Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are almost two years old, and their age is starting to show.
According to iFixit, a manufacturing defect is affecting a growing number of iPhone 6 Plus devices, and some iPhone 6 units. The defect creates an unresponsive touchscreen and shows a flickering grey bar at the top of the display. Eventually, the touchscreen stops working entirely.
Repair experts were the first to point out the the defect, dubbed “Touch Disease,” but have yet to find what causes the bug. It could be simply linked to everyday wear-and-tear, which means that “millions” of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices could be potentially vulnerable, according to iFixit.
What makes “Touch Disease” even trickier is that even though it affects the touchscreen display, replacing those parts won’t solve the issue. Users who had their touchscreen replaced noticed the flickering grey bar again even on a new display.
“Touch Disease” affects the two touchscreen controller chips on the logic board, and at this point Apple has not released an official fix, short of replacing the iPhone with a new device.
The impact on you: If your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus is experiencing “Touch Disease,” going to the Apple genius bar will do little good. Apple’s in-store repair techs aren’t able to make repairs to the logic board.
Ironically, the only way to fix the logic board is to go to a third-party repair shop. But because third-party repairs are unauthorized by Apple, doing so will nullify whatever warranty you may have.
Hopefully, Apple will respond to this issue shortly and offer affected users an official solution, like a software update similar to the Error 53 issue that was resolved earlier this year.
Author: Oscar Raymundo, Staff Writer
Oscar writes about iOS, mobile culture and digital music. He also hosts 'The iPhone Show' from Macworld's San Francisco HQ.