iPad Pro touch screen intermittent unresponsive

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81 points

iPad Pro touch screen intermittent unresponsive

I have the iPad Pro 10.5 inch for roughly 4 months. I started finding intermittent touch issues that have been random. Its extremely bad when playing games where precision touch and timing are critical. Just normal day to day usage for email, web browsing, etc. you would not notice it much unless you attempt to draw in notepad, then I can see how occasionally it does not register touch while sliding a stylus and other times, its like a rapid touch response.

I have performed every single thing I could find from others having the same issue, and from the looks of how many complaints about this, it sounds like either design flaw or iOS issues. I have tried the following:

Turn off and on
Hard rest/restart
Clean the screen frequently
Removed the expensive tempered glass Screen protector
Switched case to a case that has no magnetic close
Use the Apply plug instead of a multi-usb port charger
Turning off Bluetooth
Turning off Background App Refresh
Turning off Multitasking
Etc...etc...etc..etc.

Nothing has worked and seeing all the various forums and posts from people, this is a big problem a rather massive quantity of people have with the iPad Pro's. This weekend I have just had it with this very new iPad Pro that is driving me crazy... I hit the forums looking for anything i have no tried and its all the same, nobody knows and many have just given up on iPads, a lot of people have turned their iPads in under warranty only to find the refurbished units they receive all have the same issue. I am right there with them, I have absolutely loved the Apple devices, my house nearly all Apply, TV's, iPhones, iPads, MacMini's, etc.

I was preparing to erase my iPad Pro and send it back, but gave it one more try, i literally went through every single setting, turning off every single feature and hard restart. After that, the issues are so far gone. I may have a pretty much featureless iPad Pro right now, however no more intermittent unresponsive touch, so i suspect its an iOS issue! I have no interest in turning on any settings one at a time until the issue returns, for now hoping it will eventually be resolved and i can turn everything back on, i just need to not deal with this issue for a while as it has nearly turned me away from Apple products going forward. As expensive as these devices are, we should not have these kind of issues.

iPad Pro 10.5-inch, Wi-Fi, Cellular

Posted on Jan 13, 2019 7:44 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

MichelPM

Level 10

80,952 points

Jan 31, 2019 8:47 PM in response to Vmax28

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!”

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Answer 2

MichelPM

Level 10

80,952 points

Jan 13, 2019 11:25 PM in response to Pyro.Man

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!

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Answer 3

Jan 20, 2019 7:32 AM in response to MichelPM

I’m experiencing the same issue. I have a 2018 iPad Pro 12.9 WiFi version. Interestingly, i never experienced this issue with the 2017 iPad Pro 10.5. I took the 12.9 iPad Pro to the apple store and said it was very likely software related. The frustrating part is it is difficullt to reproduce the issue. The touch sensitivity issue happens intermittently.

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Answer 4

Oct 26, 2020 10:17 PM in response to Paravin

Apple told me it’s a problem with that iPad hardware and not the iOS. Mine is getting worse all the time. It’s a characteristic of all MPDY2LL/A. He said we just happened to pick the iPad with problems. If you have Apple care you can trade for a refurbish, but eventually it will do the same thing. Doesn’t seem fair to me. We pay a lot for iPads. Supposably they stopped selling that model number.

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Answer 5

JR-Pars

Level 1

10 points

Mar 22, 2019 3:08 PM in response to danfromdunwoody

Had this issue with new 12.9 iPad Pro. Tried everything mentioned above, including reboot/redownloading of hardware, not just software. Apple support online not helpful. Visited store. Of course, the problem didn't happen with tech. Replaced with reconditioned iPad Pro; 2 weeks newer model. Unlike with original iPad, I did not update to 12.1.4 iOS, choosing to stay with 12.1.3 . Have not experienced the problem since. I think the problem lies with 12.1.4, either inherent or in conjunction with 3rd party apps. As near as I can recall, the problem didn't start until after I had updated to 12.1.4. Can't swear to it, but fairly sure.

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Answer 6

MichelPM

Level 10

80,952 points

Mar 22, 2019 5:13 PM in response to JR-Pars

This issue had started for all year and model iPad Pros since the initial release of IOS 12.

Some users have stated their iPad Pros started having this unresponsive touch screen issues as far back as IOS 11.4.1

Based upon many comments across 25 thread postings, I have no doubt, now, that this is an IOS software related issue/bug.

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Answer 7

MichelPM

Level 10

80,952 points

Jun 2, 2019 9:22 PM in response to advancingphoenix

My 2015, 1st gen 12.9 iPad Pro has never had this issue.

And still does not have this issue running under iOS 10.3.3.

I strongly believe this is an iOS issue and it either started somewhere late in the iOS 11 update cycle and this issue is even more pervasive, since the introduction of iOS 12 last October.

iOS 12. 2 and 12.3 were reported to fix this issue and now some reports of the iOS 12.4 beta has, also fixed this issue.

This touch screen issue is still ONLY affecting a small amount of iPad Pro users across all three model years.

There is still less than 1000 iPad Pro users reporting this issue.

A very small minority when compared to the millions of iPad Pro models sold over the last three years.

This seems to affect 10.5, 11 and 12.9 inch screen iPad Pro models, only.

No reports of the 2016, 9.7 inch screen iPad Pro models being affected by this non-responsive touch screen issue.

No reports, as yet, to whether this is affecting the new 2019, 10.5 inch screen iPad Air 3, or not.

It is best to continue sending feedback about this to Apple here.

iPad Feedback

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

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

Out of curiosity, do you upgrade/update your iDevices over the Air using the built-in wireless iOS Software Update feature or using iTunes on a computer?

Best of Luck to You!

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Answer 8

MichelPM

Level 10

80,952 points

Aug 1, 2019 6:02 AM in response to KeenMachine

I believe heat and iPad hardware/software resource intense activity could be one cause.

However, there are 3 or 4 more current active threads going on where users do not use or own an Apple Pencil and some do not do any heavy resource intensive tasks on their iPad Pro models, but these users still have this unresponsive touch screen issue.

I believe the additional heat generarted from doing more extensive, high resource active gaming could be exacerbating this touch screen issue, but this still NOT the real underlying cause.

See this other discussion here for more insight.

Real work on a solution started around page 7 of this post, courtesy of Fred Foox.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8658399?page=7

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Answer 9

Mar 22, 2019 7:43 PM in response to Pyro.Man

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

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Answer 10

Mar 30, 2019 6:19 AM in response to B-V-K

They won't do anything from you telling them to on this forum. This is a user to user ONLY forum and Apple Engineers do not read, respond, nor take action from user posts here.

If you really want Apple to hear you, provide feedback to them directly via this link: Feedback - iPad - Apple

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Answer 11

May 7, 2019 11:12 AM in response to Leigh-Anne Tompkins

Yes, absolutely, let Apple know by providing feedback via this link: Feedback - iPad - Apple

However, it is not accurate to say EVERYONE is having this issue, because EVERYONE is not having this issue. I have two iPad Pro 11's, neither of which have had any touch issues.

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Answer 12

Jun 30, 2019 1:35 PM in response to JDH75

Posting here won't get any message to Apple. This is user to user only forum. Tell Apple you're having an issue with touch by providing feedback to them directly via this link: Feedback - iPad - Apple

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Answer 13

Janosos3

Level 1

4 points

Jul 18, 2019 6:38 AM in response to MichelPM

Everybody PLEASE report this issue here:

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

If you don’t, Apple doesn’t hear abut it. I went to the Apple store and NONE of the kids there have heard of this issue. Apple is NOT acknowledging this problem at all.

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Answer 14

MichelPM

Level 10

80,952 points

Jul 29, 2019 2:41 AM in response to AnybodyM

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

Best of Luck to You!

Reply

Answer 15

MichelPM

Level 10

80,952 points

Aug 6, 2019 4:56 PM in response to striders

I would make a actual contact call to Apple customer service, in Cupertini, CA, and talk with them on this issue since you have this many 2018 iPad Pros and talk to them about your iPad Pro issues to them, at the source.

Contact phone numbers here via the link below.

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

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