iPad home button not working

Here is my thought...I am not a software of hardware engineer however I am a long time tech user and feel fairly savvy.

I can't imagine this is an actual hardware issue (I.e. a broken piece of hardware) since damage does not spontaneously repair itself and then break again and then repair itself over and over. If it is an issue with the micro switch then why would simply turning the device from portrait to landscape and back repair the problem. Nothing moved!.

if I understand how this device works, I am pretty sure it is all integrated circuitry, hence there are no moving parts and as described the home button is simply a micro switch, can that work, then not work, then work again simply by the aforementioned rotation??? It does, but why???

So I contend it is a purely software issue. It may be a conflict of some kind or even interference with the Smart Cover.

However I did turn off the smart cover unlock/lock mode and still the problem eventually returned. The next step is to remove the cover for a few weeks/months and wait and see.

Because I feel as though it is a software issue, I believe that it should've repairable via an OS update.

At least this is my humble, non-professional opinion....I certainly welcome all input..maybe even from Apple...

The landscape/portrait reset has never worked for me but I found another method.

Open any preloaded app (notes, weather etc.)

Hold the power button until the power off slider shows up.

Let go of the power button and immediately press and hold the home button until the slider disappears.

I have to do this about once a month on my ipad. Every few months I also have to do a hard reset in conjunction. It always works.

Google "home button calibration" and check out the tutorial from Snapguide.

I have two iPhones (work and personal) with no cases of any kind and a mini with a case (not a Smart Cover). My ipad has a Smart Cover. The only device I have this issue with is the ipad.

The landscape/portrait trick probably works for some people because turning the ipad while pressing hard on the button applies torsion to the button. What's happening on the screen is irrelevant. You're just making an intermittent mechanical problem better (or possibly worse) temporarily by twisting the button.

I see where you'd get that, but know that I rotated my hand with my iPad when I did it. To do otherwise is extremely awkward. So no, no torque on buttons or anything. It's likely just a software glitch - some low level function getting hung up that this little trick resets.

Been having this problem off and on for months now. Gotten worse these last couple weeks... even these little fixes don't work and I finally drove (hour and a half both ways) to an apple store for a genius bar appointment. I'm still under warranty (only 45 days left now) but because the 'genius' I was dealing with only saw it function improperly a few times while she was playing with it, she refused to replace it/fix it. The fact that she did see the issue at all should have been enough, but apparently it's not. What a waste.

This problem just started for me on my iPad 3 about two weeks ago (just about the time my warranty expired). I googled the problem, found the "rotation" solution and had good results for a while but, as many others have experienced, the button began misbehaving again within a week. I then tried the "home button calibration" method Pfeasant described and, once again, I got temporary button functionality.

Today I called Apple support. A pleasant technician (who said the same thing happened with his iPhone) informed me that the fix for the problem is for me to replace the device, and unfortunately this will cost $299 since my warranty was approx. two weeks past its expiration date. Since I had paid just under $900 for the device last year, I certainly resent having to shell out $299 more to get a device that works correctly for longer than one year. And after reading through this entire thread, I'm not convinced that the replacement device would be any more dependable.

Shame on Apple for not addressing such a widespread problem! I had been seriously considering replacing one of my HP desktops with an Apple. Not now.

P.S. I don't use a Smart Cover and never have. My cover doesn't have any magnetic parts.

Here's my cover.

To illustrate how extremely prevalent this problem must be, please note that this thread located under Using iPad > Discussion has had 62,595 views. The next closest number of views for any other thread in Discussion is less than 10,000.

I have a 1st gen iPad, and the Home button recently started giving me problems. After trying some of the remedies here without success, I blew some air from my garage compressor into the connector at the bottom of the iPad, and it fixed the problem. I guess some debris had gotten into the area from the connector hole and was causing the problem.

My home button was temperamental, I used your method, instead of using a compressor, I blew into the connector at the bottom of the iPad and guess what it is working great, there must be bits of dirt that manage to get up there and interferes with the button. Thank you for that information.

After finding that my iPhone power button was a rocker switch, or was made up of two switches, a left and a right, and only one was bad (the Genius pointed this out and they did replace the phone), I approached my intermittent mini's home button the same way. I assumed that there may be more than one switch or contact (up, down, left, right, and center seems logical) and tested accordingly.

First I focused pressure on the top edge of the home button using my fingernail. Repeatedly feeling the button click as I pressed, so I know the button was 'working', I got no response. I repeated this around the button and found that right and down always work, but left and up never do. Attempts to press directly down (center) were intermittent, so I assume the button actually rocks towards one of the sides.

I did some digging for photos of the back of the switch and a few did seem to show a bent metal setup suggested earlier, but there are also images of a home button cable that show a round contact. This may be what the metal contacts against, but I couldn't see why the setup would work directionally. It's odd too that the mini seems to be to focus of all these failures, when I assume all of the iOS devices would use the same switching method behind the home button. Maybe they tried to do something new and it didn't work. Guess we'll have to wait and see if the mini 2 has the problem too.

I'm hoping with this info, and an ability to show that two of four directions of the button are not working consistently, it will make it easy for the Genius to give me a replacement.

I have had my iPad for a year and I never had a problem with the home button until I bought a knew magnetic cover for it on Tuesday. By Wednesday the home button started to not work. The ram4kid solution mentioned worked but came back again. So I decided to not use the new magnetic cover ( the only thing i had done different) and go back to my old one and the problem hasn't come back. Just to see if the cover really effected the issue I tried to put the new cover on again and problem happened again. I think the problem could be somehow effected by certain magnetic covers. Incidentally my first cover also was magnetic but didn't effect my iPad the same way. If you think back, has anyone else noticed that they had changed their magnetic cover just before the problem appeared?

Call it the "Rotate and Blow" solution.

I tried all 3 fixes suggested in this amazing thread and my non-responsive home button is now super sensitive again and working great. Personally I think blowing into the charger port (right below the home button) is what ultimately fixed it. No compressor necessary or canned air. Just blow!

Thanks for posting these fixes!

I had same problem on iPad and iPhone, tried this little fix now working as it should be.

Launch any standard app on your tablet ( for example Notes).

Press down Power Button and keep it until the red “slide to power off” slider will appear.

Release Power Button and immediately press Home Button.

Keep it pressed until the red “slide to power off” slider will disappear. (It may be as long as 30 - 40 sec.)

Check if the Home button works; if not repeat above procedure once more. (You may try several times.)

That is all. The Home Button symptoms should be relieved.

This thread is great. I noticed after the IOS7 update my home button seemed to work less. Thought I was going nuts. Then this morning I was having a hard time getting out of apps and was worried the button had just died. Tried a reboot and that didn't seem to work. Google showed this thread and I tried the hold home while in portrait, rotate to landscape, rotate to portrait and let go. That worked great. It's responsive again!

It has to be some apps not behaving properly munging up the system, and it keeps persistant through the entire OS in the background until you do this or whatever other trick and it resets whatever is munged up. An ongoing variable, or a setting or something that never truely gets cleared out between restarts.

It also seems like maybe its easy for dust to get up in there too since people blowing has helped them also. What a weird error, but I'm happy this thread exists. Any ideas how much something like this would cost to be fixed out of warranty?

It's been over 20 days and the IPad has been working flawlessly since this fix. Just wanted to say thank you again. Having the button stop working on the ipad scared me to death since it was out of warrany. Glad it was just a software glitch!