Anyone have problems with the proximity sensor and the Otterbox Defender Cases?

wrxnfx

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Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem. My friend has an Otterbox Defender Case for the Verizon iPhone4 and has already swapped out the phone so our guess is a possible defect in the case. Basically, the phone doesn't sense that the phone is near his face when talking on it and the screen stays lit and active. Anyone else have this problem?
 

Garz

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Me nor my wife does but I read on twitter that one person did awhile back. I think the Otterbox Defender helped against any proximity sensor issues
 

omgabunny

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I just got the defender a few days ago and haven't noticed any proximity sensor issues yet. I'll keep an eye out for it but so far so good.
 

wrxnfx

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Found out there's a problem with my friend's phone. His family has a total of 3 iPhone4s and they all have Defenders. After switching phones and cases, only his didn't work in the other cases. Also, he found out his proximity sensor works without the case on. Go figure, this is his second defective phone in a roll. The first one was extremely slow (ie. Would take 15 minutes to verify iTunes password.).
 

Brickman

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I had this problem with one of my Defenders that I bought from a third party seller. I called Otterbox and they sent me a new one for free! That is why I love Otterbox! Their customer service is wonderful!!!!

I actually took the plastic covering off the Prox. sensor on old OBD and it solved the problem. My son actually took this case for his iP4 and took the rest of the built-in screen protector off and put an Anti-Glare screen protector on his iP4 and is rolling with the Defer that way. Works Great! No problems. He actually had NO screen protector for awhile and really liked how bright the screen was but decided to put one on just for safety.

Otterbox did say they had had a few people call with this problem that had White Defenders but not Black ones though.
 

wrxnfx

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Feb 22, 2011
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I had this problem with one of my Defenders that I bought from a third party seller. I called Otterbox and they sent me a new one for free! That is why I love Otterbox! Their customer service is wonderful!!!!

I actually took the plastic covering off the Prox. sensor on old OBD and it solved the problem. My son actually took this case for his iP4 and took the rest of the built-in screen protector off and put an Anti-Glare screen protector on his iP4 and is rolling with the Defer that way. Works Great! No problems. He actually had NO screen protector for awhile and really liked how bright the screen was but decided to put one on just for safety.

Otterbox did say they had had a few people call with this problem that had White Defenders but not Black ones though.

Thanks for the info! Found out that there are some sensitivity issues between batches of iPhones. My iPhone and my sister's iPhones wouldn't shut off with the Defender case on. With the case off, it worked correctly. My friend exchanged his at Verizon and had to try three different other iPhones from three different order batches to find one that worked correctly. If cutting out the Otterbox screen protector by the proximity sensor solves the problem, then that would be great since it's such a simple fix.
 

wrxnfx

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Saw someone mention that they fixed the problem with the white Defender cases on the Verizon Wireless Forums. They said to just color in the area where the proximity sensor is with a black Sharpie. My sister did this and it solved the problem. She also told me that she tried her phone in her friend's black Defender case without any problem. My assumption is that this is a color specific issue with the cases.
 

wrxnfx

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Update: Found out that this problem only occurs with the Defender cases that don't have the black plastic interior. My sister and her friend swapped phones and cases. Her proximity sensor worked in the black Defender while her friend's proximity sensor stopped working in my sister's white case. A less cosmetically intrusive fix was to color a small piece of scotch tape black and to place it over the area of the proximity sensor on the iPhone. I would imagine doing the same to the screen protector area from the inside of the Defender case would have the same results.
 

Chaos5

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I know there are some Otterbox's that work better for the AT&T iPhone rather than the VZW iPhone. On the box it should say works for both AT&T & VZW iPhone, or it will say nothing. If it says nothing it works better for the AT&T iPhone. So ultimately if you are using an VZW iPhone and have the one that may not work, this could be your problem.
 

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