Smartphones have a lot of menu options for you to navigate whenever you need to adjust some settings on certain apps and operating system. And if you don’t know where to go to next, there is always a Home button to press. That’s what the Home button on early iPhones is designed for. Among the physical buttons found on the iPhone, the Home button is likely the most frequently used. That’s why it is also the first button that will soon experience wear and tear symptoms.
Tackled in this post is a pertinent issue in which the iPhone 6 Home is not working. If you’re still using an iPhone with a physical Home button and here because it’s not working for some reason, then this post might be able to help you. Read on to learn what to do if your iPhone Home button is not responding or not working as it should.
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What causes your iPhone’s Home button to stop working?
As mentioned earlier, the Home button could stop working due to wear and tear. Like the computer’s mouse and keyboard, the iPhone’s button also has a so-called press/touch limits. If the number of presses or touches has exceeded the maximum number, then that’s when adverse symptoms instigate. At first, you would notice that it is responding intermittently and then later on it’s no longer responding at all.
However, it is not always a depreciating hardware component that’s to blame. In fact, there are some instances that the iPhone’s Home button stops working due to some software issues. Such problem usually occurs among other performance symptoms on an iPhone like unresponsive or frozen iPhone display. These symptoms are often attributed to memory-related issues like when the memory is running low. Bad apps, data corruption, iOS bugs, and malicious software are also among other potential triggers.
In the case where software problems are stopping the Home button from functioning, the hardware might still be able to send the signal but since the software is not responding, nothing happens no matter how you press it. Given that the software-related factors can also be the underlying cause of the problem, it is imperative to try performing some workarounds before rushing to a service center. Highlighted below are a few applicable tweaks and temporary solutions for you to try on.
First solution: Force restart your iPhone.
Performing a forced restart on your iPhone often corrects the problem if minor software errors and apps glitches are to blame. In fact, this is the simplest potential solution to random software errors that caused abnormal operation. Like a soft reset, performing a forced restart does not affect any saved information on the phone’s internal memory and so it’s safe to do it even without backing up files. To force restart an iPhone 6 and other early iPhones with a Home button, simply refer to these steps:
- Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button at the top until the Power Off slider appears.
- Then drag the slider to power off your device.
- After a few seconds, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo shows up on the screen.
Try pressing the Home button and see if it’s working properly again. If it doesn’t, then try going back to the Home screen and proceed to the next step. It is possible that the physical Home button is damaged and therefore you’ve got to resort to a temporary solution until it gets fixed.
Second solution: Enable Assistive Touch.
This can be considered as a temporary solution if the Home button on your iPhone is damaged. Seeing the possibility that the physical Home button would eventually reached its limit and stopped working, Apple embedded a feature to search the same purpose as the physical Home button does. This feature is called Assistive Touch. In order to use this feature as substitute, you need to enable it first from your iPhone settings. And here’s how you do it:
- From the Home screen, tap on Settings.
- Tap General.
- Tap Accessibility.
- Select Assistive Touch.
- Toggle the switch next to Assistive Touch to enable the feature.
A Home button icon will then show up on your iPhone display. Simply tap that button instead of pressing the Home key. The Assistive Touch Home button can be moved anywhere on the screen as you would prefer. Just drag it to your desired location.
As explicated above, this is only deemed a temporary solution because the Assistive Touch Home button does not do everything that’s done by physical button. For example, you wouldn’t be able to factory reset or restore your iPhone if the physical Home button is not functioning. That said, you still need to visit an Apple Genius bar and ask an iPhone technician to fix the it for you.
Will it be possible to restore an iPhone 6 without a dysfunctional Home button?
If you’re wondering if you can put your iPhone 6 in recovery mode or DFU mode if it is not working, then the answer is no. Why? Because you will need to press the Home button together with other buttons in order to put your device in recovery mode or DFU mode. Contrary to what other websites advised, performing an iOS restore through recovery mode or DFU mode on your iPhone 6 is definitely not possible because the process of entering recovery mode and DFU mode require the use of the physical Home button. Given that the Home button is not working, there’s no way for it to enter recovery or DFU mode unless there is no damaged to any of the hardware components.
However, there may be some non-Apple iOS restore and recovery tools that you can use to repair your iPhone without having to use the Home button. You can search for any of these tools online. And if you find one, download and install it on your computer just like what you did with iTunes. Once you have it installed, connect your iPhone to the computer using the Apple-supplied Lightning cable or syncing cable, launch the software and then use the given commands and controls to start repairing your damaged iPhone system.
Other options
- Clean the Home button. The Home button may also fail to work if it’s clogged with dust or dirt. The Home button will eventually become less sensitive if more and more dirt or dusts are accumulated. This is often the case if the button works intermittently. Unless it got wet or was dropped by accident, you may still be able to fix it through cleaning.
- Service/iPhone repair. Taking a trip to a service center can be considered as the last option if nothing else gets your iPhone 6 Home button to work properly again. If it only works on certain locations or doesn’t work at all, then it needs physical repair.
- Upgrade to the latest iPhone. Perhaps you should already consider getting an upgrade. Your iPhone 6 had apparently rendered its full service and is already asking for a new replacement. So instead for paying for a hefty Home button replacement or service charge, talk to your carrier and ask further assistance in getting any of the new iPhones that would best suit your needs. The iphone x, iPhone XS/XS Max, and iPhone XR are just waiting for you to pick.
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