iPhone 8/ 8 plus home button cracked

I saw you mention this on an earlier post, and had to think about it. Yes, I think my daughter was charging her phone.... it was in the dark, but I think she had to unplug it to hand it to me.

The lady I chatted with on-line first, a customer help person from Assurion (Verizon's insurance carrier), I asked if she had seen this before and she said "it had happened to a few people" and she thought the phone was getting hot on the inside and literally expanding so much that it cracked the home button from the inside.

I am sure we both know that people have more to do in their lives than make up stories about phones spontaneously cracking home buttons on a helpline....

just so you know, I tried to find other places on line where people were talking about this and reposted my post there too. Hopefully if other people out there with this problem realize that they aren't alone, there might be more complaints to apple directly.... unfortunately for us, while the insurance is the cheaper fix (and frankly far less time consuming! ) I'll bet lots of affected users will just get it fixed without apple having to deal with them.

Okay so I think my theory must be true. It HAS to do with charging the phone. To be brutally honest, my car charger is an aftermarket one. Ever since my second phone broke, I decided to only use apple cords and wall plugs. I dealt with the same insurance company for my carrier (AT&T) and my deductible for a second claim would be $225 AND they said they would drop me. I have to wait until January 2019 until my records get wiped clean before filing a new claim for a new phone.

I believe if enough people complain formally instead of write on this forum (because evidently this isn’t proof enough for Apple to take initiative) we could get Apple to compensate us or offer a discounted repair. Hopefully

Well, I’ve had the issue on 2 different iPhone 8pluses. I strongly believe it has something to do with charging the phone. I believe the port overheats and the home button cracks. It’s now happened to me twice in 2 months. And I spoke to someone else on this forum, it happened while they were charging their phone. And I saw someone else mention it was charging when it broke too. This is a serious issue and Apple needs to know about it. I wonder if enough people tweeted at their account, they would make note and eventually make amends with users to fix our phones lol

I think you are right! But complaining to them directly isn't easy.... Because I spent so long on the phone (96 minutes) with some poor apple-care agent person, I got to write a review of their service on a survey, so I took that to mean a commentary on their service in general and explained what had happened to my daughters phone and noted the others on this list. I pointed out that their policy of making us pay for something that is happening to enough people that it cannot just be coincidence, is appalling, especially considering their profit margin on this phone. It just doesn't make business sense to loose what presumably would be lifetime customers over a $160 repair...

Aside from this communities chat group, there doesn't appear to be a way of contacting them directly? I hadn't considered tweeting. I'm going to go looking for a Facebook account now...

I've had my iPhone 8 Plus for 1 week and the same thing happened to me! My phone shut down and I thought it was just going to restart, but it was stuck on the Apple logo. Then I noticed it had a crack on the home button. I've never dropped the phone or anything, so there's no way I cracked it. I went to the Apple Store and they thought it was my fault, they said "no way the iPhone would just crack." They told me I would have to pay $169 for a repair, I kept insisting that this could possibly be a manufacturer defect. I told them about the Apple Discussion boards where there are a lot of people experiencing this exact same issue. They had me talk to a higher Apple department who could authorize a repair covered by Apple. At first, she said that they have to charge me for the hardware fix. I kept telling her that other people have this problem also and search it herself. Eventually, she said she would authorize a one-time fix since I've had it less than a month. I told her that I was afraid this would happen again, and she told me that they wouldn't do a second fix and suggested to get AppleCare. I really believe Apple is wrong in this situation, this is more than a coincidence. It's sad that they're making people pay and I truly believe it's not the customer's fault. I was very careful with my iPhone and I'm sure everyone else here too. Apple needs to realize that there is a problem, so I hope whoever experience this they would write in the discussion so that Apple realize this issue.

That’s terrible. When I called up Apple, they weren’t as nice to me as they were with you, offering a one time fix. I have a theory that the charger port overheats and the home button cracks. Were you charging your phone when it happened or just finished charging it? It has to be a bug with the hardware. The second time it happened to me, it was after I got out my car while charging my phone. The first time, I can’t remember clearly but I’m sure it was after I just finished charging my phone too.

I wasn't charging my phone. I was watching YouTube and it just restarted. I got it to DFU mode but it wouldn't reboot the whole way. The phone wouldn't shut off so it was just laying on my desk. About two hours later, that's when I noticed there was a crack on the home button.

I was not charging my phone and the same thing happened to it! The apple sign got stuck on the screen and then a crack developed on the home button! Could you please tell me if any of you did fix this issue and had the phone repaired was the data (media/messages etc.) lost as a result?

I am sorry to say that we lost everything on my daughter's phone. Of course they tried to reboot it first and since you can't get it operational to back up stuff first... yes, you loose everything. Then when the rebooting doesn't work (duh!), they replace the front glass (the home button is evidently built into this), so they have to take it apart. Then the phone works again. It is bad loosing stuff and dealing with the inconvenience, but I think the thing people here are most objecting to is having to pay for the repair, when it seems pretty clear that the phone has a fault....

I have gone to the Product Feedback. Sorry that you had to pay for the repair. It's an insult to think that somehow ONLY that home button is cracked and no other physical damage to the rest of the phone. I kept telling them to please search this issue on the internet as a lot of people are having the same issues. Their first reaction was, "well, people can write anything on the internet". So I told them, "I'm not arguing what people can/can't write on the internet. I'm asking you to look this issue where there are no signs of damage anywhere on the phone and is it possible that this could be a defect?" That's when they gave the authorization to get it fixed at no charge.

Yes Alexandra, I went to the product feedback page twice and left messages. Also, I got an email from Apple saying they’ve removed my post explaining my story because of some silly claim that it wasn’t constructive or something absolutely asinine. They’re really testing me right now....

My brand new (1 week old) phone had developed hairline crack in the home button. I noticed this afternoon, and immediately took it to Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Victoria Garden, Rancho Cucamonga, CA. The technician, Dijon, took the details and begun reviewing the phone for any physical abuse where there is none. He then went to consult a technician who insisted that it MUST HAVE been abused. I asked to talk to the Manager and Eugene came out and in essence accusing similar line of defense, of some unexplained way of abusing the home button by force, that caused the glass to crack. Clearly an unacceptable explanation and product support. The functionality of the button itself is not affected (i.e. it is fully functional with no issue).

Why are you so quick to disregard someone else's experience as "nonsense"? It is pretty awful to have something break when you haven't caused it. It seems a very unlikely coincidence that everyone reporting this issue here has managed to drop their phone with considerable force on to something pointed with enough accuracy that it only damages the home button?

I did. I gave them the details including the store, personnel, etc. so no reason to argue otherwise. I also got a feedback request on the technician this morning via rmail. I requested a call follow up from Apple leadership. We’ll see.