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Help Proximity sensor to automatically turn display on and off during calls not working anymore

B

BMWBig6

Newbie
My Note 3 has worked great since purchased new a few months ago. But starting this week, it seems that while the proximity sensor (or software) to automatically turn the display off when the phone is pressed against my ear is working fine, when I remove the phone from my ear, the screen remains off (black) unless I manually press the center or side buttons. It used to work properly (instantly turn display back on) as soon as I removed the phone from my ear, and my wife's Note 3 works correctly too. But mine suddenly stopped doing this a couple days ago and the checkbox under Settings > Device > Call Settings > Turn off screen during calls "Turn on proximity sensor during calls" is checked. Unchecking it and checking it again makes no difference.

Is there a problem with my phone, or another related setting that I need to check too?

I am completely stock (not rooted).
 
Same thing has happened to me and apparently many others (Note 3 proximity sensor issue during calls - Page 5 - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com). Common solutions include blowing compressed air into the earpiece and sensor area, although this didn't work for me it does reportedly work for some. Some have even had their phones replaced. I find this an annoying problem but I can live with it, although I'm definitely interested to hear what others have to say!
 
Omg, the compressed air in the ear speaker hole did the trick. It took a couple blasts but eventually proximity function was restored. I think this is a bad design though and will just keep happening again and again. I don't use a screen protector btw. Thanks for the suggestions, I'm happy my Note is working again!
 
I tried the compressed air doucheing. No joy. Looks like I'm going to have to try the more aggressive open-it-up-myself procedure and extract the assumed to be present dust bunny in there manually...
 
I'm starting to wonder if vacuuming the ear piece holes would be better than forcing the dust deeper into the phone recesses. Or maybe the risk for damaging the sensor and any electronics is higher with a vacuum suction applied?
 
My solution is called bring it in (AT&T in my case) and asking for a swap. It's still under warranty. The only problem with the local support center (other than a 10 or 15 minute drive) is that I'm never the first customer there, so I have to wait. But a problem like that would probably be taken care of in about 2 minutes. (Swapping a soft-brick that wouldn't reflash only took about a minute more than the flash attempt.)

It's called good customer service because of good employees. I don't know if it's just the store I go to or AT&T Mobility in general (although I've been an independent dealer of theirs and know a few and we all believed that the easiest way to make money in the business was to give good service), but I'm not complaining. (Now if only they took the European approach - that rooting doesn't void the warranty per se.)
 
It may be an incompatibility with any software which has been installed which utilises the proximity sensor.

I had the same situation with an application that allows me to switch off & lock the screen by waving my hand over the proximity sensor. The phone started to stay off when taking my ear off of the phone during a call until I checked/ticked an option in the proximity software to disable it during calls.
 
SkyJackpot said:
It may be an incompatibility with any software which has been installed which utilises the proximity sensor.

I had the same situation with an application that allows me to switch off & lock the screen by waving my hand over the proximity sensor. The phone started to stay off when taking my ear off of the phone during a call until I checked/ticked an option in the proximity software to disable it during calls.
Click to expand...
The problem you describe isn't related to the application you're talking about, and the fix you describe isn't a fix. All you're doing is disabling a feature that uses the proximity sensor. I'm more than convinced that for most (if not all) people who have developed a problem with their proximity sensor behavior), the issue is that dirt/dust/lint, etc. has worked it's way into the phone and obscured the proximity sensor's porthole. Hole might be a misleading term because it's not really a hole - it's a little window. And the dirt gets deposited on the window, slowly but eventually building up to the point that the sensor can not see well enough through it to function properly anymore. Once I cleaned the dirt buildup off of that little window in my phone (on the inside, not the outside), I was able to re-enable my phone's feature for shutting off the display during phone calls and it once again works perfectly doing that :)
 
johnpjackson said:
The problem you describe isn't related to the application you're talking about, and the fix you describe isn't a fix. All you're doing is disabling a feature that uses the proximity sensor. I'm more than convinced that for most (if not all) people who have developed a problem with their proximity sensor behavior), the issue is that dirt/dust/lint, etc. has worked it's way into the phone and obscured the proximity sensor's porthole. Hole might be a misleading term because it's not really a hole - it's a little window. And the dirt gets deposited on the window, slowly but eventually building up to the point that the sensor can not see well enough through it to function properly anymore. Once I cleaned the dirt buildup off of that little window in my phone (on the inside, not the outside), I was able to re-enable my phone's feature for shutting off the display during phone calls and it once again works perfectly doing that :)
Click to expand...

Well it happened to me and it was related to proximity software that I installed in my case. So just in case there are other people Browsing this part of the forum who have this problem and have also installed proximity software, they can seek to find a similar solution to my one instead of thinking they have to get tools or hire someone to open their phone.
 
SkyJackpot said:
Well it happened to me and it was related to proximity software that I installed in my case. So just in case there are other people Browsing this part of the forum who have this problem and have also installed proximity software, they can seek to find a similar solution to my one instead of thinking they have to get tools or hire someone to open their phone.
Click to expand...
Fair enough! :)
 
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