iPad Pro Multitouch screen glitch - blank area in drawing apps

[iheartapple]

Hi there,

As I am now on my second Pro due to a touchscreen issue, finding out the replacement one has the same problem, I wonder, if anybody else has it.

In portrait mode a little bit above the midline near to the left border, there seems to be a blind spot in terms of not responding pixels, when I use a passive stylus (Wacom). E. g. in Procreate, or in Sketchbook Pro, if I draw a line near the left border from top to bottom, there is a gap at this area. Drawing some lines parallel to that left border, there is this gap in every line for about 1.5 cm, then the lines are complete again.

I would like to use my Wacom stylus and some eBrush, but this is quite a nuisance. With my finger, there will be this gap too, if I touch the screen very lightly. When touching firmer, there is no problem any more.

Does anyone have the same problem? Any thoughts?

I only found out by chance, as I was using the Wacom stylus because the Pencil was not available first.

Thanks!

iapple

PS: With the Pencil, there is no problem, I think because it is an active stylus...

 

[twerppoet]

Well, that is interesting. Yes, when I used the cheap stylus I had handy there is a small square that won't respond unless I press firmly with the stylus. It's an older, cheap, smallish tipped stylus. I don't have any really fat tipped ones to test.

I have big fat fingers, so I can't reproduce it with my finger tips no matter how lightly I press.

I'd test my Evernote Adonit Jot, but seem to have lost track of it. I'm sure it will turn up the next time I do some major desk cleaning.

I tested a couple of styluses with the iPad Pro (including the Adonit Jot) before my Pencil arrived and didn't noticed this. But it's not like I used them a lot. In my experience no stylus before the Pencil worked well enough that I used it regularly.

You'll be happy to know that the Pencil does not seem to be effected at all.

 

[twerppoet]

Not that there was much doubt, but I tried it in a few other drawing apps; to be sure it wasn't software related.

It seems this small arrea is slightly less sensitive to touch for some hardware reason. I wonder how common it is.

Since it does not effect my finger or Pencil, I'm not overly concerned; but I can see how it would be a problem for someone using a different stylus.

 

[iheartapple]

Thx for your reply. I tried an Adonit stylus, as my husband has one, and there it is the same.
This area seems to react somewhat different, as e. g. the marker pen in the Notes app seems to switch direction, when pressed hard enough to produce at least a dot in this area.
I am not concerned either, maybe I hadn't found out at all, if my Pencil was delivered in time, but since I had to wait for it like so many others, I used my other stylus.
BUT... now that I know, it is somehow annoying... Is there any possibility to report this kind of bug to Apple?
Re how common this is - I went to the Apple store because of this and got a replacement iPad Pro. And this second one has the same problem at the same location...

 

[twerppoet]

Seeing as it appears in exactly (as far as I can tell) the same spot on my iPad; I suspect there is some kind of capacitive interference from the undlerlying electronics. Just enough to make it slighly less sensitive.

You can send feedback to Apple using this form. Note that they do not normally respond to individuals. Apple - iPad - Feedback

I'm sure they've been made aware of this by now, but one more person might be what it takes to speed up whatever resonse they plan.

Though, I am surprised the tech media hasn't gotten ahold if it; especially the anti-apple segment.

 

[iheartapple]

Seeing as it appears in exactly (as far as I can tell) the same spot on my iPad; I suspect there is some kind of capacitive interference from the undlerlying electronics. Just enough to make it slighly less sensitive.

You can send feedback to Apple using this form. Note that they do not normally respond to individuals. Apple - iPad - Feedback

I'm sure they've been made aware of this by now, but one more person might be what it takes to speed up whatever resonse they plan.

Though, I am surprised the tech media hasn't gotten ahold if it; especially the anti-apple segment.

Yeah, that surprised me, too. I searched for it, but apparently there was noone else with this problem. Hence, my post here. I think, if you use Apple Pencil exclusively, you probably would never find out, as this device works okay. But for the art people, who want to use different styluses for special purposes, it is quite annoying. Saying that, I wonder why nobody found out, there must be enough creative people who use the Pro for their art projects? Or are they using Pencil only??

Thx for the link; I have submitted a feedback right away. Let's see what happens…

 

[scifan57]

Whatever is causing the problem, it's not on the motherboard as that runs fown the centre of the iPad Pro, with a battery on either side. Based on the location of the dead patch, it could have a connection with the Smart Connector that's used to connect with the Smart Keyboard.

 

[iheartapple]

I went to an Apple reseller and tried my Wacom stylus on the iPad Pro there. Same problem! The staff was quite surprised as well. Very funny!

 

[scifan57]

You should have tried it on their demo iPad pros as well.

 

[iheartapple]

You should have tried it on their demo iPad pros as well.

I did. Forgot to write "demo". Was only one displayed...

 

[iheartapple]

Today, I found something out. @twerppoet, do you by any chance have an iPad Pro Wifi+Cellular? Because I went to an Apple Store and tried the demo there, and it was a Cellular, too. Today, I went to another store and tried their demo as well, and this one worked without problems. So I looked and found, that this was a Wifi only model. To verify, I went to another store, they have a Cellular as a demo, and there it was again, the blind spot. So I don't know, maybe it is something related to the Wifi components?

 

[twerppoet]

Yep, mine is a cellular model.

That is interesting. Might be worthwhile to look at the iFixit teardown and see if there are any different components right there.

 

[iheartapple]

Ha. Contacted Apple Support again through support chat. She provided me with the usual tips & tricks, so I told her in the end, that I was quite disappointed. Then she offered to connect me to a senior advisor. I told her I am in Germany, but that was no problem, she sent my phone number to the local advisor. First, the usual call centre people took my case, but as she went through my ticket, she decided, that her supervisor should take it. So she put me through to her boss. And he went through all the procedures again. He even went and got two iPads to check himself, but unfortunately, they had only to wifi models, no cellular. He had to admit in the end, that there IS some issue, which should be addressed. So he opened a ticket with their programmers (?) to let them check the problem. He promised to get back to me as soon as the tech people find out something. So I keep my fingers crossed, that there will be a solution in the end.

 

[scifan57]

Thanks for the update. I hope Apple can find the cause of the problem as your posts have been quite interesting and I'm sure I'm only one of many who would like to know just what's going on here.

 

[iheartapple]

I will keep you updated. Quite interesting, but also a bit annoying, as this is no cheap device... Apple is lucky, that I am real fan girl of its products!