iPad touchscreen unresponsive after iOS 26.1 update

I updated my iPad Air 5 to iOS 26.1. Now the screen does not respond to touch. Tried hard reset. Connecting it to update via PC. Restored it. Nothing works. The only response I can get from it is with an Apple Pencil, and only touching the bottom right i icon, not matter the orientation of the iPad the i icon will respond only to the Apple Pencil. No where else and does not respond to touch with my fingers. Took is to the Genius Bar and they were absolutely no help. They said so sorry, buy a new iPad.

iPad Air (5th generation)

Posted on Nov 8, 2025 9:23 PM

Top-ranking reply

melissa0823

Level 1

0 points

Posted on Dec 14, 2025 4:21 AM

I had the exact same problem with my iPad after i updated to 26.1. I did a reset and cleaned the screen and changed my touch setting to fast. That helped enough for the iPad to be marginally functional, but not usable on a long term basis. Btw, i have googled this issue and it is a COMMON problem with iPads after the 26.1 update. HOW DO I KNOW IT WAS THE 26.1 UPDATE THAT CAUSED IT. BECAUSE THE 26.2 UPDATE SOLVED IT. Now it works perfectly liked it did before the 26.1 update. I believe the apple inadvertently tweaked the pencil sensitivity settings and it affected finger touch. But again thank goodness it has been corrected with 26.2 which i updated to yesterday.

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17 replies

DVOmg Author

Level 1

35 points

Nov 28, 2025 2:22 PM in response to LotusPilot

Thanks for the advice. I did all of this before going to the Genius Bar. Only thing that could get the touchscreen to respond was the Apple Pencil, and only response is the little i icon in the bottom right corner. It works in every corner as you rotate the iPad. Nothing else with the touchscreen works. I showed this to the Genius Bar rep. They said there were no other tests they could run since the touchscreen wasn’t working. All they could recommend was to see if the next update fixed it or buy a new IPad. Everything worked fine before the update 26.1. They said it had to be an issue that existed and the update stressed the iPad and broke. The iPad was babied and cased the entire life. The only underlying issues that could have existed would have been present from time of purchase. Seems odd that this is the first update that this happed with. Quite a lot of threads on multiple platforms with people having the same issue with this update.

Dec 13, 2025 10:51 PM in response to JOCASC133

Guess what… instead of ios 26.2 fixing the issue with touchscreen unresponsiveness… instead it forced everyone’s phone settings to update automatically….. i think that says a lot. I won’t be buying apple products again.

iPad touchscreen unresponsive after iOS 26.1 update