iPad Pro touch screen intermittent unresponsive

This is NOT what you are going to want to read/learn, but this is a known issue across all iPad Pro year and models ( even the brand new 2018, 3rd gen iPad Pro models ) and it is starting to affect both the 2018 and 2017 6th and 5th gen 9.7 inch screen iPads, too!!

I am beginning to think that this is a growing issue that is NOT hardware related, but either iOS 11 and/or iOS 12 related bug.

I have a 1st gen, 12.9 inch screen iPad Pro still running iOS 10.3.3 and I am NOT experiencing these recent intermittent touch screen issues.

The best you can do is alert Apple to this growing issue.

The only way to get Apple to, DIRECTLY, listen to you is to use their feedback portion of their website.

iPad Feedback

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

Cognizant Apple employees read ALL feedback generated from all of the various feedback pages and transfers the data to the proper and responsible Apple teams and personnel , but NO Apple employees will ever respond with any type of direct, individual replies from the feedback you post.

The more users that post product feedback about any product issue, the faster Apple is made aware and starts working on a fix/solution for a future software update.

Also, you may want to phone contact Apple, directly in Cupertino, California, and calmly talk to an Apple customer service employee about this issue via the link below.

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

Good Luck to You!

Some other user mentioned trying this in another post thread.

Possible Solution from user Andrew Ngo

Original posting from here.

iPad Pro 11" - Touch Screen Unresponsive - Apple Community

“For those whom have touch screen unresponsive issue with iOS 12.1.....

Goto Setting -> General -> Accessibility -> Touch Accommodations, Turn on Touch Accommodations. Leave everything else in the options alone.

All my touch issues gone!”

I feel like the probleme is from the 120Hz refresh rate display on iOS 12

I’m not having anymore that freezing since I limited the frame rate at 60 on...

Settings / General / Accessibility / Display Accommodation / and toggle on the limit frame rate

TLDR: Let me start by saying I had very similar issues with my 11” iPad Pro, took it in to Apple, the person helping me determined it was mouse likely a faulty touchscreen and replaced it without any further issue. The replacement 11” iPad Pro has not exhibited any problems.

One of the reasons it took me so long to take it in was the lack of conclusive reports online in places like this that any had gotten their issues resolved, events with a replacement unit. But at least so far, getting a replacement worked for my case. So, if you are seeing touch problems, you talk to Apple about it.

The single factor which made it less than perfect service was that, since it’s not a stock config, I had to return to the Apple Store to swap out my faulty one about four days later when the replacement unit came in, rather than allowing it to be delivered to my house and then shipping the faulty one back.

I ca your issue is the same as mine, but my 11” iPad Pro began to show symptoms like those mentioned at least a month or two after having bought it. It may have been the result of one of several drops, but I don’t know if the issues coincided with one of those of not, and, aside from smushes in the aluminum frame edges, there was no apparent damage. The Apple staffer I spoke with noted the dings, but showed no concern about them.

The iPad would intermittently stop recognizing touch, which would temporarily be fixed by a sleep/wake, but would soon start again. I found turning off Bluetooth would cause the problem to go away but only temporarily.

Whatever the issue was, I made an appointment with Apple, told them all I had done to try to determine the cause... I’ve put the notes I took in with me at the end of this post.

Tim H.

—————————-

iPad stops responding to touch when using my finger.

• • Contacted support 3 to 4 months ago. April or earlier.
  • Support had me reset network settings and do a hard restart, after which the problem was not immediately apparent. 
  • Said if reoccurred, contact support or go to an Apple Store...
  • This issue has reoccurred across multiple OS updates and numerous restarts. 
  • I’ve reset network settings and done a hard restart. These offer only temporary reprieve.
  • Finger touches seem to work sometimes if I press slowly and very solidly.
  • When a touch is rejected in the text field, I am sometimes still able to press and hold on the spacebar and use the soft trackpad to move the cursor.
  • When unlocking iPad, the symptom often shows itself as my being able to begin sliding up the lock screen, then it slides back down, as if the touch is no longer detected. Putting iPad to sleep and then waking it, no matter how briefly, temporarily rectifies the problem.
  • When this problem is occurring, it feels as if any touch on the front of the iPad, even at the very edge of the glass face nearest the frame, makes the screen stop responding to finger touches.
  • I’ve had 8 iPads and the previous generation Pencil and never experienced this, nor did I experience it with this iPad when I first got it.

When it began

• • It started months ago. It being my primary computer, along with difficulty diagnosing, made me delay getting it fixed...  
  • Hoped a software update would deliver a fix, but have heard (from a few others who seem to have run into this) the latest iOS 13 beta does not.

Apple Pencil and the issue

There’s a connection between Apple Pencil and this issue.

• • Temporarily fixed by sleeping then waking iPad or entering airplane mode. 
  • In all case where screen doesn’t respond to finger, it responds to Pencil.
  • When Bluetooth is on, but Apple Pencil is not connected, as shown in Bluetooth settings, I do not experience the issue.

Other possibly relevant facts

• • Double Tap is off in Settings: Pencil. (I frequently trigger it by accident)
  • I use Procreate and have “Disable Touch actions” turned “On” in Procreate  prefs.
  • I have two Apple Pencils which I use interchangeably

Exactly, I’m in the same boat. I’ve owned just about every iPad before the 2018 iPad Pro so definitely know what to expect with an iPad touch screen. I’m on the third replacement model, that’s 4x 2018 iPad pros all with this issue, all been replaced at different times so unlikely to be from the same batch. Although, I have to say after disabling tap to wake this has fixed it for me 100% for the last 3 months. I did a little test today where I re enabled tap to wake and bam the problem was back, as soon as I disable and restart the device it’s gone.

No definitely not, all 4 2018 ipad pros ive had have had the issue from the get go. Also to all these people finding "new fixes", earlier this year I had done very thorough testing having tested the screen rotation lock, touch accomodations, gestures and everything you can think of, I literally went through every single setting....It seemed to work but then the issue returned a few hours or days later. The ONLY think that has worked and is still working 3+ months later is disabling tap to wake followed by a restart/reboot. Again, obviously this is only a fix for the 2018 model as other models do not have tap to wake option.

I feel like the probleme is from the 120Hz refresh rate display on iOS 12

I’m not having anymore that freezing since I limited the frame rate at 60 on...

Settings / General / Accessibility / Display Accommodation / and toggle on the limit frame rate

this is just what works for me, either way Apple is useless and are avoiding the issue. I have done everything imaginable, including setting up as a new iPad so can’t be clutter. I’ve returned my iPad and had it replaced with new devices 3 times with the same issue occurring in the brand new replacements from the start. In 8 months, disabling tap to wake is the only thing that’s worked for me. Since disabling it, It’s been 2 weeks with absolutely no issues.

This is the issue I was experiencing on all iPads: https://youtu.be/qSV410T7Ems

Never owned an apple pencil yet ive experienced it on 4 ipad pro 2018s that ive owned so im not sure that it has anything to do with leaving the pencil on too long. Disabling the tap to wake feature has eliminated this issue for me and dozens of other people I have shared this with (I have a youtube channel with alot of people reaching out to me).

By the way, I think I found the solution, it appears that due to the large screen nature of iPad Pros, it's prone to smudges and dirt on the screen resulting in invalid touch registers.

With the new update to iOS 13.1.2, it seems like the sensitivity to gestures are magnified hence causing the problems.

Here's how I fixed mine:

Go to General -> Multitasking & Dock -> Gestures (Turn off)

Cheers

Toggling OFF the Tap to Wake feature was the fix.

NOT changing the power/charging block.

The Tap to Wake toggle OFF temporary fix has been known here for quite some time.

This DOES NOT help any older iPad Pro models with a Home button that are affected by this intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue as the Tap to Wake feature is NOT available to older iPad Pro models affected by this issue.

I got the same problem on my iPad Pro 10.5 (2017). I tried:

• enabling touch accommodation
• disabling "Share iPad Analytics"

nothing helped. I used it without a case, and I had a crack over the screen. I had iOS 12.0 there. I use Apple pencil, and it always works with it.

Then I updated it to the latest iPadOS 13.1 through MacBook. Usually I do this directly on the iPad, but this time I updated it through Mac OS Catalina. It didn't help, but it seemed to be a bit better to me. Fewer freezings, but may be it's only my perception.

Then I updated it to 13.1.2 through MacBook again. And it didn't help also, but it started to freeze less.

Then I updated to 13.1.3 through MacBook again and the issue almost gone away. I saw it rarely. Then I noticed that the issue goes away if I put iPad on a towel when use it. Then I bought a cheap smart case and the problem finally went away!

I still have touch accommodation enabled and share iPad analytics disabled. I'm glad that after so long time I managed to cope this issue.

Update: I did receive a replacement iPad Pro from Apple. I set it up as new and it is working as designed so far. It has only been a few days. I’ll keep you all posted.

My first suggestion would be to ask Apple to replace if you are having the problem. They didn’t think twice replacing mine... True, I have AppleCare+, and also true, that I was able to demonstrate the problem in real time.

My second suggestion would be to go to the time and trouble of erasing the device and setting it up as new. Don’t use your backup for anything.

FYI - online support had me restore to factory setup, intermittent touch screen response problem still exists, they deemed it a hardware problem. I went to the Apple Store Genius Bar who concurred (even though the problem can’t be reproduced on demand) and they replaced it with a new unit under warranty at no charge. Of course the new unit only has the remaining warranty for the original, so given this issue I decided to put the new one under Apple Care. I felt that Apple handled this quite well without putting me through any of the “try this”, “try that”.

Read the postings above.

In Settings app, toggle OFF Tap to Wake and restart your iPad Pro.

Your touch issues should go away.