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iPhone Home Button Sometimes Unresponsive - Will Apple Replace?

B

bgribin

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 16, 2010
138
0
My home button hasn't been very responsive for the last week or two. Maybe half the time I hit it, nothing happens. It's an iPhone 4 and it's still under warranty. There hasn't been any liquid damage.

Does Apple typically replace a phone for this reason? Has anyone had any experience with this problem?

The home button is still in tact and still clicks, it just doesn't consistently work. I know this isn't an unheard of problem, just curious if I should bother taking it into the store.

thanks.
 
They should replace it, as long as it's still under warranty. Just bring it to your nearest Apple store and make sure it isn't jail broken. I should warn you that they will first attempt a hard reset, erasing everything and reloading the software. Perhaps if you convince them that you have done so already, they will skip that step and give you a new one.
 
I had my iPhone 4 replaced in November for this.

It often ignored me when I pressed the home button.

I took it in to the Apple Store and they replaced it. They didn't even suggest doing a restore first.
 
Daveoc64 said:
I had my iPhone 4 replaced in November for this.

It often ignored me when I pressed the home button.

I took it in to the Apple Store and they replaced it. They didn't even suggest doing a restore first.
Click to expand...

Good to hear. The thing is that sometimes it just works but sometimes it doesn't. Not sure if it has to do with frequency of pushes or whatnot - but now it's working maybe 80-90% of the time! Usually it's 30-50%, guess I'll check it in a few hours before my schedule appointment.
 
They Will replace it for you.
You have a 1yr warranty from date of purchase.
First thing you want to do is backup your phone.
Make an appointment at the Genius bar.
They will check the phone and replace in that situation.
 
SF-RR7 said:
They Will replace it for you.
You have a 1yr warranty from date of purchase.
First thing you want to do is backup your phone.
Make an appointment at the Genius bar.
They will check the phone and replace in that situation.
Click to expand...

Yep, thanks. I'm familiar with the process, I've had replacements before so I backed up last night. I kind of wish I could back up once more before going in but I'm going in straight from work.
 
Mine seems to not respond sometimes, but I don't know if it is software related or not.
 
bgribin said:
My home button hasn't been very responsive for the last week or two. Maybe half the time I hit it, nothing happens. It's an iPhone 4 and it's still under warranty. There hasn't been any liquid damage.

Does Apple typically replace a phone for this reason? Has anyone had any experience with this problem?

The home button is still in tact and still clicks, it just doesn't consistently work. I know this isn't an unheard of problem, just curious if I should bother taking it into the store.

thanks.
Click to expand...

Yes, they will. I had a similar issue, in which sometime single presses registered as double presses, and vice a versa. It only happened now and then, so it was hard to reproduce at the Genius Bar. The Genius couldn't reproduce it after many, many clicks. He said if it still does it in a week, come back and we'll replace it. Came back a week later and they replaced it, no problem.
 
zephxiii said:
Mine seems to not respond sometimes, but I don't know if it is software related or not.
Click to expand...

Mine's doing the same thing... At first I thought it was hardware related, then it seemd to clear up.. It's now back again. One thing I noticed in my adhoc home button testing is that my phone NEVER has an issue when it's sleeping or docked and I press the home button to "wake" it. It works without fail everytime. The only time it acts up is when the phone is awake or I am trying to bring up the backgrounding dock or exit an app. I'll give it another shot once a new FW comes out. If that doesn't seem to fix it, off to Apple I go...
 
I had mine replaced back in September - October. Took two visits since the guy couldn't reproduce it. Now my new phone is beginning to show symptoms. Guess I'll keep it for now and see if it gets worse.
 
MEJHarrison said:
I had mine replaced back in September - October. Took two visits since the guy couldn't reproduce it. Now my new phone is beginning to show symptoms. Guess I'll keep it for now and see if it gets worse.
Click to expand...

When I took mine in they just took my word for it.

Intermittent problems shouldn't need to be reproduced to get a replacement.
 
My apple store is 55 miles away and I have an intermittent home button like described above. I am going to take it in but would be pissed if they said bring it back if it happens again.
 
Mine's been doing this since I got it back in August 10, basically. It's not frequent enough to be that big of a deal on my phone, so I've never bothered taking it in.

It is annoying when it does happen, though.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/534.32 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

Had mine replaced yesterday for the same thing.
 
Did mine using apple online repair service they sent box out on 13th i sent them phone same day. Today UPS are bringing me a new iphone :)
 
My iPhone 4 was doing this a well a few months back. It's a PITA to go to the Apple store, so I decided to try restoring the phone and setting it up as new.

Since then it seems to have been fine, and the problem hasn't re-emerged yet.

Might be worth a try.
 
stupidm4n said:
Did mine using apple online repair service they sent box out on 13th i sent them phone same day. Today UPS are bringing me a new iphone :)
Click to expand...

Tell me how this process works because I thought about going this route but couldn't find many people on here that did this online instead of "in-store".
 
Mines been doing this for months. Sometimes I have to click it a few times for it it to work and other times I single click and it registers as a double click. Been tempted to go to the Apple store but don't want a wasted journey if the genius can't replicate the problem ha.
 
NWI73 said:
Tell me how this process works because I thought about going this route but couldn't find many people on here that did this online instead of "in-store".
Click to expand...

Went to Apples Service and Repair
Filled all the information out, they emailed me back said shipping box was in post which came next morning with instructions on packing only using what they give you. Sent it at post office then checked online to see they had received it the next day. You can log in apple site and see status of repair and also chat to someone about your repair at Repair Status.
They sent new one back same day and i received following morning.
Overall 4 days it took and i was happy with the service.
 
stupidm4n said:
Went to Apples Service and Repair
Filled all the information out, they emailed me back said shipping box was in post which came next morning with instructions on packing only using what they give you. Sent it at post office then checked online to see they had received it the next day. You can log in apple site and see status of repair and also chat to someone about your repair at Repair Status.
They sent new one back same day and i received following morning.
Overall 4 days it took and i was happy with the service.
Click to expand...

Wait they have to receive yours before they send a replacement, leaving the user without a phone for a day or 2? U serious? They won't send the replacement first then include return instructions so that the user isn't left without a phone? So they will take your word that the issue your having is legit or what?
 
msb3079 said:
Every iPhone 4 I've had or others I've used, or been around... have at SOME problems with this. I've learned to live with it.
Click to expand...

Yeah i was going to just leave it, but just seems to get worse over time so after reading this thread decided to change it. Its nice now to be able to get to multi tasking bar in just 2 presses not 3 or 4 or sometimes 1 press would act as 2 :)
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

My iPhone 4 home button sometimes takes 2 or 3 presses to respond. Took it to the Apple Store and they gave me a replacement no questions asked! YMMV
 
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