iPad Pro 10.5 screen randomly freezes - anyone else have this?

Brand new (obviously) iPad Pro 10.5. It happens, very intermittently but it happens. It's like the touch screen is dead. Double-clicking the home button brings up the task list. You can then move to a different app. But then the screen is still dead. Turning the screen off and on will reset things, so that the screen becomes live again. Frustrating and not something I've ever seen before. This is my fourth iPad. Maybe it's defective? Just wondering is it just me or do other people see this too.

iPad Air 2 WiFi, Cellular, iOS 10.2

Posted on Jul 5, 2017 5:18 PM

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Posted on May 8, 2018 6:08 AM

Mine got a lot better with 11.3 but then restarted with the issue a few days later. Took it to Apple store and they replaced it. Tech said it’s most likely a logic board issue. While reduce motion, and disabling promotion helps this gimps your iPad un necessarily. Just get it replaced. Seems like a known issue they’re just not making public.

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May 8, 2018 6:08 AM in response to malum363

Mine got a lot better with 11.3 but then restarted with the issue a few days later. Took it to Apple store and they replaced it. Tech said it’s most likely a logic board issue. While reduce motion, and disabling promotion helps this gimps your iPad un necessarily. Just get it replaced. Seems like a known issue they’re just not making public.

Mar 29, 2018 3:16 AM in response to malum363

Took my iPad Pro 512 back to apple last week

They don’t have a diagnostic tool to test the touch screen so they agreed to replace it it was 3 months old

Picked up a new one on Monday and restored from full backup on itunes

I was having the problem multiple times a day but since the replacement problem appears to have been resolved

One thing the genius guy suggested was to change the case as it was possible that the protective leather round the bezel could be shorting out the touch screen, obviously I had to take the case off and put it on the new unit so it’s possible I did a better job of keeping the protective cover off the touch screen. Anyhow worth trying to use your ipad without the case and see if this resolves the problem.

Personally I think that this was a hardware problem, it has become very clear Apples quality control has taken a significant dip in recent years so if you are in warranty and the change case fix doesn’t work push for a replacement.

One final point, when I checked in at the Genius Bar the guy gave me a look that I interpreted as ‘oh another one’ but when I questioned the engineer he claimed to have never heard of the problem. Call me paranoid but my feeling is that they know of this issue but want to minimise returns.

Good Luck

Jan 19, 2018 11:16 PM in response to malum363

I’ve had this similar problem and theorized that it was my left thumb that was causing the freeze up. The new iPad Pro screen comes almost to the bottom of the frame which leaves no room to hold the iPad without interfering with the active screen.

Have used the iPad for the last 3 hours with no freeze ups, where as they were happening frequently when I was holding it with my left hand located at the bottom left hand corner of the iPad Pro.

Jan 26, 2018 8:39 PM in response to windower

Yes, I’ve had no freeze ups since discovering that my left thumb was causing the freeze up.

I still hold it with my left hand but place my thumb on the left side of ipad and not at the bottom where it can interfere with the active screen.

It makes no difference which way I hold it, home button on right or left as long as you don’t accidentally place pressure on the active screen while trying to play the game with your right finger. In other words the left thumb was freezing the frame and you were not able to do anything until you lifted it up off the active screen.

I was relieved when I discovered that I was causing the freeze ups as I just received the ipad for an Xmas gift.

Feb 3, 2018 4:02 AM in response to jeffrey149

I have been running an experiment for over a week now

I switched from my 4 port usb charger non Oem to the apple charger and have had no screen freeze since then,

over a week

the non Oem charger has worked perfectly with all my previous apple products but we know how apple hate us not using there own over priced accessories 😉

the only question is are they doing this deliberately?

interested to hear if every one else is using the charger that came with the iPad or another older it non apple charger

at some point I will switch back and see if problem returns

Mar 27, 2018 2:09 PM in response to malum363

I’ve tried everything and come across a work around! It’s the promotion. If you disable promotion the issue stops completely. have it running fine for a day now.


Im not sure if this points to software or hardware. im still under warranty . I have to record the issue and this workaround to show an Apple tech. I expect to get a replacment iPad if it’s hardware.

Jul 14, 2018 12:07 PM in response to malum363

Staring sometime after I upgraded to IOS 11.4 or possibly 11.4.1 on my iPad Pro 9.7, I began to get quite frequent screen freezes. They would usually occur when trying to navigate in Twitter or Feedly. Nothing but restarting would unfreeze the screen. Sometimes, the iPad would restart itself after a short time but usually I had to press the power and home buttons to make it restart. That would fix it for a while, but then it would happen again.


Somebody here suggested turning on "Reduce Motion". (Settings>General>Accessibility>Reduce Motion)


I did that. And seems to have worked, so far. In the last 48 hours since making that change, no freezes. And I like the look and feel of the OS without the animations better, as well.

Aug 12, 2018 9:05 PM in response to malum363

iPad 12.9 gen 2

I removed all of the widgets on the notification page and turned off everything I could and it seems to be helping; though, I think It has something to do with the accelerometer.


When I tilt the iPad back and forth repeatedly and try to scroll (on a web page) at the same time, the freezing intermittently starts and the screen doesnt respond to touches for a few seconds. It comes and goes, but it also happens after there is an application change.

Different things seem to be working for different people.What hasn’t worked for me: Full erase, iTunes restore

Widget Removal

Slide from top down

swipe left to right one time

tap “edit”

tap “-“ then “remove” for each of the widgets (e.g. news, weather, calendar)

Be sure to tap “done” at the top/ middle/ off to the right hand corner after removing.

I do believe that this is a software issue because I wasn’t experiencing this with 10.2. And i am debating whether to request a re-lace net through the 1 year warranty.

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iPad Pro 10.5 screen randomly freezes - anyone else have this?

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