Is there a way you can try to unplug it? I don't know why but with a variety of electronics I've found that unplugging, waiting a 5 minutes and plugging back in sometimes work. Might have something to do with it going back to some kind of default. There's my very untechnical advice!

thanks for your response. I can't figure out how to unplug it, but I thought flipping off the circuit breaker would maybe do the same thing as unplugging?

Call 1-800- GE- CARES. i kid you not. Sure, they build crappy appliances, but, hey they CARE.

Hi Louisa...just installed the same GE cooktop and am having the same problem. The control lock light is on and doesn't respond to finger touches. Have flipped the circuit breaker as well. Nothing. I'd rather not wait for service for another week. I've already been without a stove for a week when the granite counter tops were suppose to be installed but arrived broken! Atleast I have a sink now!! Please don't tell me I need another cooktop. What was your resolution?!

Not much on the web in the way of fixes. One suggestion is to shut off the circuit breaker for a minimum of five hours or overnight. This sounds logical because some have reported the problem cleared after an extended power outage. Other suggestions are to keep hot or hot and wet objects like pot lids, pans etc away from the area next to the control panel and the area immediately above it.

Bummer...no such luck. We had the circuit breaker off overnight. Was really hoping your suggestion would work!! Thanks for trying!

What electric rated breaker and line do you have supplying the cooktop? You said the unit was 'put into' control lock. What do you mean by this? Did it do it itself or did you touch the lock control long enough to activate it? Has this cooktop worked before this happened?

Could it be that the unit is in this mode as a safety feature? If it is not powered correctly, you will have all sorts of problems.

I don't have any suggestions for you but will say that I have had the 36" GE Profile induction cooktop since April. I had to have the glass top replaced (under warranty) due to a big scratch and when the technician was here I told him that my Control Lock button did not seem to work. When he lifted off the top he adjusted the touch sensor for the Control Lock so that it was closer to the glass and therefore, sensitive to my touch.
Good luck,
Try_hard

Are you touching and holding it? You have to have a continuous touch for like, 5 seconds, to engage/disenage control lock.

From the manual, which is available online:

To unlock the cooktop:

Touch and hold the CONTROL LOCK pad
again for 5 seconds. A two-beep signal will
sound, and the CONTROL LOCK light will
go out, indicating that the cooktop is
unlocked.

Thanks for all your replies! Yes, I have the manual and have done what one is SUPPOSED to do when the you want to disengage the control lock. No response. The only response I get is when I cover the on/off buttons with my whole hand. After about 15 seconds I get 5 beeps and the 'e' for error light comes on. No problem with power.

The control lock light has been on since the unit was installed. It required a 220 connection, so my husband, with the guidance of his electrician friend, switched it from 110 to 220.

I'm guessing the sensor IS the issue. I have service scheduled to come out on Friday. Microwave cooking 'til then?

You are running 220 through a 110 line???? How many amps?

You're talking to the wrong person about electricity here, but NO! not running 220 through 110. REPLACED 110 with 220. My husband put in a new double switchy thingy : ) in the circuit breaker box. He knows what he's doing. I obviously don't. I believe it is the sensor. That makes the most sense.

hi Patti-- just saw your mesage! the technician came out and evidently spent a few hours fiddling with it. Don't wha the did-- I was at work and GC's assistant was there-- but it works now. Evidently the technician was really annoyed by how difficult it was to fix.

Thanks everybody. Technician came out today and moved the sensor. Replaced the top and then it didn't work again. So he had to do it another time. I guess it's a little touchy! But wow!! It boils water fast!!!

Enjoy!!

I have a top of the line GE profile cooktop that is 1.5 years old that no longer works because its stuck in contriol lock which I never used before. I dont have an extended warranty. I woke up to find the control lock on and nothing I could do to get it out I am thinking the cat may have activated it. Service told me there would be a min $75 charge for the call and more charges every 15 mins. Likely some boards had to be replaced which would be expensive. But then I googled "cooktop stuck in control lock" and found this thread. I realized that the control lock "key" under the glass must not be positioned correctly so put my entire hand over the key (as mentioned by someone in this thread) and presto, out of control lock now! Wow, made my day! Internet can be wonderful!

GE Profile 30" Induction Cooktop - 11" burner will not accept an appropriate sized pot/pan in the centered position.

I can eventually get it to connect but it can take more than 35-40 minutes to find the "sweet spot" which AGAIN is NOT the center of the 11 inch burner.

The other burners operate with no problem so I am reduced to having use of only 3 burners b/c of the time it takes to get the 11' burner to work.

Is there a sensor for the 11" burner that I can check?

Thanks for all the answers... i pressed the red button (with warm hands) and held it for 15 sec and it worked !!!

After 5 years someone decided to turn the lock on. We could not get it off by following the 5 sec push button. Many people and many hands and people to no avail along with power cycling. Then i came across this. 5 seconds with whole hand did the trick. Thanks karingwiz for the hand idea! No more microwave dinners :)

I want to say thanks to you all. Woke up to the control lock being stuck,,,put my entire hand over the control lock for 10 seconds and it worked.. So happy, was very worried about not having a stove. Alice

I put my whole forearm on the control lock and press hard for 15-20 seconds and it unlock, pressure matters but don't break it, I was also told by GE that it would be $75 just to find what is wrong with it. But the technician would give me the charge to repair it.

Same here, whole hand over control lock area for 5+ seconds...

I put a slightly damp paper towel over the area for 10 to 15 seconds. Poof! It works.

Thank you for your tips. Putting my entire hand over lock control worked out well for me. Great advice ;)

Thanks to all for this thread. As many of you user probably know, a whole host of things left in the vicinity of the control buttons will cause "E" (for error) lights to flash. Yesterday, I had a pot boil over and the fluid covered every control button on the cooktop. It was like Christmas with "Es" flashing everywhere. By the time I got the fluid wiped up, the Control Lock was on and wouldn't turn off. I've had the cooktop for 8 years and thought I fried the control panel. Like others, tried flipping the circuit breaker off, to no avail. I thought I was in trouble! Thanks to this thread, a simple "whole hand" over the button worked like a charm. Thank you, thank you , thank you!

I had the same problem, the LOC appeared over night. We shut the circuit breaker off over night that did not help. BUT in reading this blog and ESPECIALLY KARINGWIZ comment, we got our electrolux induction slide in range unlocked!!! Hoorah!!!! Just holding the "Control Icon" down for several sections with a larger part of my finger worked.

I also had the unit get stuck in control lock after water was left on for a few too many seconds while I was cleaning and had never before used control lock. I tried flipping off the breaker and even left it off for 24 hours, but that didn’t help. I tried using my whole hand, but that didn’t work. I had hope because I would get flashing “E’s” when I held my hand over the on/off to multiple burners. What finally got it back on was holding my entire forearm over control lock (be sure not to touch any other buttons) for about 20 seconds. I had to try a couple of different positions and use PRESSURE. In reading what others wrote, I would agree that the control lock button sensor is not right below the button and may be a little further away from the surface than the other buttons. Don’t be afraid to really put some weight and lean on the unit if the other methods didn’t work.

We’re looking at induction cooktops. Would this control lock issue have kept any of you from purchasing this cooktop? Do you consider it a defect? Hows the cooktop otherwise? We blew most of our wall oven and cooktop budget on a GE Cafe French door oven. Until our renovation, we had a lousy cooktop ( but highly rated by Consumer Reports) which died within a year and we then used 2 great portable induction burners till now, a surprisingly workable back- up plan while I was researching cooktops.

J Corn, look at the Bosch induction cooktops.

I have Whirlpool and experienced the same. If you hold it down for several seconds it will release. I think it is a safety issue?

I love the induction, J Corn. I find it easy to control the temp. I frequently use the “simmer” option. FYI…I use microfiber towels to wipe it off. One, wet, wrung and the other dry to polish. Once in awhile you can see rings where the pot was…have no fear. Bar Keeper’s powder works.

To disengage the lock, hold your finger on the pad for at least 10 seconds. It will disengage.

What does everyone mean by using our whole hand? Pressing 9 and 0 together turns it on and off on my stove...where am I placing my whole hand?

Hot water boiled over and caused the sensor to stop working. I can only use the burners for the gas cook top now. Please advise. Thank you

I too had an issue with the control lock. I tried to turn it off after it magically turned itself on. I read through the comments on this page and used my entire hand to cover the keypad when trying to unlock the control lock. It appears to have worked. There must be something wrong with the sensor. I plan to keep a watch on this. The stove is not even a year old yet.

Almeater, after a couple of days with my control panel locked, I decided to try to shut the circuit breaker off and on again to hopefully reboot the panel on the keypad, and it worked immediately. Give it a try, and good luck. 🙏🏼

Yes!!! I put my entire hand over the lock control for 5 seconds, and it went off! Thank you, internet.

I have a similar issue but didn't manage to solve yet. When I open the induction cooktop, I get displayed the letter "L" and from the instruction manual, this means that it's looked. I followed the instruction to unlock it but was not working, I got the following errors, different for each eye. From the instruction manual, it should be "0" to get unlocked by another click on the unblock key.

The issue looks not to be on the sensor for the unlock button but somewhere else. Any idea what can be? This happened suddenly, yesterday night everything was ok and working and in the morning I got into this problem. The induction cooktop had no intervention and was working fine until this issue for many years. Any ideas of how this can be solved because it's hard now with the covid-19 to call someone from service and come to have a look?

Using the the bottom of the palm of my hand with PRESSURE worked for me!

Thanks sn_tx.

I followed the advice of the person above for using the slightly damp paper towel- and poof it worked!!🤩

Well, I just fixed my Kitchenaid Induction range. I tried the recommended way in the manual to hold the control key for 3 seconds to get it unlocked. Tried it repeatedly...no avail. I finally went to my breaker box and turned off the breaker to the range4 for 30 minutes. 30 minutes later, turned breaker back on and voila, the red control lock light was off. Tried my cooktop, and it worked!!!!! Yeah!!!

Water spilled over then GE Profile locked.

Have tried all methods, turning off circuit for up to 3 days, used my whole palm, used my whole arm pressure over area that shows locked even wet towel. All I get is all burns with E flashing then if you try using them they shut off and still locked.

I'd think if it was fried it wouldn't show locked or E lit.

Anyone with this issue?

Update:
Fixed it
When you get all burners flashing E start pressing the timer on & off till it beeps and it resets the control lock.
Husband is doing the happy dance 😂

That was the best! Thank you so much!!

Unplug it and restart.

Thank goodness for this thread! It’s July 2023 and the same problem happened to me. I have a new GE Cafe 36” electric cooktop that was stuck in the lock mode. I read the tips beginning in 2012, and I was able to unlock it by using my thumb while pressing down hard for six seconds, and it worked. Thank you everyone for your ideas it saved me a service call and now I can continue making dinner😊

It's July 2023 for me as well. My warranty just ran out 2 weeks ago. Twice now, I've not been able to get my GE Cafe 36" induction cooktop out of lock mode. I regularly lock it to clean the surface and prevent accidental burner turn-on. Then a week ago, I could not unlock it. Finally got it after wetting and warming my hands. Today I tried for a good 15 minutes to get it unlocked to no avail. Finally did, and now I'm afraid to lock it ever again. Sounds like I may need to move the sensor closer to the glass (no clue how hard that will be). All the other touch spots are plenty sensitive. You'd think a known issue from 15 years ago wouldn't STILL be a problem on the newest cooktops!

GE Products are junk! Same issue here!

I have the 30” GE Profile induction cooktop that was installed just four months ago. Yesterday, it mysteriously froze up. None of the burner controls would activate. Even though the control lock was unlit (supposedly indicating the cooktop was ”unlocked”), we were unable to get the burners to turn on. I discovered this thread and subsequently tried the ”palm method” as well as the ”forearm technique” all to no avail. Frustrated, I then flipped the breaker off and left it off for a couple hours. When I turned the breaker back on and checked….voila! The cooktop appears to have reset itself and is now functioning normally. We’re happy campers once again. I guess the moral of the story is: Check online and find your issue and then exhaust the remedies before calling for service. Cheers all!!

The breaker off for two hours is much longer duration than necessary. Five minutes should be (more than) sufficient.