My home button will click but won't work. What should I do?

and how did you restore it? (its important to know the method)

Grumpy.....

At this point, restoring the software shouldn't matter. According to Gemma's post on the previous page of this discussion, the button itself is damaged. The "black has separated from the white back" is what Gemma said. That would indicate a hardware problem.

Gemma claims to not be able to afford a replacement and I suppose is hoping that the button can be repaired. It may be reparable by an Apple Genius, but the point is that restoring the device is not going to help if the button is physically broken.

I suggested using Accessibility as the workaround and Gemma is using that now, but also states that the need of the home button is necessary. Not sure how that is going to happen if paying for it is out of the question. The iPad is out of warranty and even if this was a manufacturer defect it wouldn't matter now.

This is a screenshot of the reply that stated that the button appears to be broken.

Regardless of the physical condition,if it were me, I would exhaust all possible solutions. How could you possibly determine for sure what might work without trying. Is not possible that their may be more than one issue. Maybe one software related and one hardware related? We cannot see the device, we cannot hold it in our hands and experience for ourselves what is going on.

I'm not disputing or disagreeing with what you are saying, honestly I'm not. That really wasn't the point of my post, even though it came off that way and I certainly was not trying to call you out on your advice or suggestions. IMO - I think you are beating your head against the wall. That's all that I meant