How to Fix a Glitching Phone? Easy Ways

Only a few things are more annoying than a glitching smartphone screen. You don’t want to come across that while enjoying a film or texting someone. While a glitching screen may cause panic initially, you can solve the problem in just a few steps, but you must follow the suitable methods.

In this guide, I have discussed the common reasons and solutions for glitching phone screens.

Fixing A Glitching Phone Screen: An Overview

Glitching on a phone screen may appear due to hardware and software components. To solve the software issue, you can try restarting and resetting the device. Turning off some display features may also help. To fix hardware issues, you need technical support.

What is Glitching on a Phone?

A glitching phone screen refers to a phone display that is behaving abnormally. It could manifest in different ways. It could be a series of lines across the screen or many dots. But the central idea is that when your device is glitching, you won’t be able to see the screen or use it.

You mustn’t confuse a glitch with a line that appears on the screen. Similarly, a dot or a white spot on the screen differs. Instead, when we talk about glitching, we are talking about something that affects the entire display, or at least 50%. You can find an example of a glitching screen below.

If your phone screen faces a similar issue, you can start looking for the reasons and solutions.

Common Reasons for a Glitching Phone

I will briefly summarize common reasons for a glitching phone screen.

• Water damage is a common reason because moisture can affect the display panel.
• Similarly, the display could be damaged if the phone has been dropped or hit somewhere strong.
• Some power issues could also cause screen glitching.
• Software glitches in a particular application or the OS can create a glitching screen.
• On some devices, hardware wear and tear can also cause glitching.
• It could also be that your device has a manufacturing defect.
• Your phone may show a screen glitch if it does not have sufficient CPU resources to do the visuals.

As you can guess, one can only solve a few of these problems. For instance, if water damage has caused the glitching screen, you are better off seeking professional help.

But if you feel that the glitch happened suddenly and happens when you open a particular app or do something specific, you should try the solutions I have covered below.

Solutions to Fix a Glitching Phone

For obvious reasons, the solutions I have given below will only address software-based issues.

So, if you found the glitch right after a drop, you should better get technical support.

#1 Reopen the App/Restart the Phone

It is essential to know when the glitch comes up.

If the glitch happens when you launch a particular app, the issue is with the application itself. So, as the first step, you should close the application and reopen it to see if the problem goes away.

However, the issue is with the phone itself if the glitch is over the entire phone screen. Then again, the first step should be to restart your phone. You can do it by holding the power and volume down buttons.

If the glitch was temporary, it should go away after the restart.

#2 Update the Apps/Software

As I said, the problem could be caused by the application or the phone software itself. Therefore, you have to follow two steps.

If the glitch happens only when the app is open, you should update the application to the latest version. The lack of support from the developers could lead to screen glitches, among other problems.

I have had bad experiences with glitching while using poorly developed applications. Sometimes, developers do not pay much attention to the responsiveness of the application, and it may cause a glitching effect on your screen. In those cases, the best thing you can do is to uninstall the particular app.

However, as far as the device is concerned, to remove the glitch, you should update the phone software to the latest version.

It is also important to check whether you started seeing this glitch right after a software update. Then, it could be a software issue, and your phone manufacturer would have already released a patch.

#3 Modify Some Display Features

Your Android smartphone and iPhone are packed with many display-optimizing features.

One of these features could be adjusting the brightness automatically while one is responsible for color correction. If these features are not functioning correctly, you may see glitches on your smartphone screen.

Therefore, before taking advanced steps, I recommend turning off some display features to see if it changes the situation.

First, you can try turning off Auto Brightness. This feature works by analyzing the input from light sensors. If a faulty sensor is causing the glitches, this step will solve the issue.

You should also try turning off True Tone and Night Shift on your iPhone. These features usually work great, but you should consider all possibilities.

If you have an Android smartphone with a high screen refresh rate, you should consider changing it back to 60Hz. Sometimes, smartphones may glitch while rendering content at higher refresh rates.

You can go a step further on Android by turning off HW overlays. This option is available using System > Developer Options > Disable HW overlays.

I also suggest resetting all the settings back to the factory state. This is different from factory resetting your smartphone. In this case, all your preferences in the settings part will be forgotten. Instead, the basic settings will be enabled.

#4 Use Safe Mode

Depending on your smartphone, there would be a Safe Boot mode.

This mode is designed to run your smartphone without interference from the third-party apps you have installed. So, if you think the glitch is because of an app, you should try using the safe mode.

If you have a Samsung smartphone, you can also enable some Knox security features. This way, you can determine whether the software is the issue.

#5 Reset Your Smartphone

If the solution mentioned above has not fixed the glitching problem on your smartphone, you have to take an advanced step.

This one is to reset your phone to the factory state. You can do it by going to Settings > Reset.

Of course, this process will remove all the data you have stored on the device, but you don’t have to worry as long as you have a backup.

On the bright side, when you reboot the system after a factory reset, there won’t be any interfering apps. If the issue is related to Android and the software you have on Android, this reset process will help you.

#6 Try System Recovery

Did this glitching start when you were updating the software?

If so, a problem with the software update could be responsible for the issue.

At this point, your only option is to enable System Recovery. This is available on Android and iOS.

• To do system recovery on Android, you can boot your device into recovery mode and flash the system to restore it to the factory state.
• On iOS, however, you might need a third-party app to assist you with the iOS system recovery process.

#7 Get Professional Support

You have hit a dead end if your phone glitches even after system recovery. That is, you have to stop trying methods on your own. At this point, you can take the device to a professional technician or the manufacturer if your device is under warranty.

In most cases, if there is water damage or other hardware issues, you must replace the affected parts. I will share my take here.

If you want the best smartphone experience, you should get the replacement part from the official maker. I have seen many people going for cheap repairs and having to spend more money.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

I honestly believe you gathered some ideas on how to fix a glitching phone. I know there aren’t universal answers, and there isn’t much we can do if your phone has hardware issues.

However, when it comes to glitching on a phone, it is difficult to understand whether the issue is software-based or hardware-based.

Therefore, you can try the methods I suggested earlier to skip visiting the repair shop.