Hi Kelly,
I spent 25 minutes on the phone with Josh a senior tech at Apple. He was based in Minnesota and it came down to this...Take it back...swap it out for another or move on. Nobody has an idea as to what the root cause is, speculation a plenty including me. I feel it is in 4.3.x as I never experienced it prior.
I have not had time to swap it out yet but Apple gets one more chance at it.
Im thinking it is something with 4.3.x myself. I dont think its hardware, because it works fine once the incoming caller has hung up. meaning: I regain control of the screen/lock once the person has hung up (whether they leave a voicemail or not). It really didnt start happening until a few months ago, following the upgrade. I've tried monitoring the apps that are running thinking it could be app conflicts. But so far I've had no success with that.
Still does it when only basic apps are running.
what confuses me is they havent fixed or acknowledged this yet. That tells me, not enough people are having the problem to sick the developers on it. If its the OS, more people would be complaining (if not everyone). If it were hardware, Im assuming my hardware swap would have fixed it. I've tried limiting Apps, and that doesnt work. Could it be something with iTunes?
Kelly,
Just had my iPhone 4 replaced yet again...today. The replacement came with 4.3.3 and I have not seen the problem occur BUT I have a new issue that I had with my very first iPhone 4 (on my 4th one). When I go to contacts and select a contact and touch "text" the window changes over to the compose text window but in the To: area it is blank, the contacts name I selected does not carry over to the compose text window.
I will return this iPhone 4 tomorrow and revert back to my old trusty Nokia N98 until further notice.
Good luck on your end.
I took it in today. Realizing the hardware had been recently replaced (phone and SIM), the guy put it into DFU mode and reinstalled the firmware and OS. I went through the setup as a new device and reinstalled my apps before syncing.
His comment was, "if this doesnt fix it I dont think there is an answer for you." hardware is new, firmware/OS is new, software was reloaded. If it still does it I will try eliminating apps to see if it could be an app conflict. which i doubt it is. If you dont hear back from me in 2-3 days the reset was successful! fingers crossed
Just returned mine. No more iphone for now. Also to note the slide to unlock did freeze up while waiting in the store, only once but that was it.
Good luck with yours.
A little progress with the issue.
I have been pounding on Apple for a resolution to the problem. They have never acknowledged a problem existed before today. I received this today from them: "We have another response from the engineers.............They stated they are talking with the software developers and this is an issue that is currently being investigated. They have no resolution at this time and ask us to be patient while they look into a resolution. I know this is not the response we were looking for, but they are working on getting a resolution to the issue."
I asked about IOS 5 and since it has not been released yet, they can't comment on anything associated with it.
So, over the past few days it has locked up twice. Both while running nothing more than the basic apps (mail, phone, ipod, safari). This is a dramatic improvement but still a real pain when someone important calls and all you can do is wait for them to hang up then call them back.
The guy in the store told me his did it occassionally, but not often. What's beyond me is why more people arent seeing this problem and complaining? why have the tech editors not written about this problem? and how could this be isolated to just us on this thread.
Just for the sake of determining if it is an app conflict, I have the following apps (in addition to the apple basics) that are used relativley frequently. All the others I seldom turn on, therefore dont believe would be a problem.
Skype
WindAlert
Surf Report
Zoho CRM
Pulse
Yelp
Evernote
Groupon
Zillow
eBay
any commonality with others on this thread?
Kelly,
Are you running Gmail? That's the problem. I caved and got a brand new iphone 4 and never synced or restored it this past week, it came with 4.3.5. For the past 5 days it has been flawless. I set up our Gmail exchange on it and no other apps, syncs, or restores from back up. Immediately the slide to unlock failed after Gmail set up.
I wiped the phone clean by doing a "Erase All Content and Settings" and slide to unlock was perfect. I reinstalled Gmail exchange and immeediately the issue returned.
Regarding your apps you listed, on my previous iP4 that I returned I was running LinkedIn and Groupon also,among others. However on this new iP4 the only apps in the device are what it comes pre loaded with.
I'm positive Gmail is causing the problem.
There is no mystery here folks. The phone recalibrates the screen at certain times during wake up, and when it touches your leg or hand etc inadvertently while ringing it interferes with the calibration upon wake up and the lock gets stuck. This is likley a hardware issue that can not be fixed easily in iphone 4. Hopefully IP5 won't have this problem. For those of you that carry the phone in your pocket, try turing the glass towards the outside of your pocket facing away from your leg, try not top touch it until you pull it out and swipe the unlock, and see if that helps. Reduced mine to practically none.
Yes I do! I have three google accounts. 2 Google app IMAP accounts and 1 personal account through gmail.
One sync's calendars with the mail. So have you tried to narrow the problem down? is it a problem with IMAP vs. POP? Is it the Push services. The reason I ask is my wife is using gmail (a google app account and 1 personal gmail account), her Google App account is syncing a calendar and she has not experienced this issue.
KD
Again, this has nothing to do with Google. It is a wake up and touch screen calibration issue. Google may be pinging notifications and upon wake up the phone is trying to calibrate at the same time it is getting stuck.
so you're saying if you touch the screen while an incoming call is arriving it can lock up....and this is a "calibration" and hardware issue?
I can certainly see how that could be a problem, although, Im not convinced. But I will certainly give it a go. The reason I say Im not convinced is because this cause just doesnt seem to be consistent with what Im experiencing. The phone was replaced and the problem grew even worse than before I swapped it out, despite having set the phone up as a new phone when I reloaded it. The problem returned and nearly 1 in 3-4 calls would be locked. Last week the new phone was completely wiped (firmware included) and reloaded at the Apple store with their versions of the software. This seems to have fixed the severe problem I was having, but as noted above, it did happen a couple of times over the past few days. When it was severe (prior to the Apple reload) I can assure you I was not touching the phone improperly every time. In fact often times it was sitting on my desk at work. It would ring some times 3-4 rings before picking it up. I'd pick it up and swipe with no luck. The phone also has a case that covers the sides and back of the phone.
I believe there could be a calibration process with the screen, but it must be conflicting with something else to cause the problem. I dont know. Again, it hasnt happened but 2 times over the past few days. Thats a good thing, but still frustrating.
I got this info about the calibration issue from some other sources when researching this. I saw this post and it makes sense.
Hi, I'd just like to report that I've experienced this problem intermittently as well and after researching it, there may be a problem with the touch screen's calibration. I haven't been able to figure out when or how the screen is calibrated, but from experience, it seems to re-calibrate itself upon waking up from sleep. By having a finger or hand pressing on the screen accidentally when waking up the phone, the calibration could be so far off that your finger is not recognized on the screen. As a first step, try to leave your phone screen pointed away from your leg in your pocket and avoid touching the screen when someone calls.
and again here:
I am going to poke at this some more, as I am getting the same issue.
As far as I can tell, when the unlock button is pressed/a call comes in, the screen gets calibrated. However, sometimes this calibration seems to be off, and everything does not respond to touch.
I hate to disagree but I have a day old iP4 that I can now force to have slide to unlock problems by simply installing/uninstalling Gmail.
I have one Gmail acct. installed and I install it this way:
1. Settings.
2. Mail-contacts-calenders.
3. Add account.
4. Exchange.
5. Enter email address.
6. Enter email address as username.
7. Enter password.
8. Tap "Next."
9. When server field appears enter, m.google.com
10. Tap "Next".
11. Turn ON mail, contacts.
12.Tap "Done".
By engaging the above steps with nothing else installed on my 1 day old iPhone 4 the "Slide to Unlock" malfunctions. When this Gmail account is deleted all runs great.
not a problem disagreeing! i think we're all trying to figure out what is wrong. That sounds like a worse problem than mine! So, it locks everytime someone calls?? To test, are you holding a finger on the display while you dial it?
I have not tried to force it in that way, but will now. Mine doesnt seem to have that bad of a problem. Im still getting calls and as of now, most all are coming through.
Cannot 'Slide to Unlock'
