How to Fix if iPhone Home Button not Working

 iPhone Home buttons do go wrong from time to time, mostly (frustratingly) a year or so after the warranty runs out. Apple may be able to repair the hardware, but this can be kind of expensive. Perhaps to the point where it would be more sensible to spend more and get a whole new device. In this article, we are going to talk about How to Fix if iPhone Home Button not Working. Let’s begin!

If paying for a repair is too expensive or otherwise impractical, but, there’s a neat workaround built into iOS that you may not be aware of. We will look at both options in this feature: hardware repair, and also software workaround.

Hardware repair

First of all, let us talk about the full repair option.

You should check out our iPhone warranty guide to see what your rights are. If in case the problem arose after you dropped the iPhone in water, such as, your warranty may be invalid. (In our experience, but, the unresponsive Home button problem mostly arises seemingly spontaneously after a year or two of use simply because you have got one of the models that are susceptible. The iPhone 4 seemed particularly prone to this issue and are unlucky.) Make an appointment with Apple and then find out if you are covered, or how much the repair is likely to cost if it’s not.

Along with some frequently occurring problems, Apple acknowledges that it is a legitimate and widespread issue and also institutes a free repair programme. The power button on the iPhone 5, for instance, was admitted to be malfunction-prone, and Apple actually offered free repairs or replacements for affected its devices.

Sadly, although our conversations with readers suggest that the Home button problem has been almost as spread widely. Apple has not set up a repair programme for this issue yet. And this is unlikely to change in the future since more recent iPhone models sounds not to fall victim to the problem. My personal experience suggests that all the Touch ID equipped iPhones to have reliable Home buttons that show not to be prone to failure.

Further

Can you repair the device through yourself? You can give it a try, but unless you are a confident tech hobbyist we would not recommend it – since, for one thing, that it’s likely to invalidate your warranty (if you’re still under warranty), and may worsen the problem rather fixing than it.

Additionally, as we will see shortly, there is a workaround that means a dodgy Home button need not kill your iPhone experience as well.

Software workaround | iPhone home button not working

iOS has actually a neat feature that helps when hardware buttons stop working. In order to activate this, go to the Settings app, and choose General, then Accessibility. Scroll down to the Interaction section, and click AssistiveTouch. Now click the button next to AssistiveTouch so that it turns green and slides to the on position.

Let’s see what it looks like in iOS:

We have turned it on above, that means you can see the little AssistiveTouch button at the bottom right. We will explain what it can do in a moment.

This process was really slightly different in older versions of iOS. If you are still running iOS 6, such as – there can’t be many of you left! – you will need to go to Settings, General, and then scroll down to Accessibility. Under Physical & Motor, tap AssistiveTouch, and then slide AssistiveTouch into the ON position.

A small circle inside a square will then appear on your screen; this can be dragged all around the screen to wherever you find it least disruptive. It will become blurred when pressed, then turn transparent if left alone for a short time.

Further | iPhone home button not working

Clicking the button gives you six options: Home, Siri, Custom, Notification Centre, Device and also Control Centre. And between them, they should permit you to accomplish anything for which you used the hardware Home button – and the other hardware buttons too, for that matter.

Home, Siri, Notification Centre and also Control Centre are self-explanatory; Custom lets you set up your own gestures and actions (you get Pinch, double-tap and 3D Touch by default actually); and Device leads you to further options for example volume controls, mute, Rotate Screen and also Lock Screen. Click More for still further options, that includes, brilliantly, screenshot (although annoyingly it’s very difficult to screenshot the feature itself since it dutifully moves out of the way before even snapping the picture).

In older versions of iOS, a single tap of the button used to give you just Voice Control, Home and Favourites options. (Favourites permits you to save specific gestures and commands, just like Custom in iOS 9). Then as now, Device took you through to further options like volume controls.

Apple iPhone 7 or 8 buttons not working | iPhone home button not working

Since the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus iPhones haven’t had a physical Home button, however, there is still a chance of the button malfunctioning. Just like it did for iwayne on the MacRumours Forums. Thankfully, Apple has integrated a fail-safe option. That brings up a notification informing you to use an ‘onscreen Home button’ before taking it in for a service.

This new feature by Apple went unnoticed – mainly due to most didn’t notice any problems with their new phone purchase. We find the feature fantastic for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users – because it provides a default secondary option.

If you’re under warranty and your iPhone isn’t damaged, then head straight for an Apple Store or start a mail-in repair on Apple’s support website. When a Home button won’t work and the iPhone is out of warranty or damaged, then people generally go in one of two directions:

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