Why am I having trouble with my Samsung Galaxy S4's keyboard?

[ApS35]

I have the Samsung Galaxy S4 running ver 5.0.1 When I hit one of the keys in the top line, it selects a key in either the line below or in the "suggested text" line. This happens when txting using either the usual Samsung txting app or Swiftkey, and also any time I use the keyboard e.g. when trying to type a word in the Google app's search line, or in Google Play's search line. This began only about 2 wks ago. It's only a problem in portrait mode - if I turn the phone to landscape, I can type the QWERTYUIOP line without trouble. Looking forward to your help, Andrew.

 

[mhinc]

I have the Samsung Galaxy S4 running ver 5.0.1 When I hit one of the keys in the top line, it selects a key in either the line below or in the "suggested text" line. This happens when txting using either the usual Samsung txting app or Swiftkey, and also any time I use the keyboard e.g. when trying to type a word in the Google app's search line, or in Google Play's search line. This began only about 2 wks ago. It's only a problem in portrait mode - if I turn the phone to landscape, I can type the QWERTYUIOP line without trouble. Looking forward to your help, Andrew.

COULD be an app, try booting into Safe mode and see if it happens there, if it does, probably an app causing the issue running in the background.
If it still happens in Safe mode, could be a hardware issue, probably the digitizer

 

[ApS35]

Thanks for yr speedy response, mhinc. I did reboot in safe mode, but it didn't fix the problem. Hope it's not a hardware problem. Would the digitiser be expensive to have repaired? Such a specific problem, isn't it, affecting just one row of the keyboard, and only in portrait mode. I tested the whole area of the screen, and it seems sensitive to touch from top to bottom of the screen, and from right to left.

 

[mhinc]

Thanks for yr speedy response, mhinc. I did reboot in safe mode, but it didn't fix the problem. Hope it's not a hardware problem. Would the digitiser be expensive to have repaired? Such a specific problem, isn't it, affecting just one row of the keyboard, and only in portrait mode. I tested the whole area of the screen, and it seems sensitive to touch from top to bottom of the screen, and from right to left.

I would back up and try a factory reset, and see if it happens before restoring anything.
If it still happens it has to be hardware. If not it was software
Being you have an S4, I would say it would be more worth while to get a new phone than spend the money to replace the digitizer IF that's the issue