Auto brightness sensor/Proximity Sensor not Working

[Coogah]

Bought a Note 8 around Black Friday and I've got a weird glitch that I'm not sure falls under warranty or is due to faulty programming.

It's happened three times now where adjusting the slider when the auto brightness option is on will not change the brightness. This is not an auto brightness issue as I can restart my phone and move the slider to change the brightness setting when the option is on.

Secondly when this issue happens when I'm on a phone call the screen will not shut off when I'm holding the phone to my ear. This happened three times as well during three separate calls. Once again the problem was remidied with a reboot.

Since the problem is resolved with a reboot I'm concerned this is due to programming and may not be a hardware issue that would warrant a new phone. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Do you have a screen protector on, or a case with a prominent lip at the top of the phone?

 

[Coogah]

Thank you! No screen protector, but I do have a clear case with a lip. However the case stops well short of the sensors in the front. It stops just over where the bezel and screen meet.

 

[B. Diddy]

Can you show us a picture of the top part of the phone? The proximity sensor is typically right next to the front-facing camera, so if the case goes up to where the bezel and screen meet (which is below the front-facing camera), then it might still be blocking the sensor.

 

[Lepa79]

Run the phone with a case for few hours at home to see if behavior changes

 

[Lepa79]

Also, make sure you go into Auto Britness setting and "Reset Usage Patters". I think your problem will go away when you reset this.

 

[Coogah]

Here's a couple of quick pics I snapped. I'm not convinced it's an auto brightness issue as it affects the proximity sensor's function as well when I'm making a call; but I guess I can start with resetting usage patterns.

 

[chanchan05]

First thing I'd do in your problem would be to go to the Samsung service menu. Bring up your dialer and type *#0*# with no spaces. It will bring up the service menu. Tap sensors. If you cover the proximity sensor, the phone should vibrate and the screen turns green if it's working properly. Then tap on light sensors. It should tell you the lux levels of light it detects. If you're covering the light sensor completely it should read zero, and a higher number depending on light intensity.

 

[Coogah]

I'm not able to get into the service menu with my Verizon phone. :/ I'm running stock ROM, not rooted, and have the latest Verizon updates.

 

[chanchan05]

I'm not able to get into the service menu with my Verizon phone. :/ I'm running stock ROM, not rooted, and have the latest Verizon updates.

Oh. That's weird. Why would they remove that?

Well then try a system cache wipe using the boot menu. If that fails you should try running safe mode. If it still persists then, a factory reset. If it still happens, then you have it replaced.

Of course you can skip all that and go get it replaced immediately.

 

[Coogah]

I did some more digging and apparently Verizon likes to lock their phones up as tight as they can and took this menu away from us. Boo.

Currently trying no case + fresh auto brightness reset to see if anything comes of that then I'll try the system cache wipe. Haven't had to give back a fresh phone before, do you think they'd give one out for something I can't replicate on command?

 

[chanchan05]

I can't say about Verizon's return policies. I'm not in the US. I also don't get my phones delivered, always selecting the option to pick it up at my carrier's store. They open the box in front of me and show me that everything in the service menu check is working properly before handing it over.

Without that service menu access for you, you can't say if it's hardware or software without doing a lot of stuff.

 

[B. Diddy]

You could try a 3rd party app to test the sensors, like Sensors Test.

I misunderstood how you described the case -- you had said it went down to the where the bezel meets the screen (which would be the top edge of the screen itself, not where the metal meets the glass at the very top of the phone -- in phone parlance, bezel refers to the blank border between screen and the edge of the phone). If that were true, that would mean the case would be covering both the proximity sensor and the front-facing camera, which wouldn't make much sense.

 

[Coogah]

Ah, gotcha! I wasn't quite sure what it was at first; but now that I have my case off it does just look like it's the metal band around the phone. I'll check out those sensor apps and see what they say.

Kind of a bummer Verizon disabled, maybe the can access it in store and run these tests too. :/

 

[Lepa79]

Also, make sure you go into Auto Britness setting and "Reset Usage Patters". I think your problem will go away when you reset this.

Did you try this yet? Mine was not working until I reset the usage pattern

 

[Coogah]

Did you try this yet? Mine was not working until I reset the usage pattern

So far it has been working. It doesn't fail me on a daily basis, so I'll try to update the thread if it does happen again.

 

[Coogah]

Today it just went buggy on me again. I went outside, used the fingerprint sensor to unlock, and the brightness wouldn't adjust to the sunny condition. I tried using the slider and no luck either. So I went into the sensor app I downloaded and suddenly the brightness kicked up like opening the app somehow forced it to work. So I didn't have to restart the app this time in order to get it to work again. I also wasn't able to check the proximity sensor during a phone call because the app kickstarted things.

 

[B. Diddy]

Have you already tried the cache wipe that @chanchan05 suggested? It never hurts to try: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-36229. It would also be interesting to see if the problem goes away in Safe Mode: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-36242

 

[Coogah]

Haven't tried that yet. I was trying a suggestion at a time so I could try to narrow down the problem/solution. It's kind of a slow process because it doesn't happen all the time and I can't figure out what triggers it.

 

[Coogah]

So it happened again late last week. So I gave it a cache wipe. It happened again yesterday (first time after the wipe). Interestingly it happened last night and had persisted through a wireless charge. The screen also randomly came on during the night and wouldn't shut off until I shut it off. The proximity sensor is also affected again. I made a call on the phone and the screen wouldn't shut off when I put it near my ear. About 5 seconds after ending the call, the screen randomly came on again showing the dialer.

So I'm bringing it in today to a Verizon store and seeing what they will do as far as warranty replacement.