Chosen Solution
Ok, so I did a screen replacement on an iphone 5c. This was the second screen replacement on the same phone with in a 2 week time period. Both times phone was dropped. I replaced the screen and tested as much as I could without the pass code. When they got it home and had the pass code available they found everything functional but, the home button. I pulled it back apart and looked over everything and to my horror found one of the metal contact prongs for the home button had broken off. Is there anyway to fix this? Solder on a piece? Thanks!
The home button flex for the 5c is very cheap and you don’t have to worry about the touch ID sensor either, so go ahead and swap out the flex! Trying to solder on the piece would not be effective, based upon time and cost expenditure compared to a new flex. You could cause more damage, you could possibly spend hours trying to solder it back on properly only to have it fail a week later, or you could just purchase a new flex for under $5 and install it in under 20 minutes. I do not want to tell you how to proceed but if I were in your position, I would just replace the flex.
Looks like you got a solution, awesome! I do a lot of iPhone 5 no home, no power pry damage repair and we have to test the home button function on passcode locked devices, and devices that are not activated. Here are some tricks we’ve learned: If you have the device locked, aka sleeping, via the lock/unlock button—then pushing the home button should wake up the phone. If the device is on iOS 8, and post battery disconnect, so that it is really grumpy for that passcode, you can confirm home button function by doing a hard reset—the power and home button will force the phone to restart when held together for 10 seconds. Both buttons must work for this to happen. If it is just passcode locked, then flipping up to the camera and then hitting the home button will bring you back to the lock screen. If it is on the activation wizard after a restore, then click through a few pages. Pushing the home button will bring up a ‘cancel/start over/emergency call’ dialog.
