Apple Inc. is facing class action lawsuits over an issue called “touch disease,” which sees iPhones freezing up and eventually becoming unresponsive to touch.  

“Touch disease” first made headlines in August when a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple with the U.S. District Court for Northern California. Last month, a law firm in Canada filed two class actions against Apple, one Canada-wide and one solely for Quebec residents. Both the North American and Canadian lawsuits are yet to be certified in court.

While “touch disease” is mainly affecting the iPhone 6 Plus released in 2014, some users are reporting the issue on the iPhone 6 and later models.

Here’s a look at how to diagnose your iPhone with “touch disease” and the steps you will need to take to fix the issue:

Signs that your iPhone has “touch disease”

The first visible thing that you will notice is a flickering gray bar displayed at the top of your iPhone’s screen. Over time the iPhone’s touchscreen will start to lose functionality and intermittently become unresponsive.

Reasons for the issue could be due to the device being dropped, as well as “bendgate,” which in some cases saw the iPhone 6 Plus warp after sitting with it in your pocket. However, some iPhone users are reporting “touch disease” problems despite their iPhone having no physical signs of damage.

Is your iPhone at risk?

One of the most common theories about “touch disease” is that it is due to certain controllers on the logic board bending and eventually breaking. As it was the iPhone 6 Plus that received the most complaints regarding bent phones back in 2014, it is also the device that has seen the most reports of “touch disease.”

However, if you don’t own an iPhone 6 Plus you are not immune to “touch disease” as there have been some complaints of the issue from iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners.

How to fix the problem

While Apple hasn’t publicly acknowledged “touch disease,” the geniuses at the stores are aware of the problem, according to two Apple store employees, one current and the other a former employee, who recently spoke to Motherboard.

If your iPhone is affected with the dreaded “touch disease” you will need to take it to an Apple store, which is fine if you are still under warranty. If you are out of warranty, unfortunately, you will need to fork over a hefty $329 for the replacement cost.

If your iPhone is only recently out of warranty you may benefit from a reduced replacement fee. According to the employees who spoke to Motherboard, Apple store managers are allowed to override the cost; however, corporate headquarters do keep track of these free replacements, so stores attempt to limit them.   

If you are facing a $329 replacement cost you could take it to a third-party repairer, but even though you may save some money it may not be worth it due to the complexity of the repair. Using a third-party repairer also means that Apple will never look at your iPhone for any repairs in the future.  

Due to the complexity of the repair, it also means that you should avoid attempting to fix your iPhone yourself.

A replacement device from Apple will likely be a refurbished device and could also be affected by “touch disease.” A refurbished device only has a 90-day warranty so if any issues crop up, make sure you get it back to Apple before the warranty runs out.

Source: Business Insider

Image credit: Kārlis Dambrāns; Flickr