Methods to Fix Random Android Screen Flickering
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6 Easy Methods to Fix Random Android Screen Flickering in 2023

There’s a problem with Android screen flickering that seems to show up when least expected, and it’s too annoying to ignore. I’m talking about your screen flickering, flashing, or blinking in and out at seemingly random times. It’s more than just annoying, it gets in the way of doing anything on your Android, but the good news is you can fix random Android screen flickering.

Related: Cracked Or Broken Android Screen – How To Recover Photos, Contacts, and More

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
  2. Change developer options
  3. Manage phone brightness
  4. Rule out software problems
  5. Disable Night Light or blue light filter settings
  6. Clear the cache on your Android phone

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.

restart to fix random android screen flickering
Power off your phone for 15 seconds

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.

brightness-screen-flickering
Disable Adaptive Brightness

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.

Methods to Fix Random Android Screen Flickering
Android Screen Flickering

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

Methods to Fix Random Android Screen Flickering
Android Screen Flickering

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.

Methods to Fix Random Android Screen Flickering
Android Screen Flickering

Frequently Asked Questions on Android Screen Flickering

How do I fix random Android screen flickering?

Random Android screen flickering has some quick fixes, here are a few – restart your Android, change developer options, manage phone brightness, and rule out software problems.

Why does my Android screen keep flickering?

The main reason behind random Android screen flickering is an unexpected bug in the auto-brightness settings of the phone. Auto-brightness automatically adjusts the screen brightness relative to the ambient light.

Why is my phone jumping?

When the CPU and the GPU clash to display content on your Android screen, you might experience phone jumping or screen flickering. To fix the issue, disable the Hardware overlays option and setting GPU as your display operation.

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. 

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45 Comments

  1. I rarely find fixes to problems when I have them.

    I suppose the thing to do is inquire as to if there is a fix for a recent problem that has followed me through 3 different galaxy phones starting with 2 S4’s an amp and finally the S7 I am using at this moment.
    Photos ! Photos that look great when you take them then Start to become grey from the bottom of the image

    1. That is corruption, have you been using the same SD card? or saving to SD instead of internal? If saving to internal always try switching it to save to SD card, if using same SD card try a newer faster model.

    2. My phone issues in screenflickiring
      When i turn on my data a few minutes its start flickiring and when i turn low the brightness cant u help me

  2. I have an issue on my Trinity T101 where the screen flickers all different colors, any color that is on the page I am on. I have had this tablet for a long time, but it happened even the very first time I shut it on. Any help?

    1. There are a few things you can try to fix it. First, make sure that you have the most recent software update installed. If that doesn’t solve the problem, you can try booting in safe mode to see if there’s an app that’s causing the screen to flicker. If you’re still having problems, try a factory reset. If none of those things work, you may want to have your tablet professionally serviced. Is it still under warranty?

  3. Thank you so much for the tips. I tried first one didn’t work. Second tip fixed the issue once n for all.

  4. So I’ve done everything on this page except go to a store to fix it and it worked for awhile but now the bottom half of my phone screen is starting to flicker even worse

    1. Hi, Tyrik. Unfortunately, this is most likely a hardware issue and will need to be professionally serviced. Good luck!

  5. Hi,
    Thanks man! Saved some bucks. I just increased the brightness to maximum and the shaking, flickering is gone! God bless you!

  6. In the Android os mode while switching on the screen the display is automatically opening and closing several times without any touch.
    But in the safe mode it is working properly.
    And again I got to the Android os mode it is happening again the same thing.
    I am bit frightened .
    What to do for it ???

    1. Not to worry, Nishant! All you need to do is start deleting apps one by one, starting with the most recently installed before the problem starting and working backwards. Between uninstalling apps, check to see if the problem occurs. If so, then you can reinstall the app and move on to the next one. If not, you’ve located the app that caused the problem and can find an alternative. Good luck, and please let me know if you need any more assistance!

  7. Have tried all the steps but still yet the phone keep flickering.Have even changed the phone screen but that didn’t stop the flickering…Anyways thanks

    1. Hi! What model is your phone? This may be a known issue with your device. Did you change the screen yourself or did you take it to a professional?

  8. I have an LG Aristo 2 and about four or five times every hour it makes like these flickers across the screen and I have to press the power button to stop it but the phone is brand new and idk why it’s doing that I do FaceTime alot but when my phone gets too hot I put it against a cool surface to cool it down

    1. If your phone gets,to hot will that cause flickering? I turned off Developer and tried to stop the flickering. Do I need Developer on?

      I figure the battery might be getting hot. I have the back off now it’s not flickering now but my battery is not that hot now. Don’t know what is going to happen in an hour or so.

  9. None of those suggestions helped. I figured it out myself. When you have, in my case, an email that is flickering, put 2 fingers on the screen like you are trying to enlarge the picture. Enlarge it, then bring it right back to size and the flickering will stop. I have an LG G5

  10. My phone is the one with the brightness it just goes away when it lower and i have to lower it more and more what Do i do? My mom has the same phone but never tells me hers does it i dont have a car to drive to the phone place i could walk

    1. Hi Shelby. Did you turn off adaptive brightness? If the problem only occurs at a certain brightness setting, the easiest thing to do is to simply avoid that setting. Did you try the fixes in the article?

  11. Hi, I have an Android Z828 version 5.1.1 that keeps flickering. It seems to get worse the higher the brightness, and if I start watching videos. Tried the above options, but nothing’s working.

  12. I have a free Obama’s phone tracfone Alcatel model A574BL and the screen flickers so bad I cannot see my options, yesterday, I downloaded a app and it went all bad..please help

  13. Hi, I have aulfone armor 2 phone and on certain pictures the screen flashes black and goes to black only for the photo. It does not do this on all pictures.
    Phone is running Android 7 and manufacturer told me it cant be upgraded to Android 8 because a board is not compatible.
    You got any suggestions.

  14. My mobile display is flickering when I’m playing pubg…. But when I’m stop playing pubg then few minutes later my mobile display flickering was automatically stopped…. What is the actual couse of this….???

    1. same here dude,but I’m stop playing pubg it was same ,When i turn on my mobile it was flickering 5 times after there is no display.Can you help me if you are faced this problem?
      I’m allready tested diffrent Custom Rom ,same thing will be repeated(Flickering)

  15. i have a mobile of innjoo company……everything was well…..i was using instagram ….when all of a sudden it switched off itself….when i powered it on its screen was flickering ……i tried the steps mentioned above and it worked…..but i was using google and it powered off again ….and flickering started again

  16. Hello, Thanks for all the tips on curing Android screen flashing. I have a year old Lenovo 10” model Tablet. It’s been fine until this week when the screen on any App. started to ‘flash’ across until eventually the screen was just covered with horizontal flashing with no clear image. I’m in the process of doing all of your suggestions through ‘Developer’ in Settings. I’ve been doing the whole variety of tools and instr. you’ve suggested for the last 2 days. Each time within an hour of restarting the flashing has returned. Up until now! I’ve repeated all you instr. and reversed them. I’ve rebooted 3 or 4 times. I’ve even done 2 ‘Factory resets’ in the last 2 days. I’ll keep in touch and let you know if my Lenovo has finally accepted it’s instr. on a permanent basis.

  17. Hi Two, thanks for the article. I have a Ulefone Armour 2. It’s a very durable phone so I may have been casually a bit rough with it but there aren’t any other signs of damage. I’ve applied all suggestions in this article (to no avail). Problem: Recently my phone’s shown horizontal lines (and occasional flickering) through all incidences of orange (be it in an app, icon, image, anywhere). It occurs more in thumbnails, often when I open an image showing a lot of lines in the thumbnail, the lines either become much less or become non-existant (maybe the thumbnails use less colours and it’s only a very small range of orange colours affected). Changing the brightness of my phone hasn’t had any influence. Any ideas?

  18. Hi can you help me to solved my phone from flickering ? My phone is a samsung A50 2months old after 1month i noticed that my phone is flickering .last august 21 i already get my phone to service center in mall of asia so they repair my phone and then they said that my phone is already repair. After 1 week from the date of repair,my phone is flickering again ? is this normal ?

    1. My phone will flickering when the brightness is low and when i turned off the button it start tu flicker for a second. I try to the solution for brightness but my phone doesn’t have it. And may i know how to turn to safe mode?

    1. Hi Dawn,
      Thank you for that positive comment. We are glad that these methods were helpful to you. We hope you could share this with your friends on social who are encountering the same issue so it would help them too.

      Thank you once again and have a great day!

  19. Thanks. Have my problem solved on step no. 3.. im just increase my brightness a little since before have set it the lowest and its flickering.. now its gone and my batery draining also being slwoing down.. satisfied. Thank you anyway..

  20. Same here dude my letv 1s mobile was flickering while playing pubg ,but I’m stop playing pubg it was same ,When i turn on my mobile it was flickering 5 times after there is no display. After again i restart my mobile same thing will be happe. Can you help me if you are faced this problem?

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