What to do if iPhone XS screen is unresponsive

Welcome to another iPhone XS troubleshooting article. This post will address another common problem for iPhones — screen freezing or becoming unresponsive. If you have a similar issue, this post might help.

Before we proceed, we want to remind you that you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page.

When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem: iPhone XS touchscreen is unresponsive

Iphone XS touchscreen unresponsive. Cant even unlock phone. Was fine yesterday today when I woke up did not work. Tried soft reset nothing happened. Did not enter dfu mode yet looking for other options.

Solution: There can be a number of causes for this problem. Make sure to follow our troubleshooting suggestions below.

Force reboot

Sometimes, iOS may encounter bugs that it can’t handle on its own which then results to freezing or screen becoming unresponsive. Forcing your phone to restart may be the only way out in this situation. If you haven’t tried it yet, here’s how it’s done:

  1. Press and quickly release the Volume Up button.
  2. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button.
  3. Finally, press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears.

Doing the steps above will tell the system to reboot itself as it simulates the effect of the battery being disconnected from the device. This is often useful when your iPhone freezes randomly, or when there’s an error that forces the system to stop responding.

Restart while charging

Another trick that we discover with older iPhones before is to connect them to a charger and then do a forced reboot. If you want to test this out, be sure to use a known working charging cable and adapter.

DFU Mode Restore

Some bugs may require drastic solutions to fix them. At this juncture, there’s nothing much that you can do so DFU restore is the next in line. Follow the steps below to do it:

  1. Install the latest iTunes version on your computer.
  2. Turn off your iPhone XS Max.
  3. Connect it to your computer using a Lightning to USB cable.
  4. Launch iTunes on your computer, and check that your iPhone appears in the list of devices.
  5. On your iPhone, press the Volume Up button immediately followed by the Volume Down button.
  6. Next, press and hold the Side button (or power button) until your iPhone’s screen turns black.
  7. Release the Side button and then hold down both the Side button and Volume Down button together for approximately five seconds.
  8. Now release the Side button, but continue to press the Volume Down button.
  9. Wait for at least five seconds for iTunes to recognize DFU recovery mode has been enabled. NOTE: If you’re successful, you should see: “iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes”. If you don’t get this message on your iPhone, repeat the steps above as detailed.
  10. Afterwards, go ahead and restore your iPhone to its factory state by selecting Restore iPhone.

Let Apple do repair

If the screen remains unresponsive, or if the issue is caused by physical damage, you should let a professional check the hardware so it can be repaired. Bring the device to Apple and let their technician run a hardware check.


Engage with us

If you happen to have a problem with your own iPhone, let us know about it and we will do our best to post them and their solutions  in our upcoming articles. You can use this link to contact us for assistance. We can’t guarantee an answer to every question but rest assured that we will exhaust everything on our end to help you.

Be as detailed as possible when describing your problem to help us diagnose your issue easily. If you can include error messages, popups, attempted troubleshooting steps, and circumstances leading to the problem, that would be very helpful.

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