iPhone 4s Help

The power button on my 4s broke in September, so I haven't powered off my phone since sometime before then.  Now I'm having issues with my apps force closing, even when I close everything thru the task manager.  From what I've read, the only way to power off the phone is using the power button (which I can't) or to let the battery go dead.

I was planning on running my battery dead tomorrow, but I can't remember if I'll be able to turn my phone back on after I recharge it with the power button being broken.  I'm pretty sure I'm outside the warranty (been more than 2 yrs) and I don't want to fix the button since I want to upgrade soon, but right now my phone is pretty much only good for calls, texts, and brief web searches.

Anyone have any other thoughts on what to try? My phone isn't jailbroken so any apps that require that wouldn't work.

My 4s will come back on once the power cord is plugged back in. It usually takes about a minute or so before it has enough power to boot up and come on though.  I would free up some memory by deleting some un used apps. Also you might look for an app that acts like a task manager . Apple products tend to act slower after an ios update unl5 its the current model its a way to make you feel like you need to buy the new one. Turn off the updates for apps also. Theyll get u there too

There is likely a cell phone repair shop around that could fix it for not a lot.  The one here fixes game consoles too, just fyo.

I'll have to look into a fix.  The biggest issue is that we don't have a landline so I can't afford to drop my phone off anywhere for an extended period of time.

I went thru last weekend and deleted all my unneeded apps, messages, and whatnot that I could, but that only ended up getting me to just under 1 GB of free space (I've got the 16 GB model).  I really need to copy the pics of my kiddo off my phone and onto a DVD and then I could free up 5-6 GB, first kid, tons of pics.

I'll look into a task manager too, any suggestions?  Hopefully, though, shutting down and restarting my phone will help with some of the issues.  I'll post up what I try for those that are interested.

Try this:

Enable Assistive Touch: Tap SETTINGS, General, Accessibility, AssistiveTouch (near the bottom) and tap AssistiveTouch to ON. You will now notice a small dark square with a circle in the middle (you can move this square anywhere). Tap the dark circle to open the assistiveTouch menu, then tap Device and tap and HOLD the Lock Screen icon. This will bring up the iPhone's Power-Off slider - no need for a power button any longer! **Voted Best Method to turn off an iPhone with a broken power button

EDIT: It works. I just tried it out. Enable AssistiveTouch and your all good.

Good to know for the future. Used the drain the battery method and it seems to be working now. I also downloaded an app manager from SYS and it seems to help keep unneeded apps and processes to a minimum.

Tried out that touch assist and it works pretty well. Should be good to go now without getting the button fixed. Thanks for all the help guys.