Will an S4 boot and run without a volume button? I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 with a dented/stuck volume button (causing any attempt to boot to end at the screen that asks whether I really want to install a custom OS because the smartphone perceives volume down as pressed).

I am planning to dispose of that device after getting (read: copying and wiping) some data from its internal memory.

As replacing the button costs a lot (both at the official and at other repair shops), I am considering just removing the button.

Will the smartphone work (and keep working for an hour or so) without the volume button? I am wondering whether anything in the system will notice the button is missing and refuse to boot. Also, an employee at one of the smartphone repair shops I went to claimed humidity would enter the smartphone through the opening, and anyway, the repair shops outright refused to remove the button without replacing it1.



1: Presumably because then, I'd pay less. I will remove the button myself, if I find no-one to do it for money, though.
Yes. The phone can boot and run without volume button. You just have to make sure that neither volume down nor volume up button is pressed after removing the external button otherwise you may enter into recovery/Odin mode or into installing custom ROM mode. So remove the external button and boot up the phone as usual.