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Home Button Fix (worked for me)
- Thread starter Sir Ruben
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This gets to the core issue, but for a quick fix, try 'slapping' the back of your phone for a bit. I banged the back of my phone (holding it at the top so the main point of impact was the back of the phone that was directly behind the home button) against my knee for a bit, and the completely non-responsive home button started working perfectly again.
It feels silly to do or recommend, but I guess knocking it around dislodges some of the dust that builds up in there. I saw a lot of people reporting this as a fix for their wonky home buttons, gave it a try, and it worked.
It feels silly to do or recommend, but I guess knocking it around dislodges some of the dust that builds up in there. I saw a lot of people reporting this as a fix for their wonky home buttons, gave it a try, and it worked.
I see your point, but not everyone is still under warranty a year after release, or close to an Apple store. The older phones are the ones that seem more likely to be showing this issue overall. And warranty or not, if the problem is intermittent, all it takes is a cranky Genius to end up with a wasted trip and a still defective home button. There have been plenty of threads/posts from people who couldn't replicate the issue at the store and were sent home without a replacement to wait for the problem to get worse. It's worth at least attempting to fix it if it hasn't failed completely--as long as the "fix" involved isn't going to make things worse or void the warranty. This one won't.
Yeah, mine was a little buggy for about a month, and then over the course of the last couple of days, it became a good deal more frequent, to the point of being a nuisance. Did the vacuum routine this morning with one of those little micro cleaning vacuum kits they sell for computer keyboards and our big honking canister vac. Fingers crossed--it hasn't acted up on me since.
And it took me about ten minutes; way less time than hauling my ass to the Apple Store would have, even if I have to do it again in a few days to get it fully restored.
I'm going to prepare this week - I have most of the tools available.
10 minutes ...
definitely!I don't have an Apple Store nearby.
great tutorial. will try on my busted iPod touch 2g home button (same concept I assume) OR if your iPh4 is under warranty...
You wont actually *see* any dust coming out due to the very limited space inside the phone between the home button and the dock connector. Its also very fine. When you have a vacuum held against the dock connector it pulls any dust and lint through the gaps it may not normally escape from.
I have also taken delivery of the rubber cover for the headphone jack. It was about 16p (with free delivery) from eBay and it also has the added function of having a sim tray ejector tool attached to it. Pics to follow in about 10 hours or so when Im home.
So now I have both the dock connector and headphone socket sealed at all times which can only help matters.
I would like to offer a word of caution.
This action could attract dust to fall between the front glass and the LCD.
This has happened to me, not by doing this, but via bumping etc, and the iPhone had to be replaced due to dust being very visible.
Just a bit of friendly advice.
This action could attract dust to fall between the front glass and the LCD.
This has happened to me, not by doing this, but via bumping etc, and the iPhone had to be replaced due to dust being very visible.
Just a bit of friendly advice.
Was that on the 3GS in your signature? That would not be an issue with the iPhone 4 and 4S since the the screen is affixed to the glass with an adhesive. This eliminates the possibility of dust getting between the two.
Yes 3GS, I was unaware of the change...but that's good news. Still be careful with your 3GS.
+1
my phone had a really really bad sticking button, it was to the point it almost didnt function at all. five presses would yield one
i tried all the gimmicks, and the one in the first post. no luck. went to the apple store and saw the Apple Genius use compressed air. i had already tried that myself and thought, "this guys not going to fix my phone it needs to be replaced".
then he brought out these alcohol wipes and practically submerged the home button in alcohol and kept blowing compressed air up in through the bottom. He told me, that he wouldnt recommend doing it at home, that you need to saturate the home button with enough alcohol that when you shoot the compressed air in from the bottom it actually comes out the sides. crazy... but the guy fixed my phone, i was truly impressed. The phone has been like new again for a week. never misses a single button push.
I didn't go that far with submerging the home button and using compressed air. Just make sure you power off the phone first! I just put a couple drops of rubbing alcohol on my finger and then massaged it into the grooves between the home button and the front glass. Then kept clicking the button. It's amazing on how much dirt comes out.
After let the phone sit for about 10 mins to let all the alcohol evaporate. Repeat the process again and power on your phone and you'll notice the difference right away.
I had this problem last July, just before the warranty ran out on my iPhone 4. I restored it and took it into the genius bar. The guy took it in the back for a while. He said he took it apart and cleaned it out. I don't know if he did any alcohol treatment or not. He told me to try it for a while and see if it got better. I told him that it was going off warranty shortly and he said he'd put a note in the records so they would cover it in the future.
It never did get any better, in fact it kept getting worse. Sometimes, one click would yield three and the colors would invert, or two clicks wouldn't do anything. I started having to use the sleep button just to get to the lockscreen.
Anyhow, last week I was so sick of it that I wiped it again and installed iOS5. Dropped by the Apple store and showed it to them. No problem - they gave me a sparkling new iPhone 4 a full 3 months after the warranty expired.
It never did get any better, in fact it kept getting worse. Sometimes, one click would yield three and the colors would invert, or two clicks wouldn't do anything. I started having to use the sleep button just to get to the lockscreen.
Anyhow, last week I was so sick of it that I wiped it again and installed iOS5. Dropped by the Apple store and showed it to them. No problem - they gave me a sparkling new iPhone 4 a full 3 months after the warranty expired.