Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Broken iPhone 4 Home Button

All of the sudden my iPhone 4 home button stopped working. I tried hard rebooting it and that didn't fix it. It will sometimes work for a minute but for the most part it doesn't work. It didn't come in contact with any water/dirt, it just stopped working. I have Apple Care but need my phone for work so I can't have it gone for a few days. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!

iPhone 4, 4.0.1, iOS 4

Posted on Aug 11, 2010 10:15 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Aug 11, 2010 10:37 PM

If it's possible I would visit an Apple Store, they might be able to replace it right away.
84 replies

Jun 14, 2012 9:12 PM in response to dburdan

1.) Open any application eg messages


2.) Press and hold the power button until the slide to shutdown bar appears.


3.) Release power button


4.) Press and hold Home button with normal pressure and wait until screen returns to icon screen


5.) Enjoy your functioning home button!!!


This procedure recalibrates the home button after normal wear or heavy use


I freaked out when it first happened to me this solution is from Modslave and worked

Not saying others dont but this has for me Thanks Modslave

Jun 23, 2012 5:23 AM in response to dburdan

I had the same problem with my iphone 4, about 2 months before my warrantee ran out. When i booked an apointment at the genius bar they said they would have to wipe the phone first. So i had to go off because I didn't want to loose everything. So the warrantee ran out before getting around to it and still no fix, i thought it was going to be really hard to get my home button working again.


I found a tutorial online for completely replacing it, i didn't want to mess around with vacume cleaners, wd40 or any simple fix because I didn't know exactly what it'd do. So i figured I'd buy a replacement home button. It was cheap as a can of wd40, and it took me about an hour to take the phone apart and replace the home button. It now works better than ever, I have to remind myself not to push the button so hard as it's so sensitive now.


So I wanted people to know that these simple fixes really can't be guarenteed to work because we don't know the circumstances of the break. My love of my iphone has returned and it cost me chips to do.


Like anything electrical, don't **** around and risk breaking things further, just replace it. Or pay for it to be repaired professionally.

Dec 8, 2012 3:42 AM in response to dburdan

Obviously as you can see there is NO one solution. Each case is a bit different.

I've tried everything - pushing the dock, tappping, cleaning, etc. I've searched and tried everything.

After stucking a piece of plastic in dock pushing it from one side - it worked for couple of days. Then home button started having problems again.

IN my case the home button was not working because of the dock connector. I had to go to a local chinese shop to change it for 20usd, the dock was a bit oxidated from inside, humidity somehow got there (those times you have your swimtrunks from the beach and the phone in the same bag...).

So go to your local chinese repair shop and change your dock or home button for 20USD.

It is a pain to change it on your own.

That saved me from spending 149USD for an exchange phone (my current iPhone4 was out of warranty already).

Dec 8, 2012 4:16 AM in response to nickba

Agreed. I soon concluded that mine was a hardware problem and tried some of the suggested hardware solutions. They helped for a month or two. But in the end I got a new Home Button fitted (done in 60 minutes for 35 ukp in London) and the phone has been like new for several months. Definitely worth paying for that repair.

May 24, 2013 4:28 AM in response to dburdan

Well if it helps i tried everything mentioned and the only thing that seemed to work was to switch Phone Off, spray contact cleaning fluid into charger connector & home button, allow to seep through then blast it all away with some sort of Air Duster. A note of caution!! make sure that the cleaner you use evaporates relatively quickly before you switch the phone back on!!

Otherwise you'll get a bubly screen...

Oct 9, 2013 12:31 PM in response to dburdan

Hi these two articles helped fix my issue with a non responsive home button, The first really worked for me so have a read was so thrilled that I didnt have to pay for the home button to be fixed!!


http://www.applecor.info/how-to/a-z/85-iphone-4s-non-responsive-home-button.html


This second article helped me through whilst the button was not working properley it just tells you how to enable the assistive touch which is OK for the short turn


http://www.applecor.info/how-to/a-z/95-assistive-touch-buttons-iphone-gesture.ht ml


Woo well chuffed, so thought Id share and give credit to the site that helped me finnally fix my problem 🙂

Broken iPhone 4 Home Button

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.