Keyboard trackpad not always turning on (iPhone 6s)

[eric3312]

Hey guys,

I've noticed that sometimes when I press harder on the keyboard while in mail or messages, the trackpad feature doesn't work. Other times, I will press down on the keyboard, feel the little vibration, and then the trackpad will activate.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is it activating for everyone else just fine?

I do have a screen protector on, but it's pretty thin.

 

[I7guy]

Hey guys,

I've noticed that sometimes when I press harder on the keyboard while in mail or messages, the trackpad feature doesn't work. Other times, I will press down on the keyboard, feel the little vibration, and then the trackpad will activate.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is it activating for everyone else just fine?

I do have a screen protector on, but it's pretty thin.

I find the keyboard has to be activated with just the right type of press. It takes a bit of getting used to and I often don't get the trackpad on the first try.

 

[docprego]

I get the trackpad easily but find that there is no haptic vibration when it activates. Is there supposed to be one? My haptic works fine in other 3D Touch applications.

 

[eric3312]

I'll press the way I normally would to "peak and pop" but I won't get any feedback...so I pressed a tiny bit harder and still nothing. I refused to go more because I don't want to break my screen. How hard would you have to press to break the screen?...this 3d touch scares me a little to be honest.

 

[docprego]

I'll press the way I normally would to "peak and pop" but I won't get any feedback...so I pressed a tiny bit harder and still nothing. I refused to go more because I don't want to break my screen. How hard would you have to press to break the screen?...this 3d touch scares me a little to be honest.

I was thinking the same thing but don't you think that Apple had to put this screen through the most extreme pressure a human could exert on the screen? They don't want lawsuits because of finger injuries.

 

[eric3312]

I was thinking the same thing but don't you think that Apple had to put this screen through the most extreme pressure a human could exert on the screen? They don't want lawsuits because of finger injuries.

Yeah I would think you're right. I mean..I'm not pushing down like I'm trying to break the dang thing...I'm just pushing slightly harder to try to activate the keyboard trackpad...

I would think that Apple had this in mind, that someone would press really hard to try to activate 3d touch

 

[Jetcat3]

Just use one finger (thumb) over the keyboard and press down. The keyboard should gray out and then while the same amount of pressure you can put the cursor over a specific word and press harder on the screen to highlight that word. There is no Taptic feedback with both of those force touches.

 

[docprego]

Just use one finger (thumb) over the keyboard and press down. The keyboard should gray out and then while the same amount of pressure you can put the cursor over a specific word and press harder on the screen to highlight that word. There is no Taptic feedback with both of those force touches.

Just tried to highlight a word and it wasn't working as you described. Then I got it to work, the trick is the following:

1.Press on keyboard until it grays
2.Position cursor on the word you want to select
3.Release the pressure slightly but not enough for the keyboard letters to reappear
4.Drag over the word you want to select and it will be highlighted

It's kind of tricky and took me a few attempts but now I can get it every time.

 

[J.C]

3D Touch functionality is buggy everywhere for me, including the keyboard trackpad. It's very hit and miss. I know all the tricks and techniques, it just doesn't always work.

 

[AeroZ]

It seems that for keyboard trackpad to activate you have to try to place your thumb so that it's more flat on the screen. If you normally type with a thumb then you use your thumb's tip or side to be more precise.

 

[eric3312]

3D Touch functionality is buggy everywhere for me, including the keyboard trackpad. It's very hit and miss. I know all the tricks and techniques, it just doesn't always work.

Speaking of which...do you ever notice that sometimes it takes a good amount of extra pressure to "pop" something in place sometimes? Every now and again, I'll have to press harder on the screen than usual to get the preview to "pop" into place...doesn't seem to always be the same pressure needed

 

[AeroZ]

Speaking of which...do you ever notice that sometimes it takes a good amount of extra pressure to "pop" something in place sometimes? Every now and again, I'll have to press harder on the screen than usual to get the preview to "pop" into place...doesn't seem to always be the same pressure needed

AFAIK it works if at first you use light pressure to preview and if you want to pop it open then you slightly reduce the pressure and increase it again.

 

[blotto80]

After a little bit playing around with this feature, I found that you apply a little pressure to activate and once its activated you can ease up on the pressure so that you're just touching the screen, move the cursor to a word and apply a little pressure(the amount you used to activate) and it selects a word. You shouldn't have to do any hard presses, I had a little bit of a hard time at first but now it works every time.

 

[J.C]

Speaking of which...do you ever notice that sometimes it takes a good amount of extra pressure to "pop" something in place sometimes? Every now and again, I'll have to press harder on the screen than usual to get the preview to "pop" into place...doesn't seem to always be the same pressure needed

Yep. I also use the trick of reducing the pressure once I've activated the trackpad or the peek. But sometimes no matter what I do I cannot activate *any* 3D Touch gestures on a particular screen. I need to refresh the screen before it works again. Hopefully they can sort this out with an update. It's currently not the accurate and precise input I was sold on with Jony Ives' smooth-talking voiceover

 

[getrealbro]

Hey guys,

I've noticed that sometimes when I press harder on the keyboard while in mail or messages, the trackpad feature doesn't work. Other times, I will press down on the keyboard, feel the little vibration, and then the trackpad will activate....

On my 6s, I really struggled with this at first. Then I realized that it wasn't how hard I pressed it was how quickly I pressed a little harder. IOW I found that to go into track pad mode, I need to press just a little harder than usual, immediately after I touch the keyboard. I get a tactile "bump" when it goes into track pad mode.

---GetRealBro

 

[AeroZ]

Also you might want to increase the sensitivity of 3D Touch so you don't have to use that much force.

 

[Chris in DC]

I have this problem, too, and it generally has little to do with the amount of pressure I apply or how quickly I apply it. Sometimes it just won't work at all, until I tap the cursor to another location in the text. I even had the problem when typing this comment just now, and now it's resolved. Annoying and seemingly random.