Issue with Proximity Sensor during calls

PatHMV wrote:
I am also having the same problem with my iPhone 4, 32GB. At first I noticed it if I tried to hold the phone between my shoulder and my ear, something I don't do regularly, but never had any problems with, with my old 3G. Now, I'm noticing it happening even more and more as I hold the phone perfectly normally against my ear. I've hung up on people, put it on speaker phone, muted it, accidentally tried to FaceTalk them, and repeatedly annoyed me and the other person by dialing random numbers as I talk with them.

PLEASE, Apple, address this quickly with a software update. You've got the accelerometers, the gyroscope, and the IR proximity sensor. Between the lot of them, you should be able to tell pretty conclusively whether I've got the phone next to my ear or not.

Incidentally, fellow sufferers, the best work around is to hit the on/off switch at the top briefly to lock the screen. Then you'll have to swipe the bottom of the screen to unlock it again, and that's a motion that your face and ear are unlikely to make.

The lock button hangs up the call unless a headset is being used. My solution was to press the home button so at least my cheek only launched an app instead of making a call. I can now confirm the problem has gone away since putting a case on the iPhone. I was using a Griffin case I picked up on launch day and put the Apple bumper on it today. I've been on over half a dozen calls with no problem. The bumper seems to form a little bit of a seal around the ear so the sensor works better. I'm curious to hear if other people see the same result with a bumper on their iPhone.

UPDATE:

The genius said it could be the proximity sensor so he swapped out the phone for a new one. He also said that 300 people on this forum is a small percentage compared to the over 1.7 million phones sold so swapping it makes sense. I realize not everyone would post here anyhow, so who knows.

I made a couple of calls on the way back home and noticed that the sensor is behaving differently. I tried everything (sorry for the graphic detail)... rested the phone on my shoulder, rocked the phone around on my face, rubbed it on my cheek, then when I lifted it away, I noticed that it stayed dark just a moment longer. Ok, seriously, I called a few friends and didn't have the problem.

Looking at my call history though, it can take 5 minutes or up to 20 before my cheek presses 'End Call.' I can't tell how many times it has pressed Speaker or Mute and it was annoying to have people say, "Are you still there?"

I'll just have to see over the next few days.

Add me to the list of people experiencing this issue. Only seems to happen intermittently though which is even more weird. I've tried to force it to happen and of course it won't do it then, it only happens when I'm not thinking about it!

just to add me to this ever growing list, ive had a 3gs with no problems for a year now i have nothing but problems with the phone call being put on hold you can see the screen coming on and off all the time, this is not what you should get for a £600 phone, hope every one is calling apple about this or they will never sit up and listen

Me too. Lots of inadvertent face dialing and I hang up on a ton of calls. Screen also hanging black sometimes when I remove it from my ear. I use a Belkin iPhone 4 case. Problem occurs with and without it. This is very annoying.

zeroio wrote:
He also said that 300 people on this forum is a small percentage compared to the over 1.7 million phones sold so swapping it makes sense.

The point isn't completely invalid, but take the numbers with a grain of salt. First of all, I would be willing to bet at least 1 million of those 1.7 million are very very very technically unsaavy people. Even if they are seeing the problem, they wouldn't know to come to this discussion forum or any forum. They would take the phone into a store, the Genius would tell them what they tell everybody that replacing the phone will work. If it doesn't, they'll get ****** and return the phone and switch to something else. Second, there are probably a large chunk of people that hold the phone in ways where their face never touches the phone. I know many people that do. This would prevent the problem from being an issue for them. Third, people are LAZY. I personally know 5 people that have this problem but they just assume it will be fixed eventually so they don't bother calling Apple or posting to any message boards.

I hope the phone swap worked for you. I haven't made enough calls today to know yet if it worked for me, but I'm not holding my breath. Just wanted to point out that 25 pages of posts about the problem is in fact VERY significant. Even with 1.7 million phones sold.

It happen to me as well. Facedialing,turning off and not being able to slide slider back until call was ended, etc. I did a restore and took off my 3GS case which was causing a lot of issues. Make sure you remove old cases, they are too big and interfere with the sensor causing it to act crazy.

My Proximity sensor was flakey as well. The "Reset all settings" worked for me.

I'm on my 6th replacement phone because of this problem. I sat at the G Bar yesterday testing until one was found that worked a bit better not much. I have made 6 calls so far lasting over 30 mins and I haven't muted or pressed buttons yet. He did say to hold the phone up higher and I have been doing that. They moved the sensor so they could put that stupid camera in. They should have moved the sensor on the op side of the phone. I WANT MY 3GS BACK

my proxinity sensor is not working at all, not even when i cover it with my thumb. bad reception, proxity issues, i am over this phone and i have had iphones since they first came out.

This is a very serious issue. The more you use the iPhone 4 as a phone the more this issue seems to smack you in the face. It is really quite disillusioning that my iPhone 3gs is so much more natural to use then this latest incarnation. I am not having any real issues with the signal, though I can observe the decrease when the left side is bridged like nearly anyone else. And I notice the iPhone 4 has a bit more feedback then the 3gs as the speaker is more dynamic. But the proximity sensory is just getting on my nerves.

I've experienced the exact same issue. It's constantly "flickering" during calls and putting people on speaker.

I called Apple and of course they suggested that I restore the phone and if that doesn't help I should go get a replacement. Obviously restoring the phone did nothing but waste my time. I know if I were to exchange it for a new one (if that were possible at this moment) I would have the exact same issue. I am hoping a software update can at the very least minimize these issues.

the phone is fantastic, by far the best thing since sliced bread. just this silly fault. free bumpers for all would be good. we will all just have to make do with the flaw i suppose..

Hey guys I have definitely been having this issue too and trying to figure out the source of the problem. I have a friend who doesn't have the problem and I had him try and see how far get can get before the sensor kicks in and it was at 1".

However, one thing i did just figure out was that I hold the phone in my left hand and he holds phone in his right hand.

I was wondering for those who have this problem what hand do you hold your phone in? Also those who are not having this problem do you use the phone in your left hand?

Lets see if we can figure out the source of this problem.