Level 1

7 points

My iPhone 4S won't slide to unlock?

This morning, after updating a few apps, my phone no longer resonds when I swipe to unlock it. I know the touch screen works, as I have the assisstive touch button (my sleep button is broken) and I can drag that around all of the screen fine. I can also swipe up and access the settings panel, but the actual options don't respond to my touch.
I have iOS 7.0.2, and I don't know if there's a new update available. I tried to plug my phone to my laptop to see if I could update, but iTunes no longer recognises my phone.
I asked Siri to show me the unlock key pad so I could type my password in, but the number buttons are unresponsive. Another thing with using Siri - I can hold my home button down to get him to work, and once he's answered my question I can't tap the screen to ask another question; I have to hold the home button down again.
Because my sleep button is broken I can't reset it or turn it off, so I told Siri to play music at full volume, turn my wifi off, turn bluetooth on, and turn the brightness on full so it runs out of battery fast.

All I can do is hope it works again once I charge it up after draining the battery. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem if it continues?
I'm a student so replacing the phone is out of the question- I'm broke. I know it's not a hardware problem because my touch screen does work. I'm thinking maybe one of those apps I updated was dodgy and had a virus attached to it or something, as it only stopped working once I updated. HELP!

iPhone 4S, iOS 7.0.2

Posted on Oct 25, 2013 2:59 AM

61 replies

Jan 4, 2014 2:30 AM in response to meg.kel

You may have to take this to the apple store near you to get it fixed or trade it in. Or u can get someone to call it for u each time then swipe to answer to get it open!

wdday

Level 1

0 points

Jan 4, 2014 11:06 AM in response to con1995

This happened to me this morning as well for the 1st time and I took con1995's advice and after powering down it turned on fine. Thanks!

Jan 6, 2014 12:16 PM in response to meg.kel

my phone is doing that right now. but when people call me i still cant pick up.

ja45

Level 1

0 points

Jan 9, 2014 9:20 AM in response to meg.kel

I started having the same problem today with a Sprint iPhone 4S 64Gb with 7.0.4. Power+home until it rebooted got it working for a few minutes but now it's back to unresponsive.

When it's unresponsive, swiping up or down brings up the settings or notifications but I can't swipe to the side to unlock. I can enable Voiceover (for the vision impaired) and still use the touchscreen to navigate around the UI, including "swiping" the unlock bar but I can't "tap" on the numbers to unlock. So it is possible that it's a touchscreen sensor issue, but it doesn't seem likely.

I turned up my autolock so it doesn't require a pin for an hour. If it keeps up I guess I'll risk not using a PIN at all.

Jan 9, 2014 1:48 PM in response to meg.kel

I hold lock and home putton at same time so it will force turn off the phone it worked

Jan 9, 2014 1:50 PM in response to JamppuApple

button. Sorry bad english

Jan 9, 2014 2:56 PM in response to meg.kel

I am having the same issues - broken sleep button on top, "assistant touch", slide won't unlock and i can't answer calls when people call me. Any ideas?

hanoos1

Level 1

9 points

Jan 11, 2014 5:18 PM in response to hharinstein

guys I have found a solution that works fine...

either call your phone and then slide to unlock will show up..

Other solution is to remove passcode lock.

Hope that helps someone else suffering.

Jan 12, 2014 11:05 AM in response to meg.kel

My screen stoped working! i tryed so many times with my finger in screen and nothing used! I connected my iphone with computer, i pressed home button and lock button same time and the iphone closed! after that opened, and my screen was ready to use again!

Jan 12, 2014 11:08 AM in response to JamppuApple

Thanks! This is the solution! 😉

Jan 26, 2014 10:06 AM in response to meg.kel

Ok, so I had a solution. With Siri's help, I opened "settings" and was able to scroll. Went to "General". I scrolled down all the way to "reset" and chose "reset ALL settings". This worked.. Hope this can help anyone that needs it. :) I was freaking out wondering how I could afford a fix, or better yet, a new phone.

Heather

T.Melody

Level 1

0 points

Feb 1, 2014 11:20 PM in response to con1995

Thanks a lot for the advice, managed to turn off my iphone (as I toke the sim card off it was not possible to make a call even). Cheers, T

Mar 13, 2014 12:21 AM in response to meg.kel

This is pretty simple to resolve when it happens.

You need the iOS 7 update. Make sure you have no password. Then all you have to do is flick up the camera from lock screen, then press the home screen and it unlocks.

Hope this helps!

Mar 15, 2014 8:05 AM in response to meg.kel

the same thing is happening to me but when somebody tries to call me i couldn't answer. this happened to me just yesterday and I'm thinking maybe if i let my iphone die out and charge it back up, it will work.

Mar 28, 2014 2:20 AM in response to VanniDeGio

thatnkyou so much for this help my iphone litterally froze and i compleatly freaked out and didnt know what to do but this really helped so thankyou...🙂

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My iPhone 4S won't slide to unlock?