What is the new icon on main screen on the I pad, when pressed it just locks the screen I can’t find out what it does and how to switch it off.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Odd icon
iPad Pro, iPadOS 26
You appear to have enabled the Hover Text feature. Many have observed that this feature has been unexpectedly enabled by the iPadOS 26 upgrade.
Hover Text is simply disabled from iPad settings:
Settings > Accessibility > [Vision] Hover Text > Hover Text - set to OFF
Worked a treat. Thank you.
You're very welcome. I'm delighted that the problem was easily identified and resolved.
Thanks for this. What a terrible "feature". I thought I had a virus.
Thank you, I just couldn’t find any reference to the icon, it just appeared after loading ios 26. Sorted now.
christinefromnr crewe wrote:
Thank you, I just couldn’t find any reference to the icon, it just appeared after loading ios 26. Sorted now.
You're not alone. Many reports of this feature being enabled have been seen within this community.
Major version updates are known to automatically enable new features and, sometimes unexpectedly, established functions. Hover Text is but one example. 🙂
jamo-wahoo wrote:
Thanks for this. What a terrible "feature". I thought I had a virus.
Providing that your iPad has been kept up-to-date with system software updates, you should not be overly concerned for your iPad being directly compromised by a computer virus or other malware. Due to the system architecture of iOS/iPadOS, unless jailbroken, iOS/iPadOS is not susceptible to traditional malware infection.
Odd icon on iPad main screen that locks the screen
