This is a problem that I solved at 2am this morning after months of endless searching through the darkest corners of the internet, but a complete solution was never in one place. So, in the noble hope that no one will ever have to suffer my troubles again, I bring you this workaround.

This is for people that have broken their home button and want to be able to exit applications easily without turning their ipod touch off and on again, and don’t want to break open the ipod.

As I have only done this once, I cannot guarantee that it works on iPhones, or newer versions of iTunes or iOS, but it does work on iOS 3.1.3 and on iTunes version 9.1.1, and updating iTunes to 9.2 has not given me any grief either so once it’s done I guess you don’t need to worry about updating software.

Also, DO NOT WORRY IF YOU HAVE NOT JAILBROKEN YOUR IPOD. The traditional way of doing this does require a home button but there is a way to work around that as well.

Okay, let’s get started!

First of all, connect your ipod to your computer and make sure it has appeared in iTunes. I suggest doing a sync (if you do sync) to check it’s all connected okay, but you don’t have to.

If you want to be safe, I also suggest downloading iTunes 9.1.1 if you have anything above 9.2 (should be easy to find, just google search). Your library won’t work if you’re downgrading so just move your music folder somewhere else temporarily, you can put it back when you re-upgrade.

Secondly, download Spirit. There are versions for Windows, Mac OS and Linux so everyone can join in. Consult this website on various versions of software that work with this application.

Once you have downloaded Spirit, run it. There should be a button to jailbreak, and also your ipod touch (if connected correctly) will be named below the button. It’s a very simple and quick app, so just hit the switch.

Spirit automatically installs an app on your ipod called Cydia (it will probably be on the last page of your home screen if you have a lot of apps), so find that and open it up. If you are stuck browsing music or any other app is open, just turn your ipod off and then on again.

Cydia takes a while to set up the first time, so be patient with it. Once it’s all ready to go, hit the search button at the bottom of the screen and type “SBSettings”. It should be listed as “from BigBoss (System)”, so once you’ve found it, open it up and hit install in the top right.

Every time something is installed like this your ipod will probably need to respring, so don’t panic if the changes don’t become apparent immediately.

When SBSettings is installed, you can drag your finger along the menu bar at the top of your screen to open it up. This can be done in any app at any time. As you will be able to see, this gives you a few options, but all you’ll probably need to know is that the little “more” button will take you to the settings for this app.

Get back into Cydia one last time and search for the “Close Button Widget”. Install this the same way and let Cydia respring, or restart your ipod if necessary. When you’ve done all that, open up SBSettings with the menu bar swipe and hit “more”. Open up “Set Toggles”, and you can select what you want to appear in the SBSettings window. If everything has worked, then there should be a “Close App” listed at the bottom. You may need to drag it to the top (with the move rows option in the top right) before it will appear, and you’ll almost certainly need to respring (with SBSettings) or reboot.

And that’s it! Now whenever you want to exit an application, just swipe your menu bar and hit the close button.

I hope this has been helpful to someone. If you have any questions or just want to let me know writing this wasn’t a waste of time you can drop me a line at me@kitarii.co.uk.