Chosen Solution
So I replaced the battery on this black iphone 7, 32GB. It got a replacement screen some time ago, in case that matters. When I closed the iPhone back up, the home button didn’t work. Just wouldn’t click. I have another fully functioning iPhone 7 at home, so i got to testing. I took a look at the flex cables, tried another home button, even tried another display/home button combo (which was working in another phone) but the home button still wouldn’t work. I even tried another working taptic engine (even though a defective taptic engine could not really be the reason) It just doesn’t react to presses. Touch ID also doesn’t work (but i don’t get the “touch id couldn’t be activated” message!) and double tapping the home button to reach the top of the screen also doesn’t do anything. Restarting/Hard Restarting the phone also doesn’t help. The flex connectors on the logic board also don’t look damaged, i even took pictures but couldn’t see any bent pins etc. What on earth could I have damaged inside the phone that causes no home button to work?
You need to try a new display with the original home button, I don’t see you trying this combination. Replacement button won’t work whatsoever, the flex cable on the display is super easy to damage and you can’t tell by just looking. It’s most likely that you have the display cable damaged and without trying a good display with the original button, you won’t know.
