iPhone 4 Power Button Stuck

I don't think your symptoms are the same as mine. My power button has the appearance of being stuck down, if you tip the iphone upside down, the button freely moves in and out under gravity but there is no feeling there when you press it in. Although it has the appearance of being stuck down, it is not electrically stuck down, as pressing the home button works like a home button, and not as it would behave if the power button were actually stuck down. There is no click when you press the button, it just moves in and out (if upside down) with no resistance.

Having looked at some internal photos of the iphone, it seems there is a small piece of plastic on top of the mechanical buttons dome which is pressed by the physical button. When this small piece of plastic becomes dislodged (after 12 months!) the button does not make contact with the dome. I would imagine in any other device designed to last a "reasonable period", the button itself would be cast with this packing to mate directly with the mechanical button.

You mention "power it on". I can't press the button to power it on, I can power off by using the accessibility feature, but to power on I have to plug it into a PC or charger.

Well I've finally given in. Seems that no one, and I mean no one, wants to rectify the issue without me forking out a small fortune for something that's not my fault.

I went to the Apple Store in Glasgow this morning and did a straight swap for £££.

Although the Genius was pleasant enough about it, I'm nevertheless disgusted that it's cost me.

This'll probably be the last MacBook Pro, last iPhone, last iPod, and last iAnything that I buy though. Pay a premium price and get garbage. Hmm. A sound idea!

I feel the same as you - cheated - but paying them is the only way out. You'd pay £30 to get someone else to do it and still have an old battery, plus a possibility the home button would be next to go. It could even be they have improved the design since mine from July 2010.

I've fired off a feedback message to them about it but once I'd submitted it, the next page says they won't be able to reply personally so not sure how much good that will do. They know it's happening as they're having them back.

Had it been a serious problem like a cracked screen then £119 would be great, but the penny-cost button has a rectify cost approaching a quarter of the price I paid for the whole phone! My 2004 Sony TV has a remote which still works and gets pushed a lot more than the iphones power button.

One of the things I felt about apple products is they were reliable, well put together, and designed with parts to stand the test of time. Hopefully the EU ruling and court action in Italy will mean we get two year warranties on everything and that will put the matter to bed. Until then when it's time to change I'll have to think carefully where my next wodge of money is going. I would still be wary even then, anyone could have this large scale failure, I just hoped apple would deal with it in a more considerate and compassionate way.

Meh... The law in the EU, and this ruling in Italy, dictates that Apple has a 2 year warranty responsibility; Apple just aren't honouring it. The original reason Apple were took to court in Italy was because they weren't honouring their 2 year warranty responsibility.

The genius I spoke to said something like "But that's Italy" (so the EU bit was lost on him). After he saw his manager he said any legal stuff had to be directed to their solicitors. I hope they appeal, and I hope they lose, and hopefully then all those of us who paid out can claim back our money through the courts.

I found this article on a website:

It says at the end of the article that "the changes must be made with 90 days". I think the ruling was towards the end of December last year. It is already coming up to the end of February.

I was having this problem as of a couple of days ago. I've had my phone coming up to 2 years this June so was pretty much thinking it was wear and tear.

After reading some of posts on here I thought I would attempt at giving the button a clean. So I used the tip of a scalpel and gently scraped out the dust around the edge of the button.....hey presto it works again now!

Good luck to anyone else having a similar problem.

I'm having the same issue. I talked to a Apple Genius and it was $169 Canadian to replace as its out of warranty.

I tried cleaning around the button and it has helped. Before the button was totally unresponsive and nwo its just sometimes responsive which is good enough. I just need to be able to power it on if the battery dies.

My home button is also occassionally unresponsive.

Disappointing build quality.

Hey, please tell if you had to remove a rear panel.

P.S. I found I was just another naive fool, who belived Apple.

I did - I had to remove the back, the motherboard, and the front glass in order to access the screws for the power button. Then I added a small piece of plastic to bridge the gap from the button to the flex cable. It worked but it is still not like it used to be.

I too have a stuck/broken power button on my Iphone 4 that I purchased new at an official ATT store. After reading this thread, I went to the Apple retail store at Barton Creek mall in Austin to see if they could fix it. The employees at the Genius bar were not helpful at all so I politely asked for the manager. I then spoke with the manager named Phil who said since his Iphone 4 works, there is no defect or anything and he couldn't help me. "Well my Iphone 4 power button works" is the exact response I got, no joke. He says anything posted on these Apple forum threads hold no value and pretty much gave me the worst customer experience I've had in recent years. I am currently in the process of making a video to post online showcasing this common issue with the stuck Iphone 4 power button for all to see. Consider this the last Apple product I will ever buy or recommend to anyone.

Glad other people had better luck than I did at their Apple stores..

Oh the "Genius" I talked to was completely useless. He said he would replace the phone no problem. I told him it was out of warranty. At that point he demeanor changed from friendly to defensive. Then he goes, why do you need the top button, he never uses his. Your phone works doesn't it. You can set it to auto lock. I told him I already changed auto lock to 1 minute but the issue because if the battery dies, how am I suppose to turn it on? At that point the "Genius" was in stunned silence because he had no answer.

Basically on the quick responses to my questions, I think he has seen this before and its an known issue.

Cleanly only worked temporarily. Right now the button is completely useless and I pray my battery doesnt completely die.

Class Action! Class Action! 😁

I'm just waiting for the Samsung S3 to come out, then Im making the switch. Unfortunately this issue puts the resale value to my iPhone 4 to very little.

I gave in and paid the £119 for the exchange. My girlfriend never uses the top button. She lets it timeout to go standby, never uses the screen grab function and never soft restarts with the two finger salute. I guess she's not a heavy user so battery isn't a problem. She wouldn't let me swap the phones though! If the battery dies you can power it back on by plugging in the charging cable.

The second expert took it out back and said he would see if it was fixable. The work note showed he'd used a spray duster, so it was at least an attempt to fix. He was much more amenable, but I think by then I was resigned to paying up and realised there was no discretion to do anything other than tow the company line.

Apple have a reputation for quality and something this simple destroys that in a blink. Both experts said they'd seen it before but in relation to the number sold it's a small minority who have problems.

I don't think they're the perfectionists I felt they were. The part isn't fit for purpose and they should change the design and replace faulty ones free of charge, admitting they got it wrong, like with antennagate.

And heres the video I made today about this issue:

http://youtu.be/aozOklbWCT8

My iPhone 4 power button just died like everyone elses. Apple should offer to fix these as it is apparently a common fault of the phone. I would agree to pay a processing fee of $25 bucks or something, but to soak me $169 to replace the phone with a refurb just to fix a DEFECTIVE button is not very reasonable. I have bought upteen mac products for me, my family and all my friends, and I ecpect more from apple. Lets see if the squeaky wheel gets the grease, lets all start making some noise. I will see what apple store stays when I present them with all the evidence that the power button was under engineered and that its a common problem.

APPLE macguy, Calgary, Canada