Black Screen S21 Ultra

[Shevek]

I have seen many posts about Galaxy phone screens going black randomly. But they all seem to involve the screen going black and not coming back on. Over the last several months my screen has been,  very randomly, going black for several seconds and then coming back on with no harm or disruption to the program I was using. Any ideas? I've been thinking that maybe it's planned obsolescence 😃

I have Android 14 installed. 

Thanks

[AndrewL]

@Shevek: Are you performing any actions to return power to the display, such as pressing the Side button, or double tapping the screen? Also, have you noticed if the issue occurs when using a particular app or feature? Have you tried increasing your screen timeout time via Settings > Display > Screen timeout, to see if this helps? 

[Shevek]

I probably have tapped the screen, but it doesn't do anything right away. The issue has been happening with different apps. My current timeout time is set to 5 minutes, so it's not timing out. 

[AndrewL · Accepted solution]

@Shevek: Due to the unexpected nature of the issue, I recommend restarting your phone in Safe mode, as this will disable all third party apps and help to determine if the problem is stemming from an external source. 

To enter Safe mode, press and hold the Power button until the 'Power off' prompt appears on the screen then release > Touch and hold Power off until the 'Safe mode' prompt appears then release > To confirm, tap Safe mode.

With Safe mode active, monitor the performance of the device for a few hours, based on the frequency that you encounter the issue. If you find that the display no longer turns black intermittently, then please restart your S21 Ultra as you would normally and uninstall any apps that you have added to the device since you first encountered the issue. It won't be possible to determine exactly which app is at fault, therefore I recommend approaching this via a process of elimination. 

[Shevek · Accepted solution]

I was afraid you were going to say that. That is the logical way to proceed. Just a royal pain! Iwas hoping this was something more widespread that had an easy solution. Thanks for your help! 

[Everlier]

With all the respect, recommending something that requires screen interaction to a person who's reporting that their screen doesn't work at all is not helpful

[AndrewL]

@Everlier: The steps provided to the OP were achievable, as they mentioned that the screen was only going blank temporarily.