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iPad Pro screen unresponsive

My iPad Pro screen is often unresponsive to touch with screen and keyboard. Reboot does not seem to help.

Posted on Dec 3, 2018 6:10 AM

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Posted on Dec 19, 2018 3:15 PM

The issue of unresponsive and intermitently freezing iPad Pro models is frequently being reported within this community. Here are some of the recent discussions about this issue:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8588201

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250030800

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250021992

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8396370?answerId=34214121022&page=1

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8588201?answerId=250044102022#250044102022


The problem is known within this support community to affect devices with iOS 11/12 - however, in the abscence of a definitive workaround or fix, it is unknown if this is hardware or iOS issue.

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Question marked as Best reply

Dec 19, 2018 3:15 PM in response to DocKah

The issue of unresponsive and intermitently freezing iPad Pro models is frequently being reported within this community. Here are some of the recent discussions about this issue:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8588201

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250030800

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250021992

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8396370?answerId=34214121022&page=1

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8588201?answerId=250044102022#250044102022


The problem is known within this support community to affect devices with iOS 11/12 - however, in the abscence of a definitive workaround or fix, it is unknown if this is hardware or iOS issue.

Dec 4, 2018 5:02 PM in response to DocKah

Hello DocKah,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It's my understanding that your iPad Pro display frequently becomes unresponsive. I can surely see how this could be concerning. You've come to the right place!

The steps in the following link could help with this issue:
If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch won't turn on or is frozen

Let us know the results. Please include any additional troubleshooting steps you may have tried and specific error messages.

Have a great day!

Feb 1, 2019 2:40 PM in response to DocKah

To All in this post.


This is NOT what you are going to want to read/learn, but this is a known issue across all iPad Pro year and models ( even the brand new 2018, 3rd gen iPad Pro models ) and it is starting to affect both the 2018 and 2017 6th and 5th gen 9.7 inch screen iPads, too!!

I am beginning to think that this is a growing issue that is NOT hardware related, but either iOS 11 and/or iOS 12 related bug.

I have a 1st gen, 12.9 inch screen iPad Pro still running iOS 10.3.3 and I am NOT experiencing these recent intermittent touch screen issues.


The best you can do is alert Apple to this growing issue.


The only way to get Apple to, DIRECTLY, listen to you is to use their feedback portion of their website.


iPad Feedback


http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html


Cognizant Apple employees read ALL feedback generated from all of the various feedback pages and transfers the data to the proper and responsible Apple teams and personnel , but NO Apple employees will ever respond with any type of direct, individual replies from the feedback you post.


The more users that post product feedback about any product issue, the faster Apple is made aware and starts working on a fix/solution for a future software update.


Also, you may want to phone contact Apple, directly in Cupertino, California, and calmly talk to an Apple customer service employee about this issue via the link below.


Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple



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!”



Best of Luck to All!


Jul 16, 2019 8:20 AM in response to FredFoox

With each hypothesis, you'd need to provide feedback via the iPad Feedback link. The engineers are not reading these threads for engineering ideas/solutions. The only Apple employees here are the Forum Specialists who, as you've come to know and love, moderate posts which they feel violate the Terms of Use.


You could be very effective if when you think you have something, use this link: Feedback - iPad - Apple


The more who use the link, which does go to people who need to know about issues, the more likely it will be paid attention to.

Oct 4, 2019 2:10 AM in response to FredFoox

A new and possible “permanent temporary” fix for this issue for ALL affected iPad Pro users.


Try locking the screen orientation in whichever screen orientation you use the most.

Do a hard reset of your iPad by holding down both the Home and sleep/wake buttons simultaneously until your iPad goes to black and restarts with Apple logo, then release the buttons.


Then try using your iPad in locked screen orientation for a few hours to see if the intermittent, unresponsive touch issue goes away.


Possible FINAL temporary solution found by user ojan on page 21 of this other ongoing iPad Pro intemittent, unresponsive touch screen issue, here


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250085450?page=21


I think this user has, finally, found a temporary solution that WILL work for ALL iPad Pro users affected by this!

Two users have, already reported success in this posting on page 21.


Give it a shot and see what happens!


I think this user has found both the problem and the temporary fix for all and it maybe both hardware AND software!

Nov 20, 2019 6:38 PM in response to cemfromguelph

So, once more, I will post the Apple feedback page link and Apple contact link for all that still post here to use.

Assuming those that come here bother to read the post threads in these postings on this issue.


The best you can do is alert Apple to this growing issue.


The only way to get Apple to, DIRECTLY, listen to you is to use their feedback portion of their website.


iPad Feedback


http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html


Cognizant Apple employees read ALL feedback generated from all of the various feedback pages and transfers the data to the proper and responsible Apple teams and personnel , but NO Apple employees will ever respond with any type of direct, individual replies from the feedback you post.


The more users that post product feedback about any product issue, the faster Apple is made aware and starts working on a fix/solution for a future software update.


Also, you may want to phone contact Apple, directly in Cupertino, California, and calmly talk to an Apple customer service employee about this issue via the link below.


Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple


Jul 14, 2019 3:21 PM in response to FredFoox

  • the issue initially happened on my ipad pro 512gb 2nd gen. it only started after an ios upgrade late in 2018. (can't remember which one, but i always have the latest). I didn't realize it was an ios bug at the time. i thought the os just slowed down everything as often happens with a new ios (planned obsolescence and all). after all i was running 800 apps quite happily for a couple of years and only had problems after the ios upgrade.
  • so I got ipad pro 2018 1tb jan-2019. it worked perfectly with 800+ apps for about 2 months, then the issue started. i never dropped it and there was never water damage. it doesn't have a scratch and it has been in its case since it came out of the box. the screen is spotless, i use a microfiber handkerchief to wipe it clean several times daily.


My Hs aren't root cause hypotheses just everything i can surmise.

  • H1: based on the above it is clearly not related to the hardware but an ios software defect
  • H2: this does not eliminate the possibility that the issue only happens with certain preferences. however i did fully reset with data deletion and install as new ipad from itunes software, and i got the issue with stock apps installed only. so it is not a conflict with any 3rd party apps, not that ios gives them access to do anything that invasive or system wide anyway
  • H3: hard reset does not fix it, but it gives a brief reprieve, sometimes this gives me 15 mins, sometimes 30.
  • H4: you don't have to do anything for the issue to happen, if your ipad pro is on for a while after a restart, it will happen. it doesn't matter if it's plugged in to the charger or not.
  • H5: when i hold and use it, i am lying down in bed, with two fingers on each side (little finger and 4th supporting it sometimes) and 2 thumbs holding up the bottom so the ipad is in the air, leaving my two index fingers to type.
  • H6: i am not sure but i seem to have had some variance in the issue (not necessarily good or bad, but a little of both) when i change features such as brightness, tap to wake, and night shift, but nothing consistent or useful. i also tried turning on assistive touch and touch accommodations as some suggested in this thread but it didn't help.
  • H7: Aside from the 15-30 minute reprieve i get with a hard reset, i can get a shorter one (maybe 1-5 mins), by hitting the volume buttons then waiting for the on screen volume display to go, but it's hard to tell if it's hitting the buttons or the wait that helps
  • H8: when the issue happens, if i'm typing i have to hit the same key many times until it responds, doing the swipe up move at the bottom edge to bring up the app list is practically impossible as the screen can't register a sustained swipe, likewise if you try to drag an app across pages or play a card game where you drag cards. the card will drop before it moves a quarter of an inch even. yet all of this works fine after a hard reset.



I don't have any issues with the light, it's uniform and consistent across the whole screen. this is purely a touch screen responsiveness issue for me. I have the pencil, but aside from a few mins use initially, it's been in the cupboard from week 2.


To fred fox i appreciate the thought but as i am in the computer science field myself, unless a developer starts using these things to debug ios, i don't see what we can accomplish?

Jul 15, 2019 4:44 AM in response to Raymarlow

iPad Pro 12.9” 2nd Gen


The issue hasn’t been occurring over a year as it started not long after I got it. It was sent off to Apple for repair but they were unable to replicate the fault. They advised I needed to take it into my nearest Apple store but obviously as the issue is very intermittent, that would be a waste of my time. I provided photos and videos of the fault but that wasn’t enough. Please see below my observations:


  1. The issue occurs regardless of whether the iPad is in a case.
  2. The issue occurs regardless of whether the iPad is on charge.
  3. I have only ever used official chargers with my devices.
  4. I have tried multiple iOS updates, including iOS 13 and the issue is still present.
  5. I cannot see any visible light leakage around the screen.
  6. The iPad has been reset back to factory settings multiple times and the issue occurs even if I don’t install any applications.
  7. I have noticed if I have the iPad tilted in certain positions it seems to stop / start the responsiveness, however I’m not 100% how accurate this is.
  8. I do not have any paired devices with the iPad and it does not have a screen protector.


I am convinced the issues are hardware related although I can’t really confirm and Apple doesn't want to help. They have left me with an expensive device that doesn’t work properly and I have stopped using it.

Jul 22, 2019 11:20 AM in response to MichelPM

Not yet 4 me in DE.

A last comment before 12.4 finally resolves the issue ... ;-)

I was thinking why the occurrence of the issue is so (comparatively) rare and random.

If at the HW level two chips share a common HW bus interface and due to timing inaccuracies there are bit collisions then

  1. These problems are often caught e.g. by a parity bit and mitigated by a retry immediately.
  2. Driver transistors will be under electrical stress and my degrade over time.

The occurrence of the issue my depend on fine tolerances.


At the SW level for security reasons most OSs nowadays use a (pseudo)randomized memory layout, seeded by some serial number or so. If something like a concurrency issue in low-level SW causes illegal memory accesses that would be caught by some memory protection exception usually. Any further behavior may depend on usage and is hard to predict (that‘s why this is a security feature).

The more Apple improves security the more they‘d mask such an error, making it harder for them to catch it.


Finally: If people @ Apple are smart (they are) they would carefully scan debug data that can be shared with them with the „iPad analysis“ setting. These data can even be looked at by us users.

Did anyone ever notice a correlation between the touchscreen issue and those logs?

It did not occur to me so far that I should have a look.


Oct 1, 2019 2:14 PM in response to MichelPM

There is one other set of things it does, but it's harder to describe. When it gets to its frequent stage of acting up, some odd stuff happens, such as:

  • I will touch one part of the screen, but a different part will react
  • Things I'm dragging on the screen will behave as though I just let go of them
  • Things I'm holding still on the screen will behave as though I just let go of them (and no, I don't drag my pinkie)
  • Things I'm dragging on the screen will just freeze in place (not the whole game, just the item)
  • The screen will behave as if I touched it when I didn't
  • The device will...what's the word...minimize(?) an application from a random touch anywhere on the screen
  • So far blowing on it doesn't cause it to do anything (had to try, you understand)


And my device does sometimes get (what I like to call MacBook Pro) hot when using a program like Hayday. Not so much with the less hefty apps. Plugged or unplugged; doesn't matter. Now, it doesn't ALWAYS get hot, and there's no specific circumstances under which it does, but sometimes it does.


I do believe Apple will have to muddle their way through this one. Eventually, this will end, and something else will start, and we can begin this whole process all over again.

Dec 19, 2018 12:09 PM in response to DocKah

I’m having a similar problem on my iPad 12.9 3rd gen. It may happen as multiple apps are open. For example, it happens *a lot* when I’m using Affinity Photo or Procreate, with Netflix playing in the corner. It also happens sometimes when I’m playing Breakneck, which is a very fast paced racing game with a heavy graphics rendering burden. Restarting does not help the issue, and it sometimes starts happening shortly after a restart, which leads me to believe that it may have nothing to do with resources after all, unless there are some intense boot resources.

Jan 6, 2019 5:30 AM in response to DocKah

I started noticing this issue with my Original iPad Pro 12.9 inch in mid-2018 and attributed it to my participaton in the iOS12 public beta. I since removed my iPad from the program and this issue seems to have gotten worse.


It seems to happen mostly in Safari, albiet that is what i am using most often anyway. I have tried to narrow it down to a particular time or in conjunction with some other background activity but to no avail. I thought maybe it had to do with the Smart Keyboard, but I have trouble with touch with the Smart Keyboard attached or un-attached so that doesn’t seem to make a difference.


The most glaring example and when it it is most aggravating to me is entering text in a field in Safari or Chrome.

iPad Pro screen unresponsive

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