Cannot answer incoming calls!

Hey,

Make sure there are no 3rd party accessories interfering with normal operation. A protective case might be covering the proximity sensor and a protective film might make the screen stop responding to touch.

If the issue persists try restoring the iPhone and setting it up as a new iPhone. This article will walk you through the restore process. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305744

Jason

Same deal. iPhone worked OK until update to 2.1 Now I see this "can't slide to answer" issue. Also note a simpler "workaround" is after the slide fails to answer, hit the round "home" button, and the phone will answer.

I leave the phone "locked", I wonder if it's related?

Most annoying!

Equally or more annoying is my "parrot" bluetooth car adapter can't answer the phone via bluetooth, so driving, I need to either ignore the call, or use the slider then "home" button method.

Is apple working on a fix? Seems pretty blatant...

I have this too and it applies to new SMS as well! Very annoying and it's getting more and more frequent these days, like at least once a day.

I have a similar problem. Someone would either call or text me and nothing came up on the screen but minutes later I would check my phone and it said Missed Call and crap like that. So i had to restore it and so far it works

Hi everyone,
I was having some problems answering calls that I felt vibrate, but didn't hear the ringer. It seemed like I was able to "answer" the call, but I heard nothing when putting the iPhone to my ear. Oddly I once tried speakerphone and it worked. I tried a number of things including rebooting the iPhone, followed by own tests with a landline, but to no avail. On a whim, I wondered if it had to do with the iPhone thinking that it still had the earbuds plugged in...voila...after plugging in the headphones and then unplugging them, it worked! So, I think the issue (at least for me) is a faulty switch in the headphone jack that doesn't always disengage...possibly some pants-pocket fuzz or something caught in there.
Best,
David

Well, the Apple store just handed me iPhone #5 about 2 weeks ago. So far I've been able to answer calls, but not end them. (Pressing the home button and going back to the call seems to help). Of course, being unable to answer calls didn't happen every day. But it did happen on several different models I had.

I'm tempted to chuck it and go back to Verizon and try out the storm, but, at this point am a little leery of touchscreens. Plus, I'm not a big Vz fan, just everyone I know is on it. I happen to like ATT-get a lot of use out of rollover, but if I have to buy another phone after spending $400. on this one, the finances kind of dictate going to Verizon. 😟

I'll miss a lot on my phone, but answering/ending calls is a basic function that should work. It also would have been nice if Apple had upgraded me to a 16 GB, but, I guess if a phone doesn't work, the size doesn't matter.

Since upgrading to 2.2, I have yet to discover if the problem persists.

Well, since upgrading to 2.2 on Friday I've been able to end EVERY call. LOL It's a good feeling. The answering problem was sporadic, but hopefully that's fixed also.

Funny thing is I asked at the Apple store if this was a common problem and they had not heard of it happening, yet I asked my son's friend (who lives in another state), who is also a genius, and he said it's a known issue.

Hope it has resolved for every one else also.

I'm afraid firmware 2.2 does not address this issue. I'm on 2.2 right now (iPhone 3G) and have just received a call I couldn't answer because the slider did not respond.

Interestingly, although the answer call slider didn't respond, I was able to press the home button and then unlock the phone... by which time the person calling me had given up. However, this means that it's not a case of the whole phone becoming unresponsive, which should narrow down the list of possible causes.

Well, it doesn't answer the not ending call problems either. I just ported back to Verizon (sadly). I'm paying too much to be on ATT with a phone that has given me so many issues. Any other issues are bearable, but we should be able to answer/end calls. That's just a simple phone function. They replaced my phone 5 times - any other company would have offered me a different phone, Apple didn't even give me a larger capacity. (not expecting the 3G). It would have been a nice gesture considering the # of times I had to bring the phone in.

Now to figure out how to securely wipe my data and transfer the Apple care when I sell it.

I'm experiencing the same problem after upgrading from 1.1.4 to 2.2. Jason L: I'm not using any third party accessories, so that cannot cause the problem (would also be a bit strange that a software upgrade would cause the third party hardware accessorie to cause the problem... or something like that).

So far I've read here:

- Applies to iPhone 2G and 3G
- This goes for both firmware 2.1 and 2.2
- A restore does not solve the issue
- After failing to answer by sliding, pressing the home button does allow you to pick up
- Not answering the phone, and the other party cancelling the call before going to voicemail, will lead to the phone ringing indefinitely
- There might be a relation with the phone being on silent (vibrate only), since quickly putting it to ringing allowed one user to pick up anyway
- I found the following link:

http://mymacbuzz.com/2008/09/22/possible-fix-for-iphone-21-crashing-incoming-cal ls

But I couldn't find a corrupt contact using the method described in this article, so this didn't fix my problem.

Any new ideas are welcome!

I think I found the reason for my problem (I hope it's the same problem for everyone else here), and the solution as well: the users for which this happened all had custom-made ringtones assigned to them in the past; I was able to pick up calls from people without custom-made ringtones assigned to their contacts without any problem.

Since those ringtones weren't present in the phone anymore after the upgrade (obviously), the phone was trying to play ringtone files that didn't exist. Uploading them again to the phone fixed my issue.

I was having the same problems: no ringtone for incoming calls, not able to answer incoming calls using the slider, phone continued to vibrate if calls were not answered...I removed all of my custom ringtones created with iphoneringtonemaker, and now it is working perfectly.