iPad Pro screen unresponsive

I’ve not had any trouble with mine for a little over a week now. I’ve been using it the same way in the same place and everything is working properly. It does start to act up on occasion and I have a little bottle of anti-static spray That you spritz on the front of your shirt in your hand and the problem goes away. I believe the issue is static electricity. From what I’ve read of users with problems, most are using them in their lap. When you’re arms and the iPad are touching the same cloth is where I notice the problem, I believe our fingers are becoming static neutral. If you don’t want to get and use static spray, next time it happens hold the iPad up in the air with one hand take the other hand and lightly rub around the metal perimeter of the iPad with the other hand. And then start to use it again and see if that works.

I found that every screen I have had that had touch issues also had light leakage from the edges of the screen . It has been said that the glue that holds the screen/digitizer is coming up causing the touch to not work properly. Check you screen for little spots of uneven light on the edges. Best seen on a solid white or light colored back ground.

Yes, I too confirm everything, even the suspicion with tilting, though I cannot make any sense of it.

I’d like to recommend some systematic test steps the next time the issue occurs:

Shake the device and bend it, then try again!

(Want to know if there is an indication for a mechanical issue).

Cool it down in the fridge, then try again!

(Want to know if there is an indication for a thermal issue.)

Connect a pencil (if available), then try again!

(Just want to ascertain that there is the occasionally reported correlation.)

Check if it does affect approximately halve the screen and not the other halve. Which halve?

(Want to verify this observation, that some users may have missed.)

Test the device “naked” and again with enclosure or other accessory!

(Want to know if immediate environment matters.)

Change the location and go to a different room, use a different couch, a different air!

(Want to know if invisible properties matter such as humidity and electrostatic charge.)

...

Yes, my mom is about to turn 70 in couple of years, too. She was diagnosed 30 years ago and was told that chances are she dies within next 5 years. Now, 30 years passed since then and she is still kicking :)

BTW, there is a way to rule out the software-related root cause: try to observe the same with a mouse connected. In iOS 13, at app level, mouse works like a finger emulator, if any app is causing this - then it should result in ‘missing clicks’ as well. Here I’m talking about apps, not firmware itself because apps do not have low-level access rights like driver sw/firmware. If someone experiences missing clicks, then I would agree it is software issue.

Fred,

I think another user has “hit the nail on the head” after nearly a year!

It’s an issue with the gyroscope feature/hardware/software calibration and screen orientation sensors/software.

I think we finally have the cause for this issue!

The touch response issue comes back, but simply unlocking and locking the screen orientation fixes this issue for awhile.

That is a quicker temporary fix to implement than constant reboots, turning ON touch accommodations or turning the Tap to Wake feature off in many cases, both of these temporary solutions do not always work and is not a temporary fix for ALL iPads affected by this!

Toggle ON/OFF the scteen orientation lock when the iPad's touch starts going flaky is a lot quicker temporary fix to deal with for the time being.

It's a gyroscope issue!

Some problem with the iPad Pro’s/iOS gyroscope feature!

I have NO idea how we, as users, alert Apple to this.

I hope you get this response, Fred!

I think we have found the direct cause of this issue!

Locking and unlocking and locking screen orientation sometimes helps. If my ipad is not charging, it helps more. If my ipad is charging, often the only solution is to take the connector out of the socket. Having the connector out of the socket AND the screen locked seems to reduce the problem significantly compared to connector out of the socket and unlocked screen orientation.

I also note that the problem is more or less severe depending on the orientation which I use the ipad.

I suspect that the larger ipads are more susceptible to becoming slightly warped over time and that the slight bending creates outside-of-design-tolerance pressures at unexpected places in the unit that in turn yield intermittent misbehavior. I assume that having the charger plugged in adds just a tiny bit more pressure at the wrong place. Differences in how we individually use our machines yield differences in how much the machine bends, and how quickly, and thus how soon problems show up and how severe they are.

I am using the latest OS update on a 2015 ipad pro.

I have noticed that as soon as my hands are not in contact with the metal sides of the iPad , the screen responds as it should. Hope I’m wrong.

To All,

Apple just released the iOS 12.3 update.

Download and install to see if Apple has fixed the iPad Pro touch issues, or not.

Don't just notify either. They now know there is a problem, but they have no fix except to replace. Mine is being replaced for the second time. Try to get a replacement. It's going to develop the problem as well, but at least you get two or three months of relatively trouble-free use. Good luck

Called Apple Support, tried all remedies and they didn’t work. They advised an appointment at the Genius Bar at my local apple store. Called in there this morning and they were very helpful. I’d recommend going through apple support and try their remedies and if that doesn’t work arrange an appointment at your local store Genius Bar.

Also i found this YouTube video which shows the issue I’m having exactly https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZBh07sdJnA

I’ve not had any trouble with mine for a little over a week now. I’ve been using it the same way in the same place and everything is working properly. It does start to act up on occasion and I have a little bottle of anti-static spray That you spritz on the front of your shirt in your hand and the problem goes away. I believe the issue is static electricity. From what I’ve read of users with problems, most are using them in their lap. When you’re arms and the iPad are touching the same cloth is where I notice the problem, I believe our fingers are becoming static neutral. If you don’t want to get and use static spray, next time it happens hold the iPad up in the air with one hand take the other hand and lightly rub around the metal perimeter of the iPad with the other hand. And then start to use it again and see if that works.

I have an iPad Pro 12.9. 2018 and a week or so ago, it started with the non responsive screen, it is about 6 months old. The freezing was getting more frequent and was just about to return it to the apple store for a refund, along with my 2017 model that has the exact same fault.

Installed the 12.3 update last night and haven’t had any issues since, but I guess time will tell. Apple’s refusal to acknowledge and fix the problem has cost me almost 2k so it is doubtful that I would buy another iPad after this.

i do not have a pencil for the 2018 iPad Pro, but I do have the old pencil with the 2017 model.

I turned it off so not in beta.

that experience aside, I am actually back to thinking it might my case. I thought I had ruled it out, and tested two cases and no cases.

My current theory is touch issues occur when being held up or in a position where there is pressure on the side. That pressure is distributing through to nearby cover buttons like sound. I have just now cut out all case buttons covers. Anyway Like democracy, it's a good theory. Let's see how it pans out.

That’s just it , the issues happen no matter what you are doing. Beta iOS did not fix issues. Hard reset will not fix the issue.

In my case as I stated b4 is that out of about 30 iPad that I have looked at that are having the touch screen stop responding. There is light leakage around the edges of the screen.

As for others having the same issue I can not say for sure just what I have seen for sure on my end.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pcmag.com/news/367581/report-ipad-pros-have-a-touchscreen-problem%3famp=1

other users are reporting issues in different areas. Some with screen fluttering. Others with screens that don’t want to respond properly.

as I stayed in some cases it is the fact that the screen and digitizer are not glued properly and this causes the digitizer not to read the finger touch properly. The pen works differently than a finger and the pad may work properly with a pen when the finger will not.

I only brought it up here because the light around the edges is sometimes hard to see.

I post a photo later today to show what I’m talking about so others can see.

• 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?