Turn off proximity sensor on your iPhone

There is no setting for the proximity sensor, so changes cannot be made. Feedback to Apple goes here, https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

What are you doing at the time that is turning off when the proximity sensor is turning off the screen? I can read you are "within 3 inches of the top half of the phone", but what are you doing on the phone at the time?

The proximity sensor should be disabled except when you are on a phone call. If the screen is turning off at any other time when you are not on a call there is something else wrong, and most likely it has nothing to do with the proximity sensor. It thus has nothing to do with sensitivity. If restarting the phone doesn't fix it (Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support), Try restoring iOS on your phone: Restore your iOS device from a backup - Apple Support

When you are not looking at the phone and cover the front of it, the screen will blank under certain circumstances. Seems this may be a battery saving act. If you turn the phone face down, the screen will also not light up for any notifications, etc., unless you pick the phone up and then look at it. I believe that is part of the Attention Aware features, and that switch is available in the Settings>Face ID and Passcode section. Can be too sure, as I've never tried changing the setting on my device before. Also, if the phone rings, when you pick it up and then look at it, the screen will dim and the volume will automatically turn down, which is part of that Attention, since the phone "knows" that you are looking at it and it doesn't have to be that bright/or ringing loudly.

However, I just tested my iPhone X against what you are saying. I turned the phone on, then opened the calendar while the phone is lying on the table and wiped my hand all around the phone and it has not turned off at all. Check that one setting I mentioned and see if you have it on or off. Also, what setting do you have Auto-Lock on?

I cannot reproduce the steps you described in steps 1-5. My screen will not dim/turn off under those circumstances.

Okay, I cannot test that behavior, but the only time I've ever seen the proximity sensor blank the screen is in a phone call, not for any other purpose.

You will have to wait to see if another user with an iPhone 7 can test their device to duplicate the behavior you describe. Have you tried any troubleshooting to see if you can change this behavior? You can also make a Genius Bar appointment to have the device examined by Apple if you have an Apple Store close by to see what they have to say.

It would probably be the quickest if you have one close by and can get an appointment. Otherwise it would require you to try a number of other troubleshooting steps. Again, I don't have a 7 here at home to test with. My wife has an iPhone 7, but she is at work right now and won't be home for several hours.

craig415 wrote:

Thanks for the link.

I could have been doing anything, such as checking email, finished a phone call, checking my calendar, playing a game, looking at home screen...it doesn't matter. If I put my hand within a few inches of the screen while it is on, the screen turns off, and when I move my hand away the screen comes back on.

Repro steps:

1. Turn phone on

2. Put hand within a few inches of the top of the phone

3. Screen turns off

4. Move hand away from phone

5. Screen turns on

I understand the intended use case for this feature (turn screen off when you put the phone against your ear during a call) but the sensitivity is too much now and it interferes with the usability of the device.

There's something wrong with your proximity sensor. It shouldn't kick in unless you're on a call on an iPhone 7/7+. I just tested mine with Home screen, Calendar, Camera. My screen doesn't go dark.

Same here. Though it took a while to happen, it happened after the update. I went so far as to turn off fitness tracking (which should turn off the automatic “facedown” screen shutdown), but this did not help so my next step will be a full reboot, but very annoying since it kept shutting down this morning while using Waze to get to work. I have an iPhone 7 (but not a plus).

Update: turning the phone off and back on again solved things. Of course now, whether or not tracking is enabled in motion and fitness the “facedown” screen dimming doesn’t work, but I’m willing to live without it for now.

In a couple of months it may become more annoying since “facedown” is the only way to temporarily turn off Siri and I don’t want Siri on all the time, but I will need to use Siri in order to operate my phone fully hands free while driving.

Now, if only Apple and Waze were compativle for that handsfree endeavour—currently Siri stops being Apple to hear you while Waze is using the mic for handsfree operation which means you cannot receive calls or dictate anything while operating Waze.

Good luck everyone!

iPhone X here and I am having the exact same issues as described above. This has not been an issue for me until a couple days ago - it is not incredibly sensitive, regardless of application in use and almost always whilst I am looking at my device.

Same thing happened to me on 11.3.1 on 7+

I only noticed it yesterday while I was in landscape in the calender. I was on my back on the couch and every time I used my hand around the sensor (from close to approx 3inches) it would cut out as per a phone call.

Have yet to find a real solution online but have left feedback in the appropriate places.

While turning the phone all the way off and back on does resolve the problem, the issue does reoccur. Which necessitates me turning my phone all the way off and back on again. Apparently there was some sort of bug.

11.4 hasn’t solved the issue. More usable screen space thanks to the notch is negated by this sensitivity because you need to be able to access the top of the screen to control gestures. This issue is actually quite detrimental to the phones intended use and design. Let’s hope they’ve heard us!

I had this same problem and it was very annoying, just using the phone in a normal way and passing my hand over the sensor would trigger the screen to go black. I fixed this by doing a hard reset on the phone, holding both the "power" and "home" buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears, then release. HTH