iPhone 4 Proximity Sensor Problem: Few Solutions To Fix It
Comments
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I got the same problem(I set my as a new Phone), but it doesn’t stop there, the bluetooth connection doesn’t work right, when I upgrade the IOS 4 on my 3G it work great I was able to pair 2 devices at same time (Headset and SYNC on my car) but for some reason on the Iphone 4 it has a lot of issues, like static, dropping connection, connecting and turning the Ipod Soft (music player) on by it self. It’s crazy..
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its not due to restoring from an old iphone, i set it up as a new one and still had issues with and without the invisible shield!
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LOL, I´ve got the same problem with a iPhone 4 without any backup, i thought its normal and they changed anything. But if i read this, i think Im not alone with the ****, every phone call i activate the damn speaker.
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Might not be a cause and effect relationship. I'm assuming better than 1/2 of all iPhones have some sort of skin on them to protect them.
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I've had some problem with my new iphone4 and I'm not happy about it at the end of the day.I feel that once apple gets hold of what's wrong then things will be much better but in the mean while we are stuck with the problem.
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I have on occasion had my phone dial random numbers when im not touching it I would look down and it was dialing numbers not even in my phone book. We will see if it does it again
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i have had problem with apps crashing and freezing while switching between them in multitasking i have also had txt crash while using speaker phone and the screen completely become unresponsive to touch while using speaker phone anyone else having these problems replies would be appreciated
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Mine does the same thing, but it seems to be worse if I am slightly sweaty, I am wondering if the reflectivity of ones skin is impacting these, just like it would an optical mouse.
I have been on the phone with apple support today, and they are going to replace the phone, luckily I kept my 3gs. Just a shame apple did such a poor job with this phone, I was very excited upon release and waited in line on preorder day.
I am starting to wonder what the ramifications are going to be to apple, once they relieze alot of these issues are indeed hardware problems? You got a few billion dollars of inventory already on the streets, and rather than hold production or stop sales and fix the problems like a good manufacture, they continue to sell them. I am not saying all of them have problems, but I know out of the 3 I bought, two have proximity problems, the 3rd works flawless.
I was actually concerned about sending mine back because I would most likely get a refurbished unit, but I actually think a refurb will get the tweaks that the others would not.
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Apple can Sucks our harry balls... Amen to that? Im no longer apple follower. will switch to either sprint or verizon.
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Im just glad there are a few million people out there with enough money to buy this thing to tell me about all the problems so people like me with no mula dont have to make a costly life mistake. Its real pretty tho, it will look great in an art museum one day as best phone ever that didnt work. No reason to be a apple hater tho. The 3GS is still a great phone, much better than the 4 at present. Some people say are sying apple forgot to field test. I say what better way to field test than to sell a few million units. Once apple fixes all the problems in their next generation they will have the edge on the markets technolgy and guess what - sell another 10 million units! At least someone is making some money ;-)
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I had the same problem on day one, I put my phone on mute at least 6-7 times. There is only sensor is on top of the earpiece on the iphone4. Previous models have a sensor on either side of the earpiece. So when I take/make a call I take the sensor location into account(I have not muted a call since). Maybe I'm in the minority but I happy with iphone4 just waiting for AT&T to fix hsupa issue.
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All this talk with iPhone proximity sensor it there is no conformation that the update sill fix his and only talk about he display issue
Will be on the fix. Anybody knows for sure
That the proximity sensor will be foxed on the upxomig ios fix.? -
It worked! I was feeling a little down about everyones comments not sure who to believe cause my wifes phone doesn't have the prox issue but mine doesn't and I really didn't wanna go replace my phone I'm happy with it got a case and invisiSHIELD but that was on the 16th of June cause I'm protective of my iPhones. Anyways to the point I did the settings reset and it worked. I haven't had that issue again so idk what exactly it's suppose to do but it did it! Thnx iPhonehacks!
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If we observe, all the issues are related to phone features. I think they concentrated too much on iAds and forgot that its a phone.
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it's funny, if begin a call and cover the top section of the Iphone, you will see that the sensor its not working at all.. try and let me know..
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I just got off the phone with Apple support, they had me restore the phone as a new iphone and it didn't help. I don't have any type of shield or case or anything on my phone. They told me not to change any settings, so as soon as I got off the phone with Apple I called my friend, and in a 20 minute conversation, I hit mute 3 times, hit the dialtone once, hit facetime once, and almost called someone through contacts.
Looks like the restore didn't do anything!
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That twat that left the prototype at the bar wants a good fkn kicking. Instead of getting drunk, he should have been field testing the damn phone...
..or maybe he did..and figured it was so **** that he left it behind on purpose!.
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Listen you ignorant fool;You must be 12.What didn't you understand by BLUETOOTH EARPIECE? Phone,Pocket? No signal problem there unless the pants are made out of lead..MORON. And who the **** cares how you hold the phone when you have it paired up with a..... repeat after me"BLUETOOTH DEVICE" ie. earpiece. FUCKFACE.
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apple field-tested. remember the apple engineer who lost his phone at a bar???
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apple isn't at&t. you don't need to leave a carrier because of apple. if verizon starts carrying the iphone are you going to leave them???
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It appears that Apple is not responding to the proximity issue that a lot of Iphone 4 customers are having. The internet is full of postings regarding this issue and the Apple support forum is full of postings about this issue. I hope that you will check into this issue and maybe generate some response for concerned Iphone users.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2475509&tstart=0
Below is a copy of some of my postings on the Apple Iphone 4 forum and what I feel is the cause of this issue:
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I was able to repeat the following multiple times with the same results each time. I laid my Iphone 4 on a flat table. A co-worker had left me a very long message. I played this message over and over while testing the proximity sensor. I took a piece of thick paper and started several inches away from the display. I moved the paper slowly toward the display, measured and recorded the distance that the Iphone 4 turned off the display. It turned it off at about two inches. Yes, two inches. I almost got excited. I started moving the paper toward and then away from the screen. I noticed that it did not turn the display off at two inches any longer. I would have to get the paper less than ½ inches away all of a sudden before the display would turn off. Strange!Summary: What I found is that at first the proximity sensor will detect at about two inches away (great). However, the proximity sensor seems to remember the last point of detection (distance). If I only moved my paper to about two inches from the display and then back again (never getting closer than 2 inches), then the Iphone 4 would continuously turn off the screen at this point. If I moved the paper to say one inch away for the display and held it for a few seconds, then the Iphone would seem to remember this distance. From that point it would only activate when I move the paper to one inch away and not 2 inches any longer. If I moved the paper to the surface of the screen (to simulate face contact), then my Iphone 4 would remember this position and would only activate when the paper was very close to the display. I could remove the paper for a few seconds and my Iphone 4 proximity sensor would start detecting again at two inches. As I moved the paper closer it would remember this location and that is the point that it would trip at.
It appears to me that the proximity sensor has a good range, but it remembers and adjusts the range as objects move closer.
I then tested objects of different color. I noticed that a black piece of paper greatly reduced the detection range of the proximity sensor. I had to move the paper much closer to get the Iphone 4 proximity sensor to detect the black paper.
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Another finding:I have access to an Iphone 3G and 3GS. Today at lunch I did some additional quick tests. I noticed that both the 3G and 3GS deactivated the screen at about 2 inches. The screen stayed deactivated until I moved the paper past that 2 inch mark (no matter what I did). It did not matter how close I got to the screen or how long I waited. Both phones would wait until I finally crossed the 2 inch distance before turning back on the display!
This is different than the results that I found with the Iphone 4 yesterday. It would turn off the display at about 2 inches the first time, but the distance required to keep the display deactivated decreased. So the Iphone 4 does work differently than the Iphone 3G and 3GS. It can detect at the same 2 inch mark. For some reason, the Iphone 4G reduces the distance required to keep the display off as your face moves in and away from the display. This could explain why people experience the proximity issue in different ways or etc.
If Apple could or would make the Iphone 4G work the same way as the Iphone 3G and 3Gs, then it may be OK. Maybe they did this to reduce battery drain and increase battery life!
Also, I tried the black surface test. The Iphone 3GS and 3GS experienced the same reaction in the distance that the display was deactivated. This result was similar to that of the Iphone 4G. So the Iphone sensors must use IR and that absorbs some of the reflected signal from the IR.
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I tried several different configurations during my testing.The Iphone 4 that I had turned off at about 3/4 of an inch as well before. When I started my testing I noticed that it was at 2 inches for the initial deactivation of the display. The only thing that I did was a hard reset (holding the button on the top of the phone in until it reset the device) and turned it back on again. I did play around with the auto brightness setting to see if that had an effect. At first I thought that it did, but I could not exactly prove it. I finally left the auto brightness set to "on" for the rest of the testing. You may try these simple steps as well and see if that makes a difference. When I was at the Apple store the Manager and I reproduced the same effects on their Iphone 4's that I found on my Iphone 4. Part of testing is to setup a device and keep the setup consistent as you do the test. Make small changes and then repeat the same exact steps and repeat.
I thought that I found a difference in the way that the brightness on/off affected the result, but could not prove that. What I mean is that setting the "Auto Brightness" setting to "ON" will cause the screen brightness to change as the display turns on and off during a call (I hope that this makes sense). At first, as I triggered the display (during my simulated call) I noticed that the brightness level of the display would change as the display reactivated itself. I thought this may affect the problem as well. However, I could not prove it during my tests.
The problems with bugs (if this is a bug) is that certain conditions have to be present before the bug will show up. It is possible that some small change in setups or etc can make a bug reproducible or not.
I think that this could be a combination of things. I have verified that:
•The Iphone 3G and 3GS proximity sensors work the same and have about a 2 inch range. The trip point for the proximity sensor is always at around 2 inches for the 3G and 3GS.•The Iphone 4 proximity sensor works differently than the 3G and 3GS. The Iphone 4 adjust the trip point for the proximity sensor constantly.
•The Iphone 4 sensor does have an effective detection range of about 2 inches and is about the same as the previous Iphone devices. The trigger distance for the proximity sensor is changed after the call starts and is constantly adjusted.
•Therefore, Apple must have changed (on purpose) the way the Iphone 4 detects proximity to the display. They may have done this to save battery life or etc. Apple is not continually using the 2 inch range on the Iphone 4 as they did with the previous Iphones even though the sensor has a two inch range.
•This modification may not work or is buggy. Electronics do have tolerances that affect them. It could be that the proximity sensors have some variation from device to device. Although, it should not be in inches or etc. It should be small.
•The proximity sensor is affected by the source reflecting the signal. This makes sense. Some sources (material, people, etc) absorb energy differently. This could also explain why some people see different effects. Their skin tone, makeup, etc could have some effect. Although, it should be small unless it is really a design issue.
•So when you design electronics that can be affected by different variables (tolerance, skin tone, light, material, whatever) you have to include enough design to compensate for those things. The previous Iphones did, because they always seem to detect at around 2 inches. I am sure that this (2 inches) was enough to compensate for sensor differences between phones, skin tones, different lighting conditions and another variables that would affect the proximity sensor quality/measurement. The Iphone 4 does not have enough tolerance in the proximity sensor setup to compensate for the different variables that it will encounter.
•The new Iphone 4 is different, because Apple has decided to improve/screw up the proximity method. It could be that the method they used does not compensate for all of the variables that could affect the quality of the IR signal and the end result (keep the display off during a call). It is obvious that the proximity sensor has a two inch range. Apple decided (it appears) to change it and must not be allowing for variables. This could be a setup (firmware) change and not as much as an electronics modification.
•If Apple can/will change this method, then all may be well again.
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Wow that was indepth. Hopefully Apple with go public and admit this us also an issue and look to address it asap!
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Samsung i9000 Galaxy S
issues, what issues?
Read the specs and weep.
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I have a problem with my Iphone 4 when I am talking to anyone the speaker is turn it on this happen a lots of times and I am using an invisible shield I remove it and the problem desapears.
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I think if you pay hundreds of dollars for an upgraded product, it should work better or at least as well as the previous version. I shouldn't have to use an additional piece of equipment (i.e. bluetooth earpiece) to make it work. It's annoying. I'm glad you don't have a problem with it, but I do. I've dropped very important calls because of the proximity issues, it's a pain!
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I've had the proximity sensor problem from the first day. I did not have the shield for a couple of weeks but it made no difference. I've had the phone replaced; the second version is worst than the original. I've reset everything because Apple believes that it is potentially due to loading the new phone from the old phone. Nothing helps. I will most likely move back to 3GS
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I have a quick fix until the new software comes along, when in a call click the 'keypad' option to display the keypad. The next time you make a call it will remember this setting. I kept on hitting 'mute' constanly in a call but now nothing happens so as far as I'm concerned end of problem.
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What are you talking about Davissi?? I tried your quick fix, but it doesn't remember the keypad setting for me. It goes back to the original menu every call.
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All i want for x mass is a very very big HAMMER at my witts end with this crap phone Apple you are a disgrace ....................
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I too am having the proximity sensor issue. In my most recent call of 20 minutes, the call went on mute 3 different times, speaker 4-5 times, and on hold once. I've also experienced actually hanging up on the caller a number of times with this proximity sensor issue.
Has anyone determined a solution for this? Is it an actual sensor issue? Does the phone need to be exchanged?
