Are you one of the many people who is having problems with your touchscreen on the iPhone? Hack you hacked your iPhone, unlocked your iPhone, or a non AT&T customer? Now that Apple’s warranty requires you to have an AT&T phone number to get your iPhone replaced or repaired, how do you fix your touchscreen problem?
There are a few options for you at the moment. You can purchase replacement parts, virginize your iPhone and try to return it, or modify your phone even more to try and fix the problem.If you are experiencing a touchscreen issue you can edit the sensitivity of your touch screen to make your iPhone more responsive. You simply need to replace your general.plist file with a modified version found here:
UPDATED:
Modified General.plist and Touch.plist,
updated for FW3.0, tested and working on 2G iPhone.
http://www.zshare.net/download/61836600ca79e240/
http://www.zshare.net/download/618365907ed6a23c/
Placed under:
/var/stash/Applications/Preferences.app/
You will need to overwrite your general.plist located in Applications/preferences.app
The default sensitivity on the iPhone’s touchscreen is 3.5. You have the option to set it from 0-16, where 0 is the most sensitive. Recently I have had a few issues with my touchscreen and applied this modification and everything is working 10x better.
This hack may work for the majority of iPhone users, but there may be a few that will need to replace their LCD completely.
You add the code below to the General.plist:
<dict>
<key>cell</key>
<string>PSLinkCell</string>
<key>label</key>
<string>Touch</string>
</dict>
Yost edited the General.plist file, for people who have a dead strip on the top of the screen, so that the touch option is now on the bottom right under “reset” under pref>general>touch.
(take out the “.” in the link in “rapid”)
heres the link to download it if you have a upper dead strip:
http://ra.pidshare.com/files/7620461…ral.plist.html
1.0.2 firmware General.plist for low dead strip:
http://ra.pidshare.com/files/6058341…ral.plist.html
1.1.1 firmware General.plist for low dead strip:
That worked for everything
UNTIL
agile messenger cme out
and bang!! can pull up the keyboard
For anyone having this problem, download these two files, modify touch.plist to a minimum value of -20 and save. Then SSH into your phone after installer BSD subsystem and Open SSH using username:root and password:alpine. Replace the two original files with the downloaded ones . Go to Settings, General, Touch and move the slider until you can click the bottom of the screen. I had to move it to -14 to be able to touch the spacebar.
Good Luck
For anyone having this problem, download these two files, modify touch.plist to a minimum value of -20 and save. Then SSH into your phone after installer BSD subsystem and Open SSH using username:root and password:alpine. Replace the two original files with the downloaded ones . Go to Settings, General, Touch and move the slider until you can click the bottom of the screen. I had to move it to -14 to be able to touch the spacebar.
Good Luck
http://rapidshare.com/files/110285879/General.plist.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/110286136/Touch.plist.html
I copied the two files but no Touch option in the menu. Did I do anything wrong. I use Winscp to copy the two files but nothing happen.
Post #153
DUDE !! LIFESAVER
I got keyboard in all apps now
its a little off on the screen
IE i have to tap slightly above
but dammit
I’LL TAKE IT
i can’t get to the touch application , can anyone help ?
can someone post a touch.plist for 1.1.1 that has been modified already to zero or moved down for a touch screen that is dead at the top. Thank you
POST #153!
You are the Hero of the day man (or girl)!
I was able to restore my friend’s iPhone functionality of the bottom strip, now he got space bar, ipod button, etc…
And just in matter of minutes we got used to the new finger projection (means that you mus click a little upper that before).
You rock man!
And just for reporting my findings… I was able to do an iPhone App that was not using that strip, but since mobilePhone, mobileMediaPlayer and all of that things are a little black box, i was not able to replicate them. And of course the original Apps do not have the source code.
So this solution of post #153 seems to be “the thing”. Congrats!
update: got my touch sensitivity set to -20 and still have strip that isnt working. Will going any lower solve this or do I just need to deal with it til 3g comes out?
I have decided to make a complete guide for this because I know how frustrating and disheartening having a broken touchscreen is, especially if you’re not in a position to return or exchange it (like me).
Download the following files:
http://rapidshare.com/files/110285879/General.plist.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/110286136/Touch.plist.html
Open the Touch.plist file with TextEdit or some other text editing software; Notepad will probably work.
Find where it says:
min
0.0
Replace the “0.0” with “-20.0” without the quotations. Save the file.
If you have just restored your iPhone, make sure it’s jailbroken and the Installer program is available on the home screen. Enable Wifi and connect to your wireless internet. I had to disable my router’s password temporarily because I had no access to the “Join” button. Open Installer and if, like me, you can’t press the little buttons along the bottom, click any of the featured apps on the front page. Once it opens the next screen, click on the top-most left hand button to go back to the main packages screen.
Now, go to the “System” category and select and install “BSD Subsystem”. After the installation, from the same category, install “Open SSH”. Once complete, exit Installer and go back into your wifi settings page where your networks are listed. Click on the little blue arrow to the right of your connected network and note the IP address (ex. 102.168.1.104). It is essential that after this point, the iPhone does not go to sleep, because once it wakes, its IP address may be different than before.
This part requires an FTP transfer program capable of connecting to an SSH enabled server for file transfer. I know for a fact that Cyberduck on Mac OSX does this and for free, but on Windows I’m not sure. I will give directions for Cyberduck:
Once in the program, select “Open connection” from the bar at the top. Change “Protocol” to “SFTP” (SSH File Transfer Protocol). Then type in the IP address of the phone you noted earlier, and use username: root and password: alpine. It will take a little while to connect at first, and it may even fail the first time. Try again and it should work. It will give a message about some keys, but in all cases always “allow”.
You will now be presented with a file structure. We need to move up to the main root of the phone’s filesystem. In the drop-down box just above the file structure it should say something like “/var/…” Click this drop-down menu and select “/”. This is the root of the phone’s file structure. You will be presented with a new list of folders. Find “preferences.app” and expand this folder. Now, drag each of the files you downloaded into the program onto “preferences.app”. For each files you should get a file transfer dialog, and a notice that you will be replacing the old file with your downloaded one. Accept this at all times.
Now. Close the FTP program. Go back to your iPhone. Go to Settings -> General -> Touch (New menu item). You should be presented with a screen that allows you to move a slider to increase the sensitivity. The smaller the number, the more sensitive.
I think the spacebar may the lowest object on screen that is absolutely necessary to have access to, so adjust the slider and check it in the SMS section until you can comfortably press the spacebar. I had to go down to around -14. This means that now I have to press slightly above the buttons at all time on the screen, but it is easy to get used to.
I hope this helped everyone, I know that now I have a relatively perfect iPhone that is 100% useable, and that’s all I care about.
Cheers
thank u mr X (160) for your great explanation…..
everything is clear but the problem here is the top of the screen does not work, means that till now i cant find how to install bsd subsystem and open SSH…… pls help….
Thank you so much for your help
Thanks for the in depth directions! My phone works again 🙂
your suggestions are very helpful.. but is there anywhere to access the WIFI if the top of your screen doesnt work ?? even when i try to move around the applications to get installer to the b ottom it doesnt work.. any way i can do it via the computer or some 3rd party program.. thanks
for mr Brian i think that you should just open safari, and then it will ask you to connect automatically…….. but your problem is like mine… even if you are on installer , you cant install any application because install buttom is on the top …..
so we need to find a way to install open ssh and bsd subsystem from safari. because to install anything from computer we need open ssh….
hope we will be helped..
hi there , I doesn’t seem able to save the Touch.plist file using my PC suite , any advise on how can I solve it ?
I’m really sorry guys, but I had the bottom touchscreen problem so that is what the directions are for. I know that with iLiberty+ (unlocking and jailbreaking app for windows and mac) you can install both BSD and SSH except that with BSD also comes the Cydia installer. It’s no big deal to have Cydia there, and you may want some applications from it as well as from the regular installer. Try that and report back.
im soo close!! i unlocked the phone and installer appeared on the bottom, connected to the internet, went to system- but bsd install is in the top part of the screen that i cant touch!!! :@ someone please help, any way to move it or access it through a computer?please let me know thanks
^^ I just posted an alternative, Brian.
another step of progress made, loaded up BSD and SSH with iliberty+ but i can not get it to connect with cyber duck, i try my ip address and router and it says that there is an error:S how do we go about solving this… i am grateful for the answer .. thank you for your response in advance
Are you following the instructions in my long post? Select SFTP instead of FTP and username root and password alpine?
another step of progress made, loaded up BSD and SSH with iliberty+ but i can not get it to connect with cyber duck, i try my ip address and router and it says that there is an error.. i also put in my routers ip address but still not working… how do you make it connect?… i am grateful for the answer .. thank you for your response in advance
i make avery step you explaned, but in the General menu is not showing any Touch menu ??? Why???
Hi Guys.
I used the guide in #160 with success, although I used .plist fil e for upper dead strip.
It didn’t solve my problem – I dropped it from a table, so it must be a mechanical error.
Now my problem is, that I managed to get the slider to -20.0. That means that your finger has to be slightly over the point you wanna touch.
That point is now in the dead area of my screen! It must be possible to add an extra touch bar above the slider to in/decrease sensivity.
How do I do that? thanks alot in advance!
Hi again.
Suddenly I could se what to do.
just cc’ed an extra
cell
PSSliderCell
and then I got an ekstra line, now I’m back to normal – though it didn’t fix my upper dead strip..
Woke up this morning, and lo, the the lower dead strip problem reared its frightening head. After much reading through of this thread, my problem is (sort of) solved. The dead strip still is there – these solutions won’t get rid of it. These are all workarounds so that you can still use your iPhone. Your only real solution for a good-as-new iPhone is to repair the screen or get a replacement unit. That being said, if you’re in my boat (a fellow unlocker who doesn’t use AT&T in the states), and don’t want to shell out more than $200 for repairs, then this solution is more than passable.
As my phone was jailbroken, and I have the 1.14 firmware, I used WinSCP and put the two files found in post #99 onto my iPhone. (for info on WinSCP, you could Google it. I found out all about it in ipodtouchfans.com) By the way, these files, general.plist and touch.plist, go into Applications/Preferences. The directory, though not the default, is not too hard to find once you’re in WinSCP.
I ended up editing the touch.plist a bit more by setting the min to -30.0. (It’s easy to edit the files in WinSCP – just right-click the file you want to edit, and EDIT is one of the choices.) This setting is the only way that I could reach the lowest row on the virtual keyboard in Mail (need to hit the spacebar occasionally, you know). So, this means that I must tap a bit higher than the letters when typing, etc. I’ll deal with it, since the alternative is plunking down $200! 🙂
Many thanks to all of the great posters on this site who helped with this aggravating problem!!!
i tried the touch plist edit of -30 and all and all type of variables like -3.5 and all that but even then the bar even on edition always rest on o.o as the last limit how should i handle the same ????
any sugestions and that options of show touchy and the test area are of what and what are the four sliders in the touch settings for… ????
Guys, I do NOT know HOW to THANK YOU!!!!
Have been using my N6300 for two week (aargh!! where’s my iPhone!!)
Now this sensitivity fix FIXED my completely dead part of the touchscreen. It isn’t as smooth as a brand new one, but I can write and use the whole screen at last!! Thanks again!!!!!
I was able to upload the files using Iphone PC Suite, but I can´t get to the settings page to decrease sensitivity value. The bottom half of the screen isn´t working so I cant get to settings.
Any way to decrease the actual value of it trough the computer?
wahoo thanks to all of you that hooked this up… i couldnt send txts forever coz the send button was a dead spot but i upped the touch to around 10 and now itll press! thanks a ton guys!
Please let me know should i decrease the sliders or increse the same.
vicky: what do you mean? For a more sensitive display you need to increase the sensitivity. I had to put 6.5 to be able to use the zxcvbnm part of the screen when writing sms or notes.
but fellas here are saying to bring the slider below zer .ie, the more the negative value more the sensitivity inversly proportional but my slider eeks out at zero for all values..
bottom row of my 1.1.4 keypad stopped working but the area was fine in all other apps like ipod, camera etc so figured it was a software issue. Downloaded the files that Mike in post #99 uploaded and my iphone is perfect now.PHEW!!!, bought it in USA and using it in Ireland no way to return or have it repaired. Thanks everyone for all the help
Yeah the guide was good, but how the hell do I know what’s the IP of my iphone, when the top of my screen isn’t reacting. I can’t check it in the wifi connections page because the part of the screen is dead..
Leinonen: You can check the IP on your wifi router probably. I have an Apple Airport base station and when I fire up the managin application, I can see that in smth. like “Wireless clients” (don’t have it with me now).
The other way would be to know the IP range of your WiFi network and do an nmap scan for all living hosts on your network, e.g. “nmap 192.168.0.0/24”.
That should show you all the active IP addresses on your wifi network.
:/,
thankyou so much for the detail guide to fixing the dead strip area. I followed whatever u said to the ‘T’ and thanks to U, i know have my iPhone working like usual and plus i am breathing much easier cause i have an unlocked,jailbroken phone in India!!
Been suffering clueless on how to fix this problem and along came a spider(U)..
Thankyou so much Dude..U absolutely rock!!
Cheers .
Good luck
&
God Bless U..
🙂
my iphone has shown the same problem with the screen that was completly dead. I followed the procedure of editing the touch.plist and it worked for a while. But then the screen went dead again. Then i tried to punch the iphone and discovered that if you press a little hard the top-left part just above the screen with your thumb, on the black stripe just above the screen, by the “vibration” button, the screen will work immediately! It’snworth the try.
Can someone explain step by step how to even get into the settings. I have an out of warranty first gen iphone with dead strip near top. Thanks.
i pushed on the top left corner.. still doesnt work.. my buddy had the same problem, took his phoen, smashed it into a brick wall, cracked the screen and now it works perfect… this is my last resort lol.. i am not responsible for anyone breaking their iphones due to this method
Sad enough to say, these phones have hardware problems with the touchscreens and the only real rememdy is having the digitizer and screen (combo) replaced for about $200 (atleast not Yen). There are some copanies on the web that with recieve your phone (via mail) and repair it for you.
I love my phone and I think it’s worth it. Altering touch.plist is only a temporary fix for iphones with minimal hardware (sensitivity) damage.
I think sweat (from talking on the phone) and other moisture damages the screens.
Anyone looking to alter the files on the phone should read this thread from the beginning.
same issue,upper half of the screen not working..cant ssh as wifi is not enabled.Plz help
Anyone know how to use this fix with 2.0 firmware?
Yes, once the pwnage 2.0 tool has come out, I’d like to upgrade my firmware, but will probably not do so until I am sure I can use this sensitivity “hack” on that firmware. Please report anybody who’s successful on that.
Thanks
I got ifuntastic to put the new files onto my iphone but..
How do I move the files to preferences.app on ifuntastic? For some reason I can’t open the preferences.app in the data transfer part of ifuntastic? If I try to drop them on the preferences.app icon, they’ll just end up in the applications folder.. I suck at doing shit I shouldn’t have to do 😀
I also tried putting the files in iphone/private/var/mobile/library/preferences no help.
Damn I’m disappointed with the phone, it’s moisture that is causing this. I was on a photography job when heavy rainfall hit the spot and I had my iphone in my camera bag, after that the top of the screen hasn’t worked.
Damn, finally got it. I had to make the preferences.app folder a favorite and directly go there through bookmarks. Maybe I’m just doing it the hard way.
And I got the slider there, tried bunch of adjustments and the piece of motherloving crap works! I got the touch functionality back, but I’ll have to try what’s the best value to work with. Now I’m having to press too much off the buttons. Thanks to everyone anyway!
Ok, trying with my 1st Gen iPhone, running 2.0. I prepared a custom firmware with OpenSSH already built-in and activated. I even tried to modify the General.plist and Touch.plist while PwnTool is building the IPSW so it comes already modified when you flash the firmware.
It works. BUT: everytime I touch the screen, I see the spinning disk and the phone goes back to locked-mode. Hence: unusable.
Martijn: Thanks for the update, won’t spend my 4 hours trying to do that now 🙂 Anyway, anybody who happens to do some more progress on the 2.0 firmware and this sensitivity fix, please post. Thanks.
Yes! It’s working! I modified both files with Xcode’s property editor (and saved it as Apple Binary files, NOT XML files) and I’m happilly typing on my iPhone 1G with 2.0! Here’s a link with the modified files:
http://rapidshare.de/files/40045605/Archive.zip.html
I also modified the General-Simulation.plist, not sure it that was needed though.
Works fine for me. 2.0, shh installed, edited the general.plist!!!
It crashes my phone 2 doing this with a 2.0 firmware. I’m getting the same problems like Martijns after changing the values in the General>Touch panel. I hope somebody can figure out a fix.