iPhone 4 Home button issue...

spiderman0616 wrote:
... I received my replacement phone from FedEx today and restored it from my last backup--no button problems so far. They sent me a brand new phone in the box with new charger and headphones and everything. ...

Interesting. I assume your phone is locked to a carrier?

I went through a couple iPhone 4's a few months ago and the Apple Store folks could only ever give me refurb units (which are not supposed to be worse, but which I had grown not to trust). At one point I told them I didn't trust the refurb units anymore and wanted a new one. They said they would like to be able to do that but that they didn't even have access to new ones that were locked to my carrier. The only new ones they had in the stores were the full-price unlocked units, which they couldn't give me since that's not what I had. But I guess coming from Apple directly they have access to everything.

Anyway, I occassionally have issues with the home button not responding to a click, or seeing a double-click as a single click. After reading all of this and analyzing my own experiences, I think it's likely mostly hardware, but with a software angle to it. When it's low on memory, etc., there are sometimes delays in responding. But at the same time the switch seemed less responsive when the weather was extremely dry (like, −30 outside), etc. We're now having some warmer more humid weather and the switch works much better. It also seems to work better when it's been used recently, it's warm, etc. (contacts cleaned off from recent use?) That seems like hardware to me. Plus the home buttons on my wife's 3GS and iPad 2 both seem to work better (and they feel different too), but all three devices are on iOS 4.3.1.

I would go ask for another replacement but I've seen some of the other defects that are possible and this unit is very nice in most respects. The devil you know...

Just tried the "massage" trick from the edges towards the home button, and it really puzzles me that the bug appear to have disappeared. Before every 10-20 single clicks on the home button would act as a double click, now it appears to be fixed.

Low tech solution - gotta love them..

Never had an issue with my iphone 4 until i upgraded with 4.3.1... Now have exactly the same intermittent non working home button really frustrating.

Same here. But everybody just can't reproduce the problem at Genius Bar, Right? Frustrated when commuting between home and Apple Retail store.

Man you are so international. Good luck bro...

That's the problem!
I've tried 2 times at Vodafone Portugal and...nothing.
They detected this issue but the technic behind the counter doesn't.
And, by this, they said that a "restore" solved the issue: no of course, it's back again! 😟
How can we show this 'random' issue to Carriers/genius/Etc.?
Cheers from sunny Lisbon

I've the same problem '--. Today I went to Genius bar but the genius tell me that there's no problem and I can't get a new one. Any ideas to prove these bugs ?

null

I can't believe Apple products which are hyped so much can have so many problems.
I had:

1. Wifi problems on a brand new iphone 4 which apple store replaced.
2. Now I have home button response issues within 1 month of purchase.

I think it is a software issue. Kill all your running applications... Double click on home button (if it works at all), when you see running app list, tap and hold on one of it and when they show x sign, kill all of them. Then power down and power up the iphone. It should fix it. It worked for me but I shall have to wait to see if it fixes it for ever. Or I shall have to contact apple store..

(Message to apple. You can't stay on top for ever with products with so many frequent problems.)

My phone is three weeks old.. can't be wear and tear..

rbharol wrote:
My phone is three weeks old.. can't be wear and tear..

That doesn't mean it isn't hardware though. If it was a defective part to start it could take a few weeks to completely fail.

I'm convinced it's a mix of hardware and software, which is why it's so hard to pin down. When the OS is freshly rebooted and there's lots of available memory, the button seems more responsive (less lag in response), but I think the hardware itself also gets finicky (dust or oxidation on contacts or someting) so that sometimes the press just doesn't register at all.

The problem showed up again today.. Nothing helped but then after some time when I put it for charging, the button starting responding intermittently. Now after couple of reboots it is working fine. I am tired of this.

I would expect much better quality from an Apple product. I have used many phones from many companies in the past. Never had these kind of weird issues.

I just got an appointment with genius bar. I hope they replace it and I pray that the next phone does not show up this kind of problems...

****. Upgraded to 4.3.1 and now problem is worse!

I do believe it's a mixture of both software and hardware.

I am on my third iPhone 4 now because of this issue. My original lasted about two months before the home button started playing up. I took it back to the genius bar who said he would swap it for me this once (as he couldn't replicate the issue). The second time I rang up and got a new handset the next day.

So far this one seems to work okay. I just really hope it doesn't happen again, its a right pain.

For all you people relying on a software update, don't. You're not going to get an answer. Get a replacement, you can call up and get a free replacement if you have the extended warranty, without it you have to pay £30, or if you feel confident, go see a genius.

My iPhone 4 was not repaired / replaced because the technician "Could not duplicate issue".
Bad service :C

I can't believe I can't go back to previous version of firmware which was behaving better than this new one.
This is not good. I wish I had done some research on Apple Iphone quality issues before getting into a contract with ATT.