Chosen Solution

I have had this Samsung Galaxy Nexus for less than 3 months. Originally, it took about 20 presses to get the power button to respond, but now, nothing happens when I push it. The screen comes on when I connect the phone to power, and it shows the battery indicator, but nothing else happens. How can I fix this? This seems to be a common problem with the Samsung Nexus S, and now it’s happening with the Galaxy Nexus.

So, I had since gotten this fixed with help from a friend. Here’s a solution for when your power button does not work: Take the battery out of the phone. Plug it into your USB (without the battery). You will hear computer beeping. Put the battery back into your phone. I hope this works for you as well as it did for me. This had my device up and running right away. I have not had this issue since. (Crossing fingers.)

I tried all of the above, but nothing worked, so after a lot of trying i discovered something that ACTUALLY WORKED! I have a Samsung Galaxy Trend Plus phone. What I did:

  1. Connect phone with USB charger to your computer
  2. Take out battery
  3. Press the volume down and center menu button at the same time
  4. While pressing the two buttons put battery back in Your phone will give you a reset mode screen, press volume down, and your phone will automatically reboot itself and turn on:) PS! none of my information or data was lost.

to turn your phone on try the following action : plug in your usb connector into your phone for exactly 3 sec and take it off … you must try several times … if the battery icon appears take usb cable off and try again. It works for sure … but you have to be as accurate as possible : 3 sec … Isaya

pls put your charger without battery and hold the middle button now put the battery into phone your phone will move on to recovery mode where you just press reboot system now icon using middle button ur phone will start

My GSM Galaxy Nexus power button also stop working for a couple of days, no matter how many times I pressed it. Finally it works. Here’s my solution or non-solution: The first 2 days I keep pressing it out of frustration, taking battery in and out numerous of time. Then I gave up and decided to turn it in for repair. The third day, it started working but differently, each time I short press it, it always ask me restart, instead of just blanking out the screen. It keeps doing that for a day. Then half a day later, it works perfectly again. Short press blanks out or turn on the screen, long press for restart. So the solution is just be patient and praying for others, instead of for the phone.

Yoooo hitting the button really hard fixed it for me it seems. Not sure if I have the same exact phone but I have the exact problem and an LG phone so its possible. Hit it once and if not working twice. Press it a couple time and boom worked for me

i have the same problem a mobile with a broken power button and has turn off and its battery is non-removable so i what i did as follow: plug my phone with the USB cable to my pc and press the volume button up so it turns me to the boot screen i choose normal mood and then my phone has rebooted and turn on

If the screen shows the battery indicator when you plug it in, then either the battery is bad or your charger is bad and the phone is not charging properly. As staff at a GNex forum, this is only the second time I have heard this, and the following solved the other problem: I would make sure the charger is the one that came with the device (I have a few LG micro-USB chargers that fit, but do not charge the device) and wait about 5-6 hours to make sure it charges completely. If it still will not power up, try another battery. (the GNex uses a battery that includes the NFC antennae right on the battery so if you plan on using that, you will need that in the permanent one) If a new charger and battery do not solve the problem, it may be an issue with the wiring to the battery/charging circuit. A replacement may be required.

I have had my Nexus for 4 months and I could not start my phone. The start button did just not respon. I tried the: out with the battery, plug the phone to the computer and a so called “beep” did not happen, and it turned on by it self and did not turn off at all. This is my solution:

  1. Once it’s on- try to copy all your files to gmail or external hdd.
  2. Go to settings.
  3. System resore.
  4. Done. That is the instruction I’ve got from the service desk. It’s not the best solution, but it works :/

I have had the Nexus S for over 1.5 years and so far I have had a very good experience using it. However, last week my power button stopped working. I tried the solutions mentioned on this post as well as those available on other websites. However, none really worked. Finally, here is how I solved the problem using apps available on Google Play. a. I downloaded the switchoff app from Google Play which allows me to switch off the screen without pressing the power button, and I have placed this app on the home screen - so I no longer need the power button to turn off the screen. b. I downloaded another app from Google Play called MagicLocker which basically overrides the default lock screen. The good part about this app is that when your phone’s screen is off, you can use the volume buttons to turn the screen on and reach the MagicLocker lock screen. So now, you don’t really need the power button to turn the screen on. Hope this is of some help to you all.

  • Varun Khurana.

I tried the computer thing several times with neither beeping nor success. On my last try, I realized my computer wasn’t plugged in, and on a whim, I tried again with the computer charging. Other notes: don’t disconnect the phone from the cable before putting the batter back in. So you should follow this order:

  1. take out battery
  2. plug phone into laptop
  3. put battery back in
  4. Press on
  5. Only then did I unplug the phone. You might be able to unplug it after putting the battery in but that’s not what I did so I wouldn’t try to wander from the path. Hopefully these tips help Good luck! and when your contract expires… get an iPhone

Same thing has been happening to me since Jelly Bean update last year(beginning of 2012) and yesterday my power button just completely stopped working(really annoying!) I found an easy way to use the volume button to turn on the screen without the fix-it button app(I think that’s what it’s called)

  1. go to settings
  2. click on security and remove your screen lock(or else it doesn’t work)
  3. go back to settings
  4. click on display
  5. click on sleep
  6. decide which option on sleep you want(15sec.,30sec.,1min…..)
  7. when your screen becomes black(goes to “sleep”) press on the volume button and there you go I hope this helps:)

I have a new Samsung Galaxy Centura (StraightTalk / Tracfone, purchased at Walmart Dec2013). I discovered that it doesn’t want to power on when it is plugged into my laptop’s USB port for charging (not sure if it makes a difference, but battery charge was below 10% prior to charging). It only shows the battery charging display. I used to have an old iPhone prior to this Samsung, and with the iPhone I used to have to wait for approx 5 mins when charging a nearly depleted battery before the phone was usable again. (BTW, this was very annoying if the phone died in the middle of an important call due to a low battery.) At first I assumed that the Samsung was exhibiting a similar behavior. With the Galaxy I have discovered that the power on function (when charging) seems to work “when it wants to”. (…my success rate has been approx 1 out of 10.) MY SOLUTION (seems to work consistently for me thus far) is to simply unplug the phone’s charging cord, and then press the power on button. With this method the phone powers on 1st time every time. Once the phone is working I then plug it back in to resume charging. I’m hoping that this solution persists. (& I hope this simple solution suggestion helps someone else.) :-)

February 6, 2014 - I have a Samsung Nexus which I have been using since 2011. I’ve had trouble with my power button for over a year and was told too bad too sad. Get a different phone. I would have to hold the button in for a long time or pop the battery in and out. Even when the phone was powered on and the screen just wouldn’t come on when I pressed the button. This past week it got terrible and I was tempted to throw the phone until I google looking for a resolve. I found this site. I popped the battery out and plugged in the USB cable. I wasn’t sure if I was just supposed to plug it just into the phone or into my computer as well so I did both. I never heard the computer beeping noise but the resolve ACTUALLY WORKED! Surprisingly when I contact the company they never heard of this problem before. I suggested they start checking the internet for complaints with their phones. THANK YOU!

If the power button doesnt work please go to settings> on the phone then go to SECURITY > SCREEN LOCK > Click on it go to NONE. now your phone when ever it gets screened out press the volume button and your screen will come up. i did this and am still using the same option on Samsung Google Nexus S. i hope it works on your phone , God Bless! —- Rev. Chris.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4G for Verizon Wireless and none of the methods suggested elsewhere in this thread worked for me, but the general approach is viable. Here are the exact steps I take to reliably cause my phone to power on.

  1. Remove back cover to expose battery but do not remove battery.
  2. Plug phone into any power source.
  3. Watch screen: First, a battery icon with a lightning bolt in the center will appear. Then the screen will go briefly blank, and a battery icon that shows itself filling up will appear.
  4. Wait a few frames of the animation, until the icon is full or nearly full, and briefly remove the battery, then reinsert it. The total time out should only be 1 second or so.
  5. The battery icon should stay “stuck” at the frame of the animation which showed when the battery was physically removed. It may flicker a bit.
  6. After about 10-15 seconds, the phone should power on. I’m not really sure why this works in general, or why these particular steps are required for my phone, but if anyone is having trouble, please try it.

Power Button to Volume Button: If your Android’s power button is broken then this app is for you! With this really nifty app running on your Android, you can use the volume button instead of the power button to wake up your device! Please note that you may experience a power drain on the battery. This comes with the territory of keeping your device awake at all times in order to enable the volume button to perform the power button function. With recent updates to the Android operating system - this is the only way to do it. If this app is run without the screen off setting, then the long term behavior of this app becomes unpredictable, as it is subject to the operating system’s whims to reclaim memory. We recommend that you enable the ‘screen off in notification bar’ feature if you plan to use the app for long periods of time. https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai…

Phew! Had to sweat it out a lot, and by a lot I mean a LOT! Tried the permutations and combinations of the above-mentioned methods to finally switch on my device. Katzz’s method seemingly worked for most of the ‘victims’ but for me it somehow didn’t. Isaya’s solution worked for around 60% times. Rest of the times, it was just me doing trial-and-error. But thanks to both of you for providing the fix and helping the people out here in general. My solution: If Katzz’s or Isaya’s solution didn’t work for you and if you have some patience, do some P&C around their solutions. Monkeying around charging, USB, battery placement and continually torturing the Power button worked for me. Not sure how effective would that be for you :) Edit: I forgot to mention that I have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus i9250M.

SAMSUNG GALAXY ACE 2 GT 18160 Try this,

  1. remove batt then put batt
  2. press vol down and home , then plug USB ( this act like down + home + power) or do some combination if this wont work tried by me, now my phone rock on again

Thanks all so so much for the great solutions. Just want to share what I did after 3 hours non-stop trying and finally fixed my Samsung Nexus power button issue. Hope it could give some ideas to those who still have this problem.

  1. Connect phone with USB cable to the computer
  2. Take out battery
  3. Press the volume down and power button at the same time AND put battery back in
  4. keep USB cable plugged
  5. phone charging and battery status will flash on screen for multiple times; keep USB cable plugged
  6. keep pressing the Volume down button AND power button together for about 10 seconds, the phone finally powered on. Repeat steps 1) to 6) for several times if needed. It took me multiple times to finally power on my phone. Once my phone is powered on, I immediately download the app “Volume Unlock Power Button Fix” from Google Playstore to be able to turn on/off screen without power button. This app is the easiest one to use after I tried several other apps:
  • turn off screen by pulling the app from notification bar and click “Turn off screen”. You need run the app and place the app on notification bar which is easy.
  • turn on screen by using the volume buttons. So now, you don’t need the power button to turn the screen on/off. The other nice app to turn off screen easily is called “switchoff” which allows to switch off the screen by pressing the app (placed on home screen) without pressing the power button. But I could not figure out a way to turn on the screen with same app. Best of the luck!

Plug it into ure computer until it turns on!!!:)

if you could, get a sharp object such as a knife, and ever so carefully try to go around the edges of the button to get any gunk out then if you take of the beck you will see 2 screws at the top and 2 on the bottom they should be at the corners, unscrew and you should have access to the power button from the inside you will then notice that you can scrape anything off. Well, that fixed my phone im not so shure that it will work for yours. thanks, Jessica

Here is how you boot a Samsung phone (I have no clue if it works on other brands) with the buttons not working on a hardware level:

  1. Make sure your phone has enough charge to boot up 2)Remove back cover 3)Remove and re-insert battery as quickly as possible 4)Your phone should boot up automatically

There’s an solution. First charge the mobile fully. Then remove your battery from phone and connect your phone with a computer or laptop. (laptop is better) Keep pressing the home button and you will see the phone rebooting. Sometimes it have to be tried a number of times but don’t tire, keep trying and your phone is on!!!!!!!!!

Followed this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l402ljcm… Worked for my S3 mini when none of the above methods worked

This happened a long time ago with my Galaxy Note N7000 immediately after installing No-Root Firewall app, but it fixed itself in time, now it happened again and I was determined to find a solution other than just waiting around hoping for it to fix itself. Here’s what I did, which is a combination of the above methods (kind of) 1.) take battery out 2.) plug into mains and IMMEDIATELY keep pressing power button (can’t remember if battery was in while doing this or not) 3.) once booted up, pressing power button a few times brought up the hold-in menu, I chose power down phone 4.) once off, power phone back on again with power button I imagine some things happen to the phone when you power down properly, which is not the same as when it loses power and tries to revert to last-state. If this doesn’t work you could get some app from the store to bring up the menu which lets you chose power down properly then try booting it back up again with the real power button. Good Luck! :)

I had the same problem with Galaxy Xcover3. After a full charge, I turned off the phone correctly, using power button. After few seconds attempted to turn it on again, but Samsung’s logo + ‘Galaxy Xcover3’ disappeared after couple of seconds, followed by black screen. After that power button and phone became dead. Volume Up + Home + Power key combination also didn’t work. The only way to get some response from the phone was taking the battery out, putting it back and holding the power button. Each time the same reaction - Samsung’s logo appeared and disappeared in 2-3 seconds. When felt tired, disappointed I left the phone overnight with battery taken out. In the morning when put battery back, the power button worked flawlessly as before :)

i have samsung Galaxy A5, its power button broken and turn off. any solution? i don’t want to repair it. is there any way to turn it on?? please if any brother has any solution mail me m.adeelkayani2010@gmail.com

help me no power button + i am having a phone with non-de-attachable battery

Whenever I want to use my phone I press power button but after this it doesn’t show my lock screen instead of it my phone gives a flash n doesn’t work till I restart it.. any solution please???

My Samsung A20 cant wake up after being sleeped ….but it on properly but when sleep but can’t wake