Fix an Unresponsive Touch Screen on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus
Some iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus users have noticed their devices touch screen becomes unresponsive. The unresponsive frozen touchscreen seems to happen at random, and also commonly when the device is freshly unlocked from the locked screen, either with a pass code or through Touch ID. The unresponsive touch issue is not subtle, as any onscreen element does not respond to any touch, tap, or other screen interactions, and typically lasts for 5 to 10 seconds until the display becomes responsive again.
While the cause of the unresponsive screen issue is uncertain, there are a few possible remedies if you experience an touch screen problems on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. We’ll walk through the troubleshooting methods from easiest to most involved.
And to be perfectly clear, this problem is general unresponsiveness of the touch screen, it’s not specific to any particular app. If you find a specific iOS app is crashing, try these tips to fix that.
Wait! Clean Your Screen!
The very first thing you should do is make sure the screen is clean, clear of any oils, residues, liquids, or any other gunk that may be mucking up the screen responsiveness. Just give your display a good look in various lighting conditions, and wipe it off a few times with a cotton cloth, just make sure there isn’t anything egregious on there. A layer of goo of any sort can easily make any touch screen less responsive than you’re expecting, so even if your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus is brand new, if someone rubbed a bunch of greasy peanut butter fingers all over the display, that could very likely be contributing to the touch screen not responding to touch as expected.
1: Forcibly Reboot the iPhone
Next you should try a force reboot of the iPhone, this works to resolve an unresponsive touch screen, and many other issues, for the vast majority of cases:
- Hold down the Home button and Power button simultaneously, continue holding both buttons until you see the Apple logo appear on the screen then release
When the iPhone boots back up, hopefully the touch screen will no longer be unresponsive.
The force reboot process is demonstrated in the video below:
If you continue to experience issues with the touchscreen after forcibly rebooting the iPhone, continue with the next steps.
2: Restore the iPhone from a Backup
This requires a computer and USB cable, you’ll be first making a backup to iTunes, then restoring with that backup.
- Connect the iPhone to a computer with iTunes
- Choose to “Encrypt backup” if you haven’t done so yet, and choose to “Back up to this computer”
- Choose “Back up now” and let the process complete, this can take a while
- When finished, click on the “Restore” button, choose the backup you just made to restore to
- Let the backup restore to the iPhone and try using it as normal
If the iPhone screen continues to exhibit strange freezing and unresponsive touch behavior, your next step is to erase it and set it up as new.
3: Set Up the iPhone as New with an Erase & Factory Reset
Do not do this if you have not made a recent backup. You will lose data if you do this, this erases the iPhone and deletes everything from the iPhone, resetting it to a factory state.
Once the iPhone has been setup as new, don’t restore from a backup quite yet, try to use the iPhone as if it was brand new. If the iPhone works and the touchscreen is responsive as it should be, it suggests there could be a problem with the backup you used to restore earlier.
4: Call Apple Support or Visit an Apple Genius Bar
If you’ve forcibly rebooted the iPhone, you’ve restored from a backup, and you’ve setup the iPhone as new, and the touch screen is still unresponsive, it’s time to call Apple official support or visit a genius bar at an Apple Store.
Any new iPhone is under warranty for a year, and the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are new enough that there is no question as to warranty coverage for a potentially defective product. Typically in these situations, if an iPhone is determined to be not functioning properly after all software resets and restores have been attempted, Apple will provide you with a new replacement iPhone, assuming it has not been damaged and otherwise falls within their warranty.
Have you experienced the unresponsive touch screen problem on a new iPhone? If so, did you resolve it with the methods above, or with another trick? Let us know in the comments.
I have to use my microphone to do anything and Siri likes to make up her own stories if you had sent out I can I get my freezing disease screen on my iPhone 6 to stop it’s so annoying and I have to turn on and off the screen the top button on the side so that I can turn it back on again use my fingerprint touch and use the dam microphone to tell her who I need to call and is really so annoying I don’t know what to do anymore I really care for another phone right now and I don’t even know if I can Get this Done in less than an hour I as might just ket Siri say whatever just to not have to try type and I can’t answer I’m coming calls ugh ugh ugh
True story– my iPhone 6 Plus started having this issue registering taps after a full restore from iCloud backup. I am an extreme user, at least 120 Apps installed. Decided to buy another device. When I played with my erased 6 Plus after that, it behaves perfectly. I guess it couldn’t handle all the fragmented memory and overload from the excessive number of apps? Not sure. Its was a 128 GB too. New iPhone 11 has no issues… evil by design???
Your phone probably have “Touch Disease”, a design defect on iPhone 6 & 6+ usually causes by the digitizer disconnecting to the IC
The left hand side of my iphone 5 will not respond bu the right hand side works fine. Any ideas please?
Guys help,
I had an Iphone 6+ for almost 4 years, for the last 9 months my phone drives me crazy as screen gets really hard to work, sometimes theres some light coming out on top of the screen, screen works for a couple of minutes then freeze again that lead me to press hardly on top of the screen then it works again…then again and again, can anybody tell me what is the problem before seeking technicians advise.
Many thanks..
If light is coming out of the screen that suggests your screen is peeling apart from the iPhone frame. You might have dropped the iPhone or physically damaged it to cause the screen to pop off. It’s also possible the battery is swelling and pushing the screen off. If any light is escaping the screen and the screen is lifting, that is a hardware issue that must be addressed to get the iPhone screen to become responsive properly again.
Hey,
WiryDawg, this is the best possible answer. I have an iphone6S with 11.4 iOS. It drives me crazy when touchscreen does not work exactly when I need my phone the most. Hardware resets works temporarily. i will try to clean this ribbon cable and let you know.
I had iphone 6 plus couple of years now after 11.4 update this screen disease started ..I am frustrated, that poor vendor replaced my broken screen two times in a week thinking that its a defective piece but looks like its not a hardware issue but software , I tried all the tricks..but nothing works ..notching my hair !!!
I’ve had the same issues. Flexing or pressing worked only temporarily. SoI figured it must be the ribbon connectors. This is what Ultimately worked for me. Go to YouTube and see how to open iPhone ( to change a battery.). When you swing open the screen you will see 4 ribbon connectors (upper right corner). Disconnect all 4 and with isopropyl & Q-tip clean both male and female sides of the connectors and blow dry. Then reassemble. There must have been some dirt or corrosion causing a bad connection. My iPhone 6+ has been working great ever since.
I have a I phone 6plus I replaced the screen I few months ago because it had the touch disease. It turns on fine but won’t allow me to touch anything on the phone I keep replaying my screen because it’s unresponsive i want to know how to fix it permanently. If someone can help that would be great
thank you for all your comments and help. My iPhone 6 would very rarely allow me to log on and when i did manage to it would freeze. i tried pressing the corners but nothing happened. following this i took someone’s suggestion of smacking the phone on your hand, and Voila! it worked. it stalled a few times after but i just hit the phone again. Like the previous guy said, lord knows what it is doing to the phone :) but now i have something to occupy myself with on the daily commute to and from work :)
I reset, restarted, and powered off my iPhone 6+ all so many times still nothing and now my screen is black and won’t come on. I just here Siri telling me to put in my password.
Please try this! (Read my previous posts) it solves the issue! Let the phone battery drain every night before going to sleep and charge it back up in the morning. Do this for about 5 days and the phone goes back to normal. In my case, it started acting up around 3 weeks later and I got frustrated again and remembered what worked the first time and I did the process again and I have a working iPhone again! I don’t the know why it does what it does but this what I have to do with MY iPhone in order to work.
Once again, let the battery drain completely every night. What I do is setting the brightesss all the way up and autolock to never so it stay strong on, it will shutdown by itself after the battery drains. and of course charge it back up in the morning. Do this for 5 days straight and repeat the process when it acts up again. In my case, it acts up around 3 week or so later but I simply repeat the process. I hope this trick works for your iPhone too as it work so for mine ;)
I have a warranty on my phone, 6 Plus. I am up for 4th replacement. all of them with flickering screen and unresponsive screen. Apple is screwing everyone by not admitting issue that cost people a fortune.
Last replacement stopped working 3 hours after i got it.
Internet is full of complains on the same issue across the board.
Dropped my iPhone 6 Plus a couple of times. I thought resetting it will fix it. It worked for a couple of days but started acting up again. made some research and found out that two chips caused it to malfunction when phone has been dropped a few times, meaning it comes out loose when dropped. What I did was bend it face up with your thumbs in the middle of your iPhone 6 Plus. The purpose is your pushing the two chip back in place. See if this works. It worked for me. Good luck.
Hey Totti,
Can you add a little more detail on your “bend” technique?…How do you bend without cracking the screen glass? Are the two chips in the middle of the screen face?
Thanks for any more detail you can provide…
I would absolutely not attempt to bend an iPhone, you will break or damage an iPhone if you bend it. Do not try to bend your iPhone. If your iPhone touchscreen is unresponsive, take it to Apple to get it looked at and repaired. Bending your phone would void the warranty. It would not fix a touch screen that is unresponsive, if anything it could break the glass. Do not do it.
6 days straight today with no problems. By just letting the battery drain every night and charging the iPhone back in the morning. I’m able to text, message, YouTube, fb, use the camera etc. i must add that I tried all the advice here and I even praid for the iPhone to get back to normal. I think that God put this way of fixing it back in my head or simply God just fixed it. I’ll give it another week or so to see it I still need to drain the battery every night, not a big deal to me but it just feels that whatever it had it’s gone. Praise God!
Do you know how to let the battery drain? I have a passcode and obviously i can’t type it in because the screen is unresponsive but I would like to try this trick out.
Brightness all the way up, Auto lock to never and leave it on till it dies
maybe the iPhone just needs to be dead for a shorter amount of time but since this has worked so far and I don’t get calls in the middle of the night anyway, I’m sticking to what I know works. I was about to replace it with an Edge 7 but I think I’ll save my money for just a little longer and see if this keeps on working. Till maybe a new update will resolve the issue.
Here’s another way I’ve found out and has been working for a few days now. Don’t do nothing more but let the battery ran out every night completely and leave the phone dead till morning and simply charge it back up in the morning. This trick has being working for 4 days straight. I will post back in case this trick stops working. December 3, 2016
I’ve gone ahead and tried something new. It’s as simple as just leaving the iPhone plugged in and with the brightness setting at the lowest setting all night. The auto-lock has to be set to never so its on all night. And password off so the phone is on all night. In the morning just set the brightness setting to your liking and you can set the password back to your likeing right away. It really works people! Do this every night and there won’t be a problem with your iPhone in the morning anymore
This sounds like a recipe for hacking :) … leaving the phone on and unlocked all night.
I actually had the same problems. It started off by having random apps launch by themselves, and random swipes, etc. I actually caught my iphone6 in the middle of generating a text message to one of my contacts a few times. I could actually see the letters appear on the screen before my eyes.
It was possessed.
Then I started banging the back of the phone against anything. I kept doing that for weeks and magically the demon has left. But soon after that, the screen would become frozen at random times. It sometimes happen when I am about to answer a call!!
I have switched to macs and then iphones, iwatch and I have been very loyal to apple. Not anymore!
Try draining the battery at night and charging it back up in the morning and try this everyday for a few days and you will notice the problem face to non existen after a few days
I don’t know for how many more days I will have to keep on doing this or if i stop doing this the problem will stop or not. But what I do know it’s that if you do this, the problem it’s non existent all day.
Before I couldn’t even be able to send messages or play a game without this isssue every morning for at least a few hours.
Something I forgot to share it’s when you turn the passcode on, set it to 4 hours. I got my iPhone 6 Plus back and its fast like when it was new. Hope this helps you like it helped me. :)
I didn’t jailbreak it because I’ve tried something that has worked so far. At night I turn off the password passcode off, the brightest setting auto-lock to never and leave the iPhone on all night and plugged in with the brightest setting at the lowest setting. In the morning I change the settings back EXEPT FOR THE PASSWORD SET. Set your password about an hour later. And keep on doing the same thing that night and so forth. It’s a hazle I know but it’s worth finally getting my iPhone back and worth people having this problem. And another thing, the lag its gone and you get that feeling back about when you first got the iPhone for the first time.
I’m having a hard time just posting here with it freezing like crazy arrrgggg
Has anybody had it jail broken and still have problems with it? Just wondering… I’m having all the issues above with my iPhone 6 Plus im think’n of Jailbreaking it this weekend to see what happens and let all you guys know the outcome
Just wanted to say that apple knows of the issue. I never turned on hey Siri so turning it off would have done nothing. I went to Apple Store and the person ahead of me had the same issue but iPhone 6 Plus. Mine is 6s plus. His was out of warranty and they said they would fix it for $300. Mine was in warranty and they just said “we can’t fix it so here’s a new phone”. When I asked them will this happen to my new phone they told me “it’s a new phone.” I responded my original phone was new and have you fixed the problem with this new phone? The answer was “you have your warranty until April.” Not very reassuring.
They want you to buy an iPhone 7, which also has an unresponsive touch screen and crashes constantly and doesn’t have a headphone jack.
Another success by turning off “Hey Siri”… thank goodness- I feared a bad phone!
Same problem. I literally put the phone in the refrigerator to make it work. Or set it on a cold damp napkin . Try it!
Thank you American!
I’m a fifty-nine year old man living on my own. This comment really helped me!
I own twenty refrigeradors, and I will name my twenty-first after you!
Stay peachy, American!
xoxo,
The president governor
My phone developed this problem about a month ago. It is getting worse and worse. My phone is largely unusable now. I won’t bother getting an apple next time as this phone is only 1 year old. Obviously this issue started just after the warranty ended.
If your iPhone died just after the Apple warranty expired, check if your credit card company offers extended manufacturers warranties. If you bought the phone with a card that offers this, they typically extend the warranty by a year.
Looking online this has been for devices with version 9.3 or higher
The unresponsive screen issue is definitely a software issue for me anyway. I did all the factory resets,didn’t work. I brought into an Apple Store and found out my warranty was void because of a screen replacement. Paid the 299 for a replacement phone. Worked well for a few days and then happened again. Back to the Apple Store today
Hi.
iPhone 6, ios 10.
Unresponsive screen.
Restarts help only some minutes.
Switched off Character show for Keyboard and now works well.
This should not happen for 1year old 600€ worth device.
IPhone 6plus. Same problem as everyone else. Seems like a software issue, I have read a ton, tried virtually everything and cant see, to pin it down. Still trying. Looks like a 7plus is in my future.
About two months ago when I turned my iPhone 6 Plus on with the home button the screen came on very grainy and unresponsive. After numerous attempts powering on and off the screen worked. This problem persisted over a month until the screen would not come on. I did notice that in a dark room, you could see a dim light on the screen when you turned it on. So you could tell when it was powered on or off. I then removed it from the case and it began working again. Yesterday, the phone again became unresponsive. After reading these posts, I twisted the phone slightly and it immediately began working again. I believe this is a known hardware problem with the iPhone 6 Plus. Don’t buy another one, and don’t recommend anyone to purchase an iPhone 6 product. There is something about twisting or putting pressure where the video connector is located that helps to restore the screen to working condition. But I do not expect a permanent fix. This phone has a hardware design issue. . Apple should admit they have a problem and offer a upgrade solution!
My iPhone 6 touch screen acts up but when I took it out of its case it works fine. I believe I read that on the Apple website (take it oit of its case). Don’t know why he case would cause a problem but I plan on replacing the case I have anyway.
iPhone 6s. Brand new. Touch screen freezes randomly and very often also if I’m just texting. tried all kind of reboot and back up suggestion. The problem keep going. Don’t know what to do
My iPhone 6 plus screen keeps freezing. Only thing that seems to help is to smash the iPhone to my leg or the floor and it unfreezes. Anyone an idea what the problem could be?
I also have this issue with a unresponsive touch screen. Apple simply wants $329.00 for a ‘refurbished’ phone and ‘NO’ they cannot guarantee this will cure the problem.
I am ready for a class action lawsuit against Apple. Anyone interested in this path. It is quite simple, there are numerous attorney groups on the internet that will review and possibly pursue this course.
Let me know your thoughts.
Same problem with my less than two years iPhone 6: unresponsive screen, ghost touch. This issue never happened before, it just suddenly appeared one month ago. Bending it might solve the problem temporarily, but it is indeed getting worse and worse. My phone is almost unusable now. Have to try so many times on lock and unlock my phone to make the touch screen work again. I tried reset network setting, reset my phone to factory settings, turn off Siri…Nothing really works. I though it must be a hardware issue but after viewing all these comments it seems that hardware may not be the problem… Have no idea what to do next….Maybe buy a new Android phone.
Ive had the same problem with two apple 6’s and enough now, both where freezing up and apple like most manufacturers are not very responsive to the matter. Ive reset, rebooted, re everything one is now at the bottom of the river and the other is well not working again, off to buy a samsung should never of moved across to iPhone, rubbish
I have a iphone 6+ and experiencing this flickering and non responsive issues. It is out of warranty and Apples does not want anything to do with it. Initially have to flex the phone to get it work and after about 2 weeks even flexing does the work. Brought it to a repair shop to put a foam underneath the connector. It worked for 2 days and stopped working few minutes ago. Think Apple needs to own up to this problem and fix all these defective iphone 6 for free. What a rip off company.
You should check to see if your iPhone 6+ camera is under warranty service. If you send in the warranty repair for a defect, they often fix other issues when they run their tests.
But yes I agree, if there is a faulty product they should replace to repair it for free.
Oscar thank you for the electrical tape fix! The digitizer connector was definitely the cause of my intermittent touch unresponsiveness and vertical white lines, and my Apple Store tech was unsuccessful at solving this issue, suggesting I had a bad logic board connector. I also blew the connector clean and ensured it wasn’t bent, snapping it back into place and ensuring the problem was resolved with the screen and body still apart as demonstrated by a guy’s you tube video. 100% success and very happy with my 6 Plus again after 2 weeks of pure frustration with this issue. I’m so glad I no longer have to cycle the screen on and off and soft reset the phone to get it to respond.
Hi there,
I was also having this issue with my iPhone 6s Plus 64GB and it was driving me crazy. Sent it back to the store I bought it from but they couldn’t see anything wrong with it. However I expect they didn’t test it very thoroughly.
They sent me back the same iPhone, which was still experiencing this problem. I got so frustrated that I went to the nearest store and bought a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, a truly wonderful device. I am really glad to be back on Android, so thank you Samsung and Google!
I am never EVER buying another Apple product again as I paid 999euro (+50euro for the official case) for a phone that simply doesn’t work. I am truly disappointed in Apple as I feel they actually robbed me of my money. Hope this can serve as a warning for other people thinking about buying their crap…
After struggle and finding solutions for a while with iPhone 5s, i could get my iphone working with a temporary solution. Hope someone here gets a little relief by this solution as suggested on this
Please note this is a workaround and the solution is to get your iPhone repaired.
Here’s what the problem is: the LCD screen connector gets loose and then functions intermittently. Immediate short term fix is to pinch the phone a little right over the connector. So that’s right index finger on the back of the phone, thumb on the screen, about 3/4″ in from the right edge, and just north of the power button. Don’t pinch too hard. The screen will begin to work. The longer term fix is to open it up (if out of warranty) and put a little piece of electrical tape over the connector, under the metal plate. This will keep the connector in contact, but not an operation for those not used to iPhone repair.
Same complaint as many of you. Poor quality product, Apple ignoring the issue. I’m done hearing about why Apple care or other insurance is offered. The phone is 18 months old. Warranty for 12. So basically Apple products are good for 12 months. Not good enough for me. A loyal customer lost. What a shame.
Apple is purposely misleading its loyal customers by pretending that it is perfectly all right to charge a person $800 for a defective product. My iPhone 6 Plus began to flicker and become non responsive for no reason at all. I took it to the Apple Store in Lincoln Park, Chicago on June 10, 2016 and was told that Apple can not guarantee its products past a year. That I must buy a replacement iPhone. I have been an Apple customer since the beginning and can’t believe what this company is becoming. It is robbing people and refuse to take responsibility for creating inferior iPhones. The people in the store don’t care and the manager I spoke with came across as if he was having a pissing contest with me instead of rectifying the problem with the broken hardware that Apple purposely sold me. I will now report this to the Illinios State Attorney office And the BBB because I will not let Apple steal my hard earned money. Apple must be accountable for committing fraud by selling a defective product to its customers.
Just returned from my Genius Bar visit. This is the only solution to this KNOWN ISSUE… “If your touchscreen still doesn’t respond like it should, contact Apple Support or take your device to an Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.”
If your phone is out of warranty (past the 1st year) you will have to pay $299 plus tax for a refurbished replacement phone. The only way around this is if you purchased AppleCare when you bought the phone. Apple is aware of the hardware problem but will only cover you if you are under a warranty. So much for customer loyalty. I’ve been purchasing Apple products since the first IPOD was introduced.
Keep in mind, they take your old phone and most likely refurbish it and sell it again.
It drives me crazy,tried everything nothing works,
If it’s a common error why wouldn’t Apple replace all the devices having these issues??
We don’t need to pay anything extra for their faults,
I’m really disappointed with these
I’ve had my iphone for less than 2 years. Same prob as everyone above, white lines on top, freezing, unresponsive etc. Apple offered me a new phone at $300. I’m never buying anything Apple again.
Just fixed my screen issues. Posting this tip since I have not seen others make this suggestion.
Same problems as everyone…white lines on top, freezing, unresponsive. I did all tips provided by others even a factory restore with 9.3.2. To no avail.
So i decided to get the latest software version from a different website (non-Apple) and restored using that copy of the software and to my surprise, all is fixed. Hope this works for others.
Note: You can select the file to use by holding the shift key and clicking on restore. Then just find the copy you downloaded from non-Apple site and you should be good to go.
OK, so a lot of the above is irrelevant. I went to Apple Store today in Wales.
This is a COMMON KNOWN issue. SO much so that they replaced my iPhone for FREE (as it was under warranty).
i have i6s and just tried with extremly
open your screen, and unplug touch id and 3d touch socket, thats done, my touchscreen normal but home button and 3dtouch off
but be carefull, this is make warraty lose
People should stay away from the iPhone 6 until this issue is fixed. I can’t believe that I have an $800 paperweight because someone at Apple messed up. Absolutely deplorable.
Really a pain i my 6+, think when you are at airport or train and need to show your ticket from the phone and it freezes #%$£¥
my iphone home button doesn’t work, but the power button does and my screen is unresponsive how do i reset it!!! SOS
had the same issue with my iphone 6plus.
1. unresponsive screen (temporary solution: locked and unlocked many times)
2. automatically click or open other apps without touching the screen.
3. when typing a message it automatically type letter b and y.
it happens when i updated to ios9 to ios9.3.2
apple sucks nowadays.
My iphone6+ freezing since I update.
RIP Apple WELCOME Samsung.
I have done this procedure so many times since I got my Iphone 6s I’m sick of it! It stays fixed for a week or so and then starts all over again. Sometimes it only last a day like today, I fixed it yesterday and now it is unresponsive again. I wish I never got this phone, I miss my old iphone 5c so much! Why doesn’t Apple fix this problem! Don’t get an Iphone 6 until they do!
Spoke to soon, bastard phone :,(
Exactly, you think you’ve got it solved and then it does it again! I’m so fed up with this phone!
Well this 9.3.2 update seems to have done the trick!!
I heard from a little bird inside apple this was a known and very accute flaw accounting for around only 5% of users so it was not aknowlendged publicly!!
Hopefully we are back on track now with Apple. I was ready to fully ditch the smart phone and go old school brick!!!
My Iphone 6s just died on me. Well let me rephrase that, the screen does not work, will not light up, or anything, if I call my phone it just rings and rings, I cant answer it. My phone, my phone just updated last night. I am so annoyed and afraid to drive home from work tonight for I have no way to call or anything if there is an emergency. Going to talk to my carrier tomorrow about changing to a galaxy, just over Apple products right now.
Facing the exact issue with my wife’s iPhone 6 as well.
She is annoyed with this issue and the phone is not usable, since the screen freezes every few minutes.
She was about to throw the phone away and I saved it with a promise that I will get this issue resolved.
None of the suggestions above are of permanent nature. I never expected this from APPLE.
If APPLE is not going to resolve this immediately, I bet more iPhone uses will ditch using iOS devices going forward.
#BuggyAppleiPhoneScreens#
Bending the phone with my fingers, as the poster John suggested, works!!! The other suggestions did not work. If I apply forward pressure with my 8 fingers in the back and backwards pressure with my thumbs on the side of the phone, invariably, my screen will become responsive again.
Somehow, perhaps by having the phone in my backpocket, the phone must have been bent. Of course, Apple proclaims that the iPhone 6 Plus has no problems with bending.
I wish that the company would just accept responsibility for this flaw and offer a permanent and free solution to those affected. Bending my phone 20 times a day is getting old.
Better to take a step back regroup and take the time to find and fix than to
Pridefully Falll
Seriously Apple Your no different than us sometimes you fail….
Be better at humility than Microsoft, own it and let us know your taking the necessary steps to remedy and fix the problems.
It’s not Hardware
It is Software, my phones and iPads worked perfectly until iOS 9 !!!!
Seriously don’t kid your selves ….
APPLE Needs to fix this ASAP OR ENABLE US TO TO GO BACK TO THE LAST VERSION OF IOS 8😡😡😡
It’s way way too coincidental that after updating our phones to iOS 9 that all our iPhones 5-6S have screens that began to be unresponsive. Or the phone begins to display whatever it wants as if someone is pressing random buttons
In fact I have yet to have my perfectly working post iOS 9 iPad work as it did before the ios9 update…
I even waited to update, to see what glitches may show up, but unfortunately not long enough.
APPLE ITS TIME TO go back to “PERFECT BEFORE RELEASING”
YOUR CUSTOMERS WOULD RATHER WAIT,
than become disenchanted by rushed work!!!
Come on Apple You can’t rush quality….
DEBUG DEBUG DEBUG DEBUG!!!!
Please !
This is clearly a serious flaw with the hardware of the iPhone 6 Plus, I’m on my second one now and the exact same freezing screen problem has returned, I’ve said to apple support that I have no desire to get a new 6 plus as I know the problem will appear again. They say that a like for like replacement is the only option… Last apple product I’m ever going to buy after years of loyal product buying.
wow , from october 2015 to april 2016 they still didnt make this problem go i reckon, since im having the same problem with my iphone 6s plus 64gb on ios 9.3.1 , ffs apple do something about your costumers
I’ve bought a 6s Plus 128GB in October 2015.
Had the frozen issue from the start with **no** 3rd party apps installed. It mostly happened in mobile Safari. I also went back to the shop and recreated the issue. They wanted to replace the phone, but we checked it first brand new from the box. And it happened after just 10 minutes. Then the shop manager pulls his phone from his pocket, also a 6s Plus, and he says he noticed it also. But he couldn’t recreate the issue on his on the spot. And he had a gazzilion 3rd party apps running. Weird!
I decided not to swap the phone because the new one had the same issue, and I saw them unseal the box.
When I started installing 3rd party apps from the App Store. It also randomly occurred while using those. But if the issue occurs on a virgin iPhone, it must be an iOS issue.
Anyway, I always resolve the issue with a hard (3D Touch) press and hold at the left edge of the screen (the black border) to get to the App Switcher. Then I go back right away to the App which appeared frozen by tapping on its card.
If that doesn’t work, I just quickly double press (click+click, not tap+tap) the Home-button to get to the App Switcher and do the same.
I just prefer the left press and hold, because it doesn’t wear out the Home button.
Let’s hope Apple can get this resolved. Although chances are slim because quite some time has passed.
If someone figures out the cause and the “accurate” solution already. Please let us know. You could save thousands of lives by doing that! Thanks.
Who’s still having the same issues this April? I am still having the same issues. In fact i tried all the aforementioned tips but to no avail. All were temporary. 2 weeks is long enough that the phone is running completely okay but after that, it’ll go back again to being unresponsive. Sometimes after trying a new tip would make you think that your phone is already good but sadly it would still malfunction over a random period of time. Iphone 6. 9.3.1. Need a saviour!
I’m still having it and have no clue about how to solve this. Tried everything – rebooting several times a day, resetting it to factory setting, restoring it. It’s been there since January 2016. Phone becomes unresponsive suddenly and some has some ghost touches too! Took it to an apple service center and they want INR 24800 to replace it with probably a refurbished phone with a 90 days warranty.
Steve..what do you mean by shut off the mic? Can show step?
My screen was randomly freezing over 15 times every day. On-/off didn’t help resetting to new phone didn’t help. On this blog one blogger said he shut off Siri and that solved the problem. That didn’t work, but when I shut off the microphone THAT. WORKED !!
Hope this works for others
Now it’s all about going back to Dragon
Does anyone know of any lawsuit against apple for the unresponsive/freezing screen? I just paid off my phones on my carriers phone purchase plan hoping for some relief on the monthly bill and all 3 phones that I purchased at the same time (all iPhone 5s) started having unresponsive screens around the same time. Too much of coincidence if you ask me – only 18months old. It’s like they were coded to self destruct.
Apple said too bad, buy another phone. My carrier said I just didn’t know how to use the phone all along and now it’s not working.
No one cares and they think we all want to pay $800 a year or so for a new phone. It’s crazy.
Watch out for the hitting on the hand. It does work for atleast a week and then I had to upgrade to bending the phone…… Thumbs on the face and then thumbs on the back and in a movement like folding a wallet. That also works for about a week and once again I upgraded to twisting from the corners. Ya it works also until you shatter the front glass!
APPLE you SUCK! I was told I need to buy a new phone because I was out of warranty by 55 days. Great product I suppose!!! Maybe it’s worth buying a new $800 phone each year.
OK, you’ll probably not believe this but this will absolutely work. After going through the same problem over and over with absolutely no response on my touchscreen, I decide to take off the case. As my frustration group, I smacked the phone pretty firmly against my hand. Voilà. Works every time. I’m sure this will ultimately destroy the phone, and I probably need a new one anyhow, but it absolutely works. This leads me to believe this is a hardware issue, not a software issue. As we all know, these phones have a tendency to bend slightly which leads me to believe that some type of damage must be occurring. I am not suggesting you smack your phone around, but if you’re in a jam and you have that issue. Smack the phone against your hands and it will work again.
Oh thanks for sharing this, it actually worked for me! I was ready to restore it!
I have an iPhone 5s. It is passcode locked and the touch screen is unresponsive. I have already tried to turn it off and I couldn’t because the screen is not responding. I forcibly reboot it a thousand times and still the screen is unresponsive. Now I tried to backing it up using iTunes but because the phone is passcode locked and I cannot backing it up. Any tips on what I can do to fix it before I smash it against the wall????
Thanks
F*******k you apple. Bunch of regards. Having same problem of unresponsive screen. Tried everything possible no signs. I need my phone fixed APPLE….
Just got back from a second trip to the Genius bar. Had an iPhone 6 + replaced 5 months ago. Screen basically got the white band and would not respond. Apple replaced the phone. Now the second 6+ has a touch screen that would not respond. After several hard reboots the screen might respond, but immediately would become unresponsive.
Apple tech said out of warranty, so either $329 for a new phone or $129 to replace the screen. Neither is what I wanted to hear, but he did show me why it was becoming unresponsive and how to fix it.
If you are looking at the phone, in the upper right corner, above the screen, is where the screen connects to the board inside. He basically would just press down on the phone there, and the screen would respond. The 6 plus is large and rather flimsy. I just gave it a good flex pushing down in the upper right and lower left and the phone has been responsive since. The issue is if it gets even slightly bent or flexed, it will become unresponsive, so I have stopped putting the phone in pants pockets or tight confines, and it has worked. I did drop it and had to reflex the phone (push down in the upper right) and it went back to normal. I am not sure if this is the problem most are having, but I am pretty sure this would have fixed my first phone as well. They guy should get a medal from Apple.
Holy cow, that worked for me. I was sure it was a software problem, but when I read your post, I realized it was my fault from dropping my phone so many times and breaking the screen. Pressing on the top right corner worked a charm.
**This worked !! ** I’ve been rebooting, erase the 6 and factory restart, did the “Wipe Clean from Icloud”, and sad for Steve Jobs on what this New Director of Apples is doing to his company (revealing his personal life etc. ..who cares). But your imput solved my problem (who’d of thought). I’m glad that a little humble repair guy at the Apple store gave you a demo and I’ve tried it and it’s right on the mark! You should have a web page to help out all the other lost customer’s being steered the wrong way. Blessings to you and your research and the quiet Apple guy who really knows the issue. Glad I continued reading…your post is way at the bottom and should be on TOP!!
Just want to add a +1 on this… I was experiencing worsening issues with my 6+ not responding to the touch screen. One (not very hard) squeeze in the upper right hand corner and it works beautifully now! Thanks for the tip!
Thanks
I got the same with Iphone 6 plus 128. Apple genius told me it’s a hardware issue and since my phone is out of warranty, he gave me an option to buy a replacement at a cost of $320. I am so frustrated and asked why my phone touchscreen acting up after IOS update. I need a working phone so I bought the replacement. Went home and did an Itune restore and got the same problem. I called back to Apple store and told them the problem. I realized the nothing wrong with the phone hardware, but it’s software issue. I told Apple store rep I want my old phone back and a refund. They told me NO, because the phone was removed from inventory and shipped out ( in less than 1 hours at the store). I told the rep I need to speak to the manager and I will fine a lawsuit. They agreed to give me back my old phone. Apple genius practice is the blame on hardware and forced you to replace at cost if you dont have warranty. I am going back to the store to get my Iphone but I will file a lawsuit against Apple genius practice to extort consumer money.
BTW, turned off Siri on my replacement Iphone and touchscreen worked. Apple quality is so horrible, I will never buy an another upgrade from Apple again. RIP steve Job. Hello SAMSUNG or GOOGLE.
I’m new to Apple but I can count every 10 sec
onds before the my iPhone 6s’s screen goes to sleep it will freeze my screen on first touch/scroll.
Second touch seems to work every time, does anyone else has this issue? Or is this standard will all iPhones now?
Who can solve frozen screen? Genius come here…
Have a 6 that was becoming unresponsive too. Tried all the tricks, reboot,restore, no case, no protector…problem kept coming back. But when I turned off “reachability” in the “accessibility” page in settings…wa-la no more hangs…seems logical that’s that glitch. Hope this helps some of you!
hay , grey i have same problem. that’s real. please reply now , have u this problem? please reply me.
my screen is frozen everythng else is fine but i still get notify but the screen is just froze…
I turned siri oss completelty. Has beeb 1 day and no more freezes
Apple is pathetic to not do nothing but push snotty updates to bandage things all they do is fix one thing and mess up 100 others go android iOS OS X sucks!!!
Also was sick of screen issues, no voicemails, overheats rings and screen doesn’t come on I did everything I went through 4 new in box with t mobile I finally did what I did its Apple poor quality and greed out for their money and not the consumer, got my LG V10 and now a real phone not i junk!!
Too late so many glitches I got so mad I smashed it, sounds stupid but was the best I felt, so much for a 6s plus gold 128 gb
I have iphone 6s and it ringing and no signs on screen,after I reboot the missed call is shown.Touch screen stucks in phone menu lowest part where is favorites,voicemail…Only reboot helps.Phone is new with TSCM cpu inside…waiting for updates maybe its software now on 9.1
I think I may have made some progress here.
I have been having screen freeze / non-responsive touch screen issues for a couple of weeks. I had a crack in the screen, so I figured that was the culprit. Ordered a new screen and fitted it – all good, for a day or two, and then it started doing it again. So I did some reading, I tried soft reset, hard reset, software update, restoring my phone from backup. Nothing worked, and it was getting worse. At first I could hit the top button and occasionally it’d snap out of it and touch-screen would work. However by now, it was getting to the point where the only way I could use it was cracking open the phone and disconnecting the battery in order to shock it back to normal.
I got fed up and decided to wipe the phone back to factory after reading an online tip. Unfortunately, it got stuck half way and ‘couldn’t install’ three times. So at this point the phone was completely unusable.
Just before I started writing out my Ebay auction for the damn thing I decided to persevere. Fourth time lucky and the OS (9.1) installed successfully. Touch screen is responsive and fast – unlike before, where it was full of lag even when it worked. Therefore I am optimistic, even though it’s only been a few hours so far.
I will not be restoring from backup if it works. All of those apps will have to go back on manually. But, hey.
Hope this helps some of you out. I will post back in a couple of days or when it goes wrong again, whichever comes first.
forget what I just said. Touch screen has just become unresponsive again. It lasted 6 hours.
Keen to get to the bottom of this.
It’s a bug with iOS 9, iOS 9 is still in beta but Apple dumped it onto the public as-is so they could meet a deadline. Now they’re busy working on iOS 10 and so iOS 9 is in maintenance mode at best. It likely won’t be fixed, if iOS 9.2 doesn’t fix it, nothing will. Then when iOS 10 comes out, don’t update your iPhone to iOS 10 unless you want to slow it down and make it useless and more buggy.
Apple has gotten too aggressive with intentionally limiting and breaking barely year-old hardware with software so they can force you onto the upgrade cycle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence is basically the Apple corporate motto webpage post Steve Jobs era, it used to be a few years before the ‘old’ stuff was rendered useless, but now it’s only a single year. Absolute disgrace for the price of these products. I have a $900 iPhone 6 Plus from last year that is slower than my iPhone 3G when opening apps or returning to the home screen, explain that one? It’s not just you and I noticing this, the New York Times wrote about it a few years ago:
“The iPhone 5S and 5C models coincided with a release of a new iPhone operating system, which happens to make the iPhone 4 and 4S very sluggish. When my iPhone 4 notified me that the operating system was available for download, there was no warning that the software might affect the speed of my model.”
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/planned-obsolescence-as-myth-or-reality/
Shame on Apple.
Thanks. I was so sure I’d made some progress, and that it was just a bad install. At least I now know more than I did, I suppose. I find it infuriating that Apple aren’t accepting responsibility for this if it is OS based.
I have had to resort to using an old Nokia to take calls for now (that’s about all it can do).
Very tempted to jump to a competitor. I am on sim-only, so no ties. I will wait until 9.2 and if that doesn’t work, I’m out.
I have the same issue with iOS 9.0.2 on iPhone 6.
I too was experiencing this on my 6+ and it got progressively worse over a few days. I did all the steps: all the way to restore fresh from iTunes. It worked for about 12 hours and started happening again. A trip to the Genius Bar the next day, and my problem is solved. They said the cable connection to the touchscreen was loose. They took it in the back and 20 minutes later, done.
I tend to wonder if they quietly replaced the whole screen due to a chip incompatibility with os9.02 — but then again , why lie? Anyway it might be more of a design/manufacturing flaw with the connector coming loose. Hope this helps.
I’m having issues and the only way I can get it to operate normally again is to disconnect the cable and plug it back in – so, I know that it’s not loose.
I guess you’ll never know as the loose cable could have caused the same issue.
how much did they charge u
I have an iPhone 6, purchased at the same time as my husband’s. I had the frozen touch screen. Pressing both home & power buttons at the same time worked. My husband’s phone has not had this problem. Interesting. I hope it doesn’t happen again, but thanks for the tip.
It’s almost certainly iOS 9.x. These problems have been happening on my iPhone 5s with 9.0.2. Have tried all three of your tips. One of them always works. Upgrade to 9.0.2 is the first that has gone off track, too. As someone commented above, at end of upgrade, my iPhone 5s became completely unresponsive AND “lost its mind”, endlessly going through the Welcome, Willkommen routine. Luckily, a reboot was enough.
As I write this comment my phone is freezing up even with texting.im new to the iPhone family and this what I get…never had this issue with android..this issue needs to be fixed cause it’s not good I just got this phone 2 days ago.day one soon as I program numbers I recognize some errors
Brand new 6s plus started a frozen touch screen today, 2 days in to ownership; but cured by your re-boot tip. Thank you! I’ll wait and see if it happens again…
Got a new 6S on 10/14/2015 and this morning (10/16/2015) the touch screen was totally unresponsive. Siri still worked though and I could open apps but not close them.
Rebooted and now working okay. Didn’t ask Siri to reboot–will try that next time.
I’m having the same problem on my 6+ since iOS 9 I get random touch unresponsiveness and just a generally laggy experience not the smooth quick interface I’m used to!
Have new 6s & freezing problem is a pain. Never had this problem with a iPhone before. Is this hardware or software?
I suspect it is software, because some iPhone 6 owners experience this too. But we will find out shortly with another iOS update. If it sticks around, it may be hardware.
I had this unresponsive screem problem with my iPhone6 after upgrade to IOS9.02. Hope Apple comes out with new flawless software soon.
I just had my iPhone 6s Plus replaced to fix a Bluetooth issue. Apple told me to set it up as new, so I did so and now I’m having this problem. It must be a hardware issue because my old phone never did this.
Even going to 9.0.2, unresponsive screen touch screen problem won’t go away. I’m a techie and have tried almost every possible way which even Genius Bar are not aware of…. Only possible solution is to wait for next release… RIP Steve Jobs… Soon RIP Apple…!!!
For those that said resetting network settings. That’ just temporary. Doing a hard reset, that’s just temporary. The problem comes back over time. None of those fixes are a permanent fix it seems. This sucks.
Tried all the 👆🏼 suggestions and nothing worked but temporarily like you said. Next stop is to replace phone
I’ve had the same issues with 2 of my iphone 5.
It’s only started happening since the upgrade to IOS 9.02.
I had the exact same issue with a 6s plus that was set up as new phone (not from backup). I reset the network settings and it hasn’t happened since.
I thought this problem was isolated only to me until I came across your article. I guess it’s becoming a pretty wide spread issue. Updated to iOS 9.0.2 an hour ago and it’s been resolved so far. Was experiencing the unresponsive screen all day on iOS 9.0
Had it happen to me on a 5s too. Since the ‘upgrade’ to ios9….
Just like the messed up way nothing seems to work involving spotlight search. search window partially out of the screen, scrolling up won’t always switch back to the home screen…
At first it wouldn’t even show my apps in the results when I tried searching for them by typing their names.
The only positive is the improved battery life.
Same bug with iPhone 6. I think they mucked up everything with iOS 9.0.1 and later. Damn..
It’s the stupid iOS9. This is the worst upgrade I have ever experienced. From losing it’s mind during the upgrade to 9.02 to freezing & becoming completely unresponsive, this rates right up there with any version of Microsoft software ever released.
I upgraded to IOS 11.03 (well more like I had to) and it has never been slower and the screen now has vertical lines on it (but I did drop it) but I had dropped it before I upgraded and it never did this like WHAT YOU DOING APPLE DANGGGG
Unresponsive problem happens on my iPad mini w/retina display. I suspect this is not the hardware problem (iPhone 6s) instead of the ios 9 itself. Problem happens quite few times whenever I type (even in appstore).
Jacob, I have the iPad2 with iOS 9.0.2 loaded and same thing as your mini and those iPhones. Very inconsistent but I can count on a 30-60 sec delay upon sign on/reboot. It’s a buggy update. Hopefully next update will fix these issues. Good luck! Cheers
I have had this freeze on iPhone 6+, ocassionally. Fortunately, using the power/sleep switch has been sufficient to thaw the screen. Seems to be an iOS issue: something gets deadlocked.
I have had that issue on iPhone 6 Plus, nothing helped. Apple replaced. It’s a production flaw.
I had this problem and it was driving me insane. I turned off the “hey Siri” feature and haven’t seen it since.
Interesting, thanks for the tip, I will try that and see if it still happens. For me, the most effective thing is periodically rebooting the iPhone, but it continues on a regular basis. Fresh install, restore, no difference, I figure it’s a software thing.
Thanks for the tip! The issue has been ‘fixed’ since Hey Siri if off!
I had this problem and it was driving me insane. I turned off the “hey Siri” feature and haven’t seen it since.
Response: THANK YOU! This is best free thing I have had in a long long time! Greatly appreciate you posting this out here, luckily I havent pulled out the last hair on my head – gotta get to the barber and have a nice cut! Merci bissou
This problem has been driving me nuts! I’ve turned off the “Hey Siri” function. I’ll let you know if that corrects it. I hope so!
OK….turning off Hey Siri did not correct the problem for me. I am removing the screen protector just to eliminate that as a possible cause. If that doesn’t work, I am going to restore it to factory condition and try it like that for a while to see if maybe it was one of the apps that I have installed.
It acts much like a computer trying to handle too many functions at one time because the screen sometimes becomes active again in 15 seconds or so…and sometimes much, much longer.
Nice tip & it could work with my Iphone 6s plus.I turned the Siri off and I forced it to reboot by using the Home button+lock screen
I’ll tell you what will happen to me after two days
well did you fix it just curious
u are a savior.. no problems till now after i did this 2 hours back.. let me observe how it goes.. Thanks again.
Mine does this every time I wake it up and also at random. I reboot once a day. iOS 9 is very buggy.
hyy have updated my iphone 6 to ios 9.0.2 and the problem WAS with lags and touchscreen freezed if y do a forcee reset home+power works for 5-10 min and again the touchscreen will not working i have done a restore and a factory reset from iphone menu the problem is the same no luck :) downgrading to ios 8.4.1 is no longer available so y have update to ios 9.1 beta 5 and the apple phone is working like a new oneyes you will say is a beta version but is very ok and very smoother it works to me beter than 9.0.2 y hope be helpfull for someone with same problem