DO NOT try to remove the button without loosening the button, you'll break the button.
DO loosen the button with a screwdriver and then pull at it with your pliers.
Recently a button broke off my favourite pair of jeans (they're from Run & Fly, a great queer inclusive company!), I could have bought a new pair of jeans but that wouldn't have been very eco-freindly. Thankfully though replacing the button on your jeans is among the easiest repairs you can do, no sewing required! On Amazon you can buy 20 new buttons for 4 pounds, but that wouldn't have been very eco-friendly either since I already have some broken jeans that don't fit anymore, so I decided to try and harvest the buttons from these jeans for use in my favourite pair.
My understanding of how these buttons work is incredibly poor. However, it seems that it's more or less two pieces of metal with a catch that are attached together incredibly tightly, our goal therefore is to separate these pieces.
In my first attempt I followed the information usually suggested online and attempted to pull the buttons on my old pair of jeans apart with two pairs of pliers, unfortunately the button's mechanism snapped, rendering it useless, this is why I don't recommend trying to pull the two parts apart without first loosening the locking mechanism with a screwdriver.
For my second attempt I figured I'd just been too rough with the button, so I again tried with two pairs of pliers, this time the top part of the button broke, failure again! Seriously, don't try to do this without loosening the mechanism.
For my 3rd attempt I first removed the button from the jeans by cutting the fabric around the button. Next, I pried at the locking mechanism until I could fit a flathead screwdriver into the gap and start prying. Once I had done this I again tried to play again with my two pairs of pliers, the loosening seemed to work and my button came apart with minimal damage.
Reassembling my jeans was simple, I just put the new button into the hole where the old was one, snapped it together and used a hammer to achieve (nearly) the same tight bond this button used to have. After that my jeans felt as new with a fresh button!
In conclusion, this repair seemed to work fairly well! I'm not sure if I'd recommend doing this over buying some new buttons (which is what I'd probably do in the future) but if you're an absolute eco-anarchist (in which case I salute you) this is probably the way to go.al damage, hurrah! Unfortunately I had still damaged the button somewhat around the edges, so I used some sandpaper to mitigate this, in the future I imagine I could salvage these buttons without causing as much damage, but for now this works fine, I suppose I'll update this blog with how well this works long-term.