Iphone touch screen not working? It is rare for an iPhone touch screen to stop working or become unresponsive. If this happens, you will touch the screen and nothing happens, swipes will be ignored, taps won’t work, and another touch on the screen won’t register any behavior. It’s clearly annoying if the iPhone screen stops working and does not respond to touch, and it’s not subtle.
Find out how you can fix your iPhone touch screen if it isn’t working with these helpful troubleshooting steps. There could be several causes for this non-working touch screen, sometimes it’s a software issue, sometimes it’s dirt on the screen, sometimes it’s damage to the iPhone touch screen or iPhone itself, and sometimes it’s some other issue, too. Find out more in the following paragraphs.
iPhone Touch Screen Not Working: Fixes
Reboot/Forced Restart
Rebooting the system is the very first recommendation for resolving any software-related symptoms, including random screen freezes. Due to the non-responsiveness of the touchscreen on your iPhone, you will need to perform a forced restart instead of a reboot/soft reset. Using iPhone 8, 8 Plus, or later iPhones, here’s what you should do:
- Hold down the Volume Up button and release it.
- Once you’ve released the Volume Up button, tap and hold the Volume Down button.
- Then, press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears, and then release it.
Apple’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus force a restart in the following way:
- While holding both the Volume Down and the Power (Sleep/Wake) buttons simultaneously, release both buttons once the Apple logo appears.
To force an iPhone 6 or earlier to restart, here’s what you should do:
- While holding the Power (Sleep/Wake) button and the Home button, wait until the Apple logo appears on the screen and then release both buttons.
After performing a forced restart/reboot, if your iPhone touchscreen is responding again, you may need to take these further steps to eliminate the triggers. Something within the software aspect must be the problem if it’s not the hardware. You must eliminate the trigger of the problem in order to prevent it from returning. Bad apps, malware, bugs, as well as corrupted data, or broken files, are among the common variables. You can eliminate these factors to prevent recurrence of the unresponsive screen symptom and the touch screen problem by performing the following procedures.
Clean Your Screen, And Your Fingers
You should first wipe off your iPhone screen and your fingers (or another input appendage). While troubleshooting this, you’ll also want to remove any cases or thick third-party screen protectors you have on your iPhone.
Take a good look at your iPhone screen in bright direct sunlight and tilt it around to reveal any gunk, oil, residues, liquids, moisture, dried crust or food, or anything else that may be interfering with the screen. A common thing that gets on the iPhone screen in the summer is sunscreen. This can make the touchscreen unresponsive or erroneously responsive. You’ll want to make sure the iPhone screen is free of any objects that could interfere with the proper detection of a touch. Usually, wiping it with a cotton cloth will suffice to remove anything from the iPhone display’s touch screen, but you may need to use a slightly damp (and I mean slightly damp, never enough moisture to drip) cloth to get rid of any residue.
Whether it’s your fingers, a stylus, or other input appendages, just make sure they’re clean and dry. In case of doubt or if you have a bunch of gunk on your fingers or hands, wash them. Skin that is unusually dry or calloused does not matter and should not cause problems with the touch screen, but wet hands may cause issues as well.
Keep the screen clean and dry, and make sure your hands are clean and dry.
Update your iPhone
In the event that you’ve already tried the two steps above and your iPhone touchscreen still doesn’t respond, you should next try updating your iPhone by connecting it to your computer. Because the touchscreen is unresponsive, you won’t be able to update it normally; instead, you will need to put the phone in recovery mode.
Here’s what you do:
- Your device must be connected to your computer. Launch Finder if you’re running macOS Catalina 10.15 (or higher). Launch iTunes if you’re using macOS Mojave 10.14 (or earlier) – or Windows (on a PC).
- Press and quickly release the Volume Up button, press and quickly release the Volume Down button, and then press the Side button until the Recovery Mode screen appears on your iPhone. When the iPhone 7 or 7 Plus appears, hold the Side/Top button and Volume Down button simultaneously until the Recover Mode screen appears. If you have an iPhone 6S or earlier, hold the Home button and the Top/Side button together.
- You will see a window on your computer giving you the option to Restore or Update your iPhone. Simply click Update.
Check your screen protector
In some rare cases, screen protectors can make your iPhone touchscreen unresponsive even though they are typically very thin these days. As a result, you should ensure your iPhone’s touchscreen has been properly covered with the screen protector. Attempt to remove the protector and reapply it or reapply a new one if you have one available.
Try removing your screen protector even if it has been applied properly. There’s a chance that, for some reason, it’s interfering with how your touchscreen works. When your iPhone’s touchscreen starts working properly after removing the screen protector, you may want to consider either foregoing the screen protector or buying a new (possibly thinner) one.
Adjust 3D Touch Sensitivity
It’s entirely possible that a simple restart won’t solve the problem if it’s really an internal issue. To begin with, you should check your iPhone 3D Touch Sensitivity and try to fix the iPhone touch screen not working issue before concluding it is caused by the software update. If necessary, you can adjust it as follows:
- Go to Settings.
- Go to General > Accessibility.
- Scroll down and hit on the ‘3D Touch’ option.
- You can toggle 3D Touch on/off, or you can scroll down and adjust the sensitivity to ‘Light’, ‘Medium’, or ‘Firm.’
Contact Apple
In some cases, factory resetting your iPhone may be too heavy-handed, so you may want to contact Apple Support instead. Apple’s ability to fix the problem, which may be hardware-related, without erasing your iPhone’s memory may make this a safer alternative than factory resetting your iPhone.
