Owners of the Samsung Galaxy mostly report satisfaction with the device’s versatility and many features. It continues to be a bestseller year after year, as new generations hit the market. Sometimes certain aspects of the phone run into problems, though, as is true of any electronic device. For instance, you might have found that the Home button on your Galaxy isn’t working like it is supposed to. If that’s true, then you’ll have to come up with a fix, and we’ve got some suggestions for you right here.
The Importance of the Samsung Galaxy Home Button
The latest generations of the Samsung Galaxy no longer have the physical Home button. Much like with Apple and the iPhone, the company came up with a way to avoid making that a part of the device. Most consumers seem to like the change once they get used to it.
The last generation of the Galaxy to feature the Home button was the S8. If you own one of those or one of the several generations that came before it, then you still have that feature, and it needs to be working for you. That’s because there are several things for which you need the Home button that are challenging or impossible if it’s giving you problems.
Getting Around the Home Button Not Working by Using a Play Store App
The first thing that we can suggest if your physical Home button is not working with your Galaxy generation S8 or older is to get around it by using an app. There are apps that can let you modify the phone in such a way that you can get the same functionality while the physical Home button is still compromised.
What you would do is go to the Play Store, which is featured on all Samsung phones. You’re looking for an app that can circumvent the Home button, so you’d type keywords into the search engine that indicate that’s what you need. You might type in something like “app for Home button not working.” You should be able to come up with plenty of options. What you’ll need to do is look at how well they are reviewed, and also which of them cost money. You probably have a budget for this issue that you don’t want to exceed.
There’s an app called easyHome that allows you to turn the physical Home button on your device into a capacitive touch button. If you have a Galaxy phone with a Home button that is also a fingerprint sensor, then it’s probably going to be ideal for you.
Pressing the Home button might not work, but the device can still detect your fingerprint. Once you have downloaded the app, you won’t have to press down on the Home button. Instead, you’ll only have to touch it, just as would be the case for the Recent or Back button.
How Would You Set Up the easyHome App for Your Samsung Galaxy?
If you want this app, here’s how you get it. Look for easyHome in the Google Play app and download it. Open the app, then hit Let’s Start and accept the terms. Hit Please Activate easyHome and give it access to your Galaxy. Go back to the app and tap Okay, Got It.
Now, you should be able to do essentially everything with the Galaxy that you could do if the Home button were functioning correctly. You have neatly bypassed the problem. Keep in mind that easyHome is just one example of some of these apps that are on the market. You might find another one that suits the situation better.
What if the App You Set Up Stops Working?
If you decided to install the easyHome app or a different one, and it suddenly stops working, then it might feel like you are back to square one. There’s no need to panic, though. It could just be that the phone has decided to “kill” the app while it’s running in the background. Often, the phone will unilaterally decide to do this to save battery life.
You can stop this from happening by going to the Battery Settings and toggling off App Optimization mode. That lets the phone know that you want that app to run at all times. If you use the phone often and you need Home button functionality or a substitute for it, then using the app only part-time probably isn’t going to be ideal for you.
What About Fixing the Samsung Galaxy Home Button Itself?
We’ve talked about using an app to get around the problem of having a nonfunctioning Home button on your older generation Galaxy. But what about if you want to try and fix the button itself?
If the button only seems to be stuck, then there are ways to potentially loosen it again. The first option would be to get a can of compressed air. You can buy some online, or in a hardware store like Home Depot. You can try to blast some of it into the circular area around the button. If there is some sort of sticky residue down there that is preventing the button’s full functionality, then the compressed air might loosen it up for you.
You can also try isopropyl alcohol. In that scenario, you would take a bottle of it (bought cheaply at a pharmacy or online), and you’d dab a drop of it on a cotton swab. Press the Home button in as far as it will go. Rub the alcohol all around the edges, and try to get some under the button if you can. Press the button down firmly a few times to try and get that alcohol down in the cracks. That might get rid of any grime that is causing the Home button to be stuck in place.
You Can Also Take Your Galaxy to the Samsung Store
Keep in mind, though, that if you use either the compressed air or the isopropyl alcohol methods, you may void the warranty. That’s why, if the Home button seems to be badly stuck, most Galaxy owners will elect to take it to a Samsung store before they try anything else. The employees there can look it over and possibly come up with a fix.
The time that the alcohol or the compressed air methods may seem more attractive to you is if your warranty is expired already. Since we are talking about Galaxy models with the physical Home button, we are already talking about older generations of the phone.
It might be that if your older generation of Galaxy with the Home button gets stuck, you might want to consider replacing it entirely. That is particularly the case if you can’t seem to get the Home button unstuck on your own, and the warranty has expired.
You will have to ask the employees at the Samsung store how much it will cost to get that Home button fixed. You might feel like it’s time to trade in that older phone and get a new one. You can possibly offset the cost of your new phone, at least in part, by trading in your current one. Most Samsung stores have buyback programs to encourage customer loyalty.
