Quite a large number of phone users encounter a problem when During a call the phone screen goes blank, and nothing can be done. At this moment, the buttons do not work, including the power button, the sensor does not respond to any actions, and the only way to return everything to normal is for the other end to pick up or hang up.
In most cases, this problem is related to the proximity sensor. But there can be quite a lot of problems with it.
I came across such problems, I didn’t really read about them until I had such a problem myself, twice. For the first time, this problem appeared with a Chinese copy of Samsung S5. Second time with Xiaomi Mi4. No, that's not the point Chinese phones, it just happened that way for me. When I looked for information on why my screen goes blank during a call, I did not find such problems with Chinese replicas. As a rule these were factory Samsung, HTC, Nokia, and rarely Sony. I did not find any mention of the screen going dark during a call on Chinese phones. And this really confused me, since many people advised flashing the device, but it’s difficult to flash a Chinese device.
However, after moving from phone user forums to technical forums, I concluded that the problem was not with the firmware, but with the proximity sensor. A proximity sensor is installed on any modern phone. Its main function is that when it detects obstacles at a certain distance (the obstacle is your cheek), it turns off the screen to save energy, and also locks the buttons so that during a conversation you do not accidentally press unnecessary buttons with your cheek or fingers. After you have talked and removed the phone from your ear, the sensor detects that there are no obstacles and unlocks the phone for further use. This is if in simple words. And when any problems happen with the proximity sensor, the screen goes blank during a call and you can’t do anything.
Typically, such problems happen for several reasons.
The first reason is due to repaired phones. Non-certified centers, and many private traders, forget to put the elastic band on the sensor, or put it on crookedly, as a result of which, in the first option, the sensor dangles freely and ends up in dead zones under the plastic; in the second case, the rubber band blocks the proximity sensor. In these cases, the best option is to take the phone back to the would-be repairman and force him to do everything right. You can try to disassemble it yourself, but I’m not a fan of disassembling devices that don’t have bolts.
The second reason is that the glass near the proximity sensor does not fit tightly. As a result, the sensor “hits” the edge of the glass, and seeing an “obstacle” blocks the system. This situation can occur at any time, starting from the purchase of a phone, during its operation, and ending with a fall or shock. This was the problem in Chinese replica Samsung S5. I was advised to take it to a workshop, where they would solder the tap to the body for 1000 rubles. This is exactly what my friend did, with the real S5 (it turns out that this model has this common problem), but they warned that after this the phone will not be presentable, but the screen will no longer go dark during a call. The basis of the method is that the glass is pressed, the plastic above it is melted with a soldering iron, and the plastic, having melted, creeps onto the glass. As you understand, after this there will be a “scar” on the phone. This method did not suit me, and I decided to try another one, which cost me 76 rubles. I just bought Super Moment. I took plastic from the Super Moment packaging, plastic is needed so as not to absorb glue. I dropped a drop of glue onto the cardboard from the same package of glue. After that. I touched this drop with plastic. There is a small amount of glue left on the plastic. after that, I ran this part of the plastic along the protruding rear part of the glass and pressed it. After a minute, he let go and checked his phone. The phone worked great and the screen stopped going dark during a call. All this can be seen in the video at the end of the article.
Why did I do this particular algorithm? Just the laws of chemistry and physics, as well as the desire not to spoil appearance devices. If I had used paper or cardboard, the glue would have soaked in and I would have barely applied anything. If I dropped a drop on the place where the glass leaves the body, the drop would seep under the glass, where it could stain or glue the internal parts, and from above it would spread, albeit over a small part of the glass. And this is a “blot” that you cannot get rid of, and accordingly, the appearance is ruined. Also, when pressing, all the excess glue would have to go somewhere, and this is only the inner part, or the top part of the glass. In my version, the plastic from the packaging took exactly as much glue as I touched. Clay took up the area that should have been occupied. After I began to lead, the end of the glass took only as much glue as the area of this glass could accommodate. By analogy with water, when you put something under a stream from a faucet, and the water begins to flow exactly over this area (of course, if you have not turned on the full pressure). Therefore, the glass took exactly as much glue as was enough for its area, and nothing extra.
We will talk about the third option of the screen going blank during a call in the next article, using Xiaomi Mi4 as an example.
On your Android, when you make a call, the screen immediately goes blank and turns black? If so, then the problem is most likely with the proximity sensor on the phone.
This problem can appear in any phone, for example, sony xperia, mi xiaomi, lumia, compact, samsung, asus, xiaomi xiaomi, but it has been noticed that most often the screen goes blank on sony z3.
Moreover, it happens that it goes out and does not turn on - this is no longer a joke. If this happens when answering a call or making an outgoing call, then most often the culprit is the proximity sensor.
What is a sensor and how does it work in Android? The proximity sensor has several functions, but the most important task is to automatically dim and illuminate the display during a voice call.
This is done by detecting what is near your face and your phone. When the phone gets close to your ear, the sensor detects your head and the screen turns off to avoid draining the battery and to prevent you from accidentally disconnecting your call.
In turn, when you remove the phone from your ear, the screen lights up so you can mute the call or use other functions (numeric keypad, switch the conversation to speaker, etc.).
When it comes to damage to the proximity sensor, the mechanism described above stops working, so there is no way for the phone to infer whether it is currently near a person.
The problem with the proximity sensor usually manifests itself in the fact that the screen immediately turns off during a call and lights up only after a call, or vice versa - the screen does not turn off even if you put it to your face during a call.
Causes of problems with a contactless sensor when the screen goes blank during a call
A problem with the sensor can occur as in software, and in purely mechanical damage.
If the problem is software related, you can often fix it yourself.
For example, by recalibrating the sensor, by restoring the phone to factory settings, or by reinstalling the software.
If the problem was the result of, for example, a phone falling, then there was probably mechanical damage to the sensor.
This often also happens when there is a “film separation” from the top of the case to the bottom of the phone (particularly on Sony Xperia).
Of course, purely mechanical problems are best resolved by sending the equipment for service, because replacing the sensor is not easy.
The first solution when the phone screen goes blank when there is an incoming call is to remove the film or glass
First, remove the film or tempered glass from your phone screen. In some smartphones, due to their design, they may cover the sensor and cause an erroneous detection distance.
Very often, the cause of problems with the proximity sensor can also be glass - in stores you can find tons of very cheap, low-quality products that are not reliable.
By tearing off the tempered glass, you can restore the normal functioning of the sensor.
Of course, for some this may seem funny, but Uncle Google or Yandex will give you hundreds of records from their “warehouse”, where users complain about problems with the proximity sensor after gluing poor quality glass.
Solution two if the phone screen goes blank when answering a call - calibration
Sometimes the problem is a software update, for example, which for some reason causes the proximity sensor to deregulate.
In this case, you can use free application, which, when installed in several stages, can calibrate the sensor, for example, Proximity Sensor Reset.
Using it is not difficult - a wizard will guide you through the entire process, and at the end you must confirm the new calibration, which will reboot the phone.
After this, you can see if the calibration helped and now the phone screen does not go dark during a call.
Solution three when the phone screen goes blank during an outgoing call - restore factory settings
Another option that you can try is to restore your phone to factory settings.
Unfortunately, this option deletes all data from the phone, so be sure to copy files, photos, music, videos, contacts, SMS and others to a safe place.
Then go to Settings> Backup and reset" and select "Factory settings".
Depending on the brand and installed version The software factory settings may also be located elsewhere.
After confirmation, the phone will reboot and all data will be deleted and the device settings will be reset to factory defaults.
When you turn on the phone for the first time, you need to re-enter the settings (select a language, enter your Google account etc.).
After completing the operation, make sure that the screen works correctly during a call and does not go dark.
Solution four if the phone screen goes blank - turn off the sensor
If your phone is no longer under warranty and all other solutions have failed, then the sensor is likely physically damaged, causing the screen to go blank as soon as a call starts.
If you don't want to spend money on maintenance, then disable turning off the screen during a call.
As a result, the screen will remain constantly lit during a call, and you can use the on-screen buttons to activate speakerphone or remove the keyboard.
The disadvantage of this solution is that when we talk to the illuminated screen, we may accidentally press the buttons.
In order to be able to disable the proximity sensor, you will need to install a special Xposed Framework module.
To do this, you need to get ROOT() to get administrative privileges,
Phone screen still goes blank - some proven tips
Some owners were helped by the option of cleaning the speaker mesh. Sometimes there is a motion sensor there. Take a small brush and carefully clean everything - maybe it will help you too
Judging by the reviews, most often the screen goes blank when making calls to sony phone z3 compact. Many people managed to solve this problem by pressing on the upper right corner (the sensor should be located there).
There are cases that on the Xperia Z3, when you press hard on the top of the screen, you can even hear a click inside and the problem disappears.
Some smartphones have an intelligent processing option in the call settings - try turning it off if you find it.
On Sony phones, very often the screen peels off from the body and this problem arises - careful gluing solves it.
You can also disable the incall ui application in the application settings. If this does not help, then in the notification settings, try turning on notifications for this application.
Of course, other reasons cannot be ruled out, but I’ll leave it at that. As they say, I helped as much as I could. Good luck.
Hi all! The problem voiced in the title of the article appears on Apple phones with enviable frequency. The last time I remember was in 2014. And now we are stepping on the same rake again. What is its essence? Yes, everything is very simple...
During incoming call on iPhone, the phone screen should light up and prompt you to answer the call. Yes, sometimes you can’t “pick up the phone” the first time and the display doesn’t respond (), but it should show something!
However, after a recent firmware update, something strange happens periodically. The iPhone rings and vibrates, but its screen is black and there is no way to answer the call. On click Home buttons no reaction either. And this is terribly annoying - after all, no information is visible!
Moreover, at first glance, it is impossible to identify a pattern - it may be possible to receive calls “normally” for a week, and then “freeze” several times during the day with a black screen when receiving incoming calls.
The most important. With a high probability, this problem has nothing to do with hardware or anything else mechanical damage. The same proximity sensor (which one might think was faulty) starts to work only after the call is answered. But we can’t answer - our screen doesn’t even light up. So the reason is most likely in the software or some external factors. And this is good.
And now, no less important, is how to deal with all this. Let's start with what Apple technical support advises. And she, judging by messages on various resources, recommends:
- through , do not restore from backup copy and observe the behavior of the device. In principle, this is their standard recommendation.
- Visit authorized service center. The most interesting thing is that I came across a case where a person had their phone replaced under warranty due to a similar problem. I don’t know whether it was only the black screen during a call that caused the replacement or whether the ASC workers discovered some other defect, but the iPhone was replaced. But the most interesting thing is that everything happened again on the new device - this once again confirms our statement that the “breakdown” is exclusively in iOS.
- Wait for the engineers to fix the problem - they know about it, they are very sorry and will fix everything soon.
Here are three options for the development of events. By the way, keep it up, you can contact them yourself - what if they recommend something else sensible?
For those users who for some reason are not satisfied with the advice above, there are several more “folk” ways to deal with the lack of an image on iPhone screen on incoming call:
As you can see, there are really a lot of options, but it’s impossible to single out the only valid one among them. Judging by user reports, one thing helps everyone. Or maybe a combination of several actions.
Think everyone? But no. Finally, one more tip that works great in my case. As we know, you can end a call on iPhone in two different ways:
- Press the “off” button.
- Press "end call" on the screen.
So, after I stopped disconnecting using a mechanical key, and started downloading the conversation exclusively by pressing the red button on the screen, all the problems disappeared.
Whether this is due to the fact that before this I performed many of the methods that I wrote about above - I don’t know. But there is a fact - I have not yet seen a black screen for incoming calls.
Of course, we will hope that Apple will fix this annoying “glitch” in the software in the next firmware update. But if this does not happen or it happens again after some time, you know what to do :)
P.S. If you also encounter a similar problem, be sure to write in the comments. Or maybe there are only a few of us and I’m wasting my time talking about Apple?
P.S.S. As I already wrote, it’s a shame that you can’t answer a call using buttons on the iPhone. It would be really very cool - “like” for such an option! :)
