home button is not responding

Anybody have an experience of Apple fixing the home button issue, for iPhone 4s that are just a few months over the warranty expiration? Wanted to do this earlier (here in Hong Kong), but the process (through my network operator SmarTone-Vodafone) was really long and tedious (backing-up, going to an inconvenient service centre, etc.) - not to mention having my iPhone gone for 2 weeks without a replacement phone in the meantime.

It wasn't until one month after my warranty expiration that the flagship physical Apple Store (complete with Genius Bar) opened.

Hmm. wrong forum it appears. I searched 'home button' and got this.

I have the same response problem. I think it is just a hardware issue related with the charger point located right behind the home button. My problem started especially after using a dock charger. It seems after a while inclined position of the charger making the botton less responsive. When you insert the cable charger and push across to the opposite direction of the dock charger the home button works well (but just for a while).

It would be better the charging point was located on one of the sides or on the top.

Hi all. An udate.

Tried all the posted remedies to attempt to resolve my failed I pad 1(18monthold) home button.

Contacted apple-advised to take to genius bar, nearest to me Liverpool One which is still over an hour away.

Genius Bars inital conclusion response, agreed there was aproblem,only possible solution replace product with like for like replacement at very slightly reduced cost as it was out of warranty and no applecare plan, No repair possible even at my expense.Pointed out that it did not appear to be the only failure, design fault-hotly denied.

Saw senior advisor at the store and complained about lack of solution/response at resonable expense, No Joy so said i would escalate complaint and left.

An analogy, if i buy an expensive car from Apple, out of warranty, iginition key fails, then Apples response is i must replace the whole car with a now superceeded product at a slight reduction in price on the price I originally paid for the now malfunctionaing model, I dont think so !!

Next step, emailed complaint and response to Apples CEO Tim Cook, copied to UK consumer organisation Which,for information re product reliability etc and Companies response to problems.

Soon received phone call from US company female employee a senior advisor who sweetly tried to offer me the same solution and wasn't for admitting that may be a design fault of some sort, Offered to get another (more senior !!)advisor to ring me the following day when said that I wasnt satisfied, which i declined when she explained that there would be no change in the response.Aslo stated that i was prepared to sacrifice my entire apple collection (Imac, macbook pro,I pad, I phone) on a point of principal, which admittedly was said in the heat of an argument but which I would have seriously considered,why would i wish to give this company repeat business if this was their way for dealing with customers who spaend large sums of money on their products!!!

The saviour, Store Manager at Liverpool One who had also by this time received an email from Tim Cook,

Discussed problem, possible solutions to my complaint, including an upgrade to I pad 2 (which had been refused on my initial visit, but which i would have gone for,given the opportunity). Solution agreed and accepted I pad 2 purchased at very favourable price,

Couldnt have been more helpful. Now another satisfied customer.

Persistence and refusal to accept being fobbed off by ridiculous company polices and finding/contacting the right people who can and are willing to make things happen.

Animist08 has the most reasonable answer out of all of the others. Just bring it to your nearest apple store to see what they can do for you. Make sure that you make an appointment first before you go. I waited for about 4 hours before the genius bar would see me with my problem.

did u have to pay Shropshirepippin?

i sent it to maintanance, i got a replacement product back. i just bought it in august last year, hope the issue won't come back.

My I pad 1, was 18months old, had already paid around £700 plus for it new ,so was out of warranty,

I did not therefore expect to resolve the situation without some finacial contribution on my part.

Apples initial response to the problem, came across,as has been described by others, as arrogant and unhelpul, their initial remedy,requirning me to buy another Ipad 1(a now supeceeded model !!) at avery slightly reduced price, which i declined and went on the offensive.

The final outcome was more generous than i had anticipated or expected (a 50% reduction on an I pad 2) proving that there are some individuals within the company who recognize the value of providing customer satisfaction in the resolution of valid complaints about products or ridiculous company policies.

I'm also having the same problem as is my girlfriend. Her iPhone 4 is a little older than mine and hers started doing it first. Over the weekend mine started doing it also. But our problem may be a little different.

You have to push fairly hard on the home button when its in sleep mode for the slide bar screen to come up. I used to be able to barely gently tap on it and it would pop up. Now that they have the "double tap to get to camera" option. THis can be a hassle. As sometimes you get off with the tapping, when you want the camera you hit it once, doesnt respond at all, then twice and it has the regular unlock screen, etc. It happens most in the lock screen. I tried the open a stock app and lock button thing. Didn't seem to help.

Most of the time if you give it a normal thumb tap it works. But I long for the days of the barely grazing it and the screen pops up.

Is this the same problem other people are having. And yes, I'm assuming its a hardware issue as well since my gf's phone is older and started doing it before mine.

Same problem here, iPhone 4 home button works only intermittently. Found this very simple fix on another forum and it works perfectly now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXlY-VcxbCU&feature=youtu.be

I think that you should be AS.

Just tried Dunbrooks workarround using the charging point on my defunct I pad one,(See my post above for story so far). It didnt work.

The whole point is that this is clearly a common design fault/weakness which Apple should be man enought to admit and correct.

They should not be charging the price they do and then walking away when these products fail just out of warranty and saying well you should have bought an extended warranty.

They cant even offer a repair at reasonable expense, the only option being to replace the complete pad at either the same or reduced price or not at all depending on how much fuss and effort the customer is prepared to put in.

This item along with other Apple products is sold as a premium product, pity the Company policies/customer service/relations angle doesnt match their aspirations.

I have the best solution. After so many rebots and restores the problem still comes back so I took my iphone 4 to my local apple store and explained the home button problem to the genius bar associate. He was then able to reproduce the problem in the store. I owned my phone for 20 months so i had no warranty so i was really pushing my luck. The genius bar associate made a few phone call and I walked out with a new refurb iPhone 4. Great customer service!!! He saved me $150.00 dollars. Pasadena apple store rocks!!!! My opinion is that no one should have to deal with this problem and apple should take full responsibility. So go to your nearest apple store and get your phone replaced. Remember to back it up on your computer before taking it in. Good luck!!!

Guys it has nothing to do with if you have updated ur phone or not... I haven't updated mine and it still happened to me... It's simply the button I's dieing... Buttons have used by dates to... The amount of use these buttons get used on these phones is massive so what ever components are in the bottom have simply warn away...so I would just take it in to get fixed... Also I hope u put insurance on ur phone...

Do a restore, but do not reinstall the back up file, start as a new phone. Sounds like there is a error with programming. When I had this issue, apple had me restore the phone and not reinstall the back up. Works fine ever since. Also once you have done all that, go into your settings, general, about, diagnos and usage and look for any errors with the phone, such as low memory, or failure alerts, if you see any then remove some apps from your phone, especally onces that are very big in size, to big of app for the device and it will cause this issue.

just tried this. hope it works.

Same thing happened for me, became unresponsive and the solution, which may sound silly is to actually use a toothbrush...

My issue was that there was dirt stuck underneath the button causing the unresponsiveness. It's a little fiddly so the instructions are below:

http://nealbo.hubpages.com/hub/Fix-a-broken-unresponsive-or-sticky-iPhone-Home-B utton

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