My puppy broke my iPhone SE home button!
The Steps I Tried when my puppy chewed my iPhone
- Take the phone away from the puppy.
- Scold the puppy for chewing cords and phones.
- Remove the phone from its case and examine for cracks.
(It looked fine other than a small scrape on the home button.) - Push all buttons one at a time to see what works and what doesn’t.
(only thing broken was the home button) - Check the flashlight, calculator, and camera to make sure they still work.
(they did) - Have my daughter call me to make sure the actual phone parts still work.
(it did) - Checked the internet to make sure I was correct in remembering that you can do a soft reset without using the home button.
(you can – you just need the power button and touch screen) - Did the soft reset by pressing the power button until the power slider appeared. Sliding the phone off. Waiting 30 seconds. Then pressed the power button again until I saw the apple icon.
The Results (iPhone SE Home Button Still Broken)
The Home Button May Need Service In the meantime, you can use the onscreen Home button below. OK
Next Steps
Times like this, I am glad we pay the extra fee for accident protection on our devices. I prepared my phone in case it has to be replaced by:
- Opening the Dropbox app to sync my photos. (Highly recommended – Dropbox is an easy way to backup photos and videos to my computer so they are not lost forever when I delete them from my phone.)
- Deleted some of the less important photos because I know I have been hovering around my iCloud backup size limit.
- Made sure nightly backups are enabled for all important data AND that my phone was plugged in before I go to sleep.
Tomorrow I will make sure the backup went through then contact our protection plan to let them know my phone is in need of repair.
End Result (the next day)
Early this morning I went to Asurion.com to file my claim. Unfortunately, the website didn’t recognize me. So I logged in to Verison and found the correct link, PhoneClaim.com . I filled out the form and let them know that my phone’s home button was broken. They charged me $129 to send a tech out to replace my phone and make sure everything transferred over.
I have to say, I am impressed every time I have to file a claim with Asurion. The only time they didn’t fix my problem in a timely manner was when a very outdated camera broke and they were unable to get the parts required to fix it. (They ended up sending me a newer model of the same camera.)
OtterBox is also sending me a new case. I had to pay about $10 shipping, but for how often I drop my phone it is money well spent.
Final Thoughts
This article was written to let people know that they are not alone when their puppy does a destruct. And to celebrate Apple’s ability to detect when the iPhone home button is broken and offer an alternative.
Now that things are sorted out. I have a new phone with a cute butterfly case from WalMart and a more durable Otter Box on the way, I would also like to show some appreciation for companies that stand behind their products and are willing to fix or replace when something goes wrong.
Assurion is my #1 choice for warranties on my electronics.
And OtterBox is my #1 choice for a durable phone case!
