iPad screen unresponsive with boxes around icons????

I just had this happen. One thing I noticed is that if the volume is turned all the way down, and voice over is accidentally started, the rectangles will appear. The instructions listed here worked in this case, too.

I was having the same problems with the rectangle boxes around the icons. I turned the ipad off and when I turned it back on I couldn't access the home screen to follow your instructions. The rectangle boxes appeared around each number when I try to enter my security code. I triple clicked the home button and it de-activated the voice-over option and all functions were restored to normal. I think I had inadvertently triple clicked the home bottom to activate the voice-over option to begin with.

Make sure VoiceOver is turn off

Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Off

If VoiceOver is on and you want to turn it off from the device instead of from iTunes, remember that a double-tap acts like a single tap and you need to use three fingers to scroll when VoiceOver is on:

1. Press Home.
2. Tap Settings. Then double-tap Settings.
3. Tap General. Then double-tap General.
4. Use three fingers on the screen to scroll to Accessibility.
5. Tap Accessibility. Then double-tap Accessibility.
6. Tap VoiceOver. Then double-tap VoiceOver.
7. Tap "On" next to VoiceOver. Then double-tap "On" to turn it off.

I just wanted to say a belated thank you for your post here. I have spent two days trying to figure out what was wrong with my ipad. I have reset it several times, but restore only brought back the problem again. It worked fine when it was completely reset. I have no idea how VoiceOver got turned on, but this fix worked on my ipad 3 with ios x 7.1 today. This was the only fix I found about an ipad screen being unresponsive with those odd boxes around the icons. And teamrusnac, I am glad you posted about clicking multiple times - because I hadn't thought of that. And that helped also. Thanks again!

This did not help !!!!!!!!

Thought my iPad Mini was toast until my Google search pointed to this posting.

No clue as to cause but note that three grandchildren played on this device this past weekend and perhaps the Voice over setting change was a part of one of the games they played.

Anyway, thanks.

Thank you! This solved my problem.

Mavaureen, I am glad your problem is solved 🙂

thanks i also did a full reset through Itunes with no success but just followed your instructions and it seems to have worked!

Thank you so much I was at my wits end.

I have no idea what I did to make it happen, but your instructions worked! Thank you so much!🙂