Why is the iPhone 4S so slow to respond to a Home-button press?

[rkeato1]

This is definitely the problem
It fixed my slow home responding home button
I had a 4 and a 4S side-by side. The difference was noticeable. The 4 was instant, the 4S took about 1/2 sec.

Go to =>Settings =>General =>Accessibility => Triple-click Home = OFF

Thanks AndrewR

This.

 

[peto01]

I have this issue too, but if you have your headphones connected, you will not have this issue anymore

 

[terminatorp]

Same experience

That "half-a-second" pause you are experiencing is not only a 4S issue, it is an all across iOS platform issue.
The reason why you get that short pause after you press the Home Button is due to Multitasking.
After tweaking, disabling, enabling features all throughout the phone for the past year, I have come across the fact that once Multitasking is disabled, exiting apps via Home Button is almost instantaneous. The graphical interface is much more smoother as well.
A side note, applications load slightly faster with Multitasking disabled, but, the tradeoff is that they won't stay suspended in memory.
As of iOS 5, I am no longer able to do so, because the dock becomes greyed out and unusable for some reason, so I just keep it on.
It's very weird why the phone acts in that manner because of the feature, but I'm sure anyone else who has done this can confirm as well.

Yes, I can second this statement above. I currently use MyOS on my jailbroken 3GS, and have disable native multitasking. Now, homebutton responses are INSTANTANEOUS.

Using a double tap to activate a multitasking bar is the reason for the fractional delay in the homebutton. This is aggravated if there is also a triple tap assigned also.

 

[fiveainone]

Sorry to bring this back up, but I found another culprit to slow responding home button. Lately I've noticed apps seems to take longer to exit. Compared to other people's 4s, its definitely about .5 second slower closing each app. It's like 4 vs 4s speed differences.

Turns out I had the accessibility feature for triple-click home button function turned on. With it off, it's back to factory speed! Hope this helps someone..

 

[Spinnetti]

I did see some videos of people complaining about this on youtube.
They were claiming the iPhone 4S was way slower than the iPhone 4.
But I have been experiencing slow downs on the home button on my iPhone 4 with iOS 5 but only occasionally.

For the first time (hence how I found this) I'm getting this too. Not all the time, but enough to think my phone is broken. (iphone4). Didn't happen until the latest os updates (5.1?)

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Just came home with a new 4S replacement. Did a side by side comparison of home button response, and it's about the same. If anything I would say the 4S is faster. I'm sure of it.

How is replacing the phone going to solve a software issue?

 

[jabingla2810]

I think the slight delay is offering the user a window of time to double click the home button to use the multi-tasking interface instead of closing the app.

If the app closed instantly, doing a double press would be all but impossible to achieve.

 

[Spinnetti]

i went to the genius bar and they gave me that whole salesmen bologna. it doesn't recalibrate anything. i had 2 genius look at my phone and both said its a software issue with ios5 and not a hardware issue and they told me to do that so i did that in the store and it that did not even work and both of them saw that and still wouldn't fix or replace it for me and i have applecare! . so how can i do a home button reset if the button doesn't even work ? i called applecare and there taking care of it. if all else fails call apple. i know its hit or miss with the apple stores but lately everywhere I've heard read or seen its really getting out of hand when someone has a legit problem with there phone. and the geniuses won't help

its a software issue. The "geniuses" won't know what to do until Apple figures out there is a problem and a code fix is done. I tried all the old wives tales ("home button recalibration", turning off the triple click etc) - no change. def. an OS update issue. I might wipe my phone and do a fresh install just to confirm, but pretty sure its an OS issue.

 

[Itsanomen]

Try this...seems to help on iPhone 4. Unsure on 4s.

1.) Open any application
2.) Press and hold the power button until the slide to shutdown swipe bar appears.
3.) Release Power button
4.) Press and hold Home button Lightly until screen returns to icon screen
5.) Enjoy your functioning home button!!!This procedure recalibrates the home button after normal wear or heavy use.

Ah man!!! This is awesome! It totally worked. I went to Apple and they didn't have a fix for me. They just told me to reinstall. That didn't work till I tried this recommendation. I don't know why Apple doesn't teach this to their "genius" employees. Thanks.

 

[imm22]

This seems to work, for now. I will test this for some day and then report.

Try this...seems to help on iPhone 4. Unsure on 4s.

1.) Open any application
2.) Press and hold the power button until the slide to shutdown swipe bar appears.
3.) Release Power button
4.) Press and hold Home button Lightly until screen returns to icon screen
5.) Enjoy your functioning home button!!!This procedure recalibrates the home button after normal wear or heavy use.

 

[crashnburn]

Try this...seems to help on iPhone 4. Unsure on 4s.

1.) Open any application
2.) Press and hold the power button until the slide to shutdown swipe bar appears.
3.) Release Power button
4.) Press and hold Home button Lightly until screen returns to icon screen
5.) Enjoy your functioning home button!!!This procedure recalibrates the home button after normal wear or heavy use.

This got it....my trible click was already off. I also say a slow response on phone wake-up.

Hey, I had no idea about this. I had a 4, got stolen a little while back, of course decided with 4S out to get that instead of replacing 4. Obviously 4S hard to find right now, so using my old 3GS until I either give up and order online or the walk-in purchase 4S inventory greatly improves. I thought the slow home button response was just my perception, caused by switching from a 4 to a 3GS, and also upgrading that 3GS to iOS 5. Nope. Your recalibration did a trick on the 3GS: It's like a whole new phone.

I can agree and confirm with all of these. Somehow the recalibration seems to work - Wonder how and where did someone find this? Some kind of Developers SDK trick?

PS: My iphone 4 iOS 5.1.1b already had the Triple Click off so dont know if that matters. Made it on and off as well like someone else on this thread.

EDIT: The button pressing has improved (e.g. I'd have to PRESS the damn button big time) BUT.. there is still a long delay when waking the phone from sleep v/s a recent locking/ closing of the screen - which has a slight delay as well.