"Screen overlay detected" - how to turn it off?

[snyberwiz]

My phone has suddenly started displaying a pop-up message saying: "Screen overlay detected To change this permission setting,you first have to turn off the screen overlay from Settings >Apps

On my phone, there seems to be no option in Settings to generally turn off screen overlay. I have switched ALL apps off individually manually including system apps but the error message still keeps appearing for many apps - including "Gallery".

Is there a sure fire method for resolving this?

 

[jasonandrews25788]

search for "Draw over Apps" in the settings app and disable every single app that has permission.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! See if this video helps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emkmnzxsgrY

 

[Thacy]

Screen overlay allows one app to display over the top of other apps. As jason said, there usually has an option "Draw over other apps" on Android phone. Actually, when the error appears, you should be able to tap to enter the page that shows all the apps which may need the permission to draw over other apps. A search on Settings is also very convenient (It seems that search function only exist on Android 5.0 and over).

Alternatively, you can uninstall the app that might request the permission and cause the problem.

 

[natehoy]

I have switched ALL apps off individually manually including system apps but the error message still keeps appearing for many apps - including "Gallery".

I just noticed this point in your post and wanted to touch on it briefly. "Gallery" (as in the Samsung Gallery app that allows you to look at photos) has never, to my knowledge, asked for "draw over other apps" permission.

If you have an app called "Gallery" that is looking for screen overlay permissions, I very much doubt it is the stock Samsung one - and it might be worth looking through your apps list to find anything else that is acting oddly like that.

EDIT: Never mind. Sorry for the confusion on my part. This was a false alarm. My bad.

 

[AXEL314]

I just noticed this point in your post and wanted to touch on it briefly. "Gallery" (as in the Samsung Gallery app that allows you to look at photos) has never, to my knowledge, asked for "draw over other apps" permission.

If you have an app called "Gallery" that is looking for screen overlay permissions, I very much doubt it is the stock Samsung one - and it might be worth looking through your apps list to find anything else that is acting oddly like that.

I'm not sure, but isn't "Apps that can appear on top" the same as screen overlay?

 

[natehoy]

I'm not sure, but isn't "Apps that can appear on top" the same as screen overlay?

My apologies, I stand corrected. I thought "draw on top" also appeared in the normal apps permissions. I went into this screen and Gallery is there, too. I will correct my original post. Thanks.

 

[MrMELTDOWN]

I had to fight with this exact same thing and most of my apps for turning off/on permissions were all greyed out. The way I resolved it was to reset app preferences to default. I turned them all off and everything almost normal. Sometimes I have to give s pen/note permission or my twilight app permission and such but only minor annoyances. Go to settings/applications/application manager/click 3 dot menu/reset app preverences and turn them all off. They were probably grayed out before resetting.

 

[MrMELTDOWN]

Apparently this issue was caused by Marshmallow update. 4/809679-image-download-problem.html

 

[MrMELTDOWN]

Tried to post link to the original thread I started when I had the same problem. No luck with that.

 

[B. Diddy]

Tried to post link to the original thread I started when I had the same problem. No luck with that.

Is it this one? https://forums.androidcentral.com/s...09679-image-download-problem.html#post5855200

Were you getting some kind of "Exceeded spam threshold" error from the Android Central forum software when you tried to post? That was happening to me as well, but it seems like it's cleared up now.

 

[MrMELTDOWN]

I couldn't figure out how to search for it so I scrolled to find it. Then apparently putting the link in a post failed me. I doubt if I "Exceeded Spam Threshold". I don't think I did it right. I'm right about reseting app preverences though. That will fix this person's issue.

 

[MrMELTDOWN]

And thanks B. Diddy, that was the exact thread.

 

[sophia779]

Hello,
There are few steps that should be followed to turn off screen overlay detected on Android.

Follow the below steps to switch off screen overlay on any Android devices:
• First, open Settings and scroll down to Apps section
• Now tap on Three Dots that you will get on right corner and select Draw over other Apps
• Again, click on three dots and choose Show System Apps
• Here you will get the list of the apps with system apps whose Screen Overlay is active
• At last, turn off the screen overlay of the entire apps