The back button on my iPad does not work

Its not that it has physically stopped working, as in a hardware issue; it has just become ineffective, prompting jennifer to report it had frozen

I've seen this a few times with our iPad users

Double tapping the home button should always bring up the task bar, unless it was hardware related.

What are you calling the back button? The black button at the top of the iPad is the sleep/power button. The round button at the bottom of the iPad is the home button.

Which one does not work and what are you trying to do?

Sounds like you have too many processes running in the background

Double tap the 'home' button and it will bring up a list of open apps, running along the bottom.

You need to press and hold one of these app icons, until it starts to wobble; you can then close the app by pressing the stop sign in the top left.

Best practice is to close down any apps you don't need running.

Pressing the 'home' button doesn't close apps, it just minimizes them!

To follow up on the thought on too many processes running, I'd do a "hard" shutdown by holding the home button and the power button on the upper right edge down till you get the sliding bar. Leave it off for about 30 seconds or so. This is supposed to be similar to a battery pull and reset on other mobile devices...

Maybe I am dense but please clear this up for me .... what are you calling the back button?

The home button.

I assumed as much but I also assumed - from the way I read the post - that the "home" button was freezing which sort of confused me. If the button wasn't working, using it to bring up the task bar wasn't going to work. At least that's how I interpreted the post.

Like I said - I may be dense! :)

mrsdannikendall wrote:

Its not that it has physically stopped working, as in a hardware issue; it has just become ineffective, prompting jennifer to report it had frozen

I've seen this a few times with our iPad users

Double tapping the home button should always bring up the task bar, unless it was hardware related

Yes I realize what you are saying. But I have seen a number of users experience home button problems that were hardware related and hence the cause for my misunderstanding.

Message was edited by: Demo

In my case even double tapping th eHome button do not solve the issue. When i press the Home button & Sleep button together for some time it doesn't reboots, instead it prompts me to power off and if i do not do then it just comes back to the previous page as if nothing has happened, would it be a Hardware problem can any one help pls?

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. Wiped 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.

An excellent solution! After several weeks of frustration I finally came to this support community and your advice worked beautifully. Thank you!

Hello,

My iphone 3gs , home button is not working...

Please help me..

I don't have warranty on this.

Its only 2 month old phone.

I was in the brink of frustation and was deciding to take my "home-less" ipad2 to the Apple Store tomorrow after trying the docking off safari, reset, and stuffs. Mine was 4.3.3, jail-breaked, and with screen protector. So with the consequences of un-jail-break, I restore the ipad to it's factory setting and update to 4.3.5, and while praying that it works, I'm rubbing the edge of the screen protector near the home button to get the dirt out. Miraculously it works! So I don't really know which one worked the magic, restore and upgrade to latest version, or massaging your home button. I suggest tried them both.