iPhone 5S home button only goes from lock screen to passcode screen if human touch presses the button

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iPhone 5S home button only goes from lock screen to passcode screen if human touch presses the button

The iPhone 5S home button will only move forward from the lock screen to the passcode screen if a human finger presses the button.

This is a problem if you're wearing gloves - and even the touch-friendly ones won't activate the passcode screen.

This is a software issue as the phone didn't use to do this - not sure when the software switch occurred though, as only gloved use starts around the winter time. And it doesn't matter much since you can't downgrade anyway.

Additionally, the issue will go away for a time after you unlock it with human touch. It'll go from lock screen to passcode screen with non-human touch for a bit, then revert to its old, accursed ways after a time (longer than 5 min, don't know how long for sure - or if it's consistent time lengths).

The home button works in every other way, and on an iPhone 6S the issue is not there at all. I've tried various states of the General -> Accessabiltity -> Home Button settings, but nothing has fixed the issue.

Here's a great video showing the issue: https://imgur.com/CZLRTI6

The video shows pressing the button with a gloved finger and it mocking you telling you to "Press home to unlock," then a non-gloved finger presses the button - but not so touch ID can activate - and this gets it to go to the passcode screen. Finally, I show the home button working with touch ID so we all know it fully functions.

iPhone 5s, iOS 12.1

Posted on Dec 3, 2018 3:59 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 3, 2018 9:43 PM in response to genekellyjr

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203017

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Answer 2

genekellyjr Author

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Dec 20, 2018 9:06 PM in response to panchososa694

Alas, that does not aid nor abet.

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Answer 3

genekellyjr Author

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Jan 23, 2019 11:48 PM in response to genekellyjr

Oof - the gif conversion didn't keep the full video - here's a second try at that: https://i.imgur.com/mbxw33y.mp4

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Answer 4

Dec 31, 2018 12:43 PM in response to genekellyjr

That’s not a software issue, it’s an intended function. And it’s always done that with gloves; you’ve never been able to unlock the phone with gloves on, as the display and Home button are capacitive—this means it requires your body heat to interact. That’s why you can’t use a stylus with your device.

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Answer 5

genekellyjr Author

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Jan 23, 2019 11:27 PM in response to Miss Smartie Partie

Alas, that isn't right at all. Capacitive screens have how they work in the name, they use the change in capacitance to detect your finger or stylus. The important thing is that you or your stylus are conductive - without conductivity (most gloves aren't conductive - unless they have a special layer) the capacitance doesn't change and it won't detect your finger. You can buy styli for use with your device or my device or any iPhone or iPad or other touch screen devices - it just has to be a conductive stylus. You can buy them on many internet stores or even in physical electronics stores. Nothing to do with body heat though.

With the move on the iPhone 7-8 to the non-physical home button, you do need a capacitive press to activate the button on those phones - likely a conductive-layered glove would work there but of course not provide a finger print for login.

More importantly, here's a video of an iPhone 6S next to the iPhone 5S in question. Using a glove the iPhone 6S goes to the passcode screen as you'd hope when you press the physical home button. When pressing it on the iPhone 5S, again it won't go to the passcode screen. Then the conductive layer on the thumb of my glove is used to enter numbers on the screen of the iPhone 6S. Afterwards, the iPhone 5S is unlocked with a human finger and then the conductive glove presses on the screen. So indeed I could unlock the iPhone 6S with gloves on (as the iPhone 5S used to do, and let me tell you it's key in the winter here), but of course the iPhone 5S stops me in my tracks.

https://i.imgur.com/bMwc4**.mp4 (had to use gif format for upload so there's some real special stuff with video quality going on)

The more you know! But this issue with the passcode screen is still annoying and very arbitrary, as seen in the side-by-side video.

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