Troubleshooting the Home button on an iPhone

How to fix problems with Home button

Some iPhone users encounter problems with a malfunctioning Home button. So, what do you do if the most frequently pressed button refuses to work?

First, an important notice: problems with the Home button can be related to software malfunctioning and to faulty hardware. These problems are solved in different ways that depend, not only on their nature, but also on the validity of Your iPhone warranty.

Software problems

In fact, there is only one way to find out if the problem with the Home button relates to software or to hardware. Check the software solutions for this problem before running to the AppleCenter to get a new iPhone.

The key software solutions for this kind of situation are restoring from a previous backup in iTunes and completely restoring to the factory defaults. The first method is a rollback to the latest iPhone backup that worked properly for you. Completely restoring to the factory defaults is just a rollback to setups that are known to work provided by Apple when your iPhone just left the factory.

Both the option of restoring from a previously made backup and restoring the default features are available through iTunes. But what do you do if these methods do not work? There is one lesser-known method that works in this case:

1.   Open any app on your iPhone

2.   Press "Power" button. Keep it presses until "Slide to shutdown" appears

3.   Release the "Power" button

4.   Press "Home" button. In many cases, the button starts working normally again

Hardware problems

If all the methods described above do not work, yes there is a hardware issue with the "Home" button on your iPhone. It is a good time to search for your Apple warranty and run to the AppleCenter or Apple Store to exchange your iPhone for a new one. Before doing that, do not forget to remove any traces of jailbreaking (if there are any) from your iPhone. Otherwise, your warranty will be void.

Well, what if there is no warranty or it is already expired? There is still a solution for this problem, and surprisingly, it is a software-based one. Yes, you've heard it right — a software workaround for a hardware problem.

To use this solution, you need to update to iOS 5. After you have done so, go to Settings --> General --> Accessibility, and scroll down to the very bottom of this screen. There, you need to turn on the "Assistive Touch" slider. After you do that, a semi-transparent gray button will appear in the bottom-right part of the iPhone's screen. This button will provide you with the same functionality as the usual "Home" button.