This is in response to one of my iPhone 4 Annoyances involving the proximity sensor. I was able to do a bit more research and with some luck my proximity sensor problems have mostly disappeared.

UPDATE: So there’s been a couple of solutions suggested for this:

  1. Reset Network Settings (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings)
  2. Reset All Settings (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset All Settings)
  3. Perform a soft reboot of the iPhone
  4. Perform a hard robber of the Iphone

For me none of these worked, so I took it to the Apple Store to get a replacement. They told me that they had heard of the proximity sensor problem and an internal memo had been sent out saying that it’s software related and a fix was coming soon so they weren’t going to exchange my phone. However using their floor models, I started testing the sensitivity of the proximity sensors.

I put two of their phones along with mine side by side. Turns out they would turn off the screen at different object lengths from the sensor with mine and one of the others being the shortest; the other floor model was able to sense my finger and turn off the screen at a distance of about 1/2in farther. As I was pointing this out to the tech guy, I had a group of customers starting to pay attention. At this point the tech guy told me that they would exchange my phone right away.

So far I’ve had no problems with my newly exchanged phone. It definitely seems like a calibration problem that will most likely be fixed with a software update, but I rather have a properly calibrated sensor to begin with.

Related Posts: