home button not working after back cover replacement.

The console of the mic & speaker is probably below the metal ring(case) around the phone, so the home buttoncontacts cannot touch the motherboard below.

Open your iPhone again, and make sure that the two lower screws (mic&speaker) are first through this console, and than through the metal ring(case). To repair this, you need to unscrew all three screws of the console.

Hope this works for you (worked here a few times already)!

Regards, Pim

Since this is poorly documented on the web I thought I would chim in. I'm having the same problem since disassembly. After reading the last post I noticed there are two gold pin contacts just to the left of the home button if looking at it from under the screen board. Those need to contact two silver contacts on the console/sound board at the bottom of the phone. On mine after I replaced the back cover I notice the chrome trim is not sitting flash with the backing anymore, so its probably to high to make contact. I think I'm going to have to add a bit of solder to the contacts on the sound/console board to make sure it makes contact.

Or actually I just figured out what the problem is. While taking it apart I noticed that Apple used a very tacky type of glue to bond the chrome trim to the backing. There was a bunch in the slots for the very small tabs at the bottom of the backing. I bet just super gluing the chrome to the backing will fix this. Gel or another kind of semi permanent glue is best in case you need to tear it apart again.

I had the same issue. I disassembled my 3GS to clean off the dust behind the glass screen, and when I put everything back together correctly the Home button wouldn't work.

It turned out to be a problem between the silver contacts on the screen side near the Home button not touching the gold contacts on the bottom portion of the phone. I'm not sure why it worked before and not after disassembly, but here is how I fixed it. On the screen side, the silver contact strips are on a small piece of plastic that can be lifted slightly. I then put the end of a toothpick underneath the silver contacts and very slightly bent the ends back so that the middle would stick out more. I also rolled up a very small piece of paper towel and put it behind the middle of the silver contacts to help support and provide additional pressure when the phone was pressed together.

Now works perfectly!

i have snapped one of the connectors on the mobile(battery side) dont blame myself when i opened the phone it was clearly a refurb v.dusy found a random screew and the home botton connectors were sticking ip when i touched then one snapped too easy where can i buy these gold connectors

Same issue after reassembly. I tried prying up the gold connectors (display side) twice, then I tried unscrewing the three screws holding down the plastic plate (battery side) a bit. The last act proved successful. It seems that these screws shouldn't be tightened too much after reassembly as this prevents the contacts from connecting.

hey wonderful adam i owe you a beer i messed with this phone for hours lifted it up like you said put small paper under boom i got home button man i would never thought of that im spending sll night trying to get the password off my new iphone cant do nothing no home button to put it into dfu recboot sucks take it easy