You can remove the surface scratches on the back of an iPhone case by using a mildly abrasive rub or fine sandpaper. The anti-scratch coating is actually where many of the smaller finer scratches on iPhones are shown, which makes them relatively easy to buff out with some care. Whether you are using the toothpaste or sandpaper method to repair the scratches, you will want to be careful as to not rub the anti-scratch coating off of the iPhone case.

Warning: Try these methods at your own risk! We are not responsible for you damaging your iPhone in any way, and if you are not confident in your ability to do it right, you should probably avoid the techniques altogether!



Removing iPhone scratches with… toothpaste

This might sound totally crazy but believe it or not you can use tooth paste intended for sensitive teeth as a mildly abrasive rub and it’s able to get out some of the finer scratches on iPhone cases.

* Put a glob of tooth paste onto the iPhone case

* Using something like a microfiber cloth, gently rub and buff the iPhone case where the scratches are

* Leave the toothpaste on for a minute or two to dry a bit.

* Now clean the iPhone case with a mild cleaner, like ammonia free windex or a mild soap

You may need to buff the iPhone scratches for a while to get the best results. Many of the finer scratches that are just marks on the surface coating will come out using this method. People use a similar technique to remove scratches from things like DVD’s and CD’s, and unsurprisingly it works quite well on the iPhone’s plastic case. To make this method even more bizarre, you can find recommendations on following up the toothpaste with a banana rub, but I haven’t tried that myself. Some people use a product called Brasso too.

Be sure you do not get any toothpaste into any of the ports or openings on the iPhone! Any moisture can corrode internal electronics and void your iPhone warranty by triggering the spill detectors.

Remove iPhone scratches with fine sandpaper

You can use a fine grit sandpaper to buff out and remove many of the smaller scratches on an iPhone case too. It’s a method very similar to the toothpaste, but you’ll want to be cautious to use the right kind of sandpaper, 1200+ grain seems to work well based on various recommendations and experiences around the web. You’ll end up spending 30 minutes or more to really make it look good, refer to the MacRumors Forum thread mentioned below for an example.

Do not rub too hard! Remember, you are trying to just polish the scratches out of the surface coating of the iPhone. If you remove the surface anti-scratch coating, you will have to use the below method which is much more intense.

Removing deep iPhone scratches by drysanding, wetsanding, and polishing

If you are really committed to completely removing every possible scratch from your iPhone, deep gashes included, you can use a rather intense process of drysanding, then wet sanding, and finally polishing the iPhone to restore the case to it’s original glory. It’s not exactly a quick and simple process, so I’d only suggest this if you’re truly committed to restoring an iPhone’s case. It will also remove the Apple logo and all text from the back of the iPhone case, so be aware of that.

This post on MacRumors Forums: Restoring an iPhone Front & Back is invaluable, and even includes a guide to fix screen scratches (requires iPhone disassembly, not for the faint of heart). It’s kind of the last resort method since it’s so intense and it will remove the surface protective coating from the iPhone case, which is exactly what you do not want to do in the aforementioned methods.