iPhone 4 Home button issue...

My iPhone 4 and my wife's iPhone have this home button problem as well. Is the IOS update the problem?

this happens to me also but it is like an on and off thing where it sometimes works fine then other times it doesnt work at all and keeps going to voice command

I have noticed this issue from time to time, usually when my phone is dirty with fingerprints. My wife's phone does it as well, however, more often than mine.

In a strange coincidence, I noticed that it seldom or dear I say never does this when the phone is clean with minimal fingerprints so I started to clean my phone screen more often.

It's just a guess but I believe the screen being dirty has something to do with it, at least partially. I first thought about it when restarting my phone, and placing it on my desk. I was not touching the phone but it had its share of fingerprints on the screen. When the phone screen came up, the usual "Keycode" screen came up to unlock the phone and the number six key was being pressed (yet I was not touching the phone!). I unlocked the phone simple enough but cleaned the screen and haven't seen that issue since.

Anyway, if my anecdote is of any help to you guys, try cleaning your screens and see if that makes a difference. In my case, i haven't seen it return but I've been keeping my screen almost pristine since this little theory crept into my head.

PS: Testing it by touching the screen and pressing the home button does seem to interfere with the clicking--sometimes delayed click, double-click, or no click at all. I didn't clean my wife's phone off until the other day--sure enough, she hasn't noticed the issue since keeping the screen clean.

I have and Iphone 4 and I started having the same problem with my home button after I upgraded the software. I took it into the only apple store in my town on Nov. 5 and the genius was extremely unhelpful and must have deleted the record of me coming in because when I took my phone back last night because the issue is becoming more and more frequent I was told there was nothing they could do to help me because I was out of my warranty. When I asked why they did nothing the first time I brought it in they said there was no record of me visiting the store. So they told me I could buy a new phone or just deal with issue until enough people have it and they do a quality care recall on them. My advice to all of you is that you take your phones into the store immidately if you have the issue and still have a warranty. Obviously I am very dissatisfied with the customer service I was given, not once but twice. The genius who looked at my phone this time did say that sometimes an app running can cause the issue. Either way I still suggest taking your phone in to be looked at.

Thanks for this tip; I've been having intermittent problems with the home button since I got the iphone last May. I took it in to the Manchester shop when visiting there last summer and the Genius looked at it and couldn't find a fault. Since then it has worked/not worked at random. For the last 48 hours I couldn't get it to work, so sought help on this website.

VERY PLEASED to say that, with your help, it now is working. I will be revisiting an Apple Store very soon to complain and, hopefully, have my home button replaced!

Thanks to all you other contributors for your comments & advice. 🙂

This issue is driving me nuts!

My home button hardly works at all i have to push it 20 times to get it to work! I have been in to see the genius bar and they said its a software issue and to wipe the phone and set the phone up as a new phone. Do not restore from back ups.

I have no done this twice and the issue returns pretty quick!

@essexoddball Your problem is clearly hardware related. If you are under warranty, take it back to the apple store and tell them what you just wrote. Back your phone up before you go because they are probably going to wipe it and verify that themselves. If you are not under warranty, look into replacing it yourself with ifixit.com or having it replaced by professionals.

I always condsidered this to be a hardware problem but since updating to 5.1 the phone's home button has been really stable with only 1 inadvertant double click. Before the update almost every other button click was a problem. It may be a software problem for my phone after all. Hopefully it is now sorted.

didnt do any good for me.

Not a software issue for us. I recently upgraded from my i4 to an i4S this past Wednesday (same day as the iOS 5.1 update). My hubby had the 3G and so he upgraded to my i4. Due to the upgrades, the i4 was completely wiped out and restored for him. Shortly after completing our upgrades at the ATT store, we updated to 5.1. The i4 still has the button issue after being wiped out, restored, and updated. The button has to be pushed hard to work and with double clicking, sometimes it does what its supposed to do and a majority of the time it doesn't and goes to the search iPhone screen. We will be in Chicago next weekend, so we will be making an appt at the Apple Store genius bar while there. It is still under AppleCare warranty through September of this year, so hoping that they will replace the button. We have never had any issues when going to an Apple Store and they have always been extremely helpful and provided phenomenal customer service and support. My only advice is if you are still under warranty/AppleCare, take it to them first and not try to fix the issue yourself.

So, just to provide an update on our situation, we went to Chicago for St Patty's day and stopped in to the Apple store on Michigan Ave. Even though they were quite busy due to the release of the New iPad, they were able to help us at the genius bar. They checked out the iPhone 4 button issue and applecare account info and replaced our iPhone4 with a brand new one. They said that they can not and do not replace just the button, they replace the device. So if you are still under warranty or have applecare, just take your phone to an apple store, they will take care of it!

I am having an issue as well. Although I don't know if it's a hardware or a software issue. I just recently updated to 5.1 when it was released and have NOT restored my phone. But I do know that it is annoying!

I do have this issue as well... And it's getting worse everyday. But I read it from somewhere that this issue could highly be due to the software, and the fix to it is this;

1) Launch any app in your iPhone.

2) Hold onto the power button still u see the 'SLIDE TO POWER OFF' screen.

3) Let go of the power button and gently press and hold your home button till it brings you back to the Home screen.

4) The home button should be more responsive now.

I tried this and it worked. But this issue comes back from time to time. So now I have the Assertive Touch activate to help ease the irritation.

Hope this helps.

My iPhone 4 worked well with the delay in closing apps, up until the iOS 5 release. Since then, my iPhone has not responded to the home button to wake it up from standby, and following the latest patch to the os, it's become hard to shut apps down. It's defiantly an os problem and not hardware related. The slower iOS 5 over the leaner iOS 4.x is evidence of that. Also more content on the device doesn't help either. Kind of like Windows running out of. Vertual memory before it loads the splash screen. I would suggest Apple techs look for a memory leak or some bad code concerning the home button. More likely a leak, as the lock/wake button is also having problems now too.

I have been having this problem on both my and my wife's iPhone 4. It started with the 5.2 update. I'm pretty sure it's a software problem. I hope Apple is aware of it and working on a software fix as both our iPhones are just out of warranty.