Broken Mute Switch, Power/Lock Button or Home Button? Fix with AssistiveTouch

Back in July of 2011 we wrote about a new feature coming to iOS 5 called AssistiveTouch. This new feature gives you lots of control over the hardware of the iPhone using just the touch screen. It’s original purpose is to help those with physical handicaps. Now, unfortunately, this feature is being used by many to solve problems with their iPhone’s hardware fails. Personally, my iPhone 5’s Power/Lock button works only about 10% of the time and only if I press really hard on the left side of the button. My wife’s iPhone 4S’s mute switch no longer works. And many of my friends have had the home buttons of their iPhone 4 and 4S stop working. This includes ours also.

To solve these hardware problems, just go to your Settings app > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch and turn it on. You will then see a glowing home button that you can drag around your screen. Personally, I think it’s annoying to have it on all the time so, just under the AssistiveTouch setting there is a Triple-Click setting. Set this to AssistiveTouch and now tripple clicking your home button will enable or diable this feature. Obviously, if your home button doesn’t work then that feature is useless.

I hope this helps those of you who are out of warranty and have a broken device. Let us know if you have other tips for those with broken hardware.

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