How To Fix Swipe Up To Unlock Not Working On iPhone

Swipe up to open not working

Swipe up to open, is the actual name of the command. Unlocking occurs as soon as you glance at the iPhone and Face ID does the recognition. However, to reach the Home Screen you need to swipe the Lock Screen away.

5 Ways To Fix Swipe Up To Unlock Not Working

These are the most common ways to make your iPhone recognize the swipe up to open gesture again:

1. Clean The Screen

In most cases the iPhone screen gets greasy and it’s not able to properly recognize touches and swipes.

So, the first thing that you should to if swipe to unlock stopped working is to clean the screen with a soft wipe, a microfiber cloth or some pre-moistened cleaning wipes like these ones (Amazon.com link).

Tip: Also make sure that your fingers aren’t wet or greasy when performing the swipe to open gesture!

2. Reboot iPhone

If swipe up to unlock continues not to work you should restart iPhone. In some cases a minor iOS glitch might cause the device to freeze, or temporary stop responding to touch inputs. A reboot should bring everything back to normal.

How to: Briefly click & release Volume Up, followed by Volume Down and press & hold the Side button until the Apple logo is displayed on the screen. Release and be patient while your device restarts.

3. Remove Lightning Cable

In some cases swipe to unlock doesn’t work when the iPhone is plugged-in to a computer or a power outlet. Not sure if this intended behavior or not, but you can try to remove the Lightning cable and see if it makes any difference.

4. Change Screen Protector

If you’re using a screen protector it might be time to change it. If it’s worn out it might not register touches properly anymore.

Some screen protectors that we recommend are manufactured by Ailun and Mkeke (Amazon.com links).

Tip: Swipe up to open issue can be also caused by an iPhone case or bumper. If the edge is to think or too high, lint might get collected in the bottom are of the screen and mess with the touchscreen sensitivity. Remove the case and clean its edges.

5. Screen Replacement?

Last but not least swipe to unlock not working problem can be caused by an aftermarket screen replacement. If you cracked the screen and replaced it with a non-genuine part you might have problems with the touchscreen.

In this case the only solution is to bring back the device to the repair shop.

Have you managed to fix swipe to unlock not working? Which troubleshooting method helped out? Do you have a better solution? Use the comments section.

Related: Do you know that you can add Lock Screen widgets in iOS 16?