Should You Calibrate or Reset the Home Button?

If your goal is to fix a home button that's not working, the quick answer is no; "recalibrating" or "resetting" the home button will not do a software reset that will cure an ailing home button. If you are convinced, simply scroll down and just read the last sentence to see where you need to go next to actually fix your iPhone, iPad or iPod's home button. If you are not, read on and know exactly why we did not answer in the affirmative.

We are not convinced with the "recalibration fix", Dr.Drang calls it voodoo, and Marco Arment, the founder of Instapaper affirms that it's a myth. Here's more:

Moreover, if this can make the home button more responsive, why wouldn't Apple have it on their help files? But there are folks out there who believe it works. So, to ensure that all known or believed fixes are on this site, and to demystify them, we have decided to include this one too and break it down into digestible chunks.

Calibrating or resetting the home button - the hows

Some folks believe that the home button can get erratic due to cache overload, software errors and a reset or calibration would help in such a situation. Here's the widely known way to "recalibrate" your iPhone, iPad or iPod:

  1. Open any standard bundled app like YouTube
  2. Press the power button and keep holding down till the "slide to turn off" red slider appears
  3. Now leave the power button and press only the home button and keep holding it down for a few seconds till the slider disappears and the app running in the background closes.
So, they say that the above steps "calibrate" "recalibrate" or "reset" the home button of Apple iPhones, iPods and iPads.

"Recalibration" might work for some - the whys

Here's our explanation for those who see a change:

First, for those who think that a "reset" of the home button closes open apps, thus freeing up the iPhone's memory and making it more responsive, it does not. If you double click the home button to reveal running apps, you will notice that the running ones are still there. Moreover, barring some (usually GPS) apps, iOS can handle multi-tasking pretty well as the Leancrew folks confirm.

Second, we are well aware that the charger can disrupt the home button, and slightly lifting the charger upwards with simultaneous thumb-pressure on the home button fixes most iPhones, iPads and iPods. We also know that to "calibrate", we have to press down the home button hard for a few seconds. So, the prolonged pressure on the home key is what's probably making it work as it could be undoing the disruption caused by the charger and engaging those terminals again.

Third, some folks who tried "recalibrating" reported that the home button went from bad to worse after it. Again, we attribute this to the prolonged pressure on the home button, which coincides with the charger theory again. So, we recommend that you overlook this "fix" and head over to what we like to call the "more solid fix".

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