How To Fix Back Button Not Working on iPhone and Android.why does my back button not work.why is my back button not working on my iphone.
The return button is an integral part of any smartphone. Whether it’s the dedicated Back button in Android or the context-sensitive Back button in iOS, when they stop working, you can be trapped with no way to get back to where you came from.
Fixing the Back Button in Android
Android phones originally had hardware buttons on the front, including a dedicated back button. Modern Android phones tend to be entirely onscreen, so these buttons usually exist as virtual software located at the bottom edge of the screen. In some full-screen applications, such as games or streaming video, the virtual buttons may disappear, but they can be displayed by swiping your finger across the screen.
In general, this is a better solution than the old physical buttons. Unfortunately, this means that sometimes a software glitch leaves you without these important controls. If this happens, there are several tricks you can try.
Restart your device
Even Android phones with a hardware back button didn’t always survive the most serious software bugs. The good news is that most software bugs are fixed by restarting your phone, so start there.
Check for system updates
If restarting your phone doesn’t work, check to see if there are pending updates. If an error is causing problems with the Back button, an update might fix it.
Clearing the system cache partition
The system cache section is the part of Android storage where the system stores update files and other service cache data. Most modern Android phones don’t even have this section, and it usually isn’t the culprit for these kinds of problems. However, in some cases, corruption of the cache partition can cause strange system behavior.
Clearing the cache partition is straightforward and won’t hurt anything, so if you have no other options, it’s worth giving it a try. It is not possible to give exact instructions because there are different steps on every Android phone depending on the brand and version of Android. You will need to know how each step works on your phone, but the general steps are as follows:
Turn off your phone. Boot into recovery mode. Look for the “clear cache” option or something similar.
Be very careful not to accidentally reset your phone to factory settings! For more details, see the instructions on how to download and use recovery mode on Android.
Use a third party app with a back button
It’s not so much a fix as it is a patch, but if it seems like your back button isn’t working again, you might want to consider using a third-party app to simulate the back button. If you have a phone with a physical back button that has stopped working, this is a great way to keep using the device until you get it repaired or replaced.
Some of these simple apps are in the Play Store, but some are worth mentioning by name.
The back button (no root) seems to be the most popular, and as the name suggests, you don’t need to root your phone for the app to work. Even if you have a working back button, the versatility this app offers can be helpful.
The Back Anywhere button is another popular option. It creates a floating back button that you can move wherever you like. The app also offers several options for customizing the appearance and offers custom gesture settings for the button. Unfortunately this app is ad supported, so try the back button first (no root).
Reset phone settings
We know we just said that you have to be careful not to factory reset your Android phone. However, if all else fails, this may be your only way out.
As with recovery mode, each brand and version of Android phone has its own method of accessing the factory restore option. You don’t need to do this from recovery mode if your phone won’t boot. You can do this in the settings, but the exact location is different.
On modern Android phones, you can simply search for “factory reset” using the global search feature. On our Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, we found an option under Settings> General controls> Reset, but your results are likely to be different.
Check out how to hard reset a frozen iPhone or Android device for more help.
Fixing the Back Button in iOS Apps
iOS takes a different approach to Android, lacking a global back button. However, iOS apps display a small shortcut in the upper left corner of the screen indicating the last app or feature you used. This allows you to go back to the previous application that you were using.
There is another type of back button in iOS, but it is implemented on a per-app basis. For example, the return messages button is used to return within the application itself. It’s located right below the global back button, which is used to navigate to the previous location in another app you just used.
Back button error for messages
There seems to be a bug in the Apple Messages app that sometimes causes the back button in the app to disappear. It’s not entirely clear why this error occurs, but there are only three reliable solutions:
Close the application and restart it. Restart your phone or tablet. Check for iOS updates.
Another great tip: you don’t need the Back button in Messages to return; you can swipe from left to right in the middle of the screen, starting at the edge of the screen. This function does the same job as the return message button and is a more convenient (if poorly advertised) function of the application.
Check your accessibility settings
IOS has accessibility features to help users with various difficulties use their phone, but some of these features can hide the back button!
You will find these options under Settings> Accessibility. The first thing of interest is “Scale” and the second is “Text display and size”.
Zooming enlarges items on the screen to make them easier to see, but if you zoom in, the back button will be off-screen. You can check if zoom is turned on in Settings> Accessibility> Zoom, but if you accidentally activate it, just double-tap it with three fingers to turn it off again.
Another option where the back button might disappear is the size of the text. Choose Settings> Accessibility> Text Display And Size, and then make sure both Large Text and Bolt Text are turned off.
I’ll Be Back
Hopefully these tips have influenced your return ticket and you are now “back†to using your phone as usual.
why is my back button not working on my iphone
why is my back button not working on my iphone
How To Fix Back Button Not Working on iPhone and Android
why does my back button not work
why does my back button not work
How To Fix Back Button Not Working on iPhone and Android
Back button not working on android – how to Fix