My iPad Mini Stopped Responding to Touch

Published October 2, 2023

I almost sent my iPad Mini back to Apple for repair. It wasn’t responding very well to touch. The usual screenshot gesture of swiping up diagonally from the lower left corner didn’t work. I also couldn’t get a quick note to open by swiping diagonally up from the lower right corner. To add insult to injury, I couldn’t even close open apps by swiping up. Pressing harder did not make the iPad respond any better.

Realizing my intensified pressure did not make the iPad respond to my touch; it was time to try something different. So, I rebooted the device. It still wouldn’t respond to my touch when it came back on.

Touch Sensitivity in Settings?

Intense pressure and rebooting didn’t work so I decided to check my settings. I went into Settings → Multitasking & Gestures to make sure the Bottom swipe options were enabled, and they were.

Hmmm. Maybe it’s my screen protector? Nah, that couldn’t be. The iPad was responding to touch with the screen protector on, so it wouldn’t suddenly become a problem. The next to last troubleshooting step was to reset the device. If resetting it didn’t work, the iPad Mini would take a trip to the local Apple store.

Resetting the iPad to Restore Touch Response

I was in the process of resetting the iPad (or so I thought I was) when I saw a quick notification flash across the top of the screen. It said something about triple-clicking a button. The notification popped up and quickly disappeared, but I did see the words “triple click,” “accessibility,” a few other words, and then the word “off.”

I tried to duplicate whatever I was doing to invoke the message again so I could read it, but when it showed up, it disappeared too quickly. Rather than wasting time trying to read a fleeting message, I decided to triple-click.

Let’s Try the Three Clicks

Since my iPad wasn’t behaving the way I wanted it to, what did I have to lose by pressing the On/Off button three times? I assumed the three clicks referred to the On/Off button, but I wasn’t sure.

So, I clicked the On/Off button three times, and voila! My iPad started responding to my touch again! Whew! I don’t know what I did to make it stop responding to touch, but I am delighted it’s back.

Last Modified: 4 October 2023