Ghost Touch on iPhone? Here’s How to Get Rid of It

Ghost touch or phantom touch is a frustrating occurrence that happens when the touch screen of your iPhone registers touches and gestures without any input from you. This can significantly disrupt your normal device usage and interfere with your ability to use the phone effectively.

Due to ghost touches, the iPhone automatically starts opening apps. The phone can also make unwanted calls, or send meaningless emails, among other things. If you recently updated your iPhone’s iOS, you may experience ghost touches due to an iOS bug. 

In the worst-case scenario, ghost touches can occur on the locked screen, preventing you from entering your password or PIN, and potentially locking you out of your phone for safety. This issue has been reported on almost all models of iPhone and can sometimes prevent users from accessing specific letters or numbers on the virtual keyboard.

Prerequisites to Troubleshooting

• Charge the iPhone with a genuine iPhone charger. If you already use a genuine charger, try another Apple charger (such as an iPad charger). You may try a new cable as well.
• Whenever you fail to use your iPhone during the troubleshooting process, locking/unlocking your phone may stop ghost touches momentarily and give you time to complete the steps

How to Fix Ghost Touch on Your iPhone?

Once the prerequisites are completed, you can move to the solutions down below.

1. Force Restart the iPhone

You will experience ghost touches on your iPhone if the input modules of your phone are in an error state. Here, force restarting the iPhone will do the trick as the modules will be reinitiated with the default configurations.

1. Press the iPhone’s volume up and then down buttons.

   

2. Hold the power or side button of the iPhone till the Apple logo is displayed on the screen. Do not release the button on the power options menu.
3. Once properly powered on, see if the phone is cleared of the ghost touches.

2. Update the iOS of the iPhone to the Latest Release

A bug in the iOS might be triggering ghost touches on your phone and updating the same will resolve the issue.

1. Launch the iPhone Settings and go to General > Software Update.

   

2. Download and install the update (if available).
3. Restart the phone and check if the ghost touch issue is resolved.

3. Remove the Screen Protector and Clean the Phone’s Screen

You will get ghost touches on the iPhone if there is dust/dirt on the phone’s screen or under the screen protector. This can be fixed by removing the screen protector and cleaning the phone’s screen.

Make sure no liquid gets inside the phone when cleaning it. Moreover, you cannot reuse the screen protector after removing it.

1. Power off the iPhone and remove any cover from the phone. If you have a 3rd party stick-on camera mount, remove it as well.

   

2. Remove the screen protector from the phone (if present). If you have a tampered glass (especially, full face) on the screen, remove it.

   

3. Get an alcohol-based wet wipe and clean the phone’s screen. Remember to clean any leftover sticker adhesive.

   

4. Use a soft tissue or dry wipe to remove any moisture from the screen.
5. Get a toothpick and use it to clean the charging port of the phone. You can also blow air into the port by using compressed air can.

   

6. Power on the iPhone (without a case, screen protector, camera mount, etc.) and see if the ghost touches are gone.
7. If not, put the iPhone face down on a flat surface (such as a desk) and slightly press on the back. Check if the touch is working correctly. If so, then there is a slight bend in your phone, and getting it checked will be a wise option.

If you are using a 3^rd party screen on your iPhone (not the genuine one), then you will need a good screen protector. The genuine screen has a coated layer to resist static electricity and sweat/oil but many third part screens do not have this layer. You can test this by using a cling film/saran wrap on the screen.

4. Uninstall the Conflicting App

If an app is not compatible with the iPhone or is coded poorly, it can cause auto touches on the phone. Uninstalling the conflicting app will solve the problem.

Boot the iPhone into the Safe Mode

1. Power off the iPhone and power on the iPhone.
2. When the phone’s screen lights up, hold down the phone’s Volume Down button.

   

3. Release the button when the Apple logo is shown. Check if the ghost touches are gone in the phone’s safe mode.

Uninstall Facebook

If ghost touches do not occur in the safe mode, then a 3^rd party app is most probably causing the issue. The Facebook app is reported to cause the issue and if you have it, then uninstalling it will solve the problem.

1. Tap and hold the Facebook icon.
2. Select Delete App and confirm to delete the Facebook app.

   

3. Restart the iPhone and check if the ghost touches problem is solved.

5. Disable Mobile or Cellular Data

There are several iPhone models wherein the data chip, which handles the 3G, 4G, or 5G data transfers, is situated near the touchpad.

In places where the data signals are weak, these chips may emit higher levels of RF, which can lead to static current on the touchscreen. As a result, the phone may register ghost touches that resemble a finger touch.

To fix this, disable mobile or cellular data on the iPhone.

1. Navigate to Settings > Cellular. In non-US areas, you may see Mobile Data.

   

2. Disable Cellular and restart the iPhone. Check if the ghost touches have vanished.

6. Enable Always on Display

If the ghost touches are a result of a bug that is triggered when the phone’s screen dims out, then enabling Always on Display will resolve the issue, till the bug is patched by Apple.

1. Launch the iPhone Settings and navigate to Display & Brightness > Always On Display.

   

2. Enable Always On Display and see if the problem is solved.

7. Edit Accessibility Settings on the iPhone

Accessibility settings on your iPhone hold different configurations relating to touch. If these settings are not correct, you will experience auto or ghost touches. To fix this, edit the accessibility settings of the iPhone.

Disable Tap to Wake

1. Launch the iPhone Settings and go to Accessibility > Touch.
2. Disable Tap to Wake and check if the issue is resolved.

   

Disable Vibration and Haptics

1. Navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Touch.
2. Disable Vibration and Haptics. Verify if the problem is solved.

   

Touch Accommodations

1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Touch Accommodations.

   

2. Enable Touch Accommodations and see if the problem is cleared.
3. If the problem is still there, go to Touch Accommodations settings and enable Use Initial Touch Location. Check if the issue is resolved.

   

4. If not, go to the Touch Accommodations settings and enable Hold Duration.
5. Disable Ignore Repeat and turn off Tap Assistance. Check if this does the trick.

   

6. If the issue persists, set the Ignore Repeat in the Touch Accommodations to 0.10 and see if that clears the ghost touches.

Enable Assistive Touch

1. Launch the iPhone Settings and go to Accessibility > Touch > Assistive Touch.

   

2. Enable Assistive Touch and check if the problem is solved. You may need to keep the touch icon away from the areas where ghost touches are occurring (such as the top right of the screen).

8. Reset the iPhone to the Factory Defaults

If none of the above methods worked for you, you can go ahead and reset your iPhone to factory defaults. This will reset all settings and potentially resolve the bug as well. 

Through iPhone Settings

1. Launch the iPhone Settings and navigate to General > Reset.
2. Tap on Erase All Content and Settings.

   

3. Confirm to reset the iPhone and wait till the operation completes.
4. Once done, set up the iPhone as a new one and verify if ghost touches are not occurring anymore.

Through iTunes or Finder

We will discuss the process for iPhone 8 or above.

1. Launch iTunes and update it. In the case of Finder, update the OS of the device (such as a Mac).

   

2. Use the original iPhone cable to connect the iPhone to the system.
3. Open Finder or iTunes and while keeping the phone connected to the system, quickly tap on the following buttons:

   Volume Up
   
   Volume Down

4. Hold the phone’s power or Side button till the recovery mode is shown.

   

5. Switch to Finder or iTunes and select your iPhone.
6. Click on Update and once updated, eject the phone and remove it from the system.

   

7. Verify if the ghost touches are gone.
8. If not, repeat the above steps but at step 6, in place of Update, click on Restore.

   

9. Wait till the process completes and once done, eject/remove the phone from the system.
10. Set it up as a new and hopefully, the touch issue will be resolved.

If the solutions mentioned above do not resolve the issue, it is recommended to reach out to Apple or have the phone inspected for a potential hardware problem. It is possible that the phone’s screen or battery could be defective.