Power Button Stuck on Brand New iMac

Typical - the button issue is clearly a manufacturing and/or design flaw. The power button on my 27" iMac didn't work right from day one. Just felt kinda off like it wasn't seating right. Sure enough, one year in and the fix is to either flip the imac upside-down, which correctly aligns the power button, but risks damage to the entire unit. Or use the sticky tape trick also posted in this thread.

Just unbelievable how apple refuses to take responsibility for what is clearly a manufacturing flaw. Or wait, maybe not that unbelievable . . . .

Try taking a piece of duct tape and sticking it to the button - fashion a little tab out of it so you can pull on it and wiggle it about. See if that works.

Mine failed within the 1 year warranty. Unfortunately the "fix" is to remove all the components from your unit and install in a new case since the switch is integral to the case.

Immediately upon pickup my Bluetooth did not work, so no mouse = useless computer. (they didn't assemble the antenna correctly nor check functionality before returning it). Back in and back out.

About two weeks later, none of the USB ports would respond - no keyboard = useless computer.

In their defense Apple did eventually replace the computer since I had three repair attempts (the first was a failed hard drive). Although my Apple store manager would not allow me to return and exchange at the store. I had to go through mailing it in and being here when FedEx shows up with the new one. Bummer is that I lost my iTunes 10.7 and got the hated iTunes 11.x

If they repair your unit, make sure to check, check, check every function you can.

Thank goodness for Google and Cheeseboy42!!!! You just saved me an inconvenient trip to the apple store! THANK YOU!!

Un-Friggin Believable!!! During update to 10.9.2 my iMac got stuck in the "Finishing Update" phase for an hour and i had to pull the plug, then it wouldnt turn back on, this was only literally the 3rd time i've ever powered it down in a year of owning it, and every time it seemed difficult to get the power button to respond, finally after After exhausting all options given from Apple, power cord, pulling memory, waiting hours with no power then trying, i got no where!!! so i started massaging the power button, up down sideways, swiping it, flicking it, tapping it, you name it, i worked that button so much dollar bills started coming out of it!!! And then Boom, it turned on. Jackpot, but wait, i got it booted up, and then powered down to fix cords and route them pretty and clean, and Gat-Dammit it wouldnt turn on!!! WELL i read this post and SHOW-Nuff i flipped it upside down, tapped on the case a little and Wha-La, like black magic, it powered up!!!! Seriously Apple, get it together. Switch is shotty, tech support either lacks knowledge on this problem or they are just too embarrased to tell a guy who spent $2500+ on your product to lay his iMac over his lap, upside down, and spank it while pushing the power button. LGS!!!!!

Having 'Start up automatically after power failure' selected in System Prefs/Energy Saver, has just saved me from having to unplug everything, turning my iMac upside down jiggling it about and praying for gravity to do it's thing.

At least if the button is stuck you can just pull the plug and it'll start up again.

A case of form over function taken a bit too far in this design.

@jibunmirai - great tip, thanks!

Thank goodness I have Apple Care. My two year old, 27 inch iMac's power button became "unseated" as well. I took it in, they fixed it at no charge. I'm so glad because flipping it upside down and jiggling the button was damaging the desk because the iMac is so heavy.

I got the same problem with my 2011 27" imac, took to apple store in st louis the tech and store manager tried to "BS" me that it was my fault that I should never turned the machine off. I call apple support back an spoked with the senior support manager after some song and dance around the issue they agree to make the repair for free becacause it is their problem shoddy componets and workmanship. Should have made the computer in the USA with quality componets and workmanship.

Somebody know the cost for the repair?
I try everything and did not worked

If your machine is on, the "Power on after power loss" tip works. (see the post above from jibunmira )

Have you tried turning the iMac upside-down? That worked for me, but now I have a pink tinge to the upper-right corner of the screen, so do be very careful when turning the unit over.

Alsloginid: You've hit the nail on the head. The problem with a stuck power button is that the button is designed with guides in which it's supposed to slide. When working properly the power button logo is perfectly vertical. When pressed with too much force the button can move past and rotate outside of its guides hence not being able to move back to home position which is flush with the housing surface. So, if the logo isn't perfectly vertical, it'll jam in the down position. To fix this, rotate the switch back to vertical and it'll pop back up and, if the switch hasn't been damaged internally, will function as designed again. I had a machine in for repair where the button was jammed so tightly that I had difficulty rotating it to vertical so I used the tip of an exacto knife on the edge of the button and tapped the handle of the exacto knife and slowly rotated the button to vertical until it popped out. I then applied a very tiny drop of very light oil to the edge of the button to lubricate the button and housing surface so it'll move more smoothly and maybe the customer won't have to push as hard anymore to start the machine and keep the button from rotating and jamming again. Waayyy cheaper solution than replacing the rear housing.

Thanks, Alsloginid

There's a reason why repairs are so expensive. Do you have even the slightest idea of how difficult they are to repair and reassemble??

Cheesboy42 is the man!!!!

I use my 27" for my recording studio and finished a really awesome recording session last night and came in this morning to do some editing and work up a rough mix for the client to listen to.

Pressing power button, very little movement and no power up chime.... This had happened before and I thought I just needed to play with it some more so I was pressing and pressing, turning, hitting... for nearly an hour.

Pulled out the ipad and did a google search for "Imac power button stuck", followed the link to the first search result that brought me here.

Turned the mac upside down and fiddled with the button for maybe a minute and boom!! Powered up and good to go.

Now I have enabled the power up after power failure option in system prefs.

Thank you Cheesboy42

After trying all the suggestions here and elsewhere, my wife discovered that she could get the button to come out again by super-gluing something she could grip to the button (I think she used a Lego) and then pulling it out. It's an old machine, so she wasn't worried about the super-glue residue on the button. Others may be more sensitive to that.

As always, people get off track from the original question. So to try an offer some constructive advice.....

I have a Mac Mini and an iMac. On both machines I never actually use the power button. I use the "sleep corners" function in the screen saver, so whenever I move the mouse to say top left, the computer is put into sleep or hibernation mode. Whenever I want to work, I just tap a key on the keyboard and the computer instantly wakes up. when I'm done, mouse to the top left and goodnight.

I find this particularly useful for my Mac mini, which sits under my desk and has a lot of cables connected to it. Hence finding and pressing the button on the rear is incredibly awkward. But I never really need to. Just a thought. Dave.