Q: iPhone 6 plus intermittent unresponsive screen

An update to my earlier post: I had the eyesight camera replaced and the phone worked for a few days, but then became unresponsive again.

I suspect this is typical big company bureaucracy in action. Some one screwed up the design and they don't want to own up to it to their superiors so they brush it under the rug and pretend there is no issue. The problem is that causes huge customer satisfaction issues. Once loyal customers no longer trust the company.

The customer feedback mechanism is also non-existent. The manager at the store (who was more interested in defending Apple's business practices than understanding my issue) said the only thing you can do is submit product feedback on the website. Sorry, I've done that before and never received a response, it's just a black hole. A company that really cared about customer satisfaction would have a feedback system where they could acknowledge your problem and track how many people are experiencing it. Since they are operating in the dark about how many people are experiencing this issue it's no surprise they don't know the severity.

Come on Apple you are better than this.

I got this problem recently, after updated the latest IOS, but after remove the screen protector, seems problem resolved.

Same issue here. Phone had a laggy touchscreen for sometime, but never the band at the top and fully unresponsive behavior, that is until I dropped it recently on a tile floor. I found pressing on the upper right side of the top bezel made the problem go away for a short while, as too did removal of the screen protector and case. The problem would always come back, so I decided to take the phone apart, since I am out of warranty.

My first thought was I would open up the screen, remove the plate protecting the screen's ribbon cables, make sure they were all properly attached and then put everything back together. After removing the screen, plate, and pressing the cables down, I tested the screen's responsiveness and everything was working flawlessly. It was not until I made the decision to reassemble the phone that the behavior came back. In fact once reassembled, there was no way to eliminate the band at the top and fully unresponsive screen.

If you are familiar with the internal design of the iPhone there is not a lot of clearance between components. My observations between opening and closing the screen (like a clam), were when closed the screen was unresponsive and while open it was fully operational. My assumption is there must be a short or some type of interference related to the ribbon cables, cover plate, and other contact points on the phone, namely the metal backplate for the screen. I took the ribbon cable cover plate off once more and covered the underside (side sitting directly atop the ribbon cables) with electrical tape. Using an exacto knife, I cut out the plate so the tape only covered the underside of the ribbon cable cover. I punched the holes out for the screws and reassembled the phone.

Guess what. Not only is the screen fully responsive, the aforementioned laggy touchscreen that I have had for well over a year is now fully responsive.

Previously I had tried tuning my iPhone by turning off a series of features, because I thought the lag was due to CPU starvation. When the screen became fully unresponsive, I tried all the remedies I could find, including resetting all settings. The fix described above is the only one that worked. I suspect the reason this is occurring is due to the low clearance in the phone, bending, heat, and something moving a fraction of a millimeter inside the phone. This would explain, why pressure, case removal, and screen protector removal all seem to work for a period of time, because they cause flexion and provide enough clearance to remove the short and/or interference produced by the ribbon cable cover plate.

I was having same issues. I tried hard restart but did nothing. Mine was a 64G iphone6s and it was 95% full. I backedup my iPhone and emtpied all pictures and videos and now it's at 70% free. It's been couple of hours now and I have not seen that issue so far. Keeping fingers crossed.

I have an IPhone 6 Plus and I'm having the same problem.  I followed another poster's advice 5 hours ago and turned off the auto brightness and it has worked fine since then.  I'm worried it will come back though and I am missing the auto brightness feature.

Taking it to the Apple Store in 2 day but it is out of warranty and I doubt they will take responsibility for such a common problem.  Hopefully it can be fixed for a low price.

An update, Now its been over a week and my iphone still going well without any issues.

Hey Rip,

Thanks a lot for the solution provided. In my case, it seems something came loose inside and pressing firmly on the front screen while on a flat surface, fixed the issue.

We always see when our mobile phone falls down, we just check basic functionality at that time to ensure it's working. But as and when time goes, it starts appearing with such problem. May be something got loosen due to multiple attempts of fall of the mobile.

Thanks once again. happy to see this as I was looking for the solution for long time.

Cheers,

Rupesh

I found out that the turning off auto brightness did nothing for my phone.  What temporarily fixed it was pushing in the screen kind of hard.  If I put it back in my pocket it messes back up but if it is just on a counter top it works normally.

Hoping to get a new phone.

Went to the Apple store and the guy told me he is seeing this problem repeatedly and the only real fix is a new phone.  He said he's replaced a bunch of screens but it doesn't work.  He said the only real fix is a new phone but since my phone is out of warranty and Apple is taking no responsibility for their design flaw that is causing the problem my only options are to buy another Iphone 6 Plus for $330 or buy an IPhone 6S Plus for $550.  Neither sound like a good option to me so I am going to keep pressing in the screen to fix it as long as that works.

I have only ever bought Iphones for myself and my wife going back nearly a decade, but this makes me question why I should stick with this company on my next purchase.

As it says on the submission form: You WILL NOT receive a response

I Can happily tell you there is an easy fix that costs less than a dollar which I and several others have posted. You just can't find it here as it always gets removed because Apple does not support you fixing your own phone which is fine. Do some searching on other Apple related forums and you can find it. Sorry to be ambiguous but that's the way it has to be on a heavily moderated forum.

Suspect it is the other way around. It is an 'open' and by making the unit cold, you shrink the board and connection material just enough to close the circuit again.  If I am correct, the issue will come back without any overheating of the phone, just normal use.

Mother-in-law took the phone with same symptoms into the Apple Store and they replaced the screen. Her phone is out of warranty, but now that she paid $100 for a new screen to 'fix' it, there is a 90 day warranty on the repair.  If the repair 'fails' the same way in the 90 days (and likely will because it is not the screen), she takes it in again, and again until this clears up.

The problem is well documented if you search for "iPhone 6 screen flicker" in google.

Also, note, do NOT get your screen replaced by anyone other than Apple. This voids the warranty and all future fixes due to manufacturer defects for any reason. On top of it, the non-Apple screens do not have the same resolution and clarity so not worth saving $20.

Found a fix for my phone.  Have finally replace with a new phone.  Seems to be working great so far. Never know how many options you had in the other operating system

Jamie25617 wrote:

Never know how many options you had in the other operating system

Like over 300 different malware exploits, plus the recent discovery that full disk encryption can be easily broken? Lots of great options, for hackers.