z5c Back Button, Home Button not responsive

[zero_vertical]

Suddenly today, all my lower screen buttons (back, home, drawer) are completely unresponsive.   Multiple restarts.

sD card was getting full, so cleared a bunch out.

Battery was at 60% or so.

Installed a new app this morning (voice recorder), but cleared cache and deleted it.   

Would hate to factory reset this thing.   Not even sure how to do it.   What are my options?

[Uliwooly]

@zero_vertical

Anytime, you can also use a USB OTG cable and a regular mouse 

[Z5CBen]

Hi same issue with mine as of yesterday. However, attempting safe mode, then software repair, the issue persists. 

Diagnostic touch test passed. 

Also when waking phone from sleep the camera and microphone short cuts are responding which are in the exact same place as the home, back buttons etc.

Will try this floating back app as a work around but this is pretty bad Sony. 

Any help would be appreciated. Otherwise it's been a great phone.