iPhone Tips: Fix for touchscreen that’s not working

Do a Forced Reboot on the iPhone

Next you should try a force reboot of the iPhone, this works to resolve an unresponsive touch screen, and many other issues, for the vast majority of cases:

1. Hold down the Home button and Power button simultaneously.

2. Continue holding both buttons until you see the Apple logo appear on the screen then release.

3. When the iPhone boots back up, hopefully the touch screen will no longer be unresponsive.

Restore the iPhone from a Backup

This requires a computer and USB cable, you’ll be first making a backup to iTunes, then restoring with that backup.

1. Connect the iPhone to a computer with iTunes

2. Choose to “Encrypt backup” if you haven’t done so yet, and choose to “Back up to this computer”

3. Choose “Back up now” and let the process complete, this can take a while

4. When finished, click on the “Restore” button, choose the backup you just made to restore to

5. Let the backup restore to the iPhone and try using it as normal

If the iPhone screen continues to exhibit strange freezing and unresponsive touch behavior, your next step is to erase it and set it up as new.

Set Up the iPhone as New with an Erase & Factory Reset

NOTE: Do not do this if you have not made a recent backup. You will lose data if you do this, this erases the iPhone and deletes everything from the iPhone, resetting it to a factory state.

Once the iPhone has been setup as new, don’t restore from a backup quite yet, try to use the iPhone as if it was brand new. If the iPhone works and the touchscreen is responsive as it should be, it suggests there could be a problem with the backup you used to restore earlier.

Contact Apple Support – Last Resort

If you’ve forcibly rebooted the iPhone, you’ve restored from a backup, and you’ve setup the iPhone as new, and the touch screen is still unresponsive, it’s time to call Apple official support or visit a genius bar at an Apple Store.

Any new iPhone is under warranty for a year, and the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are new enough that there is no question as to warranty coverage for a potentially defective product. Typically in these situations, if an iPhone is determined to be not functioning properly after all software resets and restores have been attempted, Apple will provide you with a new replacement iPhone, assuming it has not been damaged and otherwise falls within their warranty.