the connector and turn on the switch without installing home button, but that does not work, no image is shown on the screen. I removed the battery and re-installed it, check all the connectors & wires, and I could not find any problem. What is the cause of the problem? mother board has been broken?
Hi!
Did you find out what was the problem?
The problem my moto Z had in the past is, battery charge immediately decreased from more than 80% to 0% when I started an app. I thought this problem was related to the battery, but it was not?
Hi, I’ve replaced the battery as instructed above. The batteries match. Phone will turn on, but not the screen. I’ve removed and reattached it several times but nothing shows on the screen. It worked fine prior to replacing the battery.
Jason
Hi Jason,
Sorry to hear that! Here are some general troubleshooting ideas that may resolve the issue.
Yeah, this repair *is* difficult. I broke the LCD (not the gorilla glas) and ripped the cables. The glue really is strong! So why does the Moto Z have an Ifixit score of 7? Even removing those small plastic and metal clips is hard as you don’t find which is the recommended way of removal.
My moto Z had same symptoms as Takeo Otani’s. Never over-used it, kept it cool, no drops, no scratches, clean USB port.
I am also convinced, bad battery was the problem: phone indicated a full charge after just 20 mins of charging. battery life just ~2 h in standby. Energy-intensive apps like camera, let phone re-boot. After rebooting a fully charged phone (over night), it was <30% charged.
MY BATTERY REPLACEMENT ATTEMPT TODAY BROKE THE DISPLAY, ALTHOUGH, I WAS EXTREMELY CAREFUL with plektra tools, hair dryer and suction pad, even dipped tools in isoprop, which helped a bit to “cut” the glue threads.
Half way of removal (>1 h), noticed a little thin crack (in the back-layer, from bottom-right corner to 2 cm above moto logo)
Took another 1 h, until front was removed.
Last switch-on try: VIBRATES, but SCREEN is DARK -> VIBRATE reboot loop. Dis/Re-connected display twice. no change.
MOTO Z NOT SERVICE-FRIENDLY AT ALL!
Not tried new battery! Will not buy new display nor moto!
BE MOST CAREFUL WITH BOTTOM 4 cm REMOVAL!
This was a complete disaster. I was so careful, took tons of time with it. But near the bottom, as many have stated, the screen cracked a hairline crack and separated from the glass. This is more than difficult, because it requires some kind of finesse in some specific way that you can’t explain on this site or even a video. Following instructions exactly and being beyond careful does not give one the knowledge or finesse to do this repair successfully. I ordered a new screen and I hope that the battery I put in works. There’s no way to know until I get the new screen, and then hope that there isn’t something else wrong that happened in some specific way with the connectors or cables or electrical contacts in there. Disaster. And the tools are subpar too. Broke the smudger tip trying to pry off the bracket. Bent the tweezers too.
I’m sorry to hear about your experience! The screen is unfortunately heavily glued onto the phone, making repairs difficult. As for the bent spudgers and tweezers, please contact our customer support and we’ll get it sorted for you!
Exactly what I was afraid of happened. I installed the new screen and it’s not working. I just get a black screen. After plugging into a charger for several minutes, holding down the power button and hearing vibrations, I determine that the phone must be on. But screen is just black. No damage was done to this screen. It was brand new and I put it in. But something somewhere went wrong. How could I know what that was going to be? Is something not plugged in right? Did it get “fried” like someone said in another post?
Unless there’s an easy fix for what’s going on that I can try, this entire attempt to fix has been a complete disaster.
I do not have time to wait for another screen, nor do I want to pay for another screen that could just as easily not work either after I try to put it in.
I understand your frustration! Thanks for bravely giving this difficult repair a chance. You may be able to test the display this way: leave the battery out, carefully reconnect the display to the phone, and plug the charging cable into the phone. Then, try to power on the phone. If the phone vibrates and the display does not light up, then either the display or something on the motherboard is bad. Again, I’m really sorry for the bad repair experience.
Inside behind the screen looks nowhere near what it looked like in this tutorial. When i tried to remove the screen, behind it was a metal plate, no exposed battery department. Have no idea how to get to the battery as it is not accessible from the back of the phone. Almost as if this phone was not made to be repaired. I have no option other than to throw in the trash. I ruined the screen and the cable to attach the screen. There was no way to get the screen to be removed without totally destroying the insides.
