Home Button Fix (worked for me)

[Sir Ruben]

Hi All,

As we know the home button can be a pain in the behind when it wants to be. If yours has gotten really bad then a visit to the Apple store may be the only option. However if you find your button is just missing the occasional click here and there (like mine was) this resolved the problem for me.

The cause of the problem appears to be caused by dust build up behind the home button as shown in this picture. I would imagine in most cases its nowhere near this extreme:

These are the steps I took to resolve the issue which appear to have worked perfectly:

1) Turn off the iPhone

2) tap the bottom edges of the phone either side of the home button sharply (but not too rough obviously).

3) Repeatedly click the home button and repeat step 2.

4) Attach a thin edge attachment to your vacuum cleaner and hold near the dock connector port.

5) Continue to tap the bottom edges and click the home button with the vacuum cleaner still held to the dock connector.

6) Tun on the iPhone to a perfectly functional home button.

7) Keep it that way for longer by purchasing one of these from eBay:

The dock connector covers also come in a transparent colour, and you can also purchase a headphone jack cover which I am awaiting in the post. They are also handy for keeping out rain etc which triggers the moisture detectors rendering your warranty void.

 

[Nicolas4ever]

great post.It will be helpful for many with this problem

 

[muledogus]

I only did steps 1-3 and it's working a lot better so far. Though, that issue was my excuse to upgrade early.

 

[iSaint]

Though, that issue was my excuse to upgrade early.

Dangit, mine, too!

 

[yanki01]

thats some serious dust!!!

 

[Shrink]

thats some serious dust!!!

WOW!

What did you do, bury it in the sand???

Great fix.

 

[Mars478]

The first image is of an iPhone 2G (original) so I'm not sure it's his or he found it somewhere.

Great tutorial by the way

 

[murdercitydevil]

Thanks for this...I was originally planning on taking apart the phone to properly clean the home button. Took one look at the iFixit teardown and said FUUUUUUUUU*K THAT. I thought taking the 2G apart was hard, Jesus. Gotta hand it to Apple though, the internal design of the 4 is pretty much flawless.

 

[sm.wilson]

They are also handy for keeping out rain etc which triggers the moisture detectors rendering your warranty void.

The point of the liquid contact indicators isn't so apple can screw your warranty, its to prove that you have exposed your phone to conditions beyond reasonable operational conditions.

I can't believe how many people I have interacted with think that it's unfair that apple "thinks" theyve gotten their 600 dollar phone wet.

Not a bad idea for the dust though.

 

[Mars478]

The point of the liquid contact indicators isn't so apple can screw your warranty, its to prove that you have exposed your phone to conditions beyond reasonable operational conditions.

I can't believe how many people I have interacted with think that it's unfair that apple "thinks" theyve gotten their 600 dollar phone wet.

Not a bad idea for the dust though.

That's not the thing. Sometimes said liquid damage sensors are overly sensitive, so if they get exposed to being placed near a shower but not being exposed to water they will go off. Would you like to be denied your warranty? I think not.

 

[Agent-P]

This worked to help my first gen iPod touch have it's home button function better. But wow, that's alot of dust! I never realised how much can build up over time.

 

[kbfr08]

You know, this issue wouldn't exist if they had taken the metal dome, flipped it upside-down and glued it to the underside of the home button, and then connected the button to the pcb with a ribbon cable (kind of like HTC and RIM do with their trackpads).

 

[Sir Ruben]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A5313e Safari/7534.48.3)

Glad you have found it useful. It doesn't harm to repeat this process over the course of a few days if the problem has been persistent for some time.

Keeping the dock connector port covered should make a lot of difference too

Anyone else who tries this can you report back how successful it was for you?

 

[tkljr]

Mine is much better now, thanks for posting...

 

[vincenz]

I'm going to have to try this when I get home later. The flaky home button was my excuse to upgrade too, but if I can fix that..

 

[Mars478]

You know, this issue wouldn't exist if they had taken the metal dome, flipped it upside-down and glued it to the underside of the home button, and then connected the button to the pcb with a ribbon cable (kind of like HTC and RIM do with their trackpads).

I'm pretty sure what you are describing is exactly what they did with the iPhone 4... The Previous iPhone's had a different design on the home button with the button (dome's) top facing the plastic button, on the iPhone 4 it faces the mid frame.

 

[bandw]

Wow, good to fix

 

[vincenz]

Just wanted to say that it worked like a charm. Who would've known? It put the springiness back into the home button and no more going to the spotlight search every time I try to multitask.

Saved myself $200 and a 2-year contract this year. That is, if the iPhone 5 design is the same as the 4

 

[libertysat]

A bit off topic but not too far

My MBP has been running hotter and hotter for some time now
I took my mbp out to my garage and blew compressed air at all angels in my keyboard then in the long vent/slot under hinge
Back and forth from kb to vent

Huge amont of dust blew out and now runs much cooler
(always has seemed hot)

Something else,
Be extra careful with vacumns and electronics especialy if it is low humidity
Vacumns build up and discharge static and can wreak iGizmos

 

[bit_bucket]

Worked like a champ. Thanks for the great tip.

 

[sm.wilson]

That's not the thing. Sometimes said liquid damage sensors are overly sensitive, so if they get exposed to being placed near a shower but not being exposed to water they will go off. Would you like to be denied your warranty? I think not.

Environmental requirements
Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F
(0° to 35° C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F
(-20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

You are exceeding the humidity requirements by showering with your phone. Those sensors are several layers of plastic with perforations, and a layer of dried ink at the bottom. That ink has to be soaked and lifted through the perforated plastic.

Exposing your phone to that kind of humidity WILL cause corrosion and failure.

 

[Jigga]

Thanks for the tip though it still didn't work for me

 

[cinek]

thanks, it didn't fix it 100% but it is better I'll try it again, hopefully it'll fix it

 

[IrishVixen]

Seems to have made a difference here as well; problem is definitely diminished and may in fact be gone. For those of us with an intermittent problem, it may take a while to be sure, and as mentioned, you may need to do it more than once. It's worth trying though, especially if the problem is still in the early stages.

Thanks again for outlining the process!

(and yeah, like another poster suggests, the MBP is next on my list to clean out...)

 

[troy14]

If the iPhone is under warranty just take it to the Apple store. Myself and MANY others i've read here have had theirs replaced with literally 0 questions.