Droid Home key not working, along with other things.

[rlj8302]

Recently, my Droid's Home key and Search key quit working.  My passcode lock on the main screen won't work, its like its been disabled, but thats not the case.  Also, when I power off the phone, I only get the option to turn it off, all the other options have disappeared.  Finally, the phone won't ring.  It will announce text messages, emails, and voicemails, but no calls come through.  I've called the phone numerous times from other phones, and it rings 2-3 times and goes to my voicemail.  Anyone have any ideas as to what the problem maybe?  

Also, when I take a picture with the phone and exit the camera and open up the gallery.....the pics aren't there that I just took.   This sometimes takes a few minutes, or a few times until the next day.  If I open the camera back up, and click on the last pic in the upper corner, I can see them fine, but they aren't in the gallery.  Why is this?  I've absolutely loved my Droid since I got it....but it sure seems to have become JUNK really quickly!!!!  HELP!!!

Randy

[bosslady85]

Check to see if your phone is in airplane mode.  Here are the steps.  Hope this helps!

Press and hold down the Power Key.
Touch Airplane Mode.

Verify that Airplane Mode is off.

 Are you saving your pics to your phone gallery or sd card? Does the phone lock when you press the power button?

[mjyawn]

They are junk on my 3rd on in 8 months and it is defective as well! Verizon cares nothing abot you just your money. I have filed a BBB complaint and hope to get some help that way!!!

If enough of us did that they would have to do the right thing!!!

[cadiyn]

Mine did the same thing, and no it is not in Airplane Mode ???????????????????????????

[turningmeaway]

Hi Randy,

I had this exact same problem. I called verizon about it and they shipped me a new phone. But since they decided they would ship it to me on a friday while im at work and I couldnt get it till Monday when I have a day off, I decided I would try something on my own.

What I did was backed up all my apps and contacts on my SD card and then placed all the files on my computer for safe keeping. (you know...just in case) The I decided I would do a factory restore on my phone (super easy)

first turn off the phone

The press and hold the X button on the qwerty keyboard and hold the power button at the same time

When you get the yellow triangle with the "!" let go of x and power and hold down the volume up button and the camera button. it should direct you to a menu where the 3rd options is to do the factory reset.

use the directional pad to select factory rest

choose the option that says yes

takes less than a minutes for it to go through the factory reset. once it is done you choose the first option on the menu where it says reboot. do that and then all you will have to do it re-set up your phone (entering email address, going through the activation, that kinda stuff). took maybe 5 minutes for me and it works for the most part. 2 days ago verizon made my name appear restricted and this reset hasnt been able to change that setting yet.

Home button should work, phone locks should work.....etc etc just like when you first got it. (if you recently installed 2.2 it should still be 2.2 after the reset)

Hope this helped

-April

[Brandon23]

OMG thank God im not the only one experiencing this problem. omg i almost threw my DX against the wall. Home button, search button and the power button do what they arent assigned to do. This all started yesterday after updating 2 apps; System Info Widget and i believe it was some 3d game. I actually flashed and rooted my Droid X to MetroPCS/Cricket with 4g... long story = p and i dont want to master reset the phone in order to resolve the problem. This is a pain, if anyone knows how to fix this incvonvenient issue then please let me know ASAP. I miss my Home and Search button.

Also my phone icon on my home screen sometimes lights up as if selected, this happens right after the phone boots up, dont know why but its been doing that as well.

[Ms_Shonta]

Try doing a hard reset.

1. From the home screen, touch the applications tab (located on the bottom of the screen).
   
   
2. Touch Settings.
   
   
3. Touch Privacy.
   
   
4. Touch Factory data reset.
   
   
5. Touch Reset phone.
   
   
6. Touch Erase Everything.
   

[ceejackson]

I have done all of the above. I could never get my main keys to work. I am on my third droid phone. This is frustrating. I have to reload all my apps everytime. I am beginning to look for a new phone. I really like the phone but this problems sucks.

[johnnyelevator]

This worked on getting my keys back.  However you should back up your contacts first.  I backed up my contacts to my Samsung Charge sd card.  Unfortunately I couldn't back up my apps so I wrote them down.  I wonder if there's a backup app to backup your apps? 

After resetting the phone the Verizon Backup program worked and restored my contacts.  Other have mentioned that they lost everything, therefore my suggestion to back it up to the sd card or to your gmail account.

[johnnyelevator]

This worked on getting my keys back.  However you should back up your contacts first.  I backed up my contacts to my Samsung Charge sd card.  Unfortunately I couldn't back up my apps so I wrote them down.  I wonder if there's a backup app to backup your apps? 

After resetting the phone the Verizon Backup program worked and restored my contacts.  Other have mentioned that they lost everything, therefore my suggestion to back it up to the sd card or to your gmail account.

[johnnyelevator]

Same 3 problems.  Airplane mode via power button gone.  Home and Search key gone. Will try hard reset next.  Update to follow.

[kevinivek]

I might have an explanation for this... I just got my DROID4... and upgrade from my DROID2. Everything on the phone seemed to work fine, but the home button did nothing (other than give a little rumble), and airplane mode/some other options were gone from the shutdown menu. The only thing that was unique to this scenario... was the fact that I put my old phone's memory card in this phone. SIM was new. I didn't have much to backup, since my contacts were all on google, so I decided to reset the phone... deleting all memory (internal and external). It took a while, but I had my phone shiny and new once again. Now... the home button DOES work... and the shutdown menu has all expected options.

The reason I think it was the old memory card is because I DO remember seeing airplane mode when I turned on the phone before putting the memory card in. I don't recall trying to use the home button, but I'm sure it worked then. I'm guessin that there's some info stored on the card from the old phone that is not totally compatible with the new one, and it ended up causing unforeseeable issues.

recommendation? take your card out, restore your phone, and then see if it works (without putting your card back in). If it does... backup the card's important data, and wipe it clean. Should be good to go, then!

I suppose it's nice to see an actual explanation as to why it's happening, and not a "just reinstall, and everything will be fine!"