Turn off proximity sensor on your iPhone

I have an iPhone 7 plus. Doing a hard reset fixed this issue for me.

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.

No. I just turned the phone off then back on again.

Mine was doing the same... even on 11.4.1. A hard restart solved the issue though!

A reset fixed the problem, I have had 11.4.1 for a while now.

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.

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.

I'd been having this problem recently - especially in the Camera app, where normal attempts to focus/zoom the preview kept triggering a black/unresponsive screen. And, I was already at iOS 11.3.1. Having just upgraded to iOS 11.4, the problem seems to have gone away. (Maybe it will return - and it's the hard restart that helps? We'll see.)

Try to reset your phone. It has fixed the issue for me.

humm, better then to go to the closest apple store... good luck

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!

About to do a hard restarted, but I'm pretty confident something is causing the sensor to be active, even when not on a call. Because it only happens when I pass my hand over the sensor. It's like a have a ninja power or something... Hovers hand over sensor ...blank screen! 😁

Ironically for me, the issue seems to have started with the 11.3.1 update. Hmm.