Broken iPod Touch Home Button Work Around Using SBSettings Close Button Widget
Posted by alex in Insights at 9:08 PMOnce you jailbreak your iPhone or iPod Touch there are tons of benefits available to you in the form of innovative applications that are not locked down by Apple. One of my iPod Touch’s is pretty beat up and no longer under warranty so I use it to test all sorts of things including being the first device I ever installed Cydia and Icy on. Anyhow the Touch device actually has a semi busted LCD screen, a broken power button, and a broken home button. On a iPhone running default firmware you would be pretty much out of luck if the home button or power button was not working but once the device is jailbroken then you can get around all of these issues easily.
One very popular application to install on an iPhone or Touch after they have had Cydia installed is SBSettings. The SBSettings application allows you to move control into springboard and is launched by swiping the top of the iDevice screen instead of clicking on an application icon from the home screen. The major benefit here is it allows you to launch the SBSettings application while other applications are still open and thus if your home button is broken you can still launch SBSettings while other applications are open. Below is a screenshot of SBSettings after being launched by swiping from right to left at the top of the iPod Touch screen.
iPod Touch SBSettings Springboard Example:
As you can see SBSettings launches in a springboard over the top of an already running application. If you are not familiar with SBSettings it can be installed via Cydia on a jailbroken iDevice. Once SBSettings is installed there are a bunch of add-ons available including one called the Clsoe Button Widget which helps out with a broken home button. The Close Button Widget will allow you to launch SBSettings and then click the “Close App” icon (displayed on the second line of icons in the above image) to close out the currently running application on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
A lot of people are running Icy now because the interface is a little cleaner than Cydia though they both do basically the same things. If you have Icy installed then SBSettings can be installed by launching Icy, clicking on Categories in the bottom navigation, clicking on the System category, scrolling down to SBSettings, clicking SBSettings, clicking the Install button in the top right corner, and then clicking the confirm buttono also in the top right corner. Once SBSettings is installed and you have rebooted the iDevice then you can install the Close Button Widget by launching Icy again, clicking on Categories in the bottom navigation menu, clicking on SBSettings Addons, clicking the Close Button Widget (currently version 1.1), clicking the Install button in the top right corner, and then clicking the Confirm button also in the top right corner. Below are numerous images showing Icy, Icy Categories, SBSettings install, and Close Button Widget install.
iPod Touch Icy Category Listing and Package Install Screenshots:
When you are viewing the screenshots above keep in mind that SBSettings is highly customizable so yours will probably not look exactly the same. The above look is a combination of two different themes including Chromium iPhone (managed via WinterBoard) and statusbar additions (managed via SBSettings). By default though the categories listed in the ICY Categories section should be very similar. Also both SBSettings and Close Button Widget show a Reinstall button in the top right corner instead of the Install button because I already have them installed. If you click on either and the Reinstall button shows in Icy that means that the application is already installed.
SBSettings can also be used to get by with an unstable power button. The issue with the power button is the fact that you need a way to turn the iPod Touch or iPhone on without having to plug it into your computer every time. So while you can live without a power button at all it is nice if it at least functions sometimes so you can turn the device on when you are away from your USB cable or a computer. Below is screenshot of the power options available by default within SBSettings which include Reboot, Power Off, Lock, and Safe Mode after clicking the smaller Power icon in the bottom right of the SBSettings springboard.
iPod Touch SBSettings Power Functions:
So as you can see it is very possible to control an iPod Touch or an iPhone even without the default buttons. Remember if you lock or power off the device without a functional power button you will have to plug it into your computer to power it on again. So if your iPod Touch buttons start falling apart like mine did (specifically the power button as the home button was my fault…) don’t worry about it as the device is still very valuable and useful!
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hi, i have a 1g itouch and i have a broken home button. is there anyway to get sb setings to work on the lockscreen? also, when i play my music on lockscreen, i want to dbl tap the home button but it is now broken. is there any utilities or tweaks i can download? also when i open an app for example, i cant close out of it without rebooting the itouch. is there a way to keep the top bar thing always there so i can close out of it because i followed the instructions and i downloaded the close button widget and that solved one of many problems
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alex Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 9:52 PM
Hello kevin,
The close button widget is the solution for closing apps without having to reboot. You slide your finger from right to left across the top of the screen and it should open depending on how you have it configured.
I am not aware of a way to get the wiget to work from the lock screen but not sure why it would be required or wanted to work that way since you would simply slide from left to right the unlock slider. It is best when the touch is in your pocket that there are not many things functional and so the unlock slider is the only thing that could technically get activated on accident.
As for double clicking the home button… I also don’t think there is much you can do there either. I would love to hear if you find a solution to this though. With both buttons broken the best solution I have located is in the article above. I haven’t had much time lately to play around with this though so there may be other solutions that are available now since the article was written in early October.
Thanks.
alex
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there is a way! when you open sb settings, click on the more icon looking like a cog, go to etras and options then enable launch in lockscreen.thus you can use the close widget thing on the lockscreen.
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alex Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 7:39 AM
Hello jordan,
Awesome! Thanks for providing this information. It will definitely make life easier on a iPod Touch or iPhone with a broken home button!
Thanks.
alex
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KJ Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 9:18 PM
I couldnt Find the enable launch in lockscreen in sbsettings options i could only find Allow launch in call
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alex Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 9:49 PM
Hello KJ,
It is possible that sbsettings has been modified since the article was first written. Did the Allow Launch in “call” allow you to do the same thing? Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback.
Thanks.
alex
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KJ Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 9:59 PM
Hey Alex
No i didnt
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KJ Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 10:01 PM
Alex i was searching this iHome app and i think it would be better than the close button widget but i cant find it in cydia either
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alex Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 10:33 PM
Hello KJ,
Weird… The sbsettings application worked fine for me at the time. I can’t imagine that they removed functionality but I could be wrong. I believe you have to go into sbsettings configuration and turn specific items on or off. Its been so long since I played around with the sbsettings applications I may be remembering incorrectly.
Let me know what you find out.
Thanks.
alex
KJ Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 11:30 PM
Alex
I cant find any thing on sbsettingsbut thats alright. Do you know how i can get iHome cause when i search it in cydia it dosent come up, (sbsettings isnt there either i installed sbsettings from rock)is there another way to get iHome or is there a way to get it in cydia?
Thanks
alex Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 11:32 PM
Hello KJ,
I apologize but I don’t have any idea at the moment. I haven’t really played around with cydia for months and don’t have a device handy that has it installed. I would be curious to know how you end up resolving your problem though.
Thanks.
alex
KJ Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 5:42 AM
Hey Alex
You know how there are different sources that you get different packages from in cydia, well i searched around to find out what source iHome is from and found it came from ispazio and so i searched it in cydia it said that it was all ready installed, so i uninstalled it then reinstalled it. After that i then searched iHome and it was there so i installed that but it didnt work. I then did some more research and found it has been changed to mQuickDo, i searched it installed it i was so happy, it worked and you can launch it in the lock and take screenshots. When you install it, it gives you a 3 day trial i got it yesterday so it went down to 2 days, this normaly dosent work but i put the date and time on my iPod back 1 day and it went back up to 3 days left. I think i will buy it, its only $7 Australian and it will stuff up my calander if i keep putting the day back
KJ Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 5:44 AM
Thanks heaps Alex
alex Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 10:12 PM
Hello KJ,
Awesome! Thanks so much for the follow up. Hopefully others will read the comments and see that there are other options such as mQuickDo. We definitely appreciate you taking the time to reply and I am sure others will find this information helpful.
Glad to hear you got it all sorted.
Thanks.
alex
Hello..
Is there a way to take a Screen Shot without the home button?
Thank You (:
[Reply]
alex Reply:
August 4th, 2010 at 3:06 PM
Hello Mk’Crazii,
If your iPod or iPhone is jailbroken then yes you can launch the Screen Capture utility from the CLI after SSH’ing to your device. To take a screenshot with a broken home button follow the instructions in this article titled Launch iPhone Screen Capture Utility From The Command Line.
Hope that helps.
Thanks.
alex
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KJ Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 6:14 AM
Yes you can if your ipod/iphone is jailbroken and has Cydia you can install mQuickDo and you can set different slides to take a screenshot. You will understade if you get it
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Hey i am would also like to be able to do this from the lock screen (access the home button). Because when you are in games, there is no way get home, and if you lock it, then click the close app button, it will close the game
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alex Reply:
August 14th, 2010 at 6:51 PM
Hello Geoffrey,
I don’t know the specific solution you require. It has been quite awhile since I wrote the article so hopefully someone else will respond with a good solution. If not it would be appreciated if you post the solution in a follow up comment once you know how to do it.
Thanks.
alex
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Geoffrey Reply:
August 14th, 2010 at 11:03 PM
Yeah i hope so too! i will let you know if i find a fix!
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alex Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 10:10 PM
Hello Geoffrey,
Thanks for the follow up. Look forward to hearing what does eventually solve your issue.
Thanks.
alex
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KJ Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 6:17 AM
Hey Geoffery
Go up a few posts and look for one of mine wich will tell you how to do it cause i had the same problem and know its fixed i can acses the music controles in an app and in the lock screen
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KJ Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 6:57 AM
If you dont wont to do this there is a way to get out of them.
Hold Down the lock buton till the the slide to shut down thing comes down you can then slide the status bar and close the app you probubly wont see any apps on your screen if so lock your device then unlock it simple
[Reply]
alex Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 10:13 PM
Hello KJ,
Thanks again for replying to others as well. This should definitely help people along the way.
Thanks.
alex
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I couldnt find the option to enable in lock screen. Are you refering to purchasing mquickdo?
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Geoffrey Reply:
August 16th, 2010 at 10:11 AM
i see what you mean by sliding it into the shut off mode then click the close app, and that seems to work!
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alex Reply:
August 16th, 2010 at 11:28 PM
Hello Geoffrey,
Great news. Thanks for taking the time to post a follow up!
Thanks.
alex
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Geoffrey Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 10:39 AM
No problem! Thanks for the help everyone!
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alex Reply:
August 18th, 2010 at 10:28 AM
Hello Geoffrey,
No problem at all. Thanks again for the follow up.
Thanks.
alex
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my home button broke today, but i want to use my iPod instead, i found iHome but it didnt work..
now i found SBsettings but i cant find a button to get back to the home screen -.-
please helb
ben
[Reply]
alex Reply:
August 18th, 2010 at 10:29 AM
Hello B3n3,
It has been awhile since I have used SBsettings so I am not sure about your question above. I might suggest reading through the comments and trying mquickdo. It appears other users have had a lot of success with this application.
Thanks.
alex
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B3n3 Reply:
August 18th, 2010 at 11:29 AM
thank you for your reply, but i already found what I was searching for.
I had to download the add on ‘Close Button Widget’ from cydia, and now I can use my iPod Touch without te Home Button, just have to start SBsettings by slide over the statusbar and than click on close app.
You can even use it in apps without statusbar just hold the hold button till you could turn your phone off and swipe than over the statusbar, click close app, turn display on and off and you are back on home screen.
However its just a solution till I get my new iPod Touch when the 4. Generation come out soon.
Sry for my bad english
Ben
[Reply]
alex Reply:
August 18th, 2010 at 11:49 AM
Hello B3n3,
No problem on he English… its actually not bad at all! Thanks for responding with the information above as this will definitely help someone else in the future. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Thanks.
alex
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this was sooooo helpful
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alex Reply:
January 28th, 2011 at 9:52 AM
Hello Andy,
Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback.
Thanks.
alex
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hey guys
if your home button is broken, the best thing to do is to install cydia (-> jailbreak) and than to install SBSettings!!!! The best solution!
greets.
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alex Reply:
February 5th, 2011 at 8:44 AM
Hello chuet,
Thanks for following up on what is described in the article. Thanks for taking the time to post feedback.
Thanks.
alex
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I have dowloaded the home button app. after that it asked me to reset springboard of something like this and ever since the phone has been on the reloading screen (i.e black screen with the little white round reloader that goes round and round in circle). How long does it usually take to reload??
thanks!!
[Reply]
alex Reply:
August 26th, 2011 at 6:27 PM
Hello Alex,
It can take quite awhile. Be patient…
Thanks.
alex
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