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iPhone 5 Touchscreen Problems

Just unboxed the iPhone 5 and for the most part it's great. But one big problem has been occurring with the touchscreen, which I've heard is new (integrated with the display itself versus a separate capacitive layer as in past iPhones). I'm curious if anyone else has been having this issue or has any suggestions on what to do...


The touchscreen acts up by "sensing" my finger even when it's not actually touching the screen, but is just very close. This happens gradually at first, then it seems to get a little worse, requiring me to use more exaggerated gestures to actually get the phone to do what I want it to do. Eventually the phone will just respond to my hand waving above it even several millimeters above the screen, and seems to go haywire. It starts missing the letter/button that I'm trying to type. Sometimes the whole screen freezes to where I can't swipe to unlock, slide between home screen pages, etc. Although the physical buttons like the home button and standby button do seem to still respond despite the touchscreen being messed up or frozen, it doesn't get rid of the problem when I go back to what I was doing.


Eventually, I end up resetting the phone by holding down both the standby and home buttons simultaneously for a few seconds. When the device powers on again, it seems to have done the trick and the touchscreen is back to normal. However, the problem reoccurs with a fairly high/annoying level of frequency. (I mean I've only had the device for a few hours total and it's already happened at least half a dozen times.)


Has anyone else experienced this? Does this sound like I have a lemon or could this be a general issue? I wonder if it can be fixed with a software patch or if I need a replacement screen/device. Pretty frustrating to deal with right out of the box, and I don't really want to go anywhere near an Apple Store today with all the craziness that's probably taking place...

iPhone 5, iOS 6

Posted on Sep 21, 2012 12:58 PM

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243 replies

Sep 21, 2012 3:01 PM in response to Chapstick4

Just to tell you what happened so far, I had the same issues as you and I did a full restore, worked for a while but now crazy again. I called support and they had me do a full restore and not put my backup back on and play with it for a while and it went crazy again. They have now called back and I told the guy its still going haywire and he has me on hold so we will see what happens.

Sep 21, 2012 3:15 PM in response to westlawn51

I'm having / had the same exact issue. It's by far the most bizarre I've ever seen a device respond.


Anyway, like Chapstick4, I worked with Apple CS who had me delete the existing iOS .ipws file, download again, and do a full restore and set it up as a new phone. So far it appears to be working but I'm still syncing apps/music, etc. so only time will tell if this works or there is a larger (hardware??) issue here.


I'll report back with progress in a few hours.

Sep 21, 2012 3:35 PM in response to MattB1607

It worked for about 10 mins for me before it started going crazy again. They are now setting me up an apointment for me at the apple store to exchange the phone and they said they wanted mine to be sent off to so they can figure out whats going on with it. I told the apple guy there are some more people with the same problems on the forums. I sure hope this is not a widespread thing, that could be very bad for Apple. I am uploading a video to utube now, Its not going crazy in this one, just does not register the touches but I am sure it will start going crazy again here in a bit lol.

Sep 21, 2012 4:05 PM in response to sweetwood

This *****, the local and only local apple store does not have my phone in stock so the Apple guy called me back and wants to get with the Engineers and is going to call me back on Monday! I can't even use the phone at this point. I have owned all prior iphones and never had a problem so I guess it was bound to catch up with me sooner or latter. This could be very bad for apple if it is a hardware problem.

Sep 21, 2012 9:06 PM in response to westlawn51

I spent about 1 hr on the phone with the people from apple care. Performed the following steps (most I had already performed on my own.):

  • Soft Reset
  • Hard Reset
  • Factory Restore (from handset)
  • Factory Restore (from iTunes)
  • Power down (several times, with case on and off)

None of this seemed to make any difference. After the restore the phone seemed to work for about five minutes before going back to doing the exact same thing.


I started experiencing the following issues almost directly after unboxing my iphone:

  • Can't press the button I intend to press.
  • If I hover my finger over the screen multiple buttons are pressed (as if I am touching the screen).
  • When I am able to press a button it often presses it multiple times.
  • Screen jumps or acts erratic when trying to scroll.


After the time I spent on the phone the apple care tech suggested that my fastest resolution would be to try and have the phone replaced at my local apple retail store. He said that he could set up the replacement over the phone, but had no idea how long the replacement would take. He also stated that I could continue to use my phone (which doesn't operate properly) until the new one arrives.


Hopefully the apple store has some units set aside for replacing/repairing the lemons that apple sent out.

Sep 21, 2012 10:04 PM in response to sidneyfromridgeland

Just keep getting worse for me. Since I wont get anything done till Monday I decided to reactivate my iphone 4 till I get my 5 replaced. It was a great idea for all but one thing......I can't find the sim card for the 4! I took it out because I have it listed on EBay and had it ready to ship out when it sold but I don't know what I did with it when I took it out and I have looked for it for an hour. Launch day just turned into a crap day 😮

iPhone 5 Touchscreen Problems

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