The iPhone 7 Home Button: What You Need to Know

What’s Changed?

Apple has made a few changes to the home button design in the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Since this has some bearing on our customers’ repairs, we feel it’s important that you know about this. (Skip here if you don’t need all the details).

The changes appear intended to make repair of iPhones by independent third-party companies (such as ourselves) more difficult.

• Apple has changed the direction the home button is fitted. It comes in and out of the front of the screen, instead of the back (as is the case with older models). This change makes the home button more likely to rip off when carrying out a repair.
• The ribbon cable is now stuck to the back of the screen, so more care needs to be taken when removing it, otherwise- again- it is likely to get ripped.
• Glue/underfill has been removed from the IC (chip) on the home button flex. As a result, if you bend the cable too much the IC lifts away from the flex, stopping the button working (even though there are no physical tears in the cable.)
• If the iPhone detects that the home button has been damaged or unofficially replaced (even with a genuine iPhone 7 home button), you cannot use it at all and assistive touch is automatically enabled. With older models, the only effect had been that Touch ID stopped working- you could still use the button for all other purposes.

A Move to Shut Out Independent Stores?

We (along with many others in the independent repair business) believe these changes have been put in place to make it harder to use a third party for repairs- particularly the last one. The loss of Touch ID on older iPhones was perfectly justifiable from a security point of view. However, the complete loss of any button functionality- even for its other non-security-related applications- has no clear justification.

If one wanted to put a positive slant on this, it might be argued that the increased hassle that independent technicians now have to go through will force them to improve their skills. Safe to say we don’t think that was Apple’s reason for doing so, though!

Significantly, none of this will affect Apple themselves. They can get away with employing less experienced techicians because they simply replace the entire screen and home button assembly using a proprietary machine called “Horizon”. (Given what they charge, they can afford to!) Horizon also lets them replace the old button with a new one, but- as we discussed here– Apple have intentionally restricted its use to themselves and a small number of corporate partners only.

How This Affects Your Repair Options

Unfortunately, Apple’s tactics here mean that even the most competent technician- and ours are very good- is going to have an issue with a damaged and irrepairable home button at some point… and no easy way to fix it because Apple doesn’t provide access to the required Horizon machine.

Apple can (in theory) get around this with no problem, but their out-of-warranty repairs are generally far more expensive than shops such as ours. Worse, they might not repair it even if you want them to. Phones with any sign of anything more than simple damage are generally classed “unrepairable”, and your only option from them will be an out-of-warranty exchange for a refurb phone (at a significant percentage of the cost of a new one.)

This practice is viewed with extreme scepticism by some, with it being suspected that many of the “unrepairable” exchange phones are refurbished (or used as parts) at low cost, then used as out-of-warranty exchanges for other customers.

However, we should be clear that although we wrote this article because we believe it’s important to be clear and upfront with our customers about any potential issues, the vast majority of iPhone 7 repairs we carry out are problem-free and successful.

New Equipment for Our Workshop

Due to the increased need to keep the home button intact in these newer models, we recently purchased a new tool for working on it. This isn’t a magic cure for all the issues surrounding the new home button; skill is still required on the part of the technician. Above, you can see the equipment in action, along with some other photos we took through the microscope while working on iPhone 7s.