Smartphone manufacturers continually innovate and introduce new features and elements in a smartphone and that is why a touchscreen swap the keypad and now, there are only three or maybe four buttons on a smartphone of which, the power button is multifunctional. It enables users to turn off the phone, restart it or disconnect a call, turn on the screen or turn it off again and other tasks that wouldn’t be possible without a power button. But what would you do if you are facing a power button not working problem? How to fix it and if there’s an alternative available to it or not.

Guide To Fix Gome Power Button Not Working Problem

Assuming that you are facing a power button not working problem, what should you do to get rid of it. The problem could be software-related or hardware-related where the latter is dominant when it comes to the broken power button.

Here are a few tips that will help you bypass the software error which is causing the issue on your smartphone.

Reboot the phone

Although it isn’t handy to know that rebooting the device can fix a software error, the fact is that you don’t have a working power button to work it out. Thus, you will have to choose alternatives such as using forced reboot or using ADB and fast boot tool for the purpose of resolving the software-related issue.

Clear cache files from your phone

Cache files are great for a smartphone as it quickens the retrieval time taken by an app to start but when corrupted, these cache files can cause real damage such as it can slow down the phone affecting its performance, screen flickering or freezing, and there are hell lot of other issues that you could observe if the cache files are corrupted or damaged. Thus, it is a healthy practice to get rid of cache files using the three methods discussed below.

First of all, clear storage cache by navigating to the Settings app on your phone and directing towards Storage, locate Cache Memory and you must find an option to delete it. Secondly, you can get rid of cache files app-by-app which isn’t much time consuming but enables the phone to work a lot faster. You can clear the app level cache by sliding into the Settings » Apps and here, navigate to the Downloaded section where all the apps that you have installed display. You can tap on the individual app and select ‘Clear Cache’ and ‘Clear Data’ to clear the same. Finally, the third method revolves around clearing the cache partition for which, you’ll have to redirect to the recovery mode and select ‘wipe cache partition’ to perform the same.

Restore factory

When you perform a restore factory, you actually erase all the memory of your phone and hopefully, all the errors that were discovered lately. Here’s how you can do it.

  • Firstly, turn off the phone.
  • Now, press and hold power button + volume up/down button based on device and the Android version that you are using.
  • This will boot the phone in recovery mode wherein the various options are available.
  • You need to tap on ‘wipe data/factory reset’ and ‘yes — delete all user data’ and that must do the job.

How to keep the screen alive?

It wouldn’t take a second to tap on the power button and light up the screen but since the power button isn’t working, we have to find a different way to keep the screen alive and thus, eliminating the need to use the power button.

Extend the ‘Keep-Alive’ duration

Navigate to the Settings » Display and select the maximum duration under ‘Keep Alive’ option enlisted here. The maximum duration for most of the smartphones is 30 minutes. Once you have the Keep Alive duration to its maximum duration, the screen will stay alive without any stimuli such as touch or tap. But you need to provide stimuli before the duration ends as the screen could turn off and it would require a power button to turn it on.

Set off alarms

If you are confirmed that the power button not working problem is hardware-related, you could either get it fixed or use workaround tips such as setting up alarms at definite alarms so that it could go off and then, light up the screen whenever you need. You can call or message yourself using your alternate phone or borrow from someone else to call yourself which will do the same job.

Keep the Ambient Lights ON

Not every smartphone have this feature but if your phone has this feature, you can enable it so that the phone’ screen never goes off. Although this would consume a fraction of battery life, it is a better option to choose since you wouldn’t be dependent on alarms and other stimuli to light up the screen.

How to light up the screen when the phone is turned ON but locked?

Although the above feature would work in such case also, here are few tips you can use to light up the screen if the phone is locked and the screen is off.

Plug in the phone to a power outlet

It’s simple, whenever you connect the phone to a power outlet, the phone will start charging and that is reflected on the screen as well. Simply plug and unplug the phone and you have woken up the screen and it is ready for use.

Plug in the phone to a power bank

This is a portable option compared to the previous tip since you can take the power bank anywhere and connect it to the phone whenever you wish to use the phone in case if you are facing power button not working problem.

Are there any apps that can be used to fix the power button not working problem?

Yes, there are a bunch of apps that would allow users to either use volume rockers as a power button or any other methods or sensors.

Power button to Volume button

The app functionality is simple to understand. If the power button is not working, you can use this app to shift its functionalities towards any of the volume rockers since one is enough to perform all volume-related functions. Once you have volume Up as power button using this app, you can use the Volume Up button to lock and unlock the phone as well as switch off/on it.

Gravity Screen

This is an advanced app with a lot of features that you can utilize. It has a pocket sensor, table sensor, etc that allows it to lock the phone when in such orientations while it unlocks the phone automatically when the user is holding the phone. This is one of the best apps that I have tried and surely can be an alternative to the broken power button.

Proximity Actions

This is another alternative that you can use to replace the broken power button. It works with the help of proximity sensors where you can set the different types and duration of waves to trigger it to turn on the phone, open a particular app, etc.

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Other apps that you can check out –

  • Button Mapper
  • Close It
  • Shake to Unlock – Screen ON
  • Smart Screen On/Off
  • Double Tap Screen