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How to fix Samsung Galaxy J5 with screen flickering issues [Troubleshooting Guide]

The #Samsung Galaxy #J5 is one of the mid-range devices with pretty decent technical specifications and got positive reviews from its owners. While the Galaxy J5 2017 edition is yet to be released, the 2015 and 2016 editions have already received updates and most of them are now running Android 6 Marshmallow.

Some of our readers who own this device, however, contacted us regarding screen flickering issues they’ve encountered. Many of them said the problem started shortly after an update while others reported theirs started to show the problem without apparent reason at all.

Screen flickering issues vary as some may be due to some apps while other cases might be due to firmware and hardware glitches or problems. We won’t know the reason why this issue occurs unless we do some basic troubleshooting that might point us into the right direction. So, in this post, I will walk you through is trying to fix your J5 that has a screen flickering issue.

But before we jump right into our troubleshooting, if you have other issues with your phone, make sure you drop by our troubleshooting page for we have already addressed a lot of issues with this device. Try to find problems that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, contact us by filling up our Android issues questionnaire.

Troubleshooting Galaxy J5 with its screen flickering

The purpose of this troubleshooting guide is for us to know what the real problem with your phone is, what causes it and what needs to be done to fix it. While we always want to help our readers out with their problems, there are issues that we cannot fix especially ones that are caused by hardware problems. But don’t let that stop you from troubleshooting but before we jump to our procedure, here’s one of the messages we received from our readers that best describes this issue:

Problem: Hi guys. I have the Galaxy J5 phone and while everything in it is working fine, it’s display seems to have some kind of static and there are times when it changes brightness and color. It just started to happen about a week ago and I have no single clue as to what caused it. If you guys can look into this problem for me, that would be great. Thanks.

Troubleshooting: Please go through the steps below to try and fix the screen flickering issue with your Galaxy J5 and while we suggest procedures that cannot potentially harm your phone, things may still happen so proceed at your own risk.

Step 1: Perform the battery pull procedure to soft reset your phone

I understand your phone still works perfectly fine except that its display is flickering. We have to determine if this problem is a minor one or a sign that the display panel itself is failing and the first thing that you should do is to perform a soft reset. This kind of reset actually just refreshes your phone’s memory but none of your files and data will be deleted. To do this, just remove or pull the battery out of your phone while it’s still powered on.

In so doing, the phone will naturally turn off as the main power source is disconnected but it also drains stored electricity. And while the phone is turned off, press and hold the Power key for a minute to totally drain electricity from capacitors and chips. After which, replace the battery and secure it with the back cover and then turn the phone back on. Observe the phone for any signs of screen flickering and if it remained, then move on to the next step.

Step 2: Find out if the problem is caused by a third-party app

There are apps that can cause this kind of problem so we need to rule out this possibility first before we proceed with our troubleshooting. The next procedure will actually tell us if the problem is due to some of your downloaded apps because if so, then we need to find the culprits and uninstall them one by one until the issue is fixed. To do that, we just need to boot the phone in safe mode and this is how you do it:

  1. Turn your Galaxy J5 off.
  2. Press and hold both the Volume Down button and the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung logo displays, release the Power key but continue holding down the Volume Down button.
  4. Allow the phone to start up while holding down the Volume Down button; it may take a few seconds to complete.
  5. When the phone reaches the home screen and you can see “Safe mode” in the lower left corner of the screen, then it’s successful. Otherwise, repeat the steps from the top.

Alternatively, you can just do these steps if you don’t want to turn the phone off just to start in up again:

  1. Press the Power key to display power options on the screen.
  2. Touch and hold “Power off” option until “Restart to safe mode” prompt appears, then release.
  3. Tap Restart.
  4. The restart process may take up to 45 seconds to complete.
  5. Upon restart, Safe mode appears in the lower-left of the unlock/home screen.

This procedure won’t fix the problem but will give you an idea if third-party apps have something to do with the flickering. So, once the phone is in this state, observe closely for signs of screen flickering and if it still happens, then move on to the next step. Otherwise, find the apps that may have something to do with it and uninstall them one by one. Here’s how you uninstall apps on your Galaxy J5:

  1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Applications.
  4. Tap Application manager.
  5. Tap the application in question.
  6. Tap Uninstall.
  7. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

Step 3: Delete the system cache as firmware updates may have corrupted some of them

There have been firmware updates that were rolled out since J5 2015 and it’s possible one of those updates corrupted some of the system caches and resulted to this problem and any other that are yet to be discovered. We need to rule this possibility out by deleting all the system caches at once so that they will be replaced with new ones. To do so, here’s what you need to do:

  1. Turn off your Galaxy J5.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
  4. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
  6. Press the Power key to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘yes’ and press the Power key to select.
  8. When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.
  10. It will take a little longer for the phone to reboot after this procedure but wait until it reaches the home screen before using it.

If the flickering still remains after this, then you have no other choice but to reset your phone.

Step 4: Backup your files and data and then reset your Galaxy J5

After doing the first three steps and the screen flickering issue isn’t fixed, then you have to rule out the possibility that it’s a firmware issue and you can do that by resetting your phone. Of course, all your files and data will be lost when you do that so make sure you backup everything you don’t want to lose. After the backup, disable the anti-theft feature of your phone by doing these steps:

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Accounts.
  4. Tap Google.
  5. Tap your Google ID email address. If you have multiple accounts setup, you will need to repeat these steps for each account.
  6. Tap More.
  7. Tap Remove account.
  8. Tap REMOVE ACCOUNT.

After this, follow these steps to do the master reset:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
  4. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
  6. Press Power button to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Or, you can just reset your phone through the settings menu:

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Backup and reset.
  4. If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  5. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  6. Tap Factory data reset.
  7. Tap Reset device.
  8. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your PIN or password.
  9. Tap Continue.
  10. Tap Delete all.

If the problem still persists after this and you can’t take to see your phone with its screen flickering from time to time, then you must send it in for checkup and repair as it might be an issue with the hardware.

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