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How much to get the Home button replaced? (UK)

Y

yegon

Cancelled
Original poster
Oct 20, 2007
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Home button is driving me crazy, on my third replacement 4 now because of it. Long since out of warranty, it's 2 y/o in a month or so. I'm going to see what WWDC brings and then, assuming the next iPhone is October, I'll pay to get a new home button for the interim if it isn't too extortionate.

So, any ideas UK peeps?
 
Hmm through Apple? Not sure. However if your up for some DIY work, a replacement button (with ribbon) will cost you £3-4 from eBay and you could install it in under an hour. It took me about that much time to completely dismantle my old 3G and replace the casing, battery, screen and home button (gave it to a little brother who likes skateboarding but hates cases...)

Are you using an iPhone 4?
 
Yeah, it's an iPhone 4. Not too keen on doing it myself tbh.

What's most annoying is how intermittent the problem is. It's fine for ages then almost unusable for the same period of time.
 
I need mine replacing too :( but since jailbreaking ive been using zephyr which has been a big help.
Ive seen around on the net and £35 is the lowest ish. Those services also require you to post the iPhone.

Try a local phone repair shop...
 
Wirelessly posted

There's a company called Mendmyi, they have helped me out before. They have a walk in or mail in service, though I'm not sure where in the uk they are based

Give them a try, I had excellent service from them
 
Any local phone repair shop will probably do it, but will charge you extortionately for labour.
I ordered one on eBay along with a tool kit for under £5 and fixed it in around 1.5 hours. As long as you are organised with the parts, it's really quite easy.
 
I assume you are aware as you've clearly had this issue a lot, but just in case...

You can fix the home button (for some phones anyway) by inserting the USB connector and tilting it, more than you'd like to, away from the home button (so the bit inside is pushed up towards the home button).
Hold down the home button whilst doing this.

This MAY fix your button (for a few weeks at least).
Obviously this may also damage your cable and or dock connector.
Mines fine so far after doing this a few times, but I can't take responsibility for anyones stuff if trying this.

Obviously this is still far from ideal, but may help you/other readers.
 
No I'd not heard of that, thanks. I may try it very gently.
 
Just been looking at Zephyr as suggested, that's enough for me to jb again tbh. I quit jbing a while back, largely satisfied with stock (although I'll be first in line for new hardware) but Zephyr alone would kill off my frustrations.

Not been keeping up, a quick google shows 5.1.1 can be jailbroken, untethered I hope? I'll check it out when I get home, although untethered is a deal breaker.

Sorry for double post.
 
Oh you could also try using a vacuum/compressed air to blow into the dock connector while repeatedly banging the bottom corners of the phone firmly onto a towel on a hard surface (so not to damage the phone).
Worked for a friend of mine, but he had to do it for about 20 minutes. Persevere with it.
 
Yeah, I've tried that to an extent but no longer seems to make much difference.

Never been a fan of double clicking for multitasking, even with new hardware it never feels 100% reliable. Gestures was the best thing to hit the iPad, I only ever use it's home button to switch it on.

Edit: Got home, jailbroke it, installed Zephyr, HUZZAH! Love it, thanks souljah786 :)
 
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yegon said:
Yeah, I've tried that to an extent but no longer seems to make much difference.

Never been a fan of double clicking for multitasking, even with new hardware it never feels 100% reliable. Gestures was the best thing to hit the iPad, I only ever use it's home button to switch it on.

Edit: Got home, jailbroke it, installed Zephyr, HUZZAH! Love it, thanks souljah786 :)
Click to expand...

No probs mate ;) too bad its $4 lol
 
soulja786 said:
No probs mate ;) too bad its $4 lol
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I figure it's cheaper than a new home button! Re-opened my eyes to jailbreaking too, I'm not fussed about millions of tweaks but simple stuff like 5 icon dock/rows, Switchy for double the icons in the multitasking bar are great, as is NCSettings for toggles in the Notification bar. Also, and this has escaped my attention, f.lux! I LOVE this, been using it on my mac and pc for ages to mellow the screen during the darker hours, was unaware it was available for jb devices.
 
I wish Apple would make the Home button touch sensitive like those old iPods (my first iPod had four of them and a ring shaped touch magic spin wheel) and not a physical button. Using the iPhone is a sci-fi dream till I have to press the damn home button 15 times to close an app. Out of the seven iPhones this house has been though, only two still have normally functioning home buttons!
 
Totally. Like I say, I'm on my 3rd iPhone 4 now 'cos of this, the replacements all coming in the first year. I've heard a few people online say they've never had a single problem with it, whereas irl I don't anyone with an iPhone who hasn't had problems with it. I think the actual components are simply not durable or precise enough for double clicks. I hope the next iPhone will fix this somehow but I'm doubtful.

Anyway, now I've jailbroke, the combination of Zephyr and Activator (I've set two finger swipe off the top of the bezel to replicate a single home button press - very effective, but needs two hands) means I'll barely ever have to use the home button again, yay!
 
yegon said:
Totally. Like I say, I'm on my 3rd iPhone 4 now 'cos of this, the replacements all coming in the first year. I've heard a few people online say they've never had a single problem with it, whereas irl I don't anyone with an iPhone who hasn't had problems with it. I think the actual components are simply not durable or precise enough for double clicks. I hope the next iPhone will fix this somehow but I'm doubtful.

Anyway, now I've jailbroke, the combination of Zephyr and Activator (I've set two finger swipe off the top of the bezel to replicate a single home button press - very effective, but needs two hands) means I'll barely ever have to use the home button again, yay!
Click to expand...

Good to hear you sorted it out. I recently jailbroke my phone because of a faulty sleep button. I was previously into jailbreaking but stopped once iOS 5 came out. It was good enough as stock for me.

When the sleep button stopped working properly I took it to the Apple Store and was told all that can be done is to replace it for $150. I walked out, went home and in a short time I was back in business. I set Activator to sleep when swiping the status bar towards the right. That's a nice $150 savings. :)
 
yegon said:
Home button is driving me crazy, on my third replacement 4 now because of it. Long since out of warranty, it's 2 y/o in a month or so. I'm going to see what WWDC brings and then, assuming the next iPhone is October, I'll pay to get a new home button for the interim if it isn't too extortionate.

So, any ideas UK peeps?
Click to expand...

If you download Zephyr and SiriLaunch you don't need to use the home button at all.
 
yegon said:
Totally. Like I say, I'm on my 3rd iPhone 4 now 'cos of this, the replacements all coming in the first year. I've heard a few people online say they've never had a single problem with it, whereas irl I don't anyone with an iPhone who hasn't had problems with it. I think the actual components are simply not durable or precise enough for double clicks. I hope the next iPhone will fix this somehow but I'm doubtful.

Anyway, now I've jailbroke, the combination of Zephyr and Activator (I've set two finger swipe off the top of the bezel to replicate a single home button press - very effective, but needs two hands) means I'll barely ever have to use the home button again, yay!
Click to expand...
Were there any negatives for you after jailbreaking? I've just heard from friends that their iPhone 4/3Gs slowed down a lot, I don't have the 4S, just the 4, and wouldn't want it to run at snail's pace. But Zephyr sounds pretty sweet, could be a worthwhile trade-off.
 
Zephyr is good

Still need to use home button occasionally to get rid of some full screen apps

BUT, if you ever find yourself stuck and the button completely dies remember you say always pull down the notification centre, and if you have something like Weather on the page click on that then you can use Zephyr to swipe out of Weather
 
yegon said:
Just been looking at Zephyr as suggested, that's enough for me to jb again tbh. I quit jbing a while back, largely satisfied with stock (although I'll be first in line for new hardware) but Zephyr alone would kill off my frustrations.

Not been keeping up, a quick google shows 5.1.1 can be jailbroken, untethered I hope? I'll check it out when I get home, although untethered is a deal breaker.

Sorry for double post.
Click to expand...


Zephyr kept pushing my iPhone 4 into safe mode !
Probably conflicting with something else I've downloaded.
 
lannisters4life said:
Were there any negatives for you after jailbreaking? I've just heard from friends that their iPhone 4/3Gs slowed down a lot, I don't have the 4S, just the 4, and wouldn't want it to run at snail's pace. But Zephyr sounds pretty sweet, could be a worthwhile trade-off.
Click to expand...

Too early for me say, but I've not noticed any difference so far. I suspect people who report it going slower may be overloading their phone with tweaks, so it's bound to go slower. I'm just using about 6 tweaks and see no difference so far.

Gotta say, I'd find it very very hard to go back to stock now, some of the tweaks make it much more useable. Of course, this'll go out the window when the next iPhone arrives! Always do a two year upgrade personally (despite being none contract), I've never got excited about the number--->S upgrades.


Ashin said:
Zephyr is good

Still need to use home button occasionally to get rid of some full screen apps

BUT, if you ever find yourself stuck and the button completely dies remember you say always pull down the notification centre, and if you have something like Weather on the page click on that then you can use Zephyr to swipe out of Weather
Click to expand...

I use it in conjunction with Activator, two finger swipe down off the top of the screen to replicate the Home button. Works a treat, as you'd never be doing that action otherwise, the inly downside being you need two hands to do it, one to hold the phone, the other to swipe.
 
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There was a recent winterboard update which helped some users experiencing lag.

I believe it's also down to cracked tweaks and themes.
 
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