iPad Pro 12.9” not responding to touch intermittently

Adding my name to the list of people with the problem. 2018 iPad Pro 12.9". For me, non-response only affected the right 2" of the screen when in portrait mode. If I rotated the iPad, it was the same 2" that was non-responsive - so the top 2" when in landscape and the left 2" when held upside down in portrait.

I booked a Genius Bar appointment and then realised I should update to iOS 12.2 or they would likely tell me that was the problem. But as soon as the update was done, the problem disappeared. It's now been 3 days with full responsiveness and no issues. I am still waiting for the problem to resurface.

What really ticked me off at Apple was the genius stated there was no known problem and they had never heard of non-responsiveness on iPad pros.

I’ve read in some other postings about this same problem that some folks have had success with either turning on assistive touch (under GENERAL in SETTINGS):

... or by limiting the frame rate to 60 frames per second (under ACCESSIBILITY in SETTINGS):

Hope this helps!

Turn off the Automatically lock and unlock your iPad cover when you open and close your IPad cover! Worked for me! Hope this helps 😁 under settings display&brightness.

I had the same problem with a 2018 iPad Pro 12.9”. I took it to an Apple store and they swapped it out immediately.

I have an I-Pad Pro

I have looked at the discussions that people have submited about the screen freeze.

Until Apple helps with the solution of this problem I have figured out the temporarly solution to help with this freezing.

The freezing drove me nuts but I had noticed that everytime this would happen I was in the same spots sitting on the couch laying it on my leg, using it on the counter, etc.

The I-Pad had the back of itself covered and heats up extremely, keeping the back of the I-Pad uncovered keeps it cool and the freezing stopped.

I hope this helps it did for me.

Yes, as part of systematic testing, in addition to physically removing the Apple Pencil from the envirnment, I have completely deleted the Pencil from the iPad. For me, the issue is definitely not with the Pencil.

Interestingly, I have tried removing the iPad from its case (an STM Dux Plus 10.5). Having done so, without its case, the iPad appears to be working completely as expected. For those not familiar with this case, it consists of a hard polycarbonate back plate, full TPU armoured edging and pencil holder with a folding folio cover. Despite only being used at home, the case is ruggedised and is designed to provide a very high degree of protection in harsh environments. Once in the case, the iPad is effectively in a secure “cocooned“ environment. In addition to the case, the iPad has a Zag glass+ screen protector to provide effective protection for the screen.

So, with the case off (and the relatively expensive screen protector in-place), my iPad seems to behave normally. Within the case, it doesn’t. Armed with the results of systematic system tests and this experimental knowledge, it follows that unexpected behaviour is lnked in some way with the case.

The STM case design is such that the iPad has rigid but gentle support within the case. Examination and physical testing is such that I am satisfied that problems with the iPad are not due to mechanical support or pressure on the iPad within the case. The iPad itself is pristine - in the exact condition it was from manufacture.

The folio case cover has the usual tiny magnet to trigger the screen-lock feature - but this magnet, with the cover open (and the erroneous behavior evident) is seperated from the iPad sensor by 40cm. Even if this tiny magnet were made of the most exotic of materials, with an insane magnetic flux, it is positioned so far from the sensor as to be well beyond its reach. The folio cover also has a “flap” that secures the cover closed on the iPad when not in use; the flap contains a magnet that holds the flap closed on three tiny steel plates on the underside on the case. The flap magnet is thus even further away from the iPad sensor.

So, still stumped as to the definitive cause of the iPad problem, but hopefully the above knowledge might contribute to our collective knowledge.

Ok so tried everything nothing worked. But read one solution somewhere and tried it and voila it worked at least for me.

So, go to settings then display and brightness and turn off the Lock/unlock option. After 15 mins no issues at all and today is the 3rd day.

I cannot gurantee if this will work for you, but if yes do reply so that apple cannot push out an update for it.

Not sure if this is the answer, but i’ve been having this issue for many months. Not certain if it coincided with the change when I went to iOS 12 beta. But I read comments which seemed to link to the Apple Pencil so I went to Bluetooth settings and removed the Apple Pencil and it’s been behaving since. I had the issue even with no Apple Pencil around

I’ll have to see if it works long term but it could be that the palm rejection is kicking in automatically. I had the Apple Pencil and an older Apple wireless keyboard in my Bluetooth settings so maybe there’s a conflict there too. Wonder if someone else can confirm the same result. If so maybe removing and readding the pencil will work. I’m leaving it off for now.

To Everyone.

Another user in another similar posting seems to have come up with a temporary fix.

Possible Temporary Solution from user Andrew Ngo

Original posting from here.

iPad Pro 11" - Touch Screen Unresponsive - Apple Community

“For those whom have touch screen unresponsive issue with iOS 12.1.....

Goto Setting -> General -> Accessibility -> Touch Accommodations, Turn on Touch Accommodations. Leave everything else in the options alone.

All my touch issues gone!”

Yes I have the 2018 one. I had the same issues as you with screen unresponsiveness. Lucky I was able to replicate it in front of the genius Bar employee, so they gave me a brand new unit. It's been over a month of really heavy use and *touch wood* there have been no issues.

I received my 2018 IPAD Pro 12.9 back from Apple repair on Monday 04/01. They were not able to replicate the touch issue so no repair was done. I reloaded and have been using it now for 4+ days and have not had one failure. So what changed? When I sent it in I was at IOS 12.1.4 and when I got it back it was at 12.2. Not sure what they did in 12.2 but it appears to have fixed the problem. Your post said "The iOS 12.2 update is supposed to fix the touch issues across all iPad Pro models." Did you find a statement from Apple that acknowledges a touch issue in previous IOS releases?

As I keep pointing, this is NOT a hardware, but an iOS 12 software problem, that seems to be still a problem for some, even after iOS 12.2, which was supossed to fix this issue, based on users using the beta versions of iOS 12.

I have a feeling a new iPad Pro is going to exhibit the exact same issue if this is an iOS 12 problem.

This issue is across three years of iPad Pro models here.

This IS an iOS 12 issue as my iPad Pro is not having any touch issues running iOS 10.3.3.

This bug/issue really made itself more aware with the release of iOS 12 back in Oct. 2018.

It appers some iPad Pros are doing much better on iOS 12.2, while other iPad Pro users here are still having this issue.

i have a feeling iOS 12 updates are going to dwindle down sooner than later, this time around.

Hopefully this issue will get solved for everyone by the end of the OS 12 update cycle.

Maybe lucky iOS 13 will be better.

No way to know.

Maybe a few of you should check that your iPad isn’t slightly bent, it happened to me again on my iPad 10.5” but thats because I fell sleep and partially slept on it, and the aluminium frame was bent slightly which affected the screen input. The metal frame tends to hold shape once bent, not like plastic where it kind of springs back into shape. I’d imagine it’s a lot easier to bend the 12.9 inch iPad . I also had a similar issue before which was resolved by plugging in my Apple Pencil here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250154346