What to do with your Samsung Galaxy J5 with screen flickering issue [Troubleshooting Guide]

The screen flickering issue with your Samsung Galaxy J5 might be due to a firmware or hardware problem. We really can’t pinpoint what the cause is or know what the problem is all about until we troubleshoot your phone. We have received quite a lot of complaints from our readers who reportedly experienced having the screen with their phones flicker at some point but it doesn’t necessarily mean all of those cases belong to the screen flickering issue.

There are times when the screen flickers when you’re opening an app or using a native function. If the flickering only happens while you’re using a specific app, then you might be facing an app problem and not necessarily a screen flickering issue. We will walk you through in troubleshooting your Galaxy J5 that’s plagued with this problem. Let’s try to look into every possibility and rule them out one by one until the issue is fixed. So, if you’re one of the J5 owners that’s experiencing this problem, then read on as we might be able to help you.

Before anything else though, if you have other issues with your device, then visit our Galaxy J5 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed several common problems with this phone. Odds are that there are already existing solutions to your problems so just take time finding issues that are similar with yours. If you can’t find one or if you need further assistance, feel free to contact us by completing our Android issues questionnaire. Please provide us with as much information as possible so that it would also be easier for us to troubleshoot the problem. Don’t worry as we offer this service for free, so all you have to do is give us sufficient information about the problem.

Step-by-step guide to troubleshooting Galaxy J5 with screen flickering issue

It is important that we know what this problem is all about so that we can try to find a solution that might just fix it. So, go through the steps below and see if you can solve this problem without any help from a tech but before that, here’s one problem we received from our reader…

Problem: Hello guys. I’m not sure if you have already encountered this problem but the screen of my Galaxy J5 changes brightness from time to time but it happens in a split second; the display dims then goes back to original brightness then dims again. There are also times when it displays some kind of static with lines running from the bottom to the top of the screen. I don’t have a clue why this is happening so if you could provide some steps on how to fix it, that would be great.

Troubleshooting: The course of our troubleshooting would be to rule out the possibility that this problem is caused by some app or firmware related issues. If at the end of our troubleshooting the flickering never stops, then we can say it’s a hardware problem and we can only do so much about it considering the fact that we might void the warranty of your phone just by unscrewing one of its screws. Now, here’s what you need to do on your end…

Step 1: Perform the battery pull procedure

This is a very effective method to address minor firmware and hardware related glitches. Take note that glitches happen all the time and flickering screen is just one of its symptoms. This procedure is safe for your phone and data and the only thing that might be changed after this is the time and date. Here’s how you do it…

1. Remove the back cover.
2. Pull the battery out.
3. Press and hold the Power key for a minute or two.
4. Place the battery back in.
5. Attach the back cover.
6. Turn your phone on.

Now observe to know if the screen is still flickering or not.

Step 2: Observe your phone in Safe mode

Starting your phone up in safe mode alone doesn’t fix the issue but it will surely give you an idea what’s causing it. Assuming the problem is due to a third-party app, then the screen won’t be flickering while your phone is in safe mode. While in this environment, all third-party apps are temporarily disabled so you can actually isolate the problem and do necessary procedures to fix it. Now, here’s how you boot your phone up in safe mode:

1. Turn the device off.
2. Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
3. When ‘SAMSUNG’ appears on the screen, release the Power key.
4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
7. Release the Volume down key when you see ‘Safe Mode’.

Assuming the display doesn’t flicker in this mode, then move on to the next step, otherwise, skip to step 4.

Step 3: Find the app that’s causing the problem and then reset, uninstall it

The challenging part in this step is finding the app that’s actually causing the problem especially if you’ve already installed a lot of applications. But start from apps you installed prior to the problem and deal with one app at a time. If you already have a suspect, try to reset it by clearing its cache and data, then try to update apps that need to be updated and lastly, uninstall the app that you think is causing the problem.

How to clear app cache and data on Galaxy J5

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Applications.
4. Tap Application manager.
5. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap MORE > Show system apps to display preinstalled apps.
6. Tap Storage.
7. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
8. Tap Clear cache.

How to update applications on Galaxy J5

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Play Store.
3. Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu key, tap Settings, and then tap Auto-update apps to select the check box.
4. Choose one of the following options:
   • Tap Update [xx] to update all applications with updates available.
   • Tap an individual application and then tap Update to update a single application.

How to uninstall apps from 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 desired application
6. Tap Uninstall.
7. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

Step 4: Delete all system caches so they’ll be replaced

If the phone still flickers in safe mode and if you recently updated it, then it’s very much possible that the some corrupt caches are causing the problem. To rule this possibility out, you need to boot your phone up in Recovery mode and then wipe the cache partition.

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 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.

If the problem still persists after this, move on to the next step.

Step 5: Backup your files and data and reset your phone

After doing all the steps above and your phone’s screen is still flickering, then you need to reset your phone to rule out the possibility that the problem is due to a firmware issue. This is also the last troubleshooting procedure you have to do because if the problem still occurs after this, then you really have to let the tech handle it for you if you can’t stand the flickering.

Before the reset, make sure you backup your files and data as they will be deleted, then disable the Factory Reset Protection so you won’t be locked out of your phone after the reset.

How to disable Factory Reset Protection on Galaxy J5

To turn off the device anti-theft, you will have to sign out of your Google ID on the device and elect to not sign in with a Google ID into any Google services. Once you sign in with a Google ID to any service and setup a PIN, password or fingerprint lock, you are automatically turning on anti-theft. To sign out of your Google ID, follow 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.

Two ways to reset your Samsung Galaxy J5

This is how you reset your phone through the Recovery mode…

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.

And this is how to reset it from 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.

I hope this troubleshooting guide helps.

Connect with us

We are always open to your problems, questions and suggestions, so feel free to contact us by filling up this form. This is a free service we offer and we won’t charge you a penny for it. But please note that we receive hundreds of emails every day and it’s impossible for us to respond to every single one of them. But rest assured we read every message we receive. For those whom we’ve helped, please spread the word by sharing our posts to your friends or by simply liking our Facebook and Google+ page or follow us on Twitter.