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.

[PiStein]

I had this issue 2 years ago. Fortunately still under warranty - they replaced the touch screen - at least they told so. They also re-flashed the operating system, of course. And now EXACTLY THE SAME issue is back again: first difficult to slide from top to open notifications, later the soft buttons stopped working while on the locked screen the spots work perfectly. I am ABSOLUTELY SURE this is on purpose INTENDED BEHAVIOUR of the SOFTWARE to force us to buy a new phone. Big shame on the producer company! I will never buy anything from Sony any more, ever!

[HHHW]

Same here. Strange to see no reply at all from Sony!

[jd310147]

Multi-Action Home Button is a Great workaround! It works for me, need just a little practice to geht used! Thanks, and shame in Sony for not pointing to this fix to enjoy the device for some More time to select a New smartphone. Of course, you can't geht around that!

[Karst]

Hello everyone!

My "Back", "Home" and "Recent Applications" stopped working on my Xperia Z3 Compact exactly three years after I bought it. As it happened to other users with the same exact delay of three years, it seems to be planned obsolescence. I installed the Multi-Action Home Button, and for less than GBP2 and some fine-tuning in the app, the action of the "Back", "Home" and "Recent Applications" buttons could be almost perfectly replicated (one just needs to press just above the buttons). An excellent turnaround, highly recommended!

Cheers!

[Sausages123]

How did you do this please? I don't know how I would do this without my home button. Thanks 

[Kengeorge99]

Did you resolve the issue  I have the exact problem 

[rgledhill]

Hi everyone,

My wife's Xperia Z3 Compact has recently stopped responding to the Back button.  However the microphone button on the lock screen works fine

The reason seems to be that the touchscreen detection is failing towards the edges of the screen.  To see if yours is doing the same:

1) Go to Settings -> About phone

2) Go to Support

3) Go to Touchscreen

4) You will see a fuzzy picture of a dog.  "Clean" the picture as though you were wiping condensation off a pane of glass.  The dog will become clearer wherever the touchscreen detects your fingers.  Try running it all over the screen, right to the edges.  Anywhere that the screen isn't "cleaned" means that the touchscreen can't detect your fingers any more.

I've attached a screenshot of what hers looks like.  As you can see, the lower left corner is no longer working correctly (lighter colour); the icons on the home screen are bigger and so work fine, but the Back button is quite small and low down and doesn't work.  Judging by the size and shape of the failed area, I would say that the Home button will soon fail too.

This is a hardware problem so there is no fix apart from screen replacement.

You can work around it by installing something like "Back button (No root)" from the Play store, which gives you some equivalent buttons at the side of the screen.

Hope this helps,

Richard

[totopolis]

Did this test and had pretty same picture. Thank you rgledhill, really helpfull tip. 

There is no service companies for this issue, i guess?

[rgledhill]

I think any company that offers to replace cracked or damaged screens should be able to replace the screen and touchscreen overlay.  We've ended up selling ours and buying second hand XZ1 Compact phones instead, as they're an identical size.