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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

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 31, 2019 8:47 PM

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!”



757 replies

May 27, 2020 12:16 PM in response to Rusty-Buckets

The best you can do is to continue to alert Apple to this growing issue and hammer the Apple iPad feedback pages mutiple times on this 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.

You can post as much multiple feedback about this issue any time.

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.


As I stated, this intermittent, unresponsive and unresolved iPad Pro touch screen issue has plagued a small, but growing minority of iPad Pro users across all 4 years of iPad Pro models for over 18 months, now!


Also, I STRONGLY suggest contacting/reaching out to Apple Product support and services on this larger screen iPad intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue and you have to escalate this issue to higher levels of Apple senior customer support personnel to get their attentions on this issue.

Tap on the first link below and scroll down some to get to the Apple Product Support section and phone numbers for your location/region.


https://www.apple.com/contact/


OR


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232



This is a serious, unresolved hardware/software problem that has been plaguing a growing minority of iPad Pro users, across all model years, for the past 18 months, or so.

For iPad Pro users, this intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue started waaaay back with either a late iOS 11 update OR with the introduction of iOS 12.

There is NO resolution for this from Apple, to date.

No way to know whether Apple has any type of fix/solution coming soon, or not.


Sorry that you iPad Air 3/iPad Pro has contracted this issue.

You are now part of small, but still very much a growing minority of larger screen iPad users that have been affected by this intermittent, unresponsive larger iPad touch screen problem/bug/flaw.




Sorry & Best of Luck to You!

Jun 4, 2020 8:14 PM in response to bilbao58

I STRONGLY suggest contacting/reaching out to Apple Product support and services, again.

Tap on the first link below and scroll down some to get to the Apple Product Support section and phone numbers for your location/region.


https://www.apple.com/contact/


OR


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232



If you need to, if initial 1st tier Apple customer phone support is of no help to you, I encourage you to calmly ask to have this issue escalated up to more responsible, senior Apple customer support employees to see if they can come up with a possible fix or solution to this iPad touch screen issue, or not, but I make no guarantees, whatsoever.

If you need to, you can have this issue escalated all the way up to Apple engineering staff level of customer support.

Do not settle for initial contact, 1st tier Apple customer phone support.

Apple product issues can be escalated to more senior Apple product support staff.


Even if no acceptable resolution, Apple, AT LEAST, logs all support calls and issues.



Best of Luck to You!

Jun 23, 2020 2:25 PM in response to bilbao58

I am sorry to learn that you are experiencing touch scree issues with your fairly recent 2019 iPad Air 3 model.

I believe that your 2019 iPad Air 3 may have contracted an serious, hardware and/or software related, intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue/problem/bug/flaw.


There is absolutely nothing that can be done.


Apple really does NOT have a final fix or solution to this issue.


There are many things causing this ongoing issue.


This intermittent unresponsive screen issue appears to be a rather difficult issue to resolve as this issue has been going on for 20 months, now!


See this Apple support link for some additional help, if needed.



https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201406



This is a well known issue here in these iPad support communities.

This intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue affects a continuing, growing minority of iPad Pro users/models across all 4 years of iPad Pro models, as well as the new 2019 10.5 inch screen iPad Air 3, which is based from the 2017, 10.5 inch screen iPad Pro models.

Take a look at these long standing, longer posts on the subject of this intermittent, unresponsive touch screen

issue, below.



Because this issue is either STILL only affecting a growing, but still very small minority of iPad Pro/iPad Air 3 users OR iPad Pro/iPad Air 3 users are simply NOT reporting this issue enough here in these official Apple iPad support communities OR simply NOT posting enough feedback to Apple about this intermittent, unresponsive iPad Pro touch screen issue to alert the proper responsible and cognizant Apple employees and teams and get them working on this iPad Pro touch screen problem.



iPad Pro touch screen intermittent unresp... - Apple Community


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250085450



iPad Pro screen unresponsive - Apple Community


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8658399


iPad Pro 12.9” not responding to touch in... - Apple Community


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8396370



The best you can do is to continue to alert Apple to this growing issue and hammer the Apple iPad feedback pages mutiple times on this 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.

You can post as much multiple feedback about this issue any time.

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.


As I stated, this intermittent, unresponsive and unresolved iPad Pro touch screen issue has plagued a small, but growing minority of iPad Pro users across all 4 years of iPad Pro models for over 18 months, now!


Also, I STRONGLY suggest contacting/reaching out to Apple Product support and services on this larger screen iPad intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue and if you have to, escalate this issue to higher levels of Apple customer support personnel to get their attentions on this issue.

Tap on the first link below and scroll down some to get to the Apple Product Support section and phone numbers for your location/region.


https://www.apple.com/contact/


OR


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232


If you need to, if initial 1st tier Apple customer support is of no help to you, you can calmly ask to have this issue escalated up to more responsible, senior Apple customer support employees to see if they can come up with a better possible solution to these iPad issue/s, but I make no guarantees, whatsoever, to ANY type of outcome for these iPad issues.



Most 2019 iPad Air 3 models started having this intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue early in the introduction of iPadOS 13, which was last September/October 2019.

This is a serious, unresolved hardware/software problem that has been plaguing a growing minority of iPad Pro users, across all model years, for the past 18 months, or so.

For iPad Pro users, this intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue started waaaay back with either a late iOS 11 update OR with the introduction of iOS 12.

There is NO final resolution for this from Apple, to date.

No way to know whether Apple has any type of final fix/solution coming soon, or not.


Sorry that your iPad Air 3 has contracted this issue.

You are now part of small, but still very much a growing minority of larger screen iPad users that have been affected by this intermittent, unresponsive larger iPad touch screen problem/bug/flaw.




Sorry & Best of Luck to You!

Jul 15, 2020 3:54 PM in response to Snazz7

Never post ANY personal contact info in a public support community of any kind.

You are not addressing Apple here, anyways.

We are all just Apple product customers/users here, just like you.


I am sorry to learn that you are experiencing touch screen issues with your 2017 iPad Pro model.

I believe that your iPad Pro may have contracted an serious, hardware and/or software related, intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue/problem/bug/flaw.


See this Apple support link for some additional help, if needed.



https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201406


Per the instructions in the link above, I strongly suggest you call contact Apple support about this issue.


This is a well known issue here in these iPad support communities.

This intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue affects a continuing, growing minority of iPad Pro users/models across all 4 years of iPad Pro models, as well as the new 2019 10.5 inch screen iPad Air 3, which is based from the 2017, 10.5 inch screen iPad Pro models.


The best you can do is to continue to alert Apple to this growing issue and hammer the Apple iPad feedback pages mutiple times on this 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.

You can post as much multiple feedback about this issue any time.

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.


Per the directions found in the very first link in my post reply, I strongly suggest/advise you call contact Apple support on this intermittent, unresponsive touch screen issue.



Sorry that your iPad Pro has contracted this issue.

You are now part of small, but still very much a growing minority of larger screen iPad users that have been affected by this intermittent, unresponsive larger iPad touch screen problem/bug/flaw.



Sorry & Best of Luck to You!


Jul 6, 2019 9:42 AM in response to Pyro.Man

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


Jul 27, 2019 6:50 PM in response to Pyro.Man

Same problems with my 11" iPad Pro touch problems

https://youtu.be/sVMdtu7VcfU


  • Rebooting helps for 1 day
  • Fresh reinstall without using a backup helped for 1 week
  • Adaptive touch didn't help at all
  • Currently trying disabling Tap to Wake ... 2 days in, so far so good 🤞


This iPad is the first one of 5 iPads that I hate. Considering to downgrade to the newest iPad Air ... or Pixelbook 😭

Jul 29, 2019 7:54 AM in response to MichelPM

Did your iPad Pro touch screen issues start before or after first installing iOS 12?

  • Got the iPad Pro 11" with iOS 12


Some believe it could be a heat related issue.

  • My main apps usage when this is happening are Facebook, Apollo ( reddit client ), Tweetbot and Instagram. So nothing demanding too much cpu or gpu.


Some believe it is related to a bug or issue with the screen and Apple Pencil interfering with touch in iOS 12.

  • I don't have a pencil


Have you updated to the latest iOS 12.4?

  • I am always at the latest version with autoupdate, but I am not sure this one installed yet, I will check at lunch.


Sep 21, 2019 3:04 AM in response to Pyro.Man

Hi

i have the same issue with my ipad pro 12.9 2017 ( 2nd generation )

and i found some weird things about this problem

  1. if you keep your ipad with one hand on apple logo on the back , the problem rarely happens and i don’t know why
  2. i think that is because of battery issue and going worse when tablet get warm ... because i connected my ipad to pc and checked the battery health on iMazing desktop application and keep working with ipad when it was connected ... i found that battery health that display is not stable and is between 63 to 82 percent ... and suffered from the issue ... then i think maybe it is because of battery calibration ... then i tried to calibrate the battery ... and it get so much better but didn’t completely disappear ... and my first theory is that something affect on battery after a while that you buy and work with an ipad because i read comments and saw that problem appear after a while and maybe it was an ios problem but i’m not sure ... the next theory is that synchronizing problem with two pieces of battery on ipad pros


i’m really annoyed by this problem and maybe trade with a surface pro 4

Sep 22, 2019 1:24 PM in response to MichelPM

It’s not ridiculous

  1. There are many of people who didn’t post anything like me that follow many threads for weeks to find a solution and didn’t post until now
  2. many people who had an Apple store in their cities directly talk with Apple’s employees
  3. How that people after change their ipads for 3 or 4 times always faced with this problem ? It’s unbelievable that they are such bad chance people
  4. if you believe that the problem happened for few percent of iPad Pros then why you didn’t update yet ?

Oct 11, 2019 3:51 AM in response to Tigrexiao

I had the same problem with an IPAD PRO 10.5 - Soft: IpadOS 13.1.2 - Couple of points...


  1. Accessibility its listed by itself NOT under General
  2. In Accessibility, touch "Touch"
  3. Touch, "Touch Accommodations"
  4. Turn on, "Touch Accommodations" - accept disclaimer warning...
  5. ...and... if "hold Duration" shows 0.10, turn it off.


I have not had the lack of sensitivity problem since I made these changes....

Oct 11, 2019 3:53 AM in response to Pyro.Man

I had the same problem with an IPAD PRO 10.5 - Soft: IpadOS 13.1.2 - Couple of points...


  1. Accessibility its listed by itself NOT under General
  2. In Accessibility, touch "Touch"
  3. Touch, "Touch Accommodations"
  4. Turn on, "Touch Accommodations" - accept disclaimer warning...
  5. ...and... if "hold Duration" shows 0.10, turn it off.


I have not had the lack of sensitivity problem since I made these changes....

Oct 22, 2019 4:13 AM in response to Pyro.Man

This issue started appearing one month after I bought my 2018 iPad Pro 12.9. About every second day I had intermittent touch issues, exactly as described here. I didn't want to exchange it to a refurb one, as I thought the new one would exhibit the same problems.


I tried a lot of things, one of these worked. I haven't had a single touch issue for 3 months now:

  1. I no longer use the charger which came with the iPad, instead I'm using my old iPad Air2's charger. It's slower, but does the job too.
  2. I turned off Tap to Wake.


I don't know which one was the remedy, but the problem which appeared every second day, hasn't appeared for months now, so I dare to risk that it won't happen again. I don't know which workaround fixed the issue, but I don't want to debug anymore, as I really enjoy a flawlessly working iPad. I hope this helps you all.

Oct 24, 2019 4:26 AM in response to Pyro.Man

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.

Oct 25, 2019 5:31 AM in response to abhilash113

To be registered:


iPadOS 13.2 still does not solve the problem on my Ipad Pro 2nd gen - 12.9.


On Procreate:

  • Turn On Bluetooth;
  • Connect Apple Pencil;
  • Run Procreate;
  • After seconds.... 1 minute, sometimes: touchscreen stops working (comp[letely blind) and the Apple Pencil becomes intermittent;
  • Only Apple Pencil works after that... and
  • I need to turn off the Bluetooth for the touchscreen to work again.

Nov 4, 2019 11:46 AM in response to mythdoc

Here is what a refurbished iPad is.

From the Apple Website.


What goes into a refurbished iPad.


All refurbished iPad models come with a new battery, new outer shell, are backed by a one-year warranty, have free delivery and returns, and also include:

  • Full functional testing, genuine Apple part replacements (if necessary), and a thorough cleaning
  • The original Operating System or a more recent version1


iPad Pro touch screen intermittent unresponsive

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