Cannot slide to answer phone calls

There are a lot of posts here saying the same thing. I hope someone from Apple has the patience to read this far, because here's the thing people: THIS IS NOT AN APPLE PROBLEM.

It's a technology problem. I ditched my iPhone3 for an iPhone4 because of this problem, and it still persisted. So I ditched Apple altogether and got a Nokia Lumia 820 with Windows 8, and guess what? I still can't swipe when the phone is ringing. All phones use the same technology for recognising touch, and it just doesn't work with some skin types. So why does it only happen when the phone is ringing? Read on...

As the problem only occurs when the phone is ringing, here's a crazy theory:

Different skin types have different electrical properties, such as resistance. This affects how well the screen can recognise your finger. If you've ever taken a polygraph test, you will know that the properties of your skin change according to your stress levels, such as when you are lying. These changes are very small, and almost intantaneous, that's why a polygraph works. If you tense up when the phone rings, and your skin type is already on the boundary of what the screen can recognise, this change in the electrical properties of your skin could be enough to stop it working at all.

People have beaten polygraph tests by deliberately being annoyed throughout the test. This masks the slight changes which the polygraph reads, so we know it changes the properties of your skin.

I don't know if this will work: Just before you try to answer the phone, take a deep breath and try to calm yourself. Some people feel a slight emotional jolt when the phone rings. It's a conditioned response. The age we live in has taught us that we MUST respond quickly to doorbells and phones. That slight boost in adrenaline could be enough to change the properties of your skin. Don't get angry with the phone either. Getting frustrated probably changes your skin's properties in a way that make it worse.

Phone companies cannot reproduce the problem if they don't happen to test with someone who has skin like us. Also they are not answering real calls, so they probably don't get the slight adrenaline boost. They need to invite someone who has the problem to come in and help with testing.

Ideally the whole industry needs to come up with a screen technology that solves this, it's not just Apple.

LOL.

Funny story.

I tried this by calling myself and indeed, I can always answer the phone then.

It's a bit like the fact that you can't tickle yourself: you can't make yourself nervous... ;-)

On the other side, I seem to remember that the screen reacts: the arrows move on the screen but there is no further reaction. That would off course prove that this is not the reason...

Will research and test further later...

It happens to me too, but I notice that it happens only when the phone rings when I am listening to music then screen change to the "Slide to answer" view but then it, won't budge. When I am not using the phone, there is no problem what so ever. So it has to be sofware related.

I wish Apple would fix it so you can answer calls by clicking "Accept" or "Decline" like before. Forcing people to have to slide to answer is ridiculous and Apple is loosing a lot of customers because of it. I know several people that got rid of their iPhones and went elsewhere because of the slide to answer options. Apple so your customers a big favour and fix it.

I get this problem on my iPhone 3GS (iOS 6.1.6). I initially thought it was completely random, but there is a consistency to it that I haven't seen anyone else mention.

When my phone rings, whilst locked, one of two things will happen:

1) I will be presented with a "slide to answer" slider AND a phone icon that slides up to reveal Accept & Decline buttons.

2) I will be presented with a "slide to answer" slider only (IE no phone icon).

If I get option 1, the "slide to answer" slider never seems to work (although the phone icon and Accept/Decline buttons work)

If I get option 2, the "slide to answer" slider always seems to work.

It's obvious to me that it's a bug with the option 1 slider, given I have no trouble with the option 2 slider.

Does anyone know how/why the phone icon appears sometimes, but not others? I think it's the key to understanding the "randomness" of this problem (at least on my phone, anyway)?

I thought the possibility brought forward by Gurgamel was an interesting one. I.e. that the touch screen would sometimes be unresponsive due to the person using it being stressed or so, which changes how the touchscreen can sense him.

However, I currently still have this problem on my iPhone 4S, and it often happens that the screen is responsive, i.e. the slider "slides", but I can't answer the phone.

I still think this is outrageous that Apple did not do anything about this problem or did not even answer on this extensive thread. It seems clear to me that they have a fundamental issue in their phones, which they don't even seem to be able to solve in the newer versions...

Hi bouchbre!

Interesting, I have the same thing.

My 4S behaves differently.

1) I get 2 buttons: Accept & Decline: Then, it always work, I can accept calls.

2) I get slide to answer: I can accept calls, 30% of time.

I thought the difference between 1 and 2 was based on if the device is in sleep mode or not at the time of call. I'll check it out.

There is no doubt to me indeed that this is a bug. I can't beleive Apple is not solving this.

<quote>I can't beleive Apple is not solving this.</quote>

<rant>

They DID solve this, with the iPhone 6. Apple is not in the business of looking after old products. It produces what it says we need to swallow, as usual items that are too old become too hard to masticate and digest. In fact, arguably, Apple breaks older products with newer iterations of ios, every manufacturer goes through these same problems as hardware gets amortised to the realms of the ether. The hardware is just not capable of too many layers of abstraction from when it was created without bogging it down to an unusable/unstable state and requiring many unprofitable manhours to backtrack and fix. My guess is Apple employs a very small team to fix the mountains of bugs in order of pressure coming at them from the above. Even those guys must feel swamped with backorders of issues that never will see the light of a KB update.

Personally I am on the verge of ditching this whole touch screen phenomena in favour of a good ol fashioned keypad phone. I need a phone that delivers the "phone" first and foremost, everything else needs to just btfo and take a seat. I may want the phone to share it's cellular with another device (i.e. hotspot) but that is all. I can tablet <u>everything</u> else. I too have a 4S that I curse unholy hexes at daily. I am holding off on a new phone atm because September will see the newest flagship, the iPhone 7!! And ios updates will not be available for phones under 5S I assure you, as well as 5S users will have a plethora of bugs surface as new features creep into ios 9. But until then I will be thinking/looking long and hard at alternative "phones".

</rant>

For the record, this bug still happens on the latest iOS 8.3 and iPhone 6+ 128GB! This is a $949 phone for gosh sakes. You would hope and expect that the "actual phone" part would "always work flawlessly". Sadly, this is just simply not the case.

Suggestions:

• When in doubt, reboot.
• Force quit all apps.
• Don't leave it in your pocket.
• Plug in headphones and answer with the headphone button.

It boggles my mind that this problem has been happening on every iPhone and iOS version since 2010. Unreal.

I can confirm that my issue with an iPhone 5c not being able to slide to answer calls was with the flip cover. Removing the flip cover completely solved the issue. Its was one of these fake leather covers with some soft felt like material on the inside. Maybe too much static from the synthetic materials?

Same here. Did it to me on every iPhone I've had. I'm on the iPhone 6 and still having the issue. Drives me nuts.

Still happens with a brand new iphone 6s.

Hi,

here the same, on 6s, never had it on 4,5,6:( seems to be common and nobody has exact solution:(

same problem iphone 6s Plus iOS 9.3.2

Here is what worked for me as I had the same problem. My Iphone 5 did not let me answer any incoming call as slide to answer didn't respond to my touch.

It so happens that when I turned off the Hotspot on my Iphone 5, the slide to answer started responding to all my incoming call.

Give it a spin and let's see if it works for many. To me it seems like a software issue. I have iOS 9.3.3 on my Iphone 5.