this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
5 points (100.0% liked)

Galaxy Fold

209 readers
1 users here now

Discuss device issues, tips and tricks for your all your Galaxy Fold Devices.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Fog
5
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/galaxyfold
 

I've been having an issue with my Fold 4 recently where the cover screen will randomly stop recognizing touch input. The display still works fine, no flickering or odd artifacts, just the touch won't work.

It comes and goes. Sometimes it will work fine for weeks without issue, other times it will stop working for days on end, or even be in and out multiple times in a day. It seems to be software related and not hardware. Clearing the cache used to be a reliable fix, but at some point it stopped being a solution and now it's totally random whether it will help or not.

Restarting the phone or booting into Safe Mode has no effect. It always persists between restarts if the cache isn't cleared. To make things stranger, if I activate the rear camera selfie mode in the camera app, I am able to use the front touch screen in the camera app even when it isn't working otherwise. If I try to return to the launcher on the cover screen from the selfie camera with the phone still unfolded (so the internal display doesn't activate), touch input stops working again as soon as the camera app is closed.

I am completely stumped here. If it was an issue with an app that I installed, things should work fine in Safe Mode. If it was a hardware problem, I assume it wouldn't suddenly start working when using the cover screen for taking rear camera selfies and stop again immediately after leaving the camera. I can only guess that there's something wrong with a preinstalled app or whatever software Samsung wrote to control the multiple displays.

I'll take any suggestions at all if anyone has them...

Update for anyone else who might see this: I took the phone to BestBuy to get it repaired, but when they checked the IMEI, they told me it still had a few weeks of warranty left on it. So, after sending the phone off to Samsung for warranty repair, they just replaced it with a new one.

top 5 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] glarf 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That is... Really odd. But I have to ask, do you want to solve the problem or do you want your phone to work right? My experience with phones is that it is nearly impossible to get to a competent tech support person that can actually troubleshoot. I would consider getting evidence of the phone not working and getting it replaced under warranty. Otherwise prepare for wasting tons of your life trying to get a real fix.

Anecdotal but my fold 4 has never had touchscreen problems so far.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I've had the phone replaced under warranty once before for a different issue, but I've had the replacement for over a year now so I don't think it's still covered. I'll check, but I'm not confident I can get it replaced.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No luck on the warranty, it's expired and they won't do anything for me now. Guess I'm going to have to pay to get it repaired.

[–] glarf 2 points 1 year ago

I purchased Samsung care plus, I don't know if you can do that now or not, but it might be worth a look.

[–] cm0002 2 points 1 year ago

This sounds like a software problem 90%, but it is a very weird software problem.

Prob best option, go nuclear, re-flash the firmware from manufacturer image. Now I haven't had a Samsung in a LONG time (Last one was a Galaxy S4 lmao) due to Samsungs assholeness towards the tinkerer community.

But from what I remember you can use the ODIN PC software to flash firmware images. It's typically used to do root and/or recover from bricks, but as long as you use signed Samsung provided images it shouldn't trigger anything, but it will definitely ensure everything EVERYTHING gets a fresh factory version