My Tab S8 screen goes black unexpectedly.

[pjtwyman]

My Samsung Tab S8 screen (purchased in June) goes black unexpectedly. This can occur at any time. Sometimes when in an app, other times in the home screen or app drawer. It occurs both using VPN and when not using it. I only noticed it happening frequently in the last few days so I deleted an soundbar app recently installed and disabled a new Applock app I had commenced using. This does not seem to have solved the problem.

When the screen goes black I try to use the fingerprint scanner to reawaken it but this is not immediately successful. Eventually the tablet lockscreen will appear and using my fingerprint I can access the tablet at the same point the screen went dark.

The timeout in the device display settings is 30 seconds but the screen is sleeping and locking me out well under 30 seconds. I should add there dropping of the device or exposure to water etc.

I would any advice that would help solve this problem.

 

[belodion]

Does this persist in Safe Mode, or is it too infrequent for Safe Mode to be worth trying?

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you use a case? If so, does this happen with the case off?

Are there any magnets near the device? I'm just wondering if something might be triggering the smartcover sensor, which is typically somewhere on the bezel.

 

[pjtwyman]

Thanks. I am using a case. The cover flap closes using a magnet so perhaps I will try without the cover and see if this helps.

PS
I haven't tried Safe Mode yet.

 

[B. Diddy]

Is it an official Samsung case? If not, then it's possible for a 3rd party manufacturer to use a magnet that's too strong, and can trigger the smartcover sensor when the flip cover is folded back behind the tablet.

 

[pjtwyman]

Sorry about the late reply. The cover is a third party one. The problem is persisting and happens while doing variety of tasks - streaming, emailing etc.

 

[mustang7757]

Sounds like one of 3rd party apps causing this , try eliminate couple at a time to see if it stops happening

 

[B. Diddy]

Sorry about the late reply. The cover is a third party one. The problem is persisting and happens while doing variety of tasks - streaming, emailing etc.

Sorry, can you clarify -- do you mean the problem is persisting even with the case off?

 

[pjtwyman]

For the last few days the problem has not occurred anywhere near as frequently as before. It will happen once or twice in a 2 hour period rather than 5 or 6 times.

I have not removed the cover partly because I worry about dropping or bumping this expensive device. Also as the frequency has significantly reduced with the cover on I am not sure I could make a judgement about the effect of it without using the device for several hours straight.

One point of interest - when the screen does black out I can usually wake up the lockscreen by abruptly moving the tablet and laying it flat. Then I access via the fingerprint scanner.

Thanks for your help

 

[J Dubbs]

For the last few days the problem has not occurred anywhere near as frequently as before. It will happen once or twice in a 2 hour period rather than 5 or 6 times.

I have not removed the cover partly because I worry about dropping or bumping this expensive device. Also as the frequency has significantly reduced with the cover on I am not sure I could make a judgement about the effect of it without using the device for several hours straight.

One point of interest - when the screen does black out I can usually wake up the lockscreen by abruptly moving the tablet and laying it flat. Then I access via the fingerprint scanner.

Thanks for your help

By abruptly moving it do you mean like activating lift to wake? Do you have lift to wake turned on? From that behavior it sounds like it's timing out from inactivity... that's why you see the lock screen when it comes back on. You really need to take the case off to rule that out. If it's not that it's something software related like an app, or a problem with the software itself. You may eventually need to factory reset to fix it, but I would try the other options first, unless you're okay with the way it's behaving now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[pjtwyman]

I looked through the settings and could not find anything resembling "lift to wake". The screen timeout is set at 2 minutes (it was 30 seconds) and it's not inactive for that length of time. I first noticed the problem while streaming when the screen should be automatically active for hours at a time.

When the black out does occur I would think that the screen would wake using the fingerprint scan if it was a matter of accidentally enabling a setting. It doesn't do this.

I suspect you're right about removing the case or a reset. The apps I am using are fairly mainstream -nothing suspect. I am not sure it's feasible to put the Tab into Safe mode and eliminate apps one by one.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[quantoo]

This might be a little late but I found the same thing happening and thought the case was suspect. As it turn out, all of the times that that was happening, the tab was kind of resting on the edge of my laptop, and the magnetic lock was getting activated. When I lift, it suddenly comes back to life. So most likely an issue with the magnetic lock getting activated.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

This might be a little late but I found the same thing happening and thought the case was suspect. As it turn out, all of the times that that was happening, the tab was kind of resting on the edge of my laptop, and the magnetic lock was getting activated. When I lift, it suddenly comes back to life. So most likely an issue with the magnetic lock getting activated.

Hope this helps someone.

I actually looked for this thread a couple of months ago but couldn't find it for some reason, as I was having the same issue and also solved it.

In my case, it was the magnet in the buckle of my watch that was triggering the tablet's screen off.

EDIT: Ah, that's why I couldn't find it, it's in General Help and I was looking in the Tab S8 forum!

 

[mustang7757]

[I moved this to the Tab s8 Forums]

 

[B. Diddy]

This might be a little late but I found the same thing happening and thought the case was suspect. As it turn out, all of the times that that was happening, the tab was kind of resting on the edge of my laptop, and the magnetic lock was getting activated. When I lift, it suddenly comes back to life. So most likely an issue with the magnetic lock getting activated.

Hope this helps someone.

Welcome to Android Central, and thanks for your input! Yeah, magnets can play heck with smartcover features ... :-\

 

[mustang7757]

This might be a little late but I found the same thing happening and thought the case was suspect. As it turn out, all of the times that that was happening, the tab was kind of resting on the edge of my laptop, and the magnetic lock was getting activated. When I lift, it suddenly comes back to life. So most likely an issue with the magnetic lock getting activated.

Hope this helps someone.

Welcome to AC!
Thanks for your tip