iPhone 4 Power Button Stuck

This exact same thing happened to me last week....The power button on my 18 month old 4s stopped functioning. It's permanently depressed and I had to activate assistive touch to power it off. This is my second iPhone with an equipment problem...my previous phone, an iPhone4, had a Home button Home that suddenly stopped working. Both of these problems mysteriously surfaced after the warranty expired. Both were kept in cases and essentially babied. I'm not eligible for an upgrade on this line for another months however we have a family plan with Verizon and two other phones have available upgrades so I'm transferring one to this phone and buying a Samsung Galaxy 4 Android phone. I'm through with Apple products for now. They need to build a more trouble free product or start fessing up to these equipment problems and take care of their customers. Until then, consider me another former iPhone owner.

Dear Apple,

You replaced my Iphone 4s (lucky for me it had another month on its warranty) due to the home button not responding. However, 7 months later, the top button the new phone became stuck. Hmm. Both buttons faulty? Interesting. So, I made an appointment and took it to an apple store expecting it to be replaced. Well, the drones you have working there said "Its not under warranty." My reply was "But the phone itself is 7 months old. You don't warranty a new phone regardless?" Their reply was the same "Its not under warranty. We go by the date of your original phone purchase date. But you can purchase a replacement for $200." Ha. Iphone 5s are going for that with a contract. After wasting 2 hours with this and watching two security gaurds stand over my shoulder, I decided to leave. I went home and googled a solution. It just so happens that a "ubreakIfix" store will fix it for $40 and it happens to be close by. So, they fixed it. Happy me. Well, 6 months later (present day), The button on my 4s is stuck again. Hmm. Faulty design? I don't think so. I know so. Apple, please fix your product.

I guess I will have to go back to "ubreakifix".

Hi Everyone,

This is a joke, Apple has been the worst company I have ever dealt with. One Month after a year the button on my daughter's iPhone 4s did the same thing. I went to a Apple store and the gennius or idiot said I had to replace the whole phone for $200.00!!!!!! I told him this is a common problem he informed me it's a button they break......really Apple this is the type of staff you have and this is how you deal with your poor quality.....Then I read online Apple was replacing the defected phones, to my surprise not the 4s, maybe Apple should stop sueing everyone and using that money to provide quality products as they claim or service for that matter. All 4 iPhone my family had did the same thing and same response from Apple. So I took a stand and have purchased Samsung phone for the whole family, two of the Samsung are over a year old and no issue the other 2 are about 6months old. Apple has lost me as a customer and many of my friends that had the same problem and same result from Apple. I am also the purchaser for my company and slowly replacing all Apple products from our inventory. I think if we all stuck together and stopped buying Apple products they would listen a little more. think about they will replace the iPhone 5 but not the 4 and 4s that have the same problem, if that doesn't say scam what does.....how can I or anyone trust Apple......and like the above person said he purchased a replacement and same problem 7 months later, but Apple looks at the date of the original receipt.....really that person purchased another phone the warranty should start from that date. Now I can understand why Apple has so much money scamming people, and it is time we fight back.

For the people that are recommending using assisitve touch, what do you do if your phone freezes and you need to hard reset? (hold in both buttons to for a boot).

I guess you just have to prey that Apple devices don't freeze right? Or you don't ever have to put it in DFU mode or you are screwed!

I had same problem since a month ago the power button didn't work most of the time but sometimes work. I was on a long vacation in a different continent and was not aware I can still fix it at an Apple store there. I came back and went the Apple store to ask for help. Sure enough, my phone was a couple weeks out of warranty. The guy who was helping me ( don't know why I always get the same guy who was extremely unhelpful) was more interested in up-selling me a new Iphone 5 than listening to my problem. I ended up leaving the store without doing anything. I was not going to pay $200 to exchange to a new phone while this one is still working and I was not going to trade in this phone that I purchased a year ago from the same store for over $500 for a pitty $135 to upgrade to the Iphone 5S they tried to sell me. And I suspected the problem was probably related to a repair I did just not long ago from the same Apple store.

Went to a local phone repair store today and they fixed it for me in 5 minutes for $10!!! And they told me it was just a bit loose inside. Now I am sure it's related to the repair I did at Apple soon before that.

Apple, you disappointed me again and again and your store service is horrible. You hire the wrong person to be " genius ???" I am not going back to Apple after this phone is eventually dead.

I can feel your frustration. I had the exact same experience instead in an Apple store. You can see my post above. The guy first gave me the false information. When I told him my phone was still under warranty when the issue happened and I was not able to come to the Apple store as I was on a long trip, he pointed out to me that my phone's warranty was void anyways as I had gone to their store to repair the broken back glass recently and that voided the warranty. I knew that was not true. I knew that only if you went somewhere else to replace it, it will void the warranty not when the repair was done at Apple store. When I confronted his false statement, he said he had to confirm with his manager. I don't understand how they call someone like this who doesn't have any basic knowledge " genius'.

I am with you. I just sold my almost brand new IPAD and once this Iphone is dead eventually, I am moving on.

Thank you for posting about this, Brendan. I just watched the ifixit video and couldn't see how it could be the button itself, esp. since the cable looks so flimsy, but I was also wary of spending the ifixit price of $25 for the cable assembly. I am going to do exactly what you did. The process is involved but looks doable. I may replace the battery at the same time. 🙂

-- Marie

I watched the ifixit video and got enough nerves to replace the power button ribbon cable which cost me 12 bucks online and some steady surgical hands...works like a charm...is this gonna be an apple lawsuit over this issue?

--Richard

IF BOTH THE POWER BUTTON FAILS AND THE SCREEN IS LOCKED SO YOU CANNOT SWIPE INTO THE HOMESCREEN, TRY THIS:

This happened to me, sounds kind of common on this thread... my power button no longer works on my 3s and then I got the dreaded screen freeze so I could no longer swipe. So now not only couldn't I power down by the button, but I also found that I could not even access the apps or the settings. Very disappointing because everything I saw online involved breaking my phone apart or waiting the 35h I needed for my battery to drain. This was not acceptable, so checking my options, I did find a neat workaround...

I found that if I call myself from someone else's phone, I was still able to receive calls. Then on this same call, I then tried to conference in my brother, which forced me to enter my passcode. Instead of actually conferencing him in, I chose instead to send him a text rather than conference him in. This then basically unlocked my swiping ability somewhere in the process. Not sure how this worked, but long story short, when I ended the call with my friend, I was in my apps area beyond entering my passcode with the ability to swipe around and restart my phone instead of being stuck on that mainscreen with no swiping ability.