What to do if the screen of your Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) started flickering [Troubleshooting Guide]

Screen flickering issues can be as minor as app problems or can be as complex as some hardware issues. We have received quite a lot of complaints from our readers who own the Samsung Galaxy A3 and among the problems that were reported was screen flickering. More often than not, this kind of issue is characterized by some kind of static on the display that may occur randomly or when something triggers it.

In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your phone that has a screen flickering issue. The subject of our troubleshooting is, of course, the Samsung Galaxy A3. Let us consider all possibilities and rule out each of them until we arrive at a point wherein it would be easier to pinpoint what the cause and/or the problem really is. So, if you own this phone and are currently bugged by the same problem, then continue reading below as this post may be able to help you fix it.

Now, before we jump to our troubleshooting guide, if even you found this post because you were trying to find a solution to different issue, then I suggest you visit our Galaxy A3 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most commonly reported issues with this device. Try to find a problem that’s similar with yours and use the solutions or workarounds we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and we will include your concern in our next posts.

How to troubleshoot your Galaxy A3 that has a screen flickering issue

The purpose of this troubleshooting guide is for us to know if this issue can be fixed on your end or if you need a technician to do some tests or closely inspect the hardware for some problems. But before we jump to the steps, here’s one of the problems we received from our readers that best describes this issue:

Problem: Hello droid guys. First of all, I want to thank you guys for taking time addressing the problems reported to you by your readers. This is the third time I asked for your help guys and the first couple of times I emailed you, there were for my Galaxy S3 and you addressed them effectively. I am hoping you can help me with my problem now, although I now have a different phone–it’s an A3. The problem is the screen seems to dim a little bit from time to time and there are also instances wherein it flickers for a few seconds. It’s time a 3-month old phone and I’m worried that it’s doing this. Can you please help me fix this problem. Thanks a lot.

Troubleshooting: We are glad we’ve helped you with your problems in the past. That’s the very purpose of this blog and we’re just proud and in one way or another, we can actually extend our support to our readers. Now, it’s time to go to our troubleshooting steps:

Step 1: Run your phone in Safe mode to see if the screen still flickers

It’s always possible that the one of the apps you installed is triggering the issue especially if the flickering problem occurs randomly. We have to rule out this possibility first because it will save you from a lot of trouble if we can fix this problem in this step alone. So, first, follow the steps on how to reboot your A3 in Safe mode below:

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’.

After successfully starting your phone up in Safe mode, continue using it to know if the screen still flickers in this mode because if so, then the third-party apps you installed on your phone are free from this liability. However, after several hours of using the phone in safe mode and the screen hasn’t flickered yet, it means there’s an app that’s causing the problem. You have to find out which of the apps triggers the issue and you should do a few procedures to see if you can fix the problem on your own. You may update apps that need to be updated, clear the cache and data of apps you suspect or even uninstall them if the previous procedure didn’t fix the problem.

How to update apps on your Galaxy A3

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 clear the apps cache and data in your Galaxy A3

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 pre-installed apps.
6. Tap Storage.
7. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
8. Tap Clear cache.

How to uninstall applications from  your Galaxy A3

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 2: Reboot your phone in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition

Assuming that screen of your phone still flickers in safe mode, it’s possible that the problem is caused by a glitch in the system or firmware. More often than not, glitches are caused by corrupt system caches.

Caches are temporary files created by the system itself to help make your phone’s performance better and buttery smooth. When deleted, they will automatically be replaced but when corrupted, the system will continue using them but there would be some functions that may not work as smoothly as before. In this case, you as the user should do something about it and the best thing you can actually do is delete all the caches so that all of them will be replaced since you don’t know which of them is corrupt. To do so, you have to reboot your phone in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition from there. Here’s how you do it:

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.

It will take a little longer for the phone restart after this procedure but rest assured everything is okay so just wait for it to become active. If the screen still flickers randomly after wiping the cache partition, then you really have to reset your phone to bring it back to its factory settings.

Step 3: Backup your files and data and then reset your Galaxy A3

You’ve already done the basic troubleshooting procedures above to no avail so it’s time to proceed to the most effective method in fixing almost all problems–master reset. However, you will lose all the files and data you stored in your phone’s internal storage during the process so if you have files you don’t want to lose, you should make a backup to your SD card or download them to your computer or laptop. After the backup, take a little time disabling the Factory Reset Protection (FRP) so that you won’t be locked out of your device after the reset.

How to disable FRP on your Galaxy A3

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.

How to reset your Samsung Galaxy A3 that has a screen flickering issue

There are actually two common ways to reset your phone and the first one is 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.

The second method to reset your phone is 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.

After this procedure and the problem still occurs, then you need to bring your phone to a shop and let the tech do some tests to determine if it’s really a problem with the display or not. But as far as troubleshooting is concerned, you’ve already done what you can to try and fix this problem to no avail. It’s time for professional help.

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