ios9 update -> now touchscreen problems

I've been having similar issues like all of you - a possessed phone since ios9. Sometimes unresponsive, other times it acted like it was detecting another finger and would zoom or select with only one tap, and worst of all, would select phone and randomly call people (especially in facebook messenger). I narrowed it down to a section of my phone (upper left hand corner) that could detect my finger if i hovered over it, but not actually touched the glass - a very creepy and excruciatingly frustrating party trick. Which lead me to think this was a Force Touch issue.

Tried both updates and a fresh reinstall that didn't fix any of the problems. So, out of frustration, i took the phone out of my case and.. strangely... it seems to be okay. Do any of you have your phone in a case? I'll let you know if this works or not. Just sharing what I found.

Please, please, please get this fixed Apple! I use my phone for work and it's completely unusable despite multiple hard resets and finally being able to do a factory restore for the 5 minutes that my phone was actually working today!

I'll think twice before updating the OS next time......

9.0.2 has its own issues that weren't present in 9.0.1, and that aren't solved even by a factory reset > restore from backup. Hopefully the engineering team are taking a few deep breaths, calming down, and working to produce a version that doesn't actually break normal device operation. It's not like they have so many different devices to verify the build against, and these problems are very basic and quite rampant. The tech support staff have been taking quite a beating since 9.0.0 release. One rep described iOS 9 as "chaos."

I don't think the problem is with the new iOS, I think we all had touch screen issues prior to this & the new iOS version just brought all of this out. I don't think a new version will correct the issues we are experiencing.

Even if that were the issue (which I highly doubt) this is still Apple's problem for not developing an OS that their own devices are capable of functioning with. With the amount of money that Apple gets from their products, there is no way their QA department did not catch this defect. They chose to push this 'acceptable defect' through to their beta and then into production. If a new OS build does not fix the problem, then they should give us all free upgrades to the 6s, especially when these are devices worth hundreds of dollars and some of these people experiencing issues have not even had their devices for a year. Unacceptable if it's an OS issue and unacceptable if their new OS brought out preexisting defects in the touch screen.

Same problem here as all the above posts. iPhone 6 Plus (10 months old) after 9.0.2 ... I was locked out for period of up to 30mins with the screen unresponsive to touch.

I did an online chat with Apple support. They got me to restore the device from recovery mode (transcript below):

"Once it’s off, hold down on the home button of the device (the one on the front of the device under the screen). While holding that, plug the device in to the computer. Then, KEEP HOLDING the home button until you see first the Apple logo, then the iTunes logo. Then iTunes should prompt you to restore. Just be sure to restore as a new iPhone. Not from back up initially. We want to see if the backup that was attached to the phone, was causing your initial issues. I would recommend having the Phone serviced. We have a few options available. You can take it into an Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider, or we have Mail in service options available as well."

This didn't work. I contacted Apple online chat support again and they got me to repeat the same process. As it still was having issues after restoring the device and setting it up as new, they booked me in for a Genius Bar appointment.

I went to the appointment yesterday. They did diagnostics on the phone and picked up that they're were issues with the display and that there was a slight bend in the device's housing. They replaced my handset and we're good as new.

Hope you all find solutions to your similar issues.

Whnadness, I think you were just lucky (and I'm glad for you). There are too many people having the same issues which only appeared with the 9.0.2 update. Thanks for sharing, tho.

Glad you're seeming better, whnadess. No problems were found with my phone for my Genius Bar appt.

I've tried removing my case, to see if that helps. I still see the vertical lines on the right side of my screen, but my touchscreen hasn't actually locked recently, so maybe it helped? We shall see.

I agree with Scarlett that Apple should replace our phone with phones that work if they're unable to resolve the problem otherwise. If that means replacing my 6+ phone with a 6s+, I guess I would cope...

My phone has been slightly better these last couple of days. Basically I turned anything off that would make the phone run "extra" things that I'm not using.

Siri- off

Spotlight Search - off

Handoff - off

Reduce Motion - on

Background App Refresh - off

Auto-Lock - Never

Restrictions - Off

Control Center - Off

And then I also "close" any apps I'm not using (double-click home, swipe up), only using 1 app at a time. It's a pain but I think it's helping a bit...I can go a few hours of normal use before the touchscreen starts acting up.

Then I have to press the sleep button, home button, etc a few times until it goes back to normal for a bit. If I leave the phone alone for a longer period of time (1 hour +) it seems to go back to normal too.

so done with apple at the moment I've had my iPhone 6 for less than 2 months and the screen is glitching out

I tried your solution, PearlGrey... it doesn't seem to do much. It's like the phone decides when it wants to work. Today (before I tried turning everything off) it worked well for a few hours, then come night time, it went nuts again. I went through the whole routine with an Apple Support Rep, which ended with the rep telling me the phone needed repairs. It's so frustrating because it's obvious the software update is the culprit. Luckily, I have some warranty left on my phone. My phone worked great before iOS 9 came along.

Apple needs to release a working patch immediately for us non-6s customers.

I am also having the same issues on my 5S direclty after upgrade and the reason I dont believe it is an issue relating to the hardware is that I had no issues prior whatsoever. I do think it's worth being aware of the fact that this is the first ios designed with 3D Touch response for the 6s and users of previous generation phones are all on here reporting issues directly related to touch, freezing, and the misreading of clicks etc... I notice specifically on mine that sometimes when trying to input text, the screen responds (inaccurately) before I make contact. To use deductive logic, it would seem that an iOS built for measuring pressure of contact for new hardware, misreading contact on the previous iterations is likely related. I hope this is addressed soon.

It is extremely unlikely that these problems are not related to the IOS update. And for those of us with older models, like min (4s), I can't imagine that iPhone is going to substitute this with a new model, so we are stuck here. If the 3D touch is incompatible with older models and making them useless, then we should be allowed to get access to an IOS without this feature.

Having same problems with the 9 version. My I-pad will not work. Tried restart and still same old thing. Anybody have any other things to try?

So disappointed with the new iOS 9.0.2 as I moved from iPhone 5s 8.4.1 JB running great no glitches, no freezes at all to an iPhone 6 running stock iOS 9.0.2. All I can see and read is people complaining with tones of bugs and even I am experiencing the annoying freeze problem. I tried everything from switching settings off, restoring, hard resetting, fresh install and nothing solved out my problem. The phone simply acts crazy on its own.

For now the only solution I found and the phone is stable for about one hour for now, is that in settings -> general -> accessibility -> touch accommodations turned on, everything else is off. It might be a temporary fix or a permanent one. You guys should try this. In my opinion this might be blocking the force touch controls as are set to be by the user. Also handoffs and suggested apps are turned off, and the Siri suggestions are also turned off. I will guys update you soon if the phone is stable or not. I hope for quick solution. Cheers