Phone screen not responding to touch? What to try

You tap, you swipe, and nothing happens. A touchscreen that ignores you is one of the most frustrating phone faults, but it is not always a broken screen. Sometimes it is a frozen app, a bad charger or a screen protector that has lifted. Work through the checks below in order. The first few take a minute and cost nothing.

1. Restart the phone

If the whole display has frozen, the software has usually locked up. A forced restart clears it and does not delete anything.

• iPhone 8 or newer: press and release volume up, press and release volume down, then hold the side button until the Apple logo appears.
• Samsung Galaxy: hold the power button and volume down together until the phone restarts.
• Google Pixel and most other Android phones: hold the power button for up to 30 seconds until it restarts.

If touch works normally afterwards, it was a software freeze. If it keeps happening, carry on down the list.

2. Clean the screen and take off the protector

Touchscreens sense the tiny electrical charge in your finger. Water, grease, sweat and gloves all get in the way. Wipe the glass with a dry, soft cloth and dry your hands.

Then look at the screen protector. A protector that is cracked, lifting at the edges or has dust trapped under it can stop taps registering, often in one corner first. Peel it off and test the bare screen. A tight case that presses on the edges of the glass can cause the same thing, so take that off as well.

3. Unplug the charger

If the screen only misbehaves while charging, or jumps around and taps things on its own, the charger is the usual suspect. Cheap or damaged chargers and cables can send electrical noise into the phone that confuses the touch layer. Unplug it and try again. If the fault disappears, replace the charger and cable with a decent one.

4. Rule out an app or an update

When touch stops working inside one app only, that app is the problem. Close it, update it or remove it. If the fault started after you installed something, uninstall it and see whether the screen recovers.

Android phones have a safe mode that starts the phone with only the built-in apps. If the touchscreen behaves in safe mode, something you installed is causing the trouble. It is also worth installing any waiting system update, and checking the phone is not almost full, because a phone with no free storage becomes slow enough to look frozen.

5. Check for heat, cold and moisture

A phone that has been left in the sun, on a car dashboard or out in the cold can stop responding until it returns to a normal temperature. Let it settle indoors for a while and try again.

If the phone has been wet, treat it differently. Do not charge it and do not keep pressing buttons. Moisture inside can make the screen act up hours or days later, and it does more damage while the phone is powered. Our water damage guide covers what to do straight away.

Signs it is the screen itself

If none of the steps above made a difference, the touch layer or the display is probably damaged. These are the usual signs.

• A dead strip or corner. One part of the screen never responds, while the rest works.
• Ghost touches. The phone opens apps, types or scrolls by itself, even with a good charger.
• Lines on the display. Vertical or horizontal lines, coloured bands or a flickering picture, often after a drop.
• It started after a knock. The glass may look fine, but the layers underneath can be damaged without a visible crack.
• Black patches or bleeding colours that spread over a few days.

None of these can be cured with settings or apps. The screen needs replacing, and the sooner the better, because a failing display tends to get worse until the phone cannot be unlocked at all.

Before it stops completely

If part of the display still responds, use it to back up your photos and messages now. Once touch fails entirely you cannot enter your passcode, and getting at your files becomes much harder. Our guide on getting photos off a broken phone explains the options if you are already at that stage.

What a repair involves

On a modern phone the glass, the touch layer and the display are one part, so a touch fault is fixed by fitting a new screen. It does not wipe the phone, and your apps and photos stay as they were. If you are comparing options, our guide to budget and premium screens explains the difference in price and warranty.

Occasionally the screen is fine and the fault is on the main board, usually after a hard drop or liquid damage. That is a different repair, which we describe on our board repair page. A proper diagnosis tells you which one you are dealing with before you spend anything.

How we can help

If you have a phone screen not responding to touch and the checks above have not cured it, bring it to our shop at 150 Desborough Road, High Wycombe, open 7 days a week from 8am to 10pm. We test it for free and tell you what is wrong and what it will cost before any work starts. iPhone screens start from £49.99 and Samsung screens from £59.99, most are fitted while you wait, and premium screens carry a lifetime warranty. We repair iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel and more, and it is no fix, no fee.

iPhone prices for each model are listed on our iPhone repair page, and you can read more about the service on our screen replacement page or book a doorstep visit and we come to you.