What to do if my iPhone's home button doesn't work

The home button of an iPhone is that component for which we love and hate in equal parts. It is the operations center of an iPhone, but many of us find it courageous to have to sink it completely to make it work, and more so if we have Touch ID, since it is tactile. Also, from so much use, it is common for the home button to stop working.

The iPhone 5 came with a revamped home button, which should fix the problem, but above all, older models are still susceptible to the bug. Also, if we have problems on an iPhone that is not supposed to, always we can try to solve them with one of the three methods that we propose below.

First of all, we must take into account if our iPhone is under warranty. Logically, if our device hasn't been bought for a year yet, the best idea is to take it to an Apple Store and have it repaired (or replaced, if they so decide). This article is aimed at those who link a fault in the home button of their iPhone in order to guarantee it.

Method 1: Calibrate it (and possibly restore)

The best thing that can happen to you is that a home button that does not respond has a software failure. If this is the case, the problem will be solved by recalibrating the button. To calibrate it we will do the following:

1. We open an Apple application that came by default, like the clock.
2. We press and hold the sleep button until the Shutdown Slider appears.
3. When the Slider appears, we release the sleep button and press the home button for 5-10s. The application will close.

If the problem has been solved, you have been lucky. If not, the next step is to restore the iPhone.

Method 2: Clean it

A little coke, sweaty hands, dirt in your pocket or purse… These things cannot damage the home button. If the first method did not work, we will have to clean start button. For this we will need 98-99% isopropyl alcohol, a product that we can find in hardware stores. We will do the following:

1. We put 2 or 3 drops directly on the button (we avoid the screen).
2. With a protected object (such as a pencil with an eraser) we repeatedly press for the alcohol to enter the frame.
3. We clean the button.
4. We wait 10-15m before checking if it worked.

Method 3: Activate AssistiveTouch

If the previous two methods did not work, it could be that we have the button completely dead. If this is the case, the button connectors could be misaligned and a professional repair would be necessary. The good thing is that in iOS there is a virtual button on the screen. To activate it we will go to Settings / General / Accessibility / AssistiveTouch and we activated the switch. A floating button will appear on the screen that works the same as the home button and has a few more options. We can move it where we want by keeping our finger on it and moving it to the desired place.