iPhone 6 Plus screen suddenly became completely unresponsive

Question

iPhone 6 Plus screen suddenly became completely unresponsive

This morning when I used my iPhone it was fine; this afternoon, suddenly the screen has become completely unresponsive to touch, and now the phone is completely unusable. Several restarts have not solved it, though for awhile they restored functionality briefly. Not any more. I can turn on the power and the home button works to get me to the keypad screen for my passcode, but that's it.

I have an iPhone 6 Plus with the latest iOS update. I wasn't even using the phone at the time. This morning it worked, this afternoon it didn't. I have been organizing and updating my Photos and iTunes libraries and I bought iTunes Match, but I did all that work on my Macbook Pro and merely let iCloud do its work to synchronize it with my iPhone. Could that be related? The phone died while iTunes Match was uploading CDs (which went fine BTW). Fortunately I was able to sync and back up the iPhone through iTunes while it still worked occasionally, because now iTunes does not recognize the phone because it's locked, and as I said, can get to the keypad but not actually type on it to unlock it.

Anyhow, it's completely unusable at the moment. Help please?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Nov 5, 2015 4:45 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Russell Arch

Level 1

5 points

Nov 6, 2015 1:34 PM in response to swordsandpens

I have no answer, but just wanted to comment that I've been having the same problem. Did a clean install of 9.1 yesterday, and now can barely use my phone. After restart, I'll occasionally get 2 minutes of normal use, and then the screen stops responding. After dozens of attempted "touches", sometimes I'll it will open an app that i haven't come near. Very disappointed in this glitch. Essentially, the 9.1 "upgrade" bricked a phone that's worked great for over a year.

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Answer 2

Nov 6, 2015 5:54 PM in response to swordsandpens

I'm having the same ******* problem, and see a number of other threads posted to the same effect. As soon as I updated to 9.1 my phone became an unreliable piece of ****, so I'm categorically advising everyone I can against installing it.

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Answer 3

Nov 7, 2015 11:25 AM in response to Russell Arch

Exactly. I upgraded to 9.1 a couple weeks ago, but the problem only started yesterday. I've owned almost every generation of iPhone and never experienced anything like this.

I found this support article and I'm in the middle of trying the instructions at the bottom:

If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch doesn't respond or won't turn on - Apple Support

I hope you're able to work it out and that Apple does something. We can't be the only two people experiencing this.

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Answer 4

Nov 7, 2015 11:24 AM in response to swordsandpens

Hopefully this will help someone else: I managed to fix the problem by resetting the iPhone to factory settings and restoring from the backup.

It seems, according to the senior support advisor I talked to, that the iOS simply got corrupted by trying to do too many things at once: I was organizing my Photos library and iTunes library, uploading CDs with iTunes Match, syncing playlists, Periscoping, and probably more all at more or less the same time. The screen locking happened during this, at first intermittently, then completely.

In restoring from the backup, for some reason not all my apps re-downloaded, so I have to sync again to complete the process; but at least this is minor compared to the screen locking. Just sayin'.

Again, I hope this helps others.

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Answer 5

Nov 7, 2015 11:49 AM in response to swordsandpens

So I have an answer of sorts for the moment as well. I too restored by phone by erasing everything and re-installing the iOS. Of course I had to disable "Find My iPhone" and turn "Passcode Off" to start the process. Once I restored, I then eliminated a bunch of apps I never used anymore, and re-downloaded the rest of the them.

For several hours last night, the phone worked great. No issues with the touchscreen at all. Then, last night before bed, I activated the passcode and set three fingerprints for security in Touch ID. I plugged my phone in and went to sleep.

Then, this morning, I picked up the phone and had the exact same issues. Frozen screen. I couldn't even activate the passcode until I restarted the phone several times. Once I got inside and was able to turn off the passcode option, the phone has gone back to working great. Obviously I have no passcode (or security) on the phone, but I'll gladly trade that for the moment in exchange for a phone that actually works.

Hope this helps anyone else.

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Answer 6

Jan 27, 2016 8:05 PM in response to swordsandpens

I'm having the same problem after upgrading to 9.1. Previously the phone works smoothly. I've tried to restore and update the phone yesterday to 9.2.1 but the results was the same. From the past few weeks my screen sometimes does not responsive. Sometimes we could use the phone, but normally we will stuck at the home screen. The thing is the 1 year warranty period have already passed for about 3 months. Pity to us for not able to use our phone.

I have started use iphone from 3g in 2009 and upgrade every 2 years without missed. I've owned 3gs, iphone 4, iphone 4s, iphone 5, iphone 6, and the latest is iphone 6 plus. Please do something to your local customer. I can't wait for even 1 day without a phone. Please do something as soon as possible.

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