Do phone cases damage phone buttons?

[Prawo Jazdy]

My power button on my phone has stopped working over the last few weeks. It's not worth repairing as it is an old phone that has just gone out of software support, but while searching for a DIY repair, I came across a suggestion that there's a correlation between rubber cases and broken power buttons.

Before I purchase a case for my new phone, does anyone think there is anything to this idea? Or are rubber cases so ubiquitous that this 'trend' is the equivalent of saying "Did your cam belt break? Was the car fitted with rubber tyres? Coincidence?!"?

[greygoose]

I had cases on my last few phones throughout their lives and the buttons all worked fine, just the batteries wore out.

[MitchT]

You haven't said what phone it is, only that it's old. I had an iPhone 4S for seven years and the power button eventually failed. It was never kept in a case. Apparently it happens quite commonly on that phone due to one of the components inside the button failing through years of use.

[Alorotom]

Its probably the single most used button on the device - hardly a shock it wears out eventually - doubtful its anything remotely related to case usage.

[Gren]

I had a Pixel 2 that started boot-looping - nothing worked and I couldn't even get into the bootloader screen for more than a couple of seconds. I was about to replace it but took the case off for some reason I can't remember now.

Suddenly everything was fine. I bought an official Google case and the phone worked for another year until I upgraded it.

The first case had been on the phone for over a year and was a decent hard plastic one - Ringke slim I think. I can only assume it was squeezing the area on or near the power button.

[dundarach]

No, I don't believe they do, however they do trap sand, muck and small birds behind them scratching the cases!

It's a toss up between mildly pitted rears or accidental damage I guess.