iPad home button not working

There does seem to be a systemic problem with the iPad home button. There are countless reports on the net of people who are experiencing problems with the button not working, and I'm now onto my second iPad in a row that's experiencing the same issue - when my first one stopped working I brought it to the Apple Store, who instantly replaced it without question, even though it wouldn't behave badly for me in the store. But now that new iPad is doing exactly the same thing. Symptoms are that the button works very erratically, and often not at all. It's hard to figure out if it's a hardware problem or something else. There are countless solutions proposed on the net, most of which amount to shaking a bag of bat's teeth over it. Anyone had any real success with any technique? It really seems like it's an iOS problem rather than a hardware problem, as iPhones and iPad Touches are also reporting it?

Posted on Jun 3, 2012 5:04 PM

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Posted on Jul 8, 2012 3:04 PM

I had this problem with an iPad2, purchased in May 2011. It occured at about the 8 month point. After a few weeks of increasingly erratice behavior, the home button failed completely. Apple replaced the iPad, in the store, without question. The problem occured again, in the brand new iPad, after 60 days. It appears to be a known issue. Resets and restores did not solve the problem.


I am currently using the second iPad with its home button working less and less consistently. As a workaround, I use the ACCESSIBILITY setting in Settings / General. I have it turned on. It gives me an on screen option for the home button. Should the physical button fail completely, as it did in my first iPad, this will at least give me an option to use the iPad until I take it back to the store. This is important if you want to remove confidential data before turning the iPad in for repair.


It goes without saying that this is disappointing.

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iPad home button not working

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