Some new iPhone 13 users are reporting intermittent touch issues on their new devices, a phenomenon where the iPhone does not respond to touch inputs by the user, sometimes requiring an entire device force restart to solve, or in other cases, repeated taps to trigger the system to react.
Posts on Reddit, the MacRumors Forums, Twitter, and Apple Support include reports of iPhone 13 customers having touch sensitivity issues on their new phones. Users report problems with tap to wake, where the iPhone doesn't respond after a tap on the screen to wake, and other instances of system-wide and in-app touch inputs not responding.
Anyone's iPhone 13 not registering touch events consistently? Is that an app thing, an iOS 15 thing, or my iPhone 13 thing — Arnold Kim (@arnoldkim) September 29, 2021
@AppleSupport @Apple is just me or Iphone 13 Pro has some problems of sensitivity with some apps on the upper corners? — Francisco Gonzalez (@miamifl786) September 29, 2021
I’ve had the iPhone 13 pro for less than 24hrs and I’m already having problems with the touch screen… great success @AppleSupport — Stephanie (@steph_nicole216) September 25, 2021
Bugs seen on iPhone 13 Pro Max/iOS 15 so far:
• Non-functional camera (app opens, camera feed does not)
• iPhone doesn’t wake on touch
• iPhone unlocks but swipe up to open fails (screen unresponsive)
• Mail app freezes
• Watch not recognized Other than that, it’s great! — Mikey (@mikeycampbell81) September 29, 2021
Isolated cases of touch screen sensitivity issues on the iPhone 13 would narrow it down to possible hardware malfunctions for some models of the new iPhone; however, reports of touch issues occurring on older devices after updating to iOS 15 suggest it's likely a software bug instead.
@AppleSupport found touch problem ( respond quite later) after updating to My Apple devices on IOS 15. Kindly resolve the issue — HemKrushna Charmode (@hcharmode) September 23, 2021
@Apple I do the IOS 15 update and my touchscreen is struggling… never had that happen. Followed the steps to “fix” still the same issue…. Like it was almost to the point where I have to forcefully push in my screen just to text or watch a YouTube video! — Jessie H. (@jessiesaysu) September 22, 2021
@AppleSupport there’s some problem with touch sensitivity of my iPhone 12 Pro Max since update to ios15.
It doesn’t respond to a single touch as it used to do, like touching to play a YouTube video or touching when iPhone is locked.
Now I’ve to touch 4-6 times. — Abhishek Gupta (@AYPgupta) September 26, 2021
Same issue here intermittently, even closing apps and reopening doesn’t work sometimes, so have to power off the phone to get it to register touch input again. Please note and fix the issue — kailos (@kailos321) September 24, 2021
Since its release slightly over a week ago, iOS 15 has been tormented with problems, including bugs related to the iPhone 13 and the Apple Watch, device storage, Apple Music, and widgets, on top of possible security vulnerabilities. Apple has promised to release a software update to address various issues currently impacting iOS and iPadOS 15 devices. Apple may release iOS 15.0.1 sooner rather than later to address the issues, though it may alternatively decide to just release iOS 15.1 instead when it completes beta testing later next month.
YouTuber and Apple beta specialist Zollotech noted in his latest video recapping the changes in the newest iOS 15.1 beta that the issue seems to be fixed, according to his limited time with the latest software build.