iPhone Side Button Back to Life After iOs Update
November 26, 2018 8:18 AM   Subscribe

The side button (aka "on/off" button) on my iPhone 7 was working only sporadically (which meant lots of pocket dialing because I couldn't lock phone, and taking screen shots was torture). I just updated from iOs 10 to 12.1, and button works all the time. This is seriously weird. Any theories?
posted by Quisp Lover to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)
 
Not an answer to the question posed, but if the side button fails again you might consider enabling AssistiveTouch on your phone (Settings > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch). This enables a "floating" button on the screen that allows you to use the touchscreen to perform most tasks that normally require a button to be physically depressed, including locking the screen and taking a screenshot.

(I am the proud owner of an iPhone 4 with a broken side button.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:48 AM on November 26, 2018 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: A few hours later, it's back to sporadic again.

The perennially vexing problem with intermittent problems is their damned intermittency. People in online tech forums will report that conversion to Catholicism or a new haircut appears to offer the much prayed-for solution...for a while. Sorry I seem to have done exactly that (in my defense, it had never been as non-sporadic as it was right after the update...20 rapid-fire on/off actions all worked snappily).

Johnny, I've tried the assistive touch thingee, but wasn't comfortable with it. Will try again, thanks for the reminder.

Puls.com claims to repair side buttons for $69, but I don't see lots of success reports out there...
posted by Quisp Lover at 11:11 AM on November 26, 2018


My story: The mute switch on my iPhone X stopped 'working' at one point (somewhat closely aligned with dropping my phone) and I also thought it was a hardware issue. Before I could set up an appointment with a Genius, I did a live chat with a support person who asked me to General > Reset > Erase all Content and Settings. Weirdly for me too, the switch started working again. I suppose it's not weird, though. It's just software?
posted by homesickness at 11:24 AM on November 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


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