iPad Pro touch screen intermittent unresponsive

I’m 80% positive that in my case it is an overheating problem related to software. A couple of months ago after trying everything including reinstalling software etc. I reset all settings to clear any issues with corrupt app prefs and with the case off and no screen protector the issue has almost completely disappeared. It happens perhaps once every month maybe? where previously it would happen pretty much all day everyday. When it does reoccur the back of my iPad is usually hot and so I close all apps and within a few seconds the back cools off and the problem immediately stops. I’ve gone from having a nearly unusable 2nd gen iPad Pro 12.9” to one that is virtually problem free.

Apple still needs to figure out what is causing this - software that makes the device overheat and throttle I presume.

my background: I used to support Apple devices and other IT hardware/software for a large corporation.

Thought I'd post this in case it was helpful to anyone.

I was having this problem for months on my 10.5" iPad Pro and it was driving me nuts. Tried all suggestions I could find - disabling Apple Pencil, changing touch accommodation settings, resetting to factory settings - nothing worked.

I had a silicone back case and an Apple keyboard. After removing the back case the iPad has been behaving perfectly - quite surprised that a flexible silicone case would affect the touch response, but I'm very happy to have my iPad back to a useable state.

Tried all the usual things - no success.

Spoke to Apple twice on the phone who ran Remote diagnostics and declared my iPad had no faults.

in despair I went to Settings / General / Reset / Reset all Settings and that solved the problem.

By the way just to help others. The 1st thing i did was to clear the cache in Safari. Still has the touch intermittent not responding issue... then i tried to turn on “Touch Accommodation” and it worked. I just feel betrayed that i’m blabbing about touch issues on a Touch Screen gadget. If you can’t deliver on the most basic purpose of your product which is to freaking touch it so you can say you are actually using it. Then maybe just focus on selling Monitors, Laptops Desktops without touchscreen because obviously you don’t know why it’s called “touchscreen” it’s more like a “lookscreen” 😱😱😱😱😱

I agree with you. Screen is a capacitive touch screen and relies on electrical current from a person’s touch to work. I have an iPad Pro 12.9 2nd gen which I am having intermittent touch issues. None of the settings changes in this thread helped mine. I tried all.

When the cover is on and I am holding it against my stomach/t-shirt while using I get the response issue, almost consistently repeatable. If I hold it away from me it works again every time and doesn’t occur as long as I don’t rest it against me. Also if I remove the cover completely, hold it in my hand, it does not have any response issues. I don’t think it is gyro/sensor related. Mine never gets hot, so not a heat issue. So it could still be something in firmware/OS that is causing this, not necessarily a defective screen. Problem did not start happening until after one of the updates (after my warranty expired) I don’t remember which. My money would be on an electrostatic related cause. My cover is silicone with magnetic close. I was really getting annoyed using my iPad, especially when typing on screen keyboard until i figured out the above.

I’m not 100% sure if this is a hardware or software problem, but I had been experiencing this for many months too.  I thought I’d have to wait out the pandemic before heading to a Genius Bar to have somebody look at this.  I am running iOS 14.2 on an iPad Pro 10.5 inch (2nd gen A1057).

I noticed that it mostly happened after extended periods of use, when the device gets slightly hotter.  Also something strange, when most of the screen wouldn’t respond to touches for a few seconds, there was always a part of the screen on the right side that would always keep working.

Then I stumbled into this user forum, and learned that other people have been holding their iPad by the bezel and when they stopped the problem went away.  I tried the same and voila!  I haven’t had any trouble since.  I’m right-handed and was holding it in portrait mode with my left hand, so it all makes sense to me that this disease was slowly creeping from left to right.  But just for good measure I also limited my frame rate to 60 fps to be sure.

So my verdict is, for my own iPad at least, that it was a most likely a hardware issue.  But other people may have other things that cause the problem.  

Some people have mentioned that because this problem doesn’t happen to everyone it can’t be related to hardware, but I respectfully disagree.  Apple is notorious for pushing the envelope in their designs, so it’s very possible that small manufacturing glitches can be introduced which can’t be detected by factory-based testing rigs.  And if that were combined with additional random software glitches then Apple will have a real challenge nailing down this issue.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually knew the root cause, but don’t have any simple, low-cost fix.

Hope this helps.

This appears to have fixed the problem for me too. Turn off the 120hz display.

I was having the same problem with intermittent responsiveness and went in and turned the Touch Accommodations OFF and it’s like I have a brand new iPad Pro! Completed eliminated the problem.

The toggling OFF of the Shake to Undo feature seems to be a good, temporary and valid fix for ALL iPad models, too

Another gyroscope related feature, I would think, too!

Great temporary fix to disable and try!

Anyway, as I posted earlier - disabling Tap to Wake has worked for me for the last 2 weeks. After 8 months I’m actually enjoying using this iPad!

hopefully disabling this helps people that ARE experiencing this issue.

Turning off Tap to Wake has completely resolved this issue for me. I was starting to get very frustrated with my iPad, was having to turn the screen off and back on every few minutes, and shut down the whole thing and reboot it about once a day. Since turning off Tap to Wake a few days ago I haven’t had a single touch issue. It’s like I have a whole new iPad!

If you haven’t tried it yet, go into the Settings app, go to General, then Accessibility and scroll down to find Tap to Wake. Switch that off then go back to General, scroll to the bottom and tap Shut Down. Slide the switch to shut down, wait a bit, then turn it back on.

You won’t be able to tap the screen to get the iPad to wake up, but for me, that’s a very small price to pay for a working iPad. I typed this whole thing on the onscreen keyboard without a single issue. The last time I posted here I was fighting the screen trying to get it to register my taps.

Disabling tap to wake has so far worked for me. I have a 2018 12.9 inch iPad Pro. I too have been having serious touch issues for the last 3+ months with iOS 12 and now with iOS 13 beta. So far I have had positive results since disabling tap to wake 4 days ago. Fingers crossed!

Im saying that touch issues are occuring with apple pencil or not, im sure you do have 45 ipad pros but I dont agree that its the pencil causing this issue. I received 4 different ipad pros dating from 2018 to about 2 months ago and all of them had this issue, the only thing thats fixed this is disabling tap to wake. Perhaps you have a different issue altogether.

Have your tried of of the user’s temporary fixes by going into the Settings app on your 2018 iPad Pro, General Settings, Accessibility and try toggling OFF the Tap to Wake feature immediately followed by a reboot/restart of your iPad Pro?

as i said i have exactly same problem on 10.5

charging or not. and right now i’m fighting with keyboard :-/

more frequently - while charging.

i read all this post of course.

just touch firmly metal back of ipad and you will see the difference.

some people even make diy solution with metal foil from under the case.

you make and change your statements too fast ;-)