Phantom taps on the content (not screen area!) that I last touched

Help Fairphone 3
1

Hello,

I have a weird problem with my FP3+, I’ll do my best to explain it.

A couple of months ago, my phone would start having this issue in multiple apps, it sometimes appears differently but seems linked. In some Apps/Websites, when I tap something on the screen, the phone will instead tap something else. This might be a list that I’ve scrolled through, and I want to tap an entry, but the phone thinks that I want to tap the entry I’ve last touched while scrolling. It also appears in apps that seem to use multiple layers, where it looks like the app opened another layer but my taps seem to be stuck to the original layer that is now in the background.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? My partner has a FP3 and also experienced this for a couple of weeks now. It’s quite annoying and makes some apps unusable :frowning:

Cheers
Paul

1 Like
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Switch on the “show touches” or similar in the dev options to see what is actually happening.

For me it was like 10 “ghost touches” per second on completly random spots in the top third of the screen

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Thanks, but I’m sure it’s not hardware-related. It happens with stuff that’s not even visible on screen right now (for example with lists)

4

So, to clarify regarding the topic title … The wrongly registered taps are not where you last touched the screen before, but where you last touched content in the App before.

You might want to edit this (I realise myself it’s a bit hard to describe), because I suspect with the topic title like this users will be tempted to give you hints about “simple” ghost touches, which doesn’t seem to be your issue at all.

The issue sounds odd for sure.
In case you are able to reproduce this reliably, can your partner perhaps record a video of this phenomenon to share here (not showing any personal information, of course)?
Perhaps somebody might see anything helpful in this.

2 Likes
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I think I have been having this same problem as well, or something similar at least. In some apps touching the screen touches the previous location instead of the new and current one. I have had to stop using a few apps entirely because of this bug.

Here’s a github issue I have made to some application with a video attached that shows what it looks like: Buggy UI behavior in the Editor menu · Issue #90 · v1tzor/TimePlanner · GitHub

I have also experienced this problem in the settings, in a RSS app called Feeder and a few other apps I can’t remember the names of.

I’m fairly certain that it is some software thing because with touch debugging turned on everything looks fine, but the apps don’t seem to agree.

I’m currently on Lineage OS 21 and seem to have had the issue at least in Lineage OS 20 as well. Can’t remember if I have come across it earlier than that. This might also just be a Lineage OS related problem.

Edit: Here’s a video of it happening in Feeder https://imgur.com/a/YoP62bB

6

Seems like you have the same problem …

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I’ve been having this problem using /e/OS as well! It happens manly in my chat apps, when I try to select chats and groups.

I’m still trying to capture it on camera, but I have a hard time as it just randomly happens or not. I cannot reliably reproduce it yet.

8

I have been wondering if there’s some common library that all of the buggy applications use or if its an issue in Android. One thing I have noticed is that older looking apps usually work fine, but the more modern (especially Material You -themed) applications are constantly having this issue.

In my case its not just the apps though. I have also had this touch bug happen in Android settings

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