There are a few different possible reasons for flickering Android screens, but each one has a fix. These steps won’t take long to get through and are repeatable if the problem ever happens again. With luck, after you’re done following these steps, you’ll never have an Android flickering screen problem again.
How to Fix Android Screen Flickering
Here are a few simple ways to fix random Android screen flickering.
1. Restart your Android
This is what I always say to do when troubleshooting anything, and there’s a good reason for it. A quick restart fixes most software problems with anything, not just Android devices. Power your Android down completely, and then wait at least fifteen seconds before powering it up again. If your screen flickering problem only happens occasionally, it’ll be hard to tell if this did the trick. Give the option below a shot, even if you think you’ve fixed the problem here.
2. Change developer options
After a quick restart, take a look at your Android’s developer options. You’ll find them near the bottom of your Android’s Settings menu. If you don’t have the option, you’ll have to grant yourself developer access. In your Settings, scroll down to About phone or About device. From there, go into that section, and scroll down to your build number. Tap it about six times or more, and you’ll get a message telling you that you now have developer access. Go back to your Settings menu, and you’ll now have a Developer options menu to use. Go into your new options and scroll all the way down to the Drawing section. If you have the Show surface updates switch enabled, disable it. Then go down one more section to Hardware-accelerated rendering until you see the option for Disable HW overlays. Enable the option so your Android only uses your GPU for screen compositing. Screen flickering happens when your Android switches between GPU and CPU for the same job, but enabling this eliminates the choice, and gets rid of the screen flickering.
3. Manage phone brightness
If your screen is still flickering, take a look at your brightness settings.You’ll find them under your Display settings. First things first: disable auto-brightness correction or adjusting. Next, if you experience the screen flickering with low brightness, use a higher setting, and vice versa. You’ll start to notice a difference immediately. Either the screen flickering will disappear, or it’ll become more noticeable, meaning your problem is going to need more work.
4. Rule-out software problems
Do some troubleshooting to make sure the screen flickering is a problem with your Android’s software, instead of hardware. I suggest you read our article on what you need to do to start troubleshooting, so please take a look. If the screen flickering is still observable after that, there isn’t much more you can do on your own. Consult your warranty, or take it in for repairs at a local store to see what you can do for a replacement or a fix. If this is a known problem for your Android model, you’ll need specific help.
5. Disable Night Light or blue light filter settings
Screen flickering could be caused by Android’s Night Light setting or Samsung’s Blue Light filter. Your eyes may become fatigued from staring at smartphone screens all day and night. Furthermore, the brightness of a smartphone screen might make it difficult to fall asleep and potentially influence sleep quality. Stock Night Light is a feature on Android smartphones that is aimed to alleviate eye strain and interfere less with sleep. It also makes reading in low light more comfortable, if that’s how you want to unwind. Samsung Android phones include a blue light filter instead of the Night Light function. Samsung’s Night Mode works similarly to Android’s dark mode, which changes the backdrop colour from white to black with white text.
How to Turn the Android Night Light Off
Step 1: Go to Settings > Display > Night Light. Step 2: Adjust the schedule the way you want just by entering your start time and end time and click “ Turn off now”.
How to Turn off the Samsung’s Blue Light Filter
Step 1: On your Samsung Galaxy, go to Settings > Display Step 2: From this screen, you can toggle it on and off, or tap the Blue light filter to see more settings.
6. Clear the cache on your Android phone
Clearing the cache can solve many problems, including display issues. You can clear the cache by going to Settings > Apps. Tap and app, then tap Storage > Clear Cache. The quickest way to deal with the device cache before Oreo (Android version 8) is to erase it all at once. In later versions, Google disabled this feature. Here’s how to remove the full device cache if you’re still on an older version: Tap Settings > Storage > Devices (or similar) > Cached data > Clear cached data > OK.
Android Screen Flickering-Quick fixes
Unless faulty or damaged hardware is causing the problem, any of the above steps will stop your Android screen flickering, hopefully once-and-for-all. It’s one of the more annoying problems on Android but thankfully it’s easy enough to fix with enough time and patience. If you have any questions about screen flickering or anything else, leave a comment below, and we’ll do our best to help.
