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Tempermental iPhone 4 home button 4.1

ATC said:
I was reluctant about going into an Apple store to get my iPhone looked at thinking it was a software issue all along.

Yesterday I popped into the Apple Store in Vancouver (Pacific center) and wanted to get their opinion on the issue. A Genius was available (without an appointment) and he asked me if I tried restoring the phone which I had done, he also tried to replicate it but of course it didn't happen. He suggested replacing my unit. Within a few mins I walked out with a brand new iP4 and the home button is perfect. I have tried to replicate the issue since I got it yesterday and it hasn't happened. :)

I now think it's definitely a hardware issue. My only regret is not having it replaced sooner.

My advice for anyone having this annoying issue is go into your nearest Apple store and get it replaced.
Click to expand...

by brand new you mean refurbished.
 
MultiMediaWill said:
by brand new you mean refurbished.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. It might be a refurb. The only reason I said "brand new" was because the Genius said it was when I asked him. He also never brought out the black box and the phone had the clear plastic sticky covers on the front and back and it was in an immaculate condition.

I've closely inspected the phone the first day and I have to say if this indeed is a refurb then I'll have to think long and hard before buying anything brand new from Apple, it's that good. :)
 
ATC said:
I'm not sure. It might be a refurb. The only reason I said "brand new" was because the Genius said it was when I asked him. He also never brought out the black box and the phone had the clear plastic sticky covers on the front and back and it was in an immaculate condition.

I've closely inspected the phone the first day and I have to say if this indeed is a refurb then I'll have to think long and hard before buying anything brand new from Apple, it's that good. :)
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Look at the serial number. If it starts with 5, it's definitely a refurbished unit. Either way Apple refurbished items are top notch in my opinion. I had the same issue and stopped by the store last Monday. The Genius claimed it was likely a software issue instead of the phone itself. Either way I left with a refurbished iPhone :D
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

^^^
yeah the serial starts with 5. Damn nice refurb, that's for sure.
 
Its hit or miss with refurbs vs brand new.

I had the home button problem for the longest time. My sleep button also would get stuck at times. I got it replaced finally about two weeks ago.

The replacement phone (a refurb) had a very yellowish screen with a noticeably dark smudged area on top right due to uneven lighting.

So had that replaced, and ended up with a new unit with serial starting with 83xxx. The screen is warmer than my launch day phone, but its much cooler than that particular refurb unit with bad lighting.

So, depending on the store you go to, they may be out of refurbished units, and only have new replacement units (still in black box).
 
When I went to the Apple store 2 weeks ago for the home button, the genius walked out with the IP4 with the plastic tabs still attached. The serial number starts with a 6 so I can assume its a new replacement.
 
UPDATE: After giving the phone a gentle 'clout' several times my home button is no longer problematic. It also doesnt seem to make the very loud 'snap' type noise it would make when being pressed before. Now it seems to feel a bit softer with a muted click and much more responsive. maybe I have dislodged some cr@p behind the button.

All in all, Im happy :D
 
there is absolutely no way this is a hardware issue. I can get mine to start responding again by toggling the silence switch or unlocking the screen orientation. Same exact presses on the home button after that is perfectly responsive until it just stops working again. I agree with this being related to some kind of memory leak or something similar...

BTW my phone is only a cpl months old. When I first started noticing this problem (about two weeks ago) I would try to push the button harder, but realized quickly that the amount of pressure did not matter. So as an experiment I have not been pushing the button any harder or softer when it stops working.

The button is in good shape and makes a very clean click whether it's currently working or not. Absolutely nothing changes in its feel or how I press the button when it works or doesn't work. Also, the phone is too young to have any significant buildup of lint.

The proof that this is more a software issue is it works perfectly or doesn't work at all. There's no in between. It's never "sort of" responsive. When it's "working" simple and gentle clicks work perfectly and consistently. It's only after a rest period does it ever stop working for a time.

Oh and I have been diligent in making sure nothing is running in the background. There's just a glitch in the os somewhere...
 
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I have been having issues with my home button since before 4.2. I made an appointment with the Genuis Bar on Saturday, but updated my phone to 4.3 while backing up my phone. The genuis I met with hooked my phone up to run a diagnostic, and it said there was not enough data to report any errors. He tried to replicate the issue without success, and said that it could be a hardware issue or a software issue. He suggested that I test it out over the weekend and see how it responds to the new software. He said for me to come back if I continued to experience the issue. About an hour after I left the store, the home button become unresponsive again, and it has been happening daily since. I'm hoping my next visit to the Genius Bar will be more productive. I plan on buying a white iPhone on Monday, and I'm giving my current one to my niece. I'm not asking for a replacement, but I would like to know that the phone I give her isn't going to cause her problems on a daily basis.
 
redraider21 said:
I have been having issues with my home button since before 4.2. I made an appointment with the Genuis Bar on Saturday, but updated my phone to 4.3 while backing up my phone. The genuis I met with hooked my phone up to run a diagnostic, and it said there was not enough data to report any errors. He tried to replicate the issue without success, and said that it could be a hardware issue or a software issue. He suggested that I test it out over the weekend and see how it responds to the new software. He said for me to come back if I continued to experience the issue. About an hour after I left the store, the home button become unresponsive again, and it has been happening daily since. I'm hoping my next visit to the Genius Bar will be more productive. I plan on buying a white iPhone on Monday, and I'm giving my current one to my niece. I'm not asking for a replacement, but I would like to know that the phone I give her isn't going to cause her problems on a daily basis.
Click to expand...

You should get a replacement. I've never encountered the issue ever since getting my replacement phone in Feburary.
 
princew said:
there is absolutely no way this is a hardware issue. I can get mine to start responding again by toggling the silence switch or unlocking the screen orientation. Same exact presses on the home button after that is perfectly responsive until it just stops working again. I agree with this being related to some kind of memory leak or something similar...

BTW my phone is only a cpl months old. When I first started noticing this problem (about two weeks ago) I would try to push the button harder, but realized quickly that the amount of pressure did not matter. So as an experiment I have not been pushing the button any harder or softer when it stops working.

The button is in good shape and makes a very clean click whether it's currently working or not. Absolutely nothing changes in its feel or how I press the button when it works or doesn't work. Also, the phone is too young to have any significant buildup of lint.

The proof that this is more a software issue is it works perfectly or doesn't work at all. There's no in between. It's never "sort of" responsive. When it's "working" simple and gentle clicks work perfectly and consistently. It's only after a rest period does it ever stop working for a time.

Oh and I have been diligent in making sure nothing is running in the background. There's just a glitch in the os somewhere...
Click to expand...

You're right. If I press the home key several times out of frustration, after about 40 seconds it will respond with a triple click then to a search page and then back to the home page. I've tried toggling my volume and locking and unlocking. Nothering seems to work except for waiting a couple of minutes. Its really annoying. Its been happening for about 4 months now.
 
redraider21 said:
I have been having issues with my home button since before 4.2. I made an appointment with the Genuis Bar on Saturday, but updated my phone to 4.3 while backing up my phone. The genuis I met with hooked my phone up to run a diagnostic, and it said there was not enough data to report any errors. He tried to replicate the issue without success, and said that it could be a hardware issue or a software issue. He suggested that I test it out over the weekend and see how it responds to the new software. He said for me to come back if I continued to experience the issue. About an hour after I left the store, the home button become unresponsive again, and it has been happening daily since. I'm hoping my next visit to the Genius Bar will be more productive. I plan on buying a white iPhone on Monday, and I'm giving my current one to my niece. I'm not asking for a replacement, but I would like to know that the phone I give her isn't going to cause her problems on a daily basis.
Click to expand...

Take the case off your phone for an experiment, I'm having the exact same issue, did the 4.3 update and it seemed ok. I stopped jailbreak in and changed cases...and it hasn't come back yet so far...
 
All these remedies...... its a plecebo effect. I did all of them before coming to the realization the only fix was to exchange it at the Apple store. Wake up people!
 
Been putting of my genius appointment for months and finally just stuck it out yesterday and went.

In and out within 10 minutes of being seen at the genius bar, new iPhone 4, NO home button issues, no green blob and my serial starts with a 6, so it's not a refurb. Also according to my serial it was made in May of 2011. SCHWWWING.
 
I think this is firmware related... The more features Apple include in iOS, the more it becomes heavy... Sometimes transitions are not smooth...sometimes double clicking home button doesn't work... etc..

Bue, no worries! iPhone 4S is here! THE MORE POWERFUL iPhone YET! (available at the WWDC2011) :p
 
whsbuss said:
All these remedies...... its a plecebo effect. I did all of them before coming to the realization the only fix was to exchange it at the Apple store. Wake up people!
Click to expand...

Pretty much. It's a random problem so of course sometimes it will look like you found a fix.

Of course, who is to say there isn't some software involved or maybe people with two different issues that display similar symptoms. I know on my new iphone it can be slow to respond to the button click (gotta wait a half a sec to a sec while it waits to see if you are going to do a second click) but it responds.

My old one was very random, it would go through bouts of working for a bit and then bouts where I swore it was ready to just break entirely (with the bouts of it not working so well getting longer and longer and more reliable). When I brought it in I thought there would be a good chance I'd even get it to display for the genius. It didn't but lucky for me the genius took me at my word that it didn't work.
 
eseminario said:
I think this is firmware related... The more features Apple include in iOS, the more it becomes heavy... Sometimes transitions are not smooth...sometimes double clicking home button doesn't work... etc..

Bue, no worries! iPhone 4S is here! THE MORE POWERFUL iPhone YET! (available at the WWDC2011) :p
Click to expand...

Mine was most definitely a physical problem. For one, sometimes it didn't acknowledge the button at all (I would think my iphone froze only to remember that sometimes my button didn't respond and use the power button to turn it on).

When I went in the Apple store you could see the difference in how the iphones responded to the home button and mine (both physically and also how fast they responded when you clicked). My new one is not having the same issues (though I'm paranoid it will develop it cause I don't trust that apple used a button that stands up to much use since this is a very common problem and some people are seeing it within months of use) but I pretty much refreshed it to the same backup my old one was using so it's running all the same apps and everything.
 
tigress666 said:
Mine was most definitely a physical problem. For one, sometimes it didn't acknowledge the button at all
Click to expand...

Likewise. Sometimes I'd double-click mine and it would only register once. The total giveaway was when it would take a single-click and register it twice (ie, bring up the task strip)... which in mechanical terms is switch-bounce.

As someone else said, my only regret was not taking it back sooner.
 
tigress666 said:
but I pretty much refreshed it to the same backup my old one was using so it's running all the same apps and everything.
Click to expand...

Same here. I asked the genius when I exchanged mine "should I restore as new".... she said to use the latest backup since its not a software issue.
 
The same thing is happening to me lately. I click once, and the multitasking menu comes up. I click twice, nothing happens. It's so sporadic.

I'm taking it to the Apple Store this week.

Question - how hard is it to convince them to exchange colors? I'd love a white one!
 
DLyman said:
From what I've read, it's not possible.
Click to expand...

No big.

This problem is so irritating. It sometimes takes 6 or 7 presses to get back home. I guess it could just be dust under the button, but I'm still having them check it out, and hoping for a replacement.
 
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)

I had the same issue and got a new phone from the apple store using my warranty and my new one is fine.
 
mattkowalski said:
Likewise. Sometimes I'd double-click mine and it would only register once. The total giveaway was when it would take a single-click and register it twice (ie, bring up the task strip)... which in mechanical terms is switch-bounce.

As someone else said, my only regret was not taking it back sooner.
Click to expand...

Yep, mine did that too. It sometimes was a tossup if it would read how many times i clicked correctly.

What is switch bounce?

I am guess the switch was wearing out (it did seem to progressively get worse in its way).
 
whsbuss said:
All these remedies...... its a plecebo effect. I did all of them before coming to the realization the only fix was to exchange it at the Apple store. Wake up people!
Click to expand...

It's not a placebo in my case. It never misses now. It's not possible that something which had been so noticeable never happens now. It may be hit and miss, might return.

The genius also removed and reseated my screws stating that some were overtightened and that can cause issues.
 
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