Home button not working on iPhone or iPad? Add a virtual one with AssistiveTouch!
If your Home button isn't responding, here's how you can use your iPhone or iPad's software to get around it.
There are several reasons that your iPhone or iPad's Home button might not be currently working: Older iPhone and iPad models (pre-iPhone 7) have physical buttons, which can wear down with time, while the iPhone 7 and later has a Taptic Engine-driven "button" which won't work without skin (or other capacitative) contact. Whatever the reason, if you're having trouble with your Home button — or just don't want to use it — you can turn on a little-known Accessibility feature called AssistiveTouch to give yourself a virtual Home button on your screen.
How to add a virtual Home button to your iPhone or iPad with AssistiveTouch
- Launch Settings.
- Tap General.
- Tap Accessibility.
- Tap AssistiveTouch under the Interaction category.
- Tap the toggle switch to turn on AssistiveTouch.
- You should see a small rounded rectangle with a circle in the middle appear on your screen.
- Tap the AssistiveTouch icon to launch the on-screen controls.
- Tap Device.
- Tap and hold Lock Screen until the slide to power off prompt displays.
- Slide to power off
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Using AssistiveTouch is a nice patch, but it's no solution for an actual, working Home button. If you're still under warranty, you can get Apple to replace it for free; if not, the company still might replace it for a small fee.
