Z3 compact back and home button not working after recent update

[Haystax]

My back and home button not working now after. 5. 1.1 update.

[deg85]

Cannot understand why this is listed as solved, when clearly this is not the case! I think it is shameful from Sony to ruin a perfectly good phone and even more shameful that we are still waiting for a software update to fix the problem. When contacted, Sony helpdesk could only recommend a software repair  using Xperia Companion, which obviously did not work. Only work around is to use glove mode, but it does not feel right! I think nobody in their right mind would ever buy a Sony phone after such an experience!!

[PeterKrakonos]

Hello all,

same issue here after Android 6.0.1 upgrade. lt's really a shame this is tagged as 'solved' here... l was able to tap into my z3 compact and according to Android logs the bottom of my phone screen where navigations buttons are is so called 'dead zone' whenever it is pressed/touched. l've already sent emails to various Sony support centers around the world even with a link to this forum and all l've received was the same useless reply: please repair your phone using Sony Companion...

lt's really hard to believe support centers are not aware of such a serious software bug by now

P.

PS: already thinking of switching to another brand...

[PeterKrakonos]

Hello CameronT, how can you tag this as solved when it's not at all? it is a software bug which popped up after an upgrade to android 6.0.1 and there is no patch as far sa l'm aware... 

P.

[Lustin]

Very Good! The solution for this is to give your phone to the sony service and pay 190 euro, right?

Sorry Dear Sony Staff, 
But you are as useless as this low-quality, very breakable, with a badly designed interface phone. I replace my Xperia Z3 as soon as possible when I have the budget.

1 - I cannot believe how you can be that ignorant, suggesting that this is a hardware fault! My touchscreen is working and I can literally see that this screen registers my touches. So it is very apperant, crystal clear, that it is a software fault. 

2 - You are incapable of making a basic Google Search to see if it is a common problem in Android OS or is it exclusive to Sony (a little clue: it is not exclusive to Sony).

3 - I hate your phone company, I do not really know what you are getting money for but if you are as ignorant as I imagine about the relationship between software and hardware, go get some forum consultancy job for a grocery store. (and you marked the solution as giving the phone to service, in this 10 pages forum post, really kill me!)

Anyway, below is the solution (most probably):

First of all, go to your developer options and you will most probably see this message: 

Developer options are not available for this user

If you do not know how to activate developer options here it is: 
http://www.phonetipsandtricks.com/tips/sony-xperia-z3/find-enable-developer-options-30/

To elobrate more: My home and switch apps button was not working. Plus, I also could not open the system shortcuts from the notification panel and my notifications also did not drop to the notification panel.

If you get the same message in Developer Options and experience the above symptoms, solution below should work for you too:

Here's the fix, being broken down dummy style:

1) Download Nova Launcher & set it as default to replace TouchWiz.
2) Long press on the home screen.
3) Choose Widgets.
4) At the top, under Nova Launcher, scroll to the right & press & hold on Activities and place it somewhere empty on the home screen.
5) Scroll down to Setup Wizard. I saw 2 Setup Wizard options.
6) Under the first Setup Wizard option, I opened it & scrolled down to the 3rd choice which said ".SetupWizardTestActivity". It might be in a different spot for you, but look at the small writing, that's how I saw this one.
7) Select that to create the widget shortcut.
😎 Open it. Apparently you're supposed to have a menu to go through and just click through "Next", but there wasn't one for me.
The screen just flashed and then next thing you know, everything works!

Thank you to the geniuses that found this solution!! 

(I got the solution from below link)

http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s7/659407-s7-edge-not-showing-notifications-tray-rec...

[tinong9]

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@Lustin wrote:

Very Good! The solution for this is to give your phone to the sony service and pay 190 euro, right?

-snip-

2 - You are incapable of making a basic Google Search to see if it is a common problem in Android OS or is it exclusive to Sony (a little clue: it is not exclusive to Sony).

-snip-

---

Does that mean we should all switch to iOS? LOL

[zorgger]

---

@Lustin wrote:

...
😎 Open it. Apparently you're supposed to have a menu to go through and just click through "Next", but there wasn't one for me.
The screen just flashed and then next thing you know, everything works!...

---

Unfortunately this is not working for me. The issue remains after completing the setup wizard.

[Jazzwhistle]

I have this problem too after a recent update to 6.0.1 on D5803. My camera stopped working too. I tried a factory reset, removing SDCard, Safe Mode, MacBridge firmware reset, the Nova 'hack'... nothing helps except holding the device so that my back/home/recent buttons are at the top of the screen, where they work fine. I first thought the bottom of my touch screen was broken, but since the unlock/camera icons are in the same place and work perfectly, this is not a hardware problem.

update: I can get home/back/recent to work for a short while with random combinations of running the nova setup described above and disactivating all screen overlay permissions. That said,  sometimes everything works after a reboot too, but only for a few minutes There is definately something weird going on with overlay permissions here.

[My_Name_Is_Bond]

Thanks Lustin, your tip worked like a charm.

Unbelievable that Sony ignores this major software bug.

It wasn't hardware (defective digitizer), but a software update bug.

This was my last sony software update and probably my last Sony phone.

Sony should have emailed ALL sony Z experia users that there was a software bug instead of letting people in the dark waiting for a fix or explanation.

My phone was still under warrant, and if it wasn't for my girlfriend who said it would that too much time to fix this (warrant) and all the hassle with lost data,... she would have used it further with the "back button" app.

With your "fix" it's proven it is/was a SOFTWARE BUG.

Shame on you Sony !

FYI found another solution and explanation of the bug:

When you go through the update process, it's mandatory to do a factory reset.

If not, there is a bug affecting the marshmallow update process so the phone think

you are always achieving  the setup wizard, and try to keep the softkeys off.

 

FIRST:

-> swipe the notification bar and press your user account icon.

-> press on the "Guest" icon to enable someone to use your phone (desktop change to it's default settings)

-> swipe the notification bar again, press user account icon and press your user icon (Host) to come back to your session.

-> Now, the softkeys are working (for me indeed)!

 

SECOND:  if you can use adb, do a :

adb shell am start -n com.google.android.setupwizard/.SetupWizardTestActivit

 Click through the wizard and the issue will disappear.

[Jazzwhistle]

Not for me... I tried that, switching to a brand new account and back again, running the setup wizard etc but no joy. The most frustrating thing is that sometimes the soft buttons start working normally, but never for long. "Back Button" will let me to keep using the phone until I can get a new one. Much as I love my Xperia, if it isn't fixed soon my next phone will not be Sony.

[tinong9]

Problem is, I couldn't even click on the top side of the screen.

LOL (my phone's problem is top side screen unresponsive while my home and back buttons work.)