Does your phone screen flicker when you lower the brightness? This could make it unusable in the dark. Try restarting your phone, altering display settings such as blue light filters and adaptive brightness, clearing your cache, updating apps, or disabling developer options. Screen flickering at low brightness due to physical contact or exposure to water may need professional repair service.
8 Tips to Fix Phone Screen Flickering
Most smartphone users experience issues with their screens when the light is low. Such issues can strain your eyes and ruin the entire experience. Let’s consider all the potential solutions, starting with the simplest ones and moving to more complicated ones.
1. Restart Your Phone
Restarting your phone clears temporary memory and terminates all running processes. This can repair minor software glitches that are causing the screen to flicker.
- Press the power button until you see the power option.
- Tap “Restart.”
- If your phone doesn’t do anything, you might have to force it to restart by holding down the power and volume buttons together for 10 seconds.
- When you lower the screen brightness after your phone has restarted, check whether the flickering still occurs.
2. Update The Apps
Screen flickering may be only with a particular set of apps. It usually occurs when an app is not optimized for your device’s screen or contains bugs.
For Android:
- Open Google Play Store.
- Tap on the profile icon in the top-right corner.
- Choose “Manage apps & devices.”
- Check for any app updates and tap “Update” next to those that require it.
For iPhone:
- Open the App Store.
- Tap on your profile icon in the top-right corner.
- Scroll down to view available updates.
- Tap “Update All” or update specific apps as required.
Be very cautious when updating system apps such as your browser, keyboard, and any apps you notice flickering the most.
4. Uninstall The App (If Flickering Is Limited To A Single App)
If you observe that the screen flickers only when you are using a specific app, that app can be faulty rather than your phone’s screen.
- First, go to Settings > Apps > [App Name] > Storage > Clear Cache.
- If that doesn’t resolve it, you can try briefly uninstalling the app to check if it prevents it from flickering.
- You can always reinstall the app if you have to, or you can find other apps that do exactly the same but run more smoothly on your phone.
5. Disable Adaptive Brightness
Several phones have features called “adaptive brightness” that adjust the screen brightness according to the light around the user. The feature can, at times, cause the screen to flicker, particularly when there is not a lot of light.
- On most phones, you can disable this feature by going to Settings > Display > Adaptive Brightness (or Auto Brightness) and turning it off.
- After switching it off, adjust the brightness to a level you are comfortable with.
- See if the screen flickering has stopped once you switch off adaptive brightness.
Most users report that this simple adjustment ends the flickering permanently.
6. Disable Blue Light Filter Apps
Blue light filter apps from outside sources may not work with your phone’s built-in display options, which can make the screen flicker. These apps work by adding a filter on top of your screen, which can sometimes make your screen less stable.
- Check the downloaded apps and remove any blue light filters or screen-dimming apps you may have installed.
- Use your phone’s built-in blue light filter; it works better with the system.
Once you have uninstalled these applications, reboot your phone and check whether the flicker still appears in the dark.
7. Clear the Cache
Cached data may cause screen flickering. Clearing it may help to solve the problem.
For Android:
- Go to Settings > Storage > Cached Data and select Clear Cache.
- For individual apps, go to Settings > Apps > [App Name] > Storage > Clear Cache.
For iPhone:
- Clear Safari’s cache by going to Settings > Safari and selecting Clear History and Website Data.
- To clear the app cache, uninstall and reinstall the app.
- Restart your phone and see whether the flickering stops.
8. Turn Off Developer Options
If you have Developer Options enabled on your device, some advanced settings may make your screen perform poorly. You can disable some animation settings by going to Settings > System > Developer options (or Developer settings). You can also disable Developer options entirely by disabling it at the top of the screen. Settings like ‘Force GPU rendering’ or custom animation scales can cause flickering, especially in low light.
Conclusion
If your phone screen is flickering at low brightness, simple solutions such as restarting your phone, updating your apps, or turning off adaptive brightness can easily solve the problem. Clearing the cache or removing problematic apps can also resolve the issue. If the flickering continues even after these solutions, a hardware problem could be the reason, and it needs professional help. Need expert help? Contact Wireless Waves today for trusted screen repair services!