My brother came to me with his phone today to ask me if I could turn it on with my computer, because his power button is broken so I proceeded to attach it to my lappy and boot it with adb just to find out I can't do anything because he hasn't turned on USB debugging!
I managed to get into his recovery which helped nothing because in order to navigate in the menu the power button has to work
Uuuugh I hate this ...

Open it up and find out why the power button isn’t working...

Soldering iron or a small piece of plastic will usually work 😊

@jamescodesthing I'm too afraid to do such a thing :/

@catintroholic its dead already, either it stays dead or it will be reanimated.

When in recovery you should have adb.
Then you can do "adb reboot" and it should start.
If you there is no adb in recovery you´re out of luck it seems.

@Codex404 It's in a coma

@RadiatorTwo my laptop doesn't recognize the phone in recovery mode :( maybe it's a driver issue, I'll try to fix it

Android will boot up if you connect them to a charger. I loved withoit power button for a few months.

@PrivateGER It won't, it only boots up to the charging screen

@catintroholic Oh. Which brand?

@PrivateGER Alcatel, it's the One touch Idol 3, not widely known

Does anybody know how to get my laptop to recognize his phone when it's in recovery mode, I also seem to have an issue with my own phone where advance recognizes it only when it's in PTP mode

@catintroholic What OS are you using?

@RadiatorTwo win7

@catintroholic Open your Device Manager.
If you connect the device. Is something changing? You know. Refreshing the list making a sound or something.
If yes the device should be somwhere in the list.
Maybe then there´s just the wrong driver installed. You then need to find it and install the standard adb driver you can get from google.

If it´s doing nothing when connecting there seems to be some other problem.
Then I´d try to change the cable. Use another USB port. And if all that fails another PC/Laptop.

Also if you´re using a USB hub, connect it directly. At least for me that very often won´t work...

@RadiatorTwo My phone gets recognized properly in Recovery, with the sound and everything, his phone doesn't appear in the Device manager at all, I tried different cables and ports

Is the button broken or the plastic cover on top of it broken/loose?

If it's the first one, you can always try shorting the button pads/pins with a small wire/paper clip to "press" it.

If it's the second one you can probably just open the phone and push the button itself.

@catintroholic The you´re out of luck I think. At least with adb. Unfortunately not all recoveries have adb.

@catintroholic fair play... but it’s fucked, you’re not gonna do it anymore damage 😊

Open the fucker, get an idea of what it’s insides look like 😄

@andrebreda you can't press the power button properly (You press it and nothing happens) and the problem is opening the phone, it's almost impossible

@jamescodesthing I tried, but I can't open it 😐

@catintroholic what’s the make and model?

My s5 and 6 suffered similar troubles... I was able to boot by charger.

Also, if the middle of the power button is a problem: toothpick or needle, depress near the middle and see what happens.

Some also have an old school hard reset dot that will boot after being pressed but most have decommed this due to the power button combo.

You say it’s a difficult one, what make and model? Obviously removing a battery and reinserting it can also cause a boot on the right phone’s.

@catintroholic From what I've read, the back cover is attached to the rest with clips. You should be able to open it with something like a guitar pick (or those nifty plastic tools from somewhere like iFixit)

@jamescodesthing it's an Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 ( 5.5), I pulled out the SIM tray and tried to open with a card or something, but I couldn't put it in

@catintroholic maybe this will help? http://myfixguide.com/manual/...

Omg I did it! But what now?

I think I found the problem.
See this pic? There's the power button

And I guess this little thingy should be on the power button, right? @jamescodesthing Does it mean the power button has to be replaced? Is it irreparably broken?

Okay, update, I managed to boot it up by placing that loose button on that black thing, so that problem is solved for now, but I still have to figure out what to do with that broken power button ...
Thank you everyone for your kind help ;)

@catintroholic It looks like it was soldered in... I think you'll need to get your soldering iron out

@andrebreda But I don't have a soldering iron

You should be able to find a new power button online. I don't know if your brand offers that, but most do.

@PrivateGER we found one on eBay already might take a month until it arrives until then my brother will use the special technique of plugging in a cable to turn on his screen

You could always press the home button (if you have physical buttons, i can't see it on the pics)

@PrivateGER It doesn't have one and double tap to wake doesn't work, I could throw his phone out of the window

@catintroholic Wow

I think I can help here. If there's a circle covered by a rectangle, where your power button should be, just do one thing, just get something metallic, thin enough to fit between that circle and outer rectangle and connect they circle with outer rectangle. This will conduct some charge, and power/unlock the phone.

I had used my phone for nearly 4-5 month, this way. I thought the charge might be the reason to unlock the phone. I figured it out myself, after my power button is broken, like in your case.

But I guess even that is broken in your case. So just try to connect what is left with some conductor

@jalebiBhai I actually put it on the spot because there were two metallic contacts or something like that and the sides of the power button are metallic too so I placed it on it and pressed it when it was in place and it worked, the problem that I had to fumble around to find the correct spot and that this button is so small I almost lost it. And I also I had to close his phone again because he can't go around with the Backcover removed

@catintroholic what I did was, I used to carry something metallic, like bike key. So when double tap on touch is not working, since it was a replaced non-OEM touch, i used to unlock it with my bike key. But mostly it was used to power on device