iPad 2 home button fail

My wife is having this issue with her iPad 2. It is very intermittent, sometimes working fine for a day or so, and then it will stop working for as many as 15-20 presses. My iPad 2 is fine. I called Apple and they immediately gave me a return authorization, I dropped it off at a UPS Store and it was overnighted to them. Because of the brevity of the call, I assumed that this is a known issue.

Today, less than 24 hours after they received the iPad 2, they sent me an e-mail telling me they were unable to reproduce the problem and have sent back my original iPad 2.

I'm extremely unhappy for a few reasons:

1. I told them it was intermittent. If I press the button 100 times or so I can make it start acting that way pretty much any time I'd like. They couldn't have tested it that well.

2. They paid a fortune in shipping back and forth, and took up my time for nothing.

3. I'm just going to go sit outside of an Apple store, wasting my time, until the very second it starts acting up, and take it in and have it replaced.

IT IS BROKEN. They will not fix it. 20+ years of Apple products, including 9 in my household right now and they do this to my wife over one of the cheapest Apple products I've ever bought the week before Mother's Day. SAD.

i am having the same problem i am calling apple tomorrow hopefully to get it resolved, without costing me any money, my home button is unresponsive at times and i have to push it many times to get it to work.....very agravating

The reason I'm telling you this is not to discourage you, but after much pain in sending our iPad to Apple service they sent it back with the exact problem, only saying it was "within spec" ... the reason I'm telling you this is so that you will take it to an Apple Store Genius Bar and show them your issue. The people in the service center where products are sent to are not testing these long enough to see the problem.

After my wife's was sent back to us "within spec," the first night there was a time where we had to hit the home button approximately 15 times to get it to go back once. Some days it works fine, sometimes it's unusable. They clearly didn't test it thoroughly.

I'm a life long Apple user and IT Manager, I deal with these problems all of the time. I was explicit in making sure the phone rep noted that it was "intermittent" and they assured me that they noted it this way. I have dealt with many of Apple's competitors and every single product with an intermittent issue that I've ever sent back has been replaced without question. I'm shocked and saddened that Apple handled this in the way that they did.

We pay a premium for service and it's the first time I've ever had to use it. Now that I realize I've been paying a premium all of these years without the actual service that comes along with it, I think I'm done. Within a year there will be numerous competitive tablets on the market just like there are phones that compete with the iPhone. They will be cheaper and have the same crappy support that I received from Apple.

Take it to the Genius Bar. I'm going to, but I'm waiting until it happens all the time. It's not fun.

Here's what I found...

Apply pressure to the right side of the Home button, at the same time you press the Home button.

It works for me every time.

I suspect this problem may be caused by the charging connector being plugged in and pulled out regularly. This new iPad2 is thinner than the ipad1 and so the connector may have some how misaligned the button or something may have been dislodged below the home button.

I had the EXACT same issue with my iPad 2. It was only a month old. The home button worked perfectly fine at first. A few weeks later, it took 5+ presses before it registered. A few days after that, 50+. I should add that it only started happening when I visited home in Hawaii (and I live in Vegas - super dry!). Maybe it has something to do with the humidity going into the charger opening?

I ended up taking it to a Genius when I returned to Vegas (home button now completely stopped working). He inspected for water damage, during which I was cringing because I had an issue with part of the screen getting wet in the lower left corner from installing a wet screen protector (could it be caused by that?). Fortunately, he did not find any known water damage. He then plugged in my iPad to a computer, which I assume he was testing to see if there would be ANY input at all if the home button was pressed. After that, he come out with another iPad 2 that he said was a special "replacement" iPad 2 that they give out for replacements.

I conclude that it was definitely a hardware issue in my situation. I could get the button to work if I simultaneously pushed hard below the home button every time, but as soon as I let go it stops working. Also, the screen protector I installed had a protector for the home button as well. I think it might have also affected the effectiveness of the button because it seemed like it was "rubbing" against the screen protector, causing excess pressure on the button, thus causing excess wear.

This new iPad 2's home button definitely has a much more tactile feel to it. Not sure if it's because I don't have a screen protector on it, but it does feel much snappier than my old one. Did anybody else experience humidity issues, water issues, or screen protector issues as I did? I did not drop my iPad once. I don't understand how it could just stop working all of a sudden so early.

Thanks. The trick is working. I use my finger in such a way that it presses the bottom edge of the home buttom while I am clicking and it is working perfectly.

But still, I don't want to do that for a device for which I paid $830 and is just about a month old.

Hi everyone,

I also had the same problem like less than a month after I purchased my iPad 2. I used to think that it was due to the iOS update to 4.3.x, as I got mine out of the box with the version prior to that, and didn't have problems before I updated.

However, it could also be that the home button pad had accummulated oil/dirt from our thumbs, which get in the way of it working properly.

Here's what I did:

1. Turned off my iPad2.

2. Wet my thumb with alcohol (not too wet, say a drop or two), and pressed down on the home button and rubbed the alcohol in in a circular motion. The idea is to let the alcohol break down the oil and dirt.

3. Wipe the home button thoroughly with a clean cloth (i dont recommend tissue or cotton as it might leave residue that could again 'clog' the inside perimeter of the home button.

Before I did that, my home button was responding in around 1 click out of 20-30 tries. After cleaning, the home button now responds in 9 out of 10 presses. 🙂

Let us know if you try and find that this works for you as well.

I have the same problem with my IPad 2 that I've had for 1 month. Problem just started. I've rebooted and restored. Home button didn't work for awhile, but now it works. Very weird and annoying.

Mine had stopped responding alltogether 0 out of 100. I applied pressure all arround the home button... I believe that it has put something back into place because it's 100% responsive now!

This must definately be a hardware issue. This will most likely hapen again & again until applying pressure all around will no longer work... I was hoping it was a software issue, at least that would be easier to resolve. I'll have to take it back to Apple for this next time it stops working.

Its an software related bug.Hardware has nothing to do with this issue.Upgrading or restoring the iOS probably solves this error.Good Luck

How can you make a blanket statement like that? Maybe there is a hardware and software issue? I have restored numerous times and it has never helped. Some people can get their button to work by squeezing the iPad. Does that sound like a software issue?

I just got my iPad 2 this weekend and I've been noticing this problem after a day I got it. But it happens to me intermittently where at times no matter how many times I press the Home button it doesn't function and sometimes it works perfectly. I don't know if this is a software or hardware issue but I'm going to try to see if they'll replace it for me. Has anyone got an answer from Apple whether this problem is due to iOS or hardware after getting it looked at?

I founf this answer in another discussion:

To Repair Your Unresponsive Home-button:

Open any application.(say notes)

Press and hold Power button until "slide to off"appears

Relesae the Power button

Now,press and hold home button,until the home screen(icons menu) appears. This may take a few tries as the Home Button isn't always working right?

This (supposedly) recalibrates your Home-button. Hence,after this procees your home-button works fine enough.Good Luck...

I tried it and it worked for me (just tried it - hopefully it is permanent).

One other "solution" they recommended was to undock Safari - just undock to any other place and restart.

My daughter's IPAD 2 also developed this fault of the home button not working a month after she got it . If the button is pressed down and finger moved in a circular motion for a while sometimes it responds but this is not great.

my iPad 2 did this for about a month but for some reason it magically quit malfunctioning around about July 1st or so, I dont know why it the home button was malfunctioning and never did find out I think it was a software problem or it could have been something stuck in the mechenisim i dont really know, but I know the problem quit.....make sure your daughters ipad has the latest iOS software version that might fix the problem, if it dont just take it to the apple store and make them replace it.