Samsung S22 Ultra - Dex messed up my phone screen!

[Relki]

Need help. Always wanted to try the Samsung Dex in previous phones but never got around to doing it. Got my T-Mobile Samsung S22 Ultra 256GB here in the US, plugged my phone into a USB-C to HDMI adapter, and plugged into my TV. Was working beautifully and pretty cool. All the apps are in little Windows, it was so cute. Unplugged my phone, and my phone won't switch back to a normal phone operations. It's stuck in with this super big huge fonts and icons and I can't click anything. I can't even reboot the phone since the reboot button is off screen somewhere and can't click it. I can't hard reset my phone by long pressing power button as that just prompts a screen that I can't see

Help please! I don't want to wait all day for my phone to die before I can use it again.

[Juli3n]

Can you not plug that TV back in and reboot via DEX?

[Juli3n · Accepted solution]

Otherwise hold down power + volume down buttons for 10 sec or so

[Relki]

Yea, that's the first thing I tried. But the output doesn't re-activate when I plug it in. Likely because the screen is locked now and I can't unlock it. The prompts for the fingerprint reader are off the screen too. I know where I'm suppose to put my thumb on, and it looks like it unlocks, but I can't tell because the fonts are so huge and icons so big and my touches aren't being registered. Since my post, my battery has only gone down 1%. This is going to take forever 😞

[Relki]

I'll try this if this works. I thought these phones had failsafes to stop people from rebooting your phone, especially in the case where it is stolen so you're phone can be tracked and recovered.

[Relki]

Thanks Voyager. I was able to reboot it. Now let's see if it goes back to normal screen. And I'll see if I can repro this. I connected dex wireless to a Samsung TV, then switch to hardline usb-c to hdmi adapter, that worked. Then opened PLEX app in a window, then opened a Netflix app in a window. Netflix didn't look like it supported window mode very well, then I signed in with Netflix since I hadn't signed in yet on this new phone, and then made it full screen. That's when the display went wonky and couldn't use the phone. Unplugging HDMI didn't restore the wonky super expanded fonts and icons.