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home button replacement assistive touch won't go away

i had to replace the home button on my iphone 7. got a 3rd party button on ebay that looks exactly like the kind sold here on ifixit. the home button function works great, Touch ID does not (as expected). i recently upgraded IOS from 15.1 to 15.7 that's when the weirdness started. after the upgrade the Assistive Touch (on-screen) Home Button was turned on. i'd turn it off, but it would just turn itself on again.

searching the internet, i found some suggestions about settings in the Accessibility section, but none of those made any difference.

i read in a few places that (and this is conjecture from multiple sources) this is a new "feature" in IOS 15.6 (and later), that when IOS detects there "is a problem" with the home button (meaning it doesn't see the one that was shipped from the factory) it very helpfully turns on the Assistive Touch on-screen button - whether you want it or not. and even if you turn it off, it IOS doesn't care and will turn it back on.

does anyone have any additional light to shed on this?

i get that Apple is just trying to make the user experience better - we're from the government, we're hear to help you... - but when we switch the setting off, it should stay off. "No" means "No" Apple!!!

thanks for any insight you might have.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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HERE IS A WORKAROUND.

(I'm from Denmark, so maybe tab names have different names)

1. Open Shortcuts.

2. Go to Automatics (not sure of the name in English, but it is the middle tab at the bottom)

3. Setup multiple scenarios, where if "something happens", then set Assistive Touch to OFF. Make sure to disable "Ask before running".

E.g.:

A. When connecting to WiFi or Bluetooth

B. At 8 AM, 9 AM, 10AM etc.

C. When ANY app opens or closes

D. When battery is over/under 50%

E. And much more....

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Had the same. this video sorted it for me - the removal of the accounts and authentication profile seems to have done the trick (touch wood)

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I also had my home button replaced and had the same problem where I kept turning AssitativeTouch off and it kept turning itself back on.

Go to accessibility then go to touch turn off AssitativeTouch then go back to Accessibility and scroll down to last section General and make sure Accessibility short cut is OFF

THEN Close down and restart and it should be resolved.

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Hi B C,

Apparently all aftermarket buttons for iPhone 7 & 8 models employ some kind of workaround, as the original Apple buttons changed from a mechanical contact to being a capacitive sensor as of the iPhone 7. I remember when replacements first came out they actually connected to the phone via bluetooth, of all things, but later models figured out how to connect the button without it.

There seem to be a couple of different kind of buttons; the one I see most commonly is called 'YF'; it has those letters printed on the button's ribbon cable shield. I'd suggest trying one of those; you can pick one up on eBay for like $4 USD with free shipping. Here's an example (I hate posting eBay listing since they eventually go away, but here you go anyway).

iPhone 7/7Plus/8/8Plus 3rd JC Home Button YF Universal Home Button Flex Cable

Here's the same thing on Amazon, only more expensive.

Amazon.com: Latest Home Button Replacement for iPhone 7 7Plus 8 8Plus,GVKVGIH Home Button Main Key Flex Cable Assembly Replacement with Repair Tools for iPhone 7 7P 8 8P (Version4.0 Black) : Cell Phones & Accessories

I haven't run into your problem with assistive touch being turned on, but I have used that particular button before. That doesn't prove anything since it was quite some time ago so the chances are it was on an older version of iOS though.

Hey, for four bucks I'd give it a try. Let us know what happens.

UPDATE: Ran across a question on the Apple support forum that's directly related; who know, maybe it'll help.

My iPhone 11 AssistiveTouch keeps turning… - Apple Community

Here's the gist of it:

My AssistiveTouch keeps turning on randomly without it being checked in settings.

go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. Is Back Tap On with Assistive Touch listed for either Double/Triple Tap? If so, that's probably what's turning it on. Set the Tap to something else, or None..

And another answer as well:

Go to Settings>Accessibility and go all the way to the bottom to Accessibility Shortcut. Make sure that you don't have anything selected.

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i've also tried YF and JC buttons, but to no avail.

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Well crap. Time to revert back to iOS 15.1?

Yeah, this is a new one on me. If I run across anything useful I'll get back to you.

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i've got no problem going back to 15.1 - if there was a way to actually do it. :(

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that did the trick. setting all the Custom Actions (Single-Tap, Double-Tap, Long-Press and 3D Touch - couldn't find "Back Tap" though) seems to render the on-screen button inert.

setting the idle opacity to 15% (the lowest) almost makes it go completely away.

that's about the best it's going to get.

only problem is, is wherever the button sits, it will block whatever shows up beneath it so finding a spot that will minimize incidental contact will be tricky.

but the PITA factor has gone from a 9 to a 2.

Thanks, although i will continue to be on the lookout for a permanent fix and will continually voice my thoughts to apple on what a horrible and wretched feature this is

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There is; you have to download the IPSW file you want to use first (unless you already have it on your computer), then when selecting the Restore option, you hold down the Option key (Shift for Windows) and it will let you select which OS version to restore. Full instructions here:

https://osxdaily.com/2022/09/20/how-to-d...

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Thank you all for the above workaround tips and all of which I did try, yet the annoying virtual Home button continues to pop up tirelessly on my device! Now waiting and hoping for getting a permanent fix that am very much doubtful of but never pessimistic about :)

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You have to turn off passcode, which means your device will not be locked with a password

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try this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg5MO0UQ... the removal of the authentication profile did it for me.

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Yes! two days clear of assistivetouch home button constantly reappearing. Under General, VPN & Device Management, remove the authentication profile. See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg5MO0UQ... second fix.

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Great,

I thought than put assistive touch off and restart iphone was waste of time, instead it seems my solution on iphone 8, thank you.

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no after 12 hours more or less , again same behaviour :-(

I follow every single step in this video and my home button is equal toredishman image.

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I figured out to add a shortcut on the home screen. When tapping the shortcut it will turn off Assistive Touch. However it quickly comes back on again :(

It's a YF home button.

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Hi BC,

Just replaced my wife's home button with a universal one. Phone is an SE 2020, but the home button was advertised for 7-8 series. Since 8 is identical with SE 2020 I bought one. I had the same issue with the assistive touch appearing randomly on screen although it was off in Accessibility. Being a naive person I've upgraded to iOS 16 but the issue was still there. After update, i've played around with the settings and managed to turn it off.
Go to ACCESSIBILITY/ TOUCH/ ASSITIVE TOUCH/ CUSTOMIZE TOP LEVEL MENU. At this screen just delete using the minus all the icons. If you only have the icon for TOUCH just add one more and then delete the TOUCH one. Whatever remains won't be an issue, just, obviously delete the annoying TOUCH icon. The one I left on is GESTURES. Hope this works for you. Pretty sure it's a combo between the button and iOS version issue.

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That trick seems to work only for a day or two, and then the Assistive Touch goes back on by itself. Furthermore, the "Customize menu" also switches back from whatever button you left on to (in my case) "home button". And then you can start all over again :(

I have figured out, that restart seems to work for about a day or so. So I have set "long touch" to the option "restart phone", making it easier to restart the phone once the the Assistive Touch suddently pops up.

Another workaround is to create a shortcut like this:

# wait 1 sec

# Set "Assistive Touch" Off

# Start <shortcut name>

This will turn off Assistive Touch every 1 sec indefinitely (at least in theory). In practice the shortcut stops running after a while, and you have to reactivate it. Adding the shortcut to the home screen makes it easy to initiate. You can also in the Assistive Touch options set that eg. tapping it once will run the shortcut.

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ok, so the touch assist keeps on coming back no matter what you do in settings. On the SE 2020 at least. So, meanwhile, my third home button which I ordered finally arrived. Touch assist did not appear so far so I guess it's fine. Bought it from a german seller, and box looks like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tlpfz3kr3rsfk1...
Also had "JCID" written on the flex cable. Went through 3 home button replacements and this one is the most sensitive to touch, like the original, and doesn't trigger the Touch Assist. I haven't test it on lower models like iPhone 7 or 8. The chips on the flex cable differ in size and arrangement from the other buttons I tried. Sorry that I didn't take a photo before assembly but can share the ebay link.

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Alguma atualização do caso?

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try this video if it reappears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg5MO0UQ... removal of authentication profile seems to have permanently removed it (touch wood)

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had this problem on 15.7.5, just updated to 15.7.7 and its gone

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Nope. Still there.

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remove the authentication profile (from general settings) seems to do the trick

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hi I have same problem with iphone 8 and ios 16.6. Has anyone found a solution?

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I done a network reset on my I phone 7 and it seems to have worked fingers crossed. I done it 2 days ago and so far so good. Go to settings then general and then down to reset then network reset and that has done the job. The only thing that I had to do was re enter my Wi-Fi code after the reset but all other data was unaffected.

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I spoke too soon as our little annoying friend made another appearance to say hello but it was a nice couple of days without it randomly appearing.

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Any solution guys I am still having the same issue in my iphone se 20 iso is 17.6.1

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have you tried the latest version of home button for iPhone 8/ iPhone SE 2020 from JC?

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Was there ever a workaround for this?

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I also had my home button replaced and had the same problem where I kept turning AssitativeTouch off and it kept turning itself back on.

Go to accessibility then go to touch turn off AssitativeTouch then go back to Accessibility and scroll down to last section General and make sure Accessibility short cut is OFF

THEN Close down and restart and it should be resolved.

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B C will be eternally grateful.
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