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Tempermental iPhone 4 home button 4.1

I took mine back to apple today but had no joy with a replacement. The Genius was pleasant enough. He checked out my iphone (I think he took the back off to check for any loose connections) then he ran some software diagnostics. He said I had a few apps that were 'bad'- memory heavy I guess, and he claimed that all the apps were taking up too much ram. I argued that iOS is designed so that you don't need to close apps but he felt it was problem and most likely a software issue. Perhaps iOS isn't fully optimised yet at closing apps. He restored my phone in store using a fresh version of 4.2.1. Claimed this was 99% likely to fix the problem. If not then it is hardware and I can take it back and mention his name. He felt it very unlikely it was a hardware problem though.

I am quite happy with the service I got but it is strange how some Genius's will change it, others won't. I am in the UK, maybe our Genius's over here are more strict?!!
 
aldo82 said:
I took mine back to apple today but had no joy with a replacement. The Genius was pleasant enough. He checked out my iphone (I think he took the back off to check for any loose connections) then he ran some software diagnostics. He said I had a few apps that were 'bad'- memory heavy I guess, and he claimed that all the apps were taking up too much ram. I argued that iOS is designed so that you don't need to close apps but he felt it was problem and most likely a software issue. Perhaps iOS isn't fully optimised yet at closing apps. He restored my phone in store using a fresh version of 4.2.1. Claimed this was 99% likely to fix the problem. If not then it is hardware and I can take it back and mention his name. He felt it very unlikely it was a hardware problem though.

I am quite happy with the service I got but it is strange how some Genius's will change it, others won't. I am in the UK, maybe our Genius's over here are more strict?!!
Click to expand...

There is the possibility you're using badly-coded apps. Maybe I should try restoring my iPhone to see if it helps me.
 
AbSoluTc said:
So what he's saying is - it doesn't matter if you swap it out for a new phone or not, you're still going to have the same problem since it's a known issue from the first iPhone.
Click to expand...

No not at all. He was saying that it is a known problem with the phones, that the home buttons can go bad and cause this type of erratic behavior. Just because it happened with my other iphone 4, does not mean my replacement will fail as well. None of my previous iphones had this issue (iphone 3G and 3GS), even though apparently home buttons failed with these models as well.
 
My home button's been stuck on an iPhone 4 running 4.1 for the last two weeks. I finally gave it a hard reset three days ago and haven't had a problem ever since.
 
Funny, I went to the Apple Store with the same problem and they said it could be a corrupt app. I reset it and set it up as a new phone and reinstalled the apps. Its a bummer but now my home button works fine. Weird.
 
stranger danger said:
My home button's been stuck on an iPhone 4 running 4.1 for the last two weeks. I finally gave it a hard reset three days ago and haven't had a problem ever since.
Click to expand...

MacBacker said:
Funny, I went to the Apple Store with the same problem and they said it could be a corrupt app. I reset it and set it up as a new phone and reinstalled the apps. Its a bummer but now my home button works fine. Weird.
Click to expand...

Both of these things didn't help mine
 
aldo82 said:
I took mine back to apple today but had no joy with a replacement. The Genius was pleasant enough. He checked out my iphone (I think he took the back off to check for any loose connections) then he ran some software diagnostics. He said I had a few apps that were 'bad'- memory heavy I guess, and he claimed that all the apps were taking up too much ram. I argued that iOS is designed so that you don't need to close apps but he felt it was problem and most likely a software issue. Perhaps iOS isn't fully optimised yet at closing apps. He restored my phone in store using a fresh version of 4.2.1. Claimed this was 99% likely to fix the problem. If not then it is hardware and I can take it back and mention his name. He felt it very unlikely it was a hardware problem though.

I am quite happy with the service I got but it is strange how some Genius's will change it, others won't. I am in the UK, maybe our Genius's over here are more strict?!!
Click to expand...

If you go back in the thread you'll see that I got iPhone 4 replaced no problem in the Glasgow store with this issue. The Genius didn't run any diagnostic software, he just played with the phone for 30 seconds and after witnessing the phone treating a double click as a single click, replaced the phone.
 
Swung by the downtown San Francisco store this morning and the genius was very friendly and helpful. I showed her the malfunctioning button and she didnt' waste any time in processing a replacement ip4 for me. I was out of there 5 minutes after we started chatting. The new phone is much better so far - the button is crisp and responsive even when pressed towards the side vs. having to be mashed directly dead center like my old one. I was a bit anxious that I'd get a phone that wasn't as (otherwise) flawless as mine, but the one she brought out was without blemish. She also mentioned it's a relatively common issue.
 
Just got my iPhone 4 replaced at a Genius Bar under warranty because of the bad home button. I'm in Southern California. It just took a few minutes, and now I have a shiny new (well, probably refurbished) phone and a home button that works great, so far.
 
hardware afterall?

Hah, after being sure it was software issue due to inability to replicate the problem, I've now come to the opposite conclusion, as I have now figured out how to replicate the problem on command.

This problem may be more severe on some than others, but for me, this issue seems to occur every time if I press the button in the following ways:

Drag (slide) the button to the left or right as you click. If my finger is dry (non-greasy) and I can press down and simultaneously drag the button left or right, I can make it happen almost every time on command.

Its not a big enough issue for me to return the phone, as the multi-click only occurs during the rare circumstances when I accidentally manage to recreate this particular situation (maybe 1-2x a day at most). And as this problem did not exist when I first got the phone, I can only surmise that the button wore out a bit for this to occur. And perhaps if it wears out a little bit more, the problem will disappear over time as well.

And it seems to be an easy software fix as well. A better filter for debouncing should take care of it.

Let me know if anybody else can recreate it on command as consistently.
 
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Check out my thread here :

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1101312/

Actually here you go :


Recently I had been noticing at times that sometimes I would have to tap the home button twice for screen to wake up. I thought maybe I was imagining a click the first time so I didnt think of it much but it happened again today while i was paying attention.

I then googled and found this post :

Unresponsive home button taps. Like others have implied, this appears (to me) to be a hardware issue that I can reproduce. Looking at the home button like a clock face, if I take a fingernail and press at the 12:00 and 6:00 positions on the very edge of the button, I get failures more often than successes. Note that this is not true for the 9/3 o'clock positions, they appear to make contact.

here : http://discussions.apple.com/thread....rt=60&tstart=0

Is this normal with every iPhone? Does your exhibit the same behaviour? If not, I am considering asking for a new device (this one also has sort of a loose silent switch)
 
I commented at the top of this page that I'd taken mine back for intermittent home button problems and the Genius had suggested it was a software problem and had restored my phone ins store. Well, a week on I have still been experiencing problems so it was back to a different apple store today. The Genius looked at my phone, could tell the home button wasn't right - compared to to his own iphone 4 and you could tell mine had more travel, was less 'tight' and was slower at registering. He swapped out the phone straight away, no quibbles, no problem.

The home button on the new phone is much much more tight and feels like my 3gs did. It sits if anything slightly below the screen whereas on the old phone the home button was raised slightly above the screen on the right hand side. The old one also had up and down movement. Its almost like the old one wasn't seated correctly, I noticed this as soon as I got my iphone 4 on launch day, took it back after about a month and the Genius refused to change it. Finally on my third try it has been swapped out and I now have a home button like it should be!

I have to say the experiences with the home button make me more interested in the idea of apple dropping the physical home button on a future hardware design. Before I didn't like this idea but the home button is used so much, especially now with double tap, triple tap, long press options that I am not sure it can handle it. The new home button feels great but I can't help feeling ever so slightly worried every time I press it that it might start to go wrong too!

The restore that was done for me last week in store did improve things slightly so I wonder whether there are also software issues but in my case there was definitely a hardware fault at play too
 
i bought mine in for the home button reason...it wasn't even acting up at the time (of course!) but the genius swapped it out anyway. very happy with the service!

the home button feels different on the new phone than it did on the old phone
 
Took my iPhone 4 in to Apple store as well. Wasn't sure if it was hardware or software issue but every four times or so I used the phone I had to press the home button twice for it to work. Really started to drive me nuts. Couldn't replicate it at the Apple store but they replaced it anyway. New one works perfectly.
 
I'm 110% convinced this is a hardware issue now. As someone who's had this problem since before this thread was started, I've finally found that if I push the button in on the right side of the button, it works flawlessly.

I had tried this in the beginning with no success (pushing in on the sides), but I imagine with my various rant of beating the crap out of the button in moments of frustration, it has moved whatever the faulty part is in there over some.

Now, as long as I push the button down and to the right, I have no problems (most of the time). I still use activator and double tap the top bar for backgrounding because it's tougher to do pushing the button to the side, but it's doable either way.

I've also found that it's easier with the left thumb because of the angle...the right one doesn't always push correctly, but the left is almost flawless now that I'm used to it.

I'm not happy with the solution, but I'm able to use the phone again "almost" normally.
 
COBRASVT said:
I'm 110% convinced this is a hardware issue now. As someone who's had this problem since before this thread was started, I've finally found that if I push the button in on the right side of the button, it works flawlessly.

I had tried this in the beginning with no success (pushing in on the sides), but I imagine with my various rant of beating the crap out of the button in moments of frustration, it has moved whatever the faulty part is in there over some.

Now, as long as I push the button down and to the right, I have no problems (most of the time). I still use activator and double tap the top bar for backgrounding because it's tougher to do pushing the button to the side, but it's doable either way.

I've also found that it's easier with the left thumb because of the angle...the right one doesn't always push correctly, but the left is almost flawless now that I'm used to it.

I'm not happy with the solution, but I'm able to use the phone again "almost" normally.
Click to expand...

....aaaaaannnnnnddd you don't bring it back because......?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Alright fellas, I've been following this thread closely. Reason being is I too have issues with my home button. I am completely convinced that in my case, it is definitely software issue and I'll tell you why. Last week I edited the plist that disables multitasking and my home button has been perfect ever since. By perfect I mean perfect. Not once has it not registered to close the app I'm currently in. Now there are some things I've been missing since disabling this and mainly it's the ability to quickly switch from app to app. But hey, it was working like 40% of the time anyway. Plus I felt that the excessive pressing of the main button on our phones would make it break down quicker. So for now I will wait and see if any future firmwares will address this issue but until then, I'd recommend to all those worried of getting a refurb in worse shape than their own to hold off. Of course, to all the others, exchange away!
 
Mobster Sauce said:
....aaaaaannnnnnddd you don't bring it back because......?
Click to expand...

Jailbreak.... I think the new OS is fully jailbreakable now, but I haven't had the time to verify. If it is, I'd be willing to exchange and go through the arduous process of restoring the new phone to the way I like it.
 
newskin said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Alright fellas, I've been following this thread closely. Reason being is I too have issues with my home button. I am completely convinced that in my case, it is definitely software issue and I'll tell you why. Last week I edited the plist that disables multitasking and my home button has been perfect ever since. By perfect I mean perfect. Not once has it not registered to close the app I'm currently in. Now there are some things I've been missing since disabling this and mainly it's the ability to quickly switch from app to app. But hey, it was working like 40% of the time anyway. Plus I felt that the excessive pressing of the main button on our phones would make it break down quicker. So for now I will wait and see if any future firmwares will address this issue but until then, I'd recommend to all those worried of getting a refurb in worse shape than their own to hold off. Of course, to all the others, exchange away!
Click to expand...

Edit: found it...trying it shortly.

I'll bite and try it. Do you mind sharing the plist you modified and what you changed to turn this off. I'm starting to search now, but if you have it handy since you just preformed it.

TY.... EJ
 
Last edited:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

COBRASVT said:
newskin said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Alright fellas, I've been following this thread closely. Reason being is I too have issues with my home button. I am completely convinced that in my case, it is definitely software issue and I'll tell you why. Last week I edited the plist that disables multitasking and my home button has been perfect ever since. By perfect I mean perfect. Not once has it not registered to close the app I'm currently in. Now there are some things I've been missing since disabling this and mainly it's the ability to quickly switch from app to app. But hey, it was working like 40% of the time anyway. Plus I felt that the excessive pressing of the main button on our phones would make it break down quicker. So for now I will wait and see if any future firmwares will address this issue but until then, I'd recommend to all those worried of getting a refurb in worse shape than their own to hold off. Of course, to all the others, exchange away!
Click to expand...

Edit: found it...trying it shortly.

I'll bite and try it. Do you mind sharing the plist you modified and what you changed to turn this off. I'm starting to search now, but if you have it handy since you just preformed it.

TY.... EJ
Click to expand...

Glad u found it,there were three plists in there. I found the string in the n88ap.plist, in case anyone else wants to try it. Like I said though, for me, it seems like it was a software issue but it could very likely be a hardware issue for others. Good luck bro!
 
newskin said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)



Glad u found it,there were three plists in there. I found the string in the n88ap.plist, in case anyone else wants to try it. Like I said though, for me, it seems like it was a software issue but it could very likely be a hardware issue for others. Good luck bro!
Click to expand...

Found it in N88AP.plist as well. ( /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/N88AP.plist) I have to admit, I think it fixed the issue. Home button became very responsive and performed perfectly.

But I could no longer access multitasking period...not even though activator. So for me, it's an unacceptable solution as, unless I'm missing something, you can't close out your apps running in the background.

I turned it back on and the button performs the exact same....I have to hit it on the right side to make it work. But doing this is almost flawless as stated before...just inconvenient as I can't simply push straight down.


Sure is weird how with MT turned off, button is normal. With MT turned on, I have to push to the right to get it to function normally.

Pushing straight down is almost 100% non functional sometimes bringing up MT, sometimes doing as it should, but mostly, just doing nothing at all when pushed.
 
I'm wondering if there's a way to disable multitasking from the home button only and if this would do any good.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

COBRASVT said:
newskin said:
Glad u found it,there were three plists in there. I found the string in the n88ap.plist, in case anyone else wants to try it. Like I said though, for me, it seems like it was a software issue but it could very likely be a hardware issue for others. Good luck bro!
Click to expand...

Found it in N88AP.plist as well. ( /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/N88AP.plist) I have to admit, I think it fixed the issue. Home button became very responsive and performed perfectly.

But I could no longer access multitasking period...not even though activator. So for me, it's an unacceptable solution as, unless I'm missing something, you can't close out your apps running in the background.

I turned it back on and the button performs the exact same....I have to hit it on the right side to make it work. But doing this is almost flawless as stated before...just inconvenient as I can't simply push straight down.


Sure is weird how with MT turned off, button is normal. With MT turned on, I have to push to the right to get it to function normally.

Pushing straight down is almost 100% non functional sometimes bringing up MT, sometimes doing as it should, but mostly, just doing nothing at all when pushed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, very strange. Some people were telling me that I should just download backgrounder, use that for multitasking, and just keep apples multitasking off. I'll give it a shot, I'm just glad I'm not getting frustrated at my poor innocent home button anymore.

P.S. - I'm using processes from sbsettigs and remove recents to close out any running apps for now, till we find a better solution.
 
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