S20 Ultra Screen Blinks or Refreshes randomly

[shaggs2riches]

I have a S20 Ultra that is almost 1year old. About 2 weeks ago, the screen has started randomly flashing (or blinking) randomly. It is almost like the page screen refreshes. It happens in every app I have installed, and even on the home screen or settings screen.

For example, I will be watching a video (doesn't matter what app) and the page will blink. When the page blinks, the video will pause or restart if I am not in full screen. If I am watching the video in full screen the video will either close out (netflix), or closeout of full screen mode and pause or restart the video (youtube).

Sometimes when I am in Facebook, the blink will cause my news feed to reset. If I am typing, the keyboard will close out and I will lose the text that I am typing. This has also happened to me while composing an email; where the phone, closed out my draft and went back to my inbox.

My phone has had two software updates since it has started happening, and the problem still persists. I have tried disabling my dark mode, turning off adaptive brightness, disabling or deleting various apps to try fixing the issue. Up to this point the phone has functioned flawlessly.

 

[mustang7757]

Hi, welcome to AC!

You tried safe mode ? Do have developer settings on or tweaked anything there ?

 

[shaggs2riches]

I have not tried safe mode yet. I will give that a go to see if that changes anything. I did have developer mode turned on, but I had not changed anything. I have since turned developer mode off to see if that was the issue.

 

[mustang7757]

I have not tried safe mode yet. I will give that a go to see if that changes anything. I did have developer mode turned on, but I had not changed anything. I have since turned developer mode off to see if that was the issue.

So closing developer settings and reboot didn't help , yeah try safe mode .

 

[shaggs2riches]

I have put my phone in safe mode. When the phone was in airplane mode, the problem did not occur. I was able to watch a show on netflix that I had previously downloaded. When I turned off airplane mode the problem came back. I disabled bluetooth, wifi, and mobile data and the issue went away. I first turned on bluetooth and the issue was still gone. I then turned on mobile data and the issue came back. I turned off mobile data and turned on wifi, and the issue was still there. It appears that one of the factory installed apps (or something to do with data use) is causing the issue. My next step has been to disable the apps that I can and see if the issue goes away.

 

[mustang7757]

I have put my phone in safe mode. When the phone was in airplane mode, the problem did not occur. I was able to watch a show on netflix that I had previously downloaded. When I turned off airplane mode the problem came back. I disabled bluetooth, wifi, and mobile data and the issue went away. I first turned on bluetooth and the issue was still gone. I then turned on mobile data and the issue came back. I turned off mobile data and turned on wifi, and the issue was still there. It appears that one of the factory installed apps (or something to do with data use) is causing the issue. My next step has been to disable the apps that I can and see if the issue goes away.

Try resetting network, go settings>general management>reset>reset network

 

[shaggs2riches]

Sorry I did not get back to this sooner. I tried to reset the network and the issue still persists. I went through all my apps and disabled everything that I was able to. I also went through and turned off the use background data on all apps that I could. I also tried a trojan scanner, antivirus, and malware scanner, all of which found no issue. I am now hoping that it is a software update issue and it will correct itself on a future update.

 

[mustang7757]

Sorry I did not get back to this sooner. I tried to reset the network and the issue still persists. I went through all my apps and disabled everything that I was able to. I also went through and turned off the use background data on all apps that I could. I also tried a trojan scanner, antivirus, and malware scanner, all of which found no issue. I am now hoping that it is a software update issue and it will correct itself on a future update.

In safe mode you said it was ok ?

 

[shaggs2riches]

In safe mode, the issue was still there, unless I had the phone in airplane mode. Once the wifi or the mobile network were turned back on (still in safe mode) the issue came back.

 

[mustang7757]

In safe mode, the issue was still there, unless I had the phone in airplane mode. Once the wifi or the mobile network were turned back on (still in safe mode) the issue came back.

Possible factory reset or you want to wait until next update?

 

[Mike Dee]

Sorry I did not get back to this sooner. I tried to reset the network and the issue still persists. I went through all my apps and disabled everything that I was able to. I also went through and turned off the use background data on all apps that I could. I also tried a trojan scanner, antivirus, and malware scanner, all of which found no issue. I am now hoping that it is a software update issue and it will correct itself on a future update.

I don't think a future update will fix an issue that isn't wide spread. A factory reset might do the trick and definitely worth a shot.

 

[shaggs2riches]

That is something that I was worried might have to happen. I might just give that a try in the next few days and see how that affects it.

 

[Mike Dee]

That is something that I was worried might have to happen. I might just give that a try in the next few days and see how that affects it.

If that doesn't work then it could be hardware even though it's seems like software.

 

[Garysayer76]

I have a S20 Ultra that is almost 1year old. About 2 weeks ago, the screen has started randomly flashing (or blinking) randomly. It is almost like the page screen refreshes. It happens in every app I have installed, and even on the home screen or settings screen.

For example, I will be watching a video (doesn't matter what app) and the page will blink. When the page blinks, the video will pause or restart if I am not in full screen. If I am watching the video in full screen the video will either close out (netflix), or closeout of full screen mode and pause or restart the video (youtube).

Sometimes when I am in Facebook, the blink will cause my news feed to reset. If I am typing, the keyboard will close out and I will lose the text that I am typing. This has also happened to me while composing an email; where the phone, closed out my draft and went back to my inbox.

My phone has had two software updates since it has started happening, and the problem still persists. I have tried disabling my dark mode, turning off adaptive brightness, disabling or deleting various apps to try fixing the issue. Up to this point the phone has functioned flawlessly.

It's a software issue that for some reason only affected some phones and not others. Wife and I both have the s20+, mine does the same as yours, but hers is fine *. I found a workaround to fix it. Go into settings>apps>messages then turn off "appear on top". This should fix the issue.

 

[kaarosus]

I am having the issues as OP, my phone is a Galaxy S20+
problem started about 2 weeks ago. I did a force shut down. Clear cache. did the last 2 software update. the screen does a flicker or refresh every 5 minutes roughly . when im on video call. the video pauses momentarily and resumes while the voice seems fine .....

to the best of my knowledge, it first happened when I added yahoo finance shorcut icon (google chrome) on my main page... but I removed that and it still happens.

I tried safe mode and the problem still persist.... its like an app that is refreshing in the background every 5 mins

 

[truman123]

Hi, I made an account just so I can thank you! I'm pretty sure this solved my issue. I tried all kinds of things when I first experienced it, I ended up factory resetting it (which is a pain). That seemed to work, but only for 2 months. Recently it came back, I dreaded having to reset again and lose my data. Anyway, your solution seems to have solved it for me! and it's so bizarre to me, that is what fixed it. Thanks again .

 

[mustang7757]

Hi, I made an account just so I can thank you! I'm pretty sure this solved my issue. I tried all kinds of things when I first experienced it, I ended up factory resetting it (which is a pain). That seemed to work, but only for 2 months. Recently it came back, I dreaded having to reset again and lose my data. Anyway, your solution seems to have solved it for me! and it's so bizarre to me, that is what fixed it. Thanks again .

Welcome to AC!
Glad that helped you

 

[ghora giri]

It's a software issue that for some reason only affected some phones and not others. Wife and I both have the s20+, mine does the same as yours, but hers is fine *. I found a workaround to fix it. Go into settings>apps>messages then turn off "appear on top". This should fix the issue.

Man, THANK YOU SO MUCH! this simple step works like a charm! I've been desperate for months with my S20 Ultra. And it's weird the message/text apps keeps open in the background. My screen glicth problem, auto exit when is in full screen mode probelm, all have been fixed. So strange. Thanks, man!!!

 

[HRed]

I too have been having this same issue for like 6 months now! I've tried resetting phone settings. No difference. Just tried your fix (general management/reset network) no help was hopeful w/ others saying it worked. Didn't work for me. Please help! Any other fixes?

 

[HRed]

I'm having SAME problem for last 6 months (maybe longer) I initially tried all kinds of things to no avail. I tried resetting all settings last week. No help. I just tried your suggestion (Try resetting network, go settings>general management>reset>reset network) and still didn't work. I was really hopeful after seeing others said it worked. Any suggestions? This has been so frustrating and have just had to deal w/ it as I don't want to factory reset. Please send other ideas to address. Thank you in advance.