FP3 touchscreen experiences ghost inputs

Thx a lot for the hint! Opened the phone, diconnected the display and slightly pushed the metal casing mentioned. It slightly moved and a ‘click’ sound was noteable and after putting everything back together the ghosttouches and screenfreezes are gone for 3 days now. I am disappointed by the advices from the support Team: do a factory reset!!

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Hi, good to hear that the solution worked for you! My phone runs perfect since i repaired it with the fix…

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I made @Moaxle’s answer the solution so that people can find it easily, and it seems to have helped for a certain number, although perhaps not for all.

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I also had this issue for the last couple of days. Trying this method seems to have fixed it. thanks

Hi all,
I had the same problems, and tried @Moaxle solution. For my phone it did not work. Unfortunately I stepped a little to deep into the north sea in summer and my last FP3 (RIP) took a deep breath of salted water and died. For that reason I have a displaymodule to change knowing that module worked fine without any ghosts, I did that and after a day I had the same issues again. Opened the phone again to change back to the original module I pressed all the metal cover of the core module and on the top of the phone I heard the “@Moaxle”-klick and since then the phone works fine.

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I would like to add two recent observations of ghost touches with my FP1U and a neighbour’s FP3. It might not explain anyone’s ghost touches in this topic so far, but I think it’s at least worth being generally considered when looking for explanations.

  • A few weeks ago, I attended a session of electrotherapy (diathermy) using short waves for my knee. As I was holding my FP1U a tad bit too close (just 30-40 cm) to the the back side of the part of the machine that was targeting my knee, ghost touches suddenly started on the FP1U screen.

  • When I told a neighbour who owns an FP3 of this, he listened up and mentioned he had first experienced ghost touches while at work – he’s employed in a company dealing with radar technics.

So in both cases radio waves seem to be a likely suspect that might have caused ghost touches. As I said, most of you who are affected might not have any such context, but I think it’s worth to be kept in mind. People in the medical field or other jobs we might not initially think of first could have radio wave exposure every now and then.

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…untill today.
since 1h I am totally f***ed no chance to start the phone because of the ghosttouches. This is my 3rd Fairphone FP 1,2 and the 2nd FP3 (see above) and if this doesn´t ends this makes me change…

Hello, when I start my Fairphone after I have shut it down, a second hand operates my display for a short moment.It doesn’t follow a pattern but just pushes around. The only solution is to turn the Fairphone off and on again. Is there a page where I can see if my Fairphone has been hacked?
Thanks

Welcome to the community forum!
I moved your post here to avoid duplicates. Please have a look around and mostly please have a look at the suggested solution.
Nothing suggests it could come from a hack, rather from a display defect.

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Hi, everyone! I was having the same problem with ghost touches on my FP3. I tried @Moaxle 's solution and it worked! I didn’t notice any “click” when I pushed the connector back in, but I could feel it move back into place. It was clearly dislodged (probably from dropping it). Thank you, @Moaxle! It’s been working perfectly for a few days now.

One more tip: I think you’re supposed to wear gloves when you open and repair a phone.

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Same problem, ghost touches on a FP3 - bought January 2020, upgraded to Android 10 in October, first occurence in November (?). Usually they occur in volleys, several ghost touches all over the screen for a few seconds to which I usually react with locking and unlocking the phone. After unlocking everything is fine again so I don’t think it’s caused by a loose connector. I don’t know how to reproduce this error (I don’t think it’s linked to a recent reboot) and occured only a few times so far.

I experienced a similar phenomenon while using a metal plate inside the battery compartment combined with a magnatic holder in my car. While attached to the magnatic holder I experienced ghost touches significantly more often than in normal daily use. Support now offered to replace the display module. I’ll tell you if that new module fixed the ghosttouches problem when I installed it…

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Hello, I had the same problem with Ghost swipes. When it occured I had immediately to press the Off button, to stop it from making nonsense. Often the lights when on. It continued to hazzle me on and off, and then with increasing intensity. Finally, I could not stand it any more, and was close to sending it back.
However, as a last resort, I tried out Max advice. I took the FP3 apart, pressed the grey area carefully, and also cleaned the contact array above.
Since then (its more than 6 weeks now), I did not experience one single ghost swipe. And I am quite satisfied with my FP3 again!
Uli
PS: Its always fun to take it apart and put it together again!

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It’s getting more and more annoying. Getting ghost touches almost every day, several times an hour - yes, lock / unlock solves it for the moment but you never know which big red button (boom!) might has been pressed already by that time. Didn’t had the time so far to disassemble my device.

I had the issue with ghost touches and occasional freezes, too. I send my phone in for repair and got it back with a new mainboard. This didn’t solve the issues.
A few month later I experienced ghost touches several times a day. I got a replacement display from the support and so far I didn’t have any issues anymore.
From what I observed, I’m pretty sure now that the ghost touches are related to moisture in the air. It doesn’t have to happen immediately but after a few days, when the moisture build up inside the phone and maybe creates a connection in the connector. I pack my Fairphone now in a waterproof cover everytime I go out, especially now in the cold weather. And it seems to help!

So, this is my theory. Maybe you want to keep this in mind.

I just wanted to add, that the support may be a litte bit slow, but they are super friendly and very helpful.

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Thanks for the reply - not sure about the moisture theory though (I’ll still keep this on my mind and see whether I can confirm it). I haven’t been outside in the cold for hours and a simple lock / unlock fixes it.

Is there anyone here who is affected but did not upgrade to Android 10?

I was affected before upgrading, and the issue stayed after. My replacement display is coming in the mail.

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Worked for me (10 days and counting) Thanks for the tip and taking the time to add it here.

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i want to give you an update to my case. i received a new replacement display module from the support and there didn’t appear any ghost touches since i changed it (nearly 2 weeks now). Obviously a hardware problem!?

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Will check this further as my phone started to get ghost input again yesterday after the ghost input was absent for 3-4 weeks. So far I’ve just pressed at the area with the battery cover off, too early to know if that helped. It got warmer here this weekend after a chilly week, (warmer=more humidity).