Sony z3 compact xperia back and home button not working

[User105]

I am using z3 for almost a year and dint have any issues. Since last two updates i am facing two problems.

1. The drop down notification menu does not displays properly when slided over from top to bottom

2. Back and home button works once in a blue moon. Previously they were working great. Now i will have to try for more than 25 times to make that happen or restart the device.

Please let me know if this is a software issue caused by the latest software release or is there a way to bring back the old version of software. Eventually i need a working software and not this piece of ugly software quality.

Please respond when this issue will be resolved.

[M_Hazwan]

well my Sony z3 compact xperia back and home button also recends apps not working after i have turn on my phone then i have unlock my phone and the back button and home and recent apps button not working anymore pls fix this i dont want this thing happened to my phone forever😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Pls out a update that can fix the back button and home button also recent apps button to work normally 😢

[maks_holinei]

I did software repair, but it did not fix the issue. 
I did factory reset twice - no result.
The touch screen in that area works, but the buttons do not. I can only press them if the "glove mode" is switched on.
The most frustrating part is that it happened overnight - no updates, no falls or whatsoever. It woke up like this

[Achorwat]

I have this same issues. Not working top bar and back and home bottons. I think this ale soft problems not hardware. Because when Phone is blocked everything works well and when I play games every area on my touch screen works also very good. What is going wrong??

[maks_holinei]

I did some investigation
if you enter developer's mode (go to settings>about phone>press build number 10 times). then go to developer options. in the Input section you enable Show touches and Pointer location

now try to press any of the three buttonsand you will see that the pointer cannot reach them, meaning sensor is not responsive there. Pointer location - Y axis - will show where the screen stops to respond. On my phone the last responsive pixel row is 1199. Given the resolution is 1280 - bottom 81 pixel rows of my phone are not touchable. 
I though that I lost my buttons overnight with no apparent reason, but now I think it was dying row by row for some time.  

I won't lie my phone never felt down - it happened from time to time but with no visual damage. And this phone served me for two years. Previously I was thinking to replace the screen module, but now I am simply worried that this issue can repeat itself and the money spent for the screen will be a waste.
Temporary solution: I use gloves mode

[Achorwat]

Yes I also uses your temporary solution. But I loved this phone when works on 100%

[ninjag]

I'm also having the same issue and I've seen a lot of posts stating that it's the digitizer/hardware which is failing, but if this were the case how come it works fine in locked mode? Also, the back, home and the other soft key buttons still don't work when in landscape mode so it can't be the screen.

I'm convinced it's software related and very disappointed that Sony are not fixing this. As many others have said, I think I've had enough of Sony now because a Sony 4K TV and Blu-Ray player I bought recently both had to be returned due to faults straight out of the box. It's a shame because I like Sony products.

[Achorwat]

Is somebody from Sony read this info about our issues? Maybe is time to think about this and try to fix IT!?!?

[tinong9]

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@maks_holinei wrote:

I did some investigation
if you enter developer's mode (go to settings>about phone>press build number 10 times). then go to developer options. in the Input section you enable Show touches and Pointer location

now try to press any of the three buttonsand you will see that the pointer cannot reach them, meaning sensor is not responsive there. Pointer location - Y axis - will show where the screen stops to respond. On my phone the last responsive pixel row is 1199. Given the resolution is 1280 - bottom 81 pixel rows of my phone are not touchable. 
I though that I lost my buttons overnight with no apparent reason, but now I think it was dying row by row for some time.  

I won't lie my phone never felt down - it happened from time to time but with no visual damage. And this phone served me for two years. Previously I was thinking to replace the screen module, but now I am simply worried that this issue can repeat itself and the money spent for the screen will be a waste.
Temporary solution: I use gloves mode

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Even with glove mode my screen has parts that are totally unresponsive. And I just wanted to emphasize that that is how exactly it happened to me, LOSING THE BUTTONS OVERNIGHT for no apparent reason.

Agree that if you  get it to repair, it'll only happen again, in a much shorter time frame (in fact I think I've seen some people who have done so under warranty, only for the screens to stop responding again).

This phone lasted me 1 year and a half, it was a great phone BUT TOO SHORT LIFESPAN makes the money NOT WORTH.

Sony didn't even acknowledge the issue. For your great specs and nice design, your phones do not actually last long for it to be considered worthwhile.

[ninjag]

I had mine replaced under warranty (business contract) yesterday and disabled all updates and only installed the as apps which I really need and it's working fast and perfectly. So good to be back to Android 6 after using my Note 2 with android 4 for a few days.

I've gone into developer mode and I can confirm the touch points go right to the bottom of the screen.

Just before i sent it back even glove mode started to struggle all over the screen so enough was enough.

One thing that caught my eye was Facebook messenger which Facebook forces you to install to be able to message people. It allows the little icon on your home page to move around anywhere. Perhaps some update to this has caused a conflict or corrupted something previously?

Either way, I'm not installing any updates now!!!

[ninjag]

Forgot to say, I still don't believe it's hardware related because it worked perfectly in lock mode.