Introduction
While looking for repairs for the home button, I stumbled upon stupid ideas of spraying WD40 or white spirit onto the button, without disassembling the device. Because of the design of the button, white spirit (or worse, WD40) can NEVER reach the contacts
Iphone's home button tends to become unresponsive over the time. These couple of pictures show the reasons and easy fix. Photos are taken during the repair of my own device. Probably it works with other iphones too.
Tools
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Use the edge of an iPod opening tool or your fingernail to lift the home button ribbon cable retainer.
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De-route the home button ribbon cable through the inner case and remove the home button from the iPhone.
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You need really thin blade to carefully peel off the plastic film from the back of the button. Do NOT touch the glue with your finger!
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After disassembly, you need some white spirit and cotton buds to clean up greenish oxide on both: button back contacts and steel cap's inside.
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Last picture shows cleaned details.
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On reassembly, you have to position the steel cap in the center of copper contact ring, placing plastic sticker into its respective cavity on the back of the button.
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Press the sticker firmly into its place. Don't worry if it doesnt stick all the way round. its position under the glass keeps the details in place. Again, try to prevent touching the glue while disassembling.
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Congrats! Re-assemble your device and enjoy your revived home button!
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
Take a look at step 31. it shows him prising off the socket with the tool. why? Your not meant to do that, and I broke my iPhone following this. all you have to do is disconnect the ribbon. you don't lift anything up!
oranjj -
Hi oranjj, I did the same :-( can you do anything about it? Did you get yours fixed?
leroy978 -
The picture is right. There is a very very tiny tab that needs to be lifted, so the socket releases the flex cable. It's barely noticeable but it's there. After replacing the home button you connect the new flex cable and then you lower the socket tab again to secure it. I'm sorry you broke yours :-/
pic10F206 -
@oranjj actually you should lift up the small plastic retainer flap which locks the ribbon in or you won't be able to lock the new one in, the warning does explain you don't lift the whole thing
Leigh Ellis -
This step is really tricky. I broke the connector accidentally.
Meng -
this step is the most difficult part of the entire process. a closeup photo or two of how this connector works would be very useful. i nearly destroyed mine too!
garymohr001 -
Nearly broke the connector too, although this was down to me not reading the step thoroughly. Was very tricky working that ribbon cable back in there, but all back together now and touch wood seems to be working fine! Thanks : )
Marc -
My home button had gone really bad and had to be pushed hard so I installed a complete new button w/socket cable.
I followed the guide and lifted the ribbon retainer before removing/inserting the ribbons.
Now there's no functionality at all?! .. :(
Any ideas?
stroelsen -
me too! did you ever hear back from anyone?
sgoodwin -
It is a ZIF type connector. Careful!!
similar to this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqalgC6zbHw
travisray -
I really don't understand how to put the home button back. I finally was able to get the old homebotton with cable out...though I am affraid I broke something.
Getting the new one is, is a pain in the $#$ and does not keeps in position. Is there a way to obtain a new socket? Or are there other posibilities?
stefan -
I have the same problem. Getting the cable out was no problem, but getting it in again does not work. I think my socket is okay but I cannot connect the button again... The cable still does not get in... :-/
Christian -
Hi! I actually broke the connector... took it out from the iPhone.
Can I just glue it back? Will it work?
My iphone doesnt want to reset... it asks for restore mode all the time
Alex -
Putting the new home cable in the socket was impossible. After pushing and wriggling for half an hour on the old cable to see how to get it back in, I gave up, put the new one in as far as possible, put the clip down and put the phone back together in the hope that it was I'm far enough. Turns out, it was!
Reversing instructions is not that simple. Some photos or more notes on how things go back would be great.
That said, I am so grateful these guides exist. Thank you!
Fiona Palmer -
Well, I too separated the "socket itself" because I thought it was a pushdown connector instead of sizeways ZIF. First attempt to put it back in place with superglue ended in a non-working home button (although the phone was still usable via Settings/General/Accessability/AssistiveTouch).
In my second attempt I removed the suplerglue and, with a fine soldering iron, very carefully, reconnected the socket in place by soldering the two back leads and (perhaps) one or two of the front leads. And now it works! Just afraid that if I drop the phone the hole thing will come apart, but for the moment I remain a happy camper.
Very many thanks for the guide, but please add a statement in Step 31 about the ribbon cable having to slide out of the socket horizontally, since the pictures are misleading.
jnavarro -
Putting the cable back into the connector is not easy. I broke the cable off the *old* button and played around to see how it all worked before attempting to fit the new one. I would recommend doing this as a few dummy runs of plugging them together makes it clear. Important to remember, the tiny, almost invisible, clip on the socket is up open, down locked.
If you have a lit magnifying glass, use it.
Victor -
Is there any way to repair the socket if I accidentally removed the whole thing instead of just the cable???
kevinmorris -
Did anyone find a solution for braking the connector off?
Gallai Kamilla -