Broke back camera glass cover, after replacement camera won't focus UPDATE: fixed!

My issue is the title. The back glass (or whatever material) cover over the camera broke somehow (I really dont know how, I took it out of my pocket and it was broken!) while I was on vacation last week. I just now received a replacement of the entire plastic piece and glass cover that you see when removing the battery cover. It fit perfectly, and looks quite nice, however my camera is now unable to focus. I actually noticed this same issue after only removing the plastic cover and having the camera bare (without the glass cover at all). I have cleaned the lens fairly well with a nice cloth (one that I got with my eyeglasses and I have only ever used on my eyeglasses, that also stays away in a little sleeve), but that doesn't seem to have made any difference.

I found a few threads on this issue searching around. Some of which people said that the cover was required for focusing to work, and some that said it still didn't work after replacment. It appears I am suffering from the latter. Unfortunately, there were no solutions posted for that further problem besides "return it to samsung".

My phone is well out of warranty, and I would rather just try and repair it myself or just sell it off for parts and get a new phone.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here had an opinion as to why this issue may be occurring, and if anyone had experience fixing or at least ideas on what may be done to solve this issue. My random theory was that some piece of the broken glass fell into the lens module and has somehow restricted functionality of the lens, thus resulting in the failure to focus. In this case, it seems my best option is to drop $30 for a replacement camera module and perform that replacement. I was looking to see if anyone had any success stories regarding that job, or perhaps a simpler route I may be able to take.

Thanks in advance!

The replacement I ordered came in the same way you mentioned, the plastic frame and then actual glass cover, except in mine the glass cover has an adhesive strip pre-applied in a ring. If yours doesn't, I suppose you should use something like a thin amount of glue or double sided tape.

I actually tested my camera first without the frame and cover at all before I even got the replacement (I simply removed the broken one as it wasn't providing any protection anyway), and found that at that time I wasn't able to focus. I put some blue masking tape over the lens to shield it until the replacement part arrived.

I actually found a replacement camera module on ebay for only about $15, so I've ordered that and will attempt the repair when it arrives. I'll update this thread with the result of that effort.

Back with an update.

I received the replacement camera module today. After following a simple guide I googled for, I managed to replace it. (fairly painless process really...)

As for the result....



Great success! The overall repair cost was only ~$20. ($5 for glass cover, $15 for camera module) If anyone else finds this thread, just ensure you get the "i747" supported part!