What to Do if Your Home Button Doesn't Work on iPhone

* This article is from our Tip of the Day newsletter. . *

Home button or Sleep/Wake button not working properly? (Maybe you had some kind of iPhone misfortune involving water or a drop?) You're probably planning to take your phone in to get fixed; but in the meantime, Assistive Touch is a great work around to this problem. Here’s what you can do as a workaround if your Home button isn’t working on iPhone.

Related: How to Customize Home Button Haptic Feedback with iPhone 7 or 7 Plus

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What to Do If Your Home Button Isn’t Working on iPhone

  • First, we need to turn on Assistive Touch. To do this:
  • Open the Settings app and select General.
  • Tap Accessibility, then Assistive Touch.
  • Toggle Assistive Touch on.
  • A virtual Home button will now appear on your screen at all times. Press this button and you will bring up a screen like this:
  • Tap Siri to use your phone's digital assistant.
  • Tap Home to return to the Home Screen.
  • Tap Device to bring up a whole new menu of options that allow you to lock the screen orientation, rotate the screen, adjust the volume, mute or unmute your ringer. Tapping More will bring up another menu that let you shake to undo, take a screenshot, bring up the multitasking bar, or use gestures.
  • You can also select Notifications or Control Center.
  • If you want to change what options you have, you can. In the Assistive Touch menu, you can select Customize Top Level Menu to customize what pops up.
  • You can also drag your on-screen Home button to anywhere on the screen, such as in a corner where it’s easily ignored until needed.
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Sarah Kingsbury's picture

Author Details

Sarah Kingsbury

As the Editorial Director at iPhone Life, Sarah Kingsbury manages the online editorial team and oversees all website content. She is a long-time Apple enthusiast who never goes anywhere without her Apple Watch and owns way too many HomePods. Since joining iPhone Life in 2013, Sarah has done everything from writing hundreds of how-to articles to founding the Daily Tip newsletter. She even co-hosted the early episodes of the iPhone Life Podcast. When not at work, Sarah can be found hiking in the mountains and canyons around Las Vegas, where she lives with her partner and dogs.