Why have my Home and Back buttons stop working on my Moto X?

[Qanae]

Moto X (2014) Home and Back buttons stopped working...

The home and back buttons stopped working today. I am not sure what triggered it, but the multitask button works fine. When I rotate the phone, the buttons rotate...but they are still in the same spot (as they are supposed to be) but do not work.

When I press home I get the push area lights up in a lightened circular area around the button, then I get a larger Google logo and circular line outside of that if I continue to press the Google logo area it takes me to the Google screen/view. Pressing the back button I get a similar push area lighting up on screen (normal behavior I believe)...but it does not take me back or respond otherwise.

I have restarted the phone several times.

 

[bespinct]

Re: Moto X (2014) Home and Back buttons stopped working...

Gotta love software. What have you installed recently? I would work backwards removing the apps if you can remember the order to find the culprit. If you can't find it, a restore is the next step. Do some checks between restoring apps to make sure the soft buttons work as you expect.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Qanae]

Re: Moto X (2014) Home and Back buttons stopped working...

I had not installed anything new for awhile. There are those auto-updates, perhaps that caused the problem? I rebooted in safe mode (apps disabled) but the problem persists. I guess the next step would be a restore, and if nothing is fixed then Motorola support for another phone under 2 months old?

 

[codeda]

Re: Moto X (2014) Home and Back buttons stopped working...

Yeah I was going to suggest just that. Factory reset and if it doesn't work send it back to Motorola for exchange. No reason to use a phone who's main buttons dont work!! Good luck

 

[Qanae]

Re: Moto X (2014) Home and Back buttons stopped working...

Before I got to try wiping the cache, and factory reset the phone seems to have fixed itself. I received a phone call where the caller left a message that I retrieved via Verizon's Visual Voice mail app. The problem was occuring up to the pointI opened visual voice mail, listened to the message, and voila...fixed?!?

Of course, this could all be coincidence - but checking VVM (and getting a message) is the only thing that had transpired between it not working and working again. I am not sure how Visual Voice mail integrates with the phone...maybe since it Verizon's own thing, it ties in more at a system level? All I know if that I started in safe mode and the problem remained. Hope this is helpful to someone else down the road. Thanks for your help