Q: iPhone 5 Home Button Issues

Made an appt with Apple Genius, although it didn't take a genius to figure out the button don't work. One day old phone... completely covered for free replacement under regular warranty.

They replaced my original Sprint online ordered device with one of their store in stock replacements. Swapped the sim card from the original to the new phone (thereby making it a Sprint network phone). All was good EXCEPT that Sprint tech didn't seem to pay attention when I told him (per the Apple tech) the serial number must be changed in their system from the original device. We attempted different things for about two hours to activate the phone to no avail. He said I had to take it back to the Apple store "to check the software." I insisted something must be wrong at their end. A supervisor got on with me and I reiterated about the sim card switch and the need to change the serial number. The previous guy did not do it. The supervisor wasn't quite sure if he could. But voila, 5 minutes later I was activated.

Hope this saves the next person in a similar situation the time and aggravation.

yep same problem. had my phone almost 2 days. no apple stores closer than 2.5hrs from me.

same problem here. i got my original iphone5, had to replace it 3 times because of scratches/scuffs/cuts (and not just small ones).

then, when i got one that finally looked okay, the home button just stopped working. could not do anything, after resets, same thing. pressing it down hard, nothing. the 'replacements' seem worse..

i returned it withing the 14 day period. i'm waiting for Apple to fix all this before getting one.

this is absolutely unacceptable.

appledidwhat wrote:

 

same problem here. i got my original iphone5, had to replace it 3 times because of scratches/scuffs/cuts (and not just small ones).

 

then, when i got one that finally looked okay, the home button just stopped working. could not do anything, after resets, same thing. pressing it down hard, nothing. the 'replacements' seem worse..

 

i returned it withing the 14 day period. i'm waiting for Apple to fix all this before getting one.

 

this is absolutely unacceptable.

I feel your pain - I'm waiting for my 5th replacement coming via FedEx overnight.  Apple has been great about replacing (and the people I have spoken to have actually expressed embarassment over the situation).

Other than the cosmetic defects I'm really liking the phone a lot (haven't had home button issue yet).

I had exactly same problem. Went to apple store and they gave me new phone. I bought apple care with the replacement to be safe.

I am bummed that my home button is not functioning properly!! I contacted my cell carrier they said I just have to call the warranty department and they will send me a new phone. For those that have received replacment phones are you having the same home button with the new device?

The purple haze thing happened this weekend when I took some pictures at night. Very odd. Since I will be traveling I am not sending my phone back until November. By then I am hoping Apple will have fixed the problem with new phones coming off the manufacturing line. In the meantime I will just have to deal with assistive touch.

It was exciting getting the phone the day it was released. Next phone upgrade I think I will wait for a couple months so the intial kinks get worked out. This is the first time I've been disappointed by Apple.

My replacement came two days ago. So far so good. No issues. My home button had completely stopped working by the time I got the replacement.

Went to the Genuius Bar in Tukwila, WA as scheduled at 630 pm. I was entertained at 632 pm and they addressed my problem. They replaced the phone and was activated with Verizon within 7 minutes. I remained for another 30 minutes to download the rest of the apps from iCloud. Easy and fast. What can I say. Steve Jobs created a great company that parallels that of Disney.

Want to apple store at 12:50 with home button problem. It was repaired and I was out the door by 1:00. I couldn't be happier. 

How did they repair it? Hardware or software issue?

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Interesting, I read a CNET article that stated Foxconn officials admit the iPhone 5 is difficult to manufacture and that there was a learning curve for many of their employees to learn how to do it correctly.

Maybe waiting a while before purhasing an iPhone 5 would have been the smarter way to go. That way you'd be better assured you wouldn't get one of their early "assembly practice" devices.

My new replacement device that I recieved one day after I got the original  has been just fine, though.

hardware. I can see that the screws were removed and the guy said he replaced the button and the ribbon cable.

just got my iphone 5 wednesday and now the home button its 95% not working. It was okay the first 6 hours but it got worse . The thing is i dont want a freaking refurb iphone from genius bar even if looks new because i know they were open. Its different the assembly in the factory vs backroom apple store. I will try att for a replacement since its been less than 48 hr since i purchased

Same issue as here. iPhone 5 is my first Apple's product and been owning for 2 weeks. Home button was not working, the Power button was not working. It's freak me out to loose data. I came to this forum and follow instruction to reset the power: hold Home button and Power button at the same time for about 10seconds until the white apple displayed and then released both buttons. It came back automatically. It seems working again and no data lost. I'm still happy but I hope that Apple releases a permanent fix of firmware/iOS.

Mine worked ok out of the box but within a couple of weeks the home button became an intermittent problem that grew worse. I also didn't want a refurb job. I didn't really want a new replacement either as I had set mine up just as I want it and didn't want to risk any data loss/corruption.

Took it to Genius Bar in store, they looked at the inside and saw something "glue like" in there. Replaced the home button cable within about 15 mins and it's worked like a dream ever since. If you can get to an Apple Store, I'd recommend doing that. It worked for me.

Good luck!!

iPhone 5 64G black (unlocked)

I figured out how to fix this issue on my iPhone 4, also works on 4s. Haven't tried it on iPhone 5 but I think it might be a similar issue.

Basically there is a screw that is a little loose. On the iPhone 4 and 4s you can access it just by removing the back plate covering the battery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a39aXIu7mV8

Hopefully this helps those of you that can't get to an apple store for an exchange.