Samsung Galaxy S4 Lock Screen Issue *fix*

[JodieALee]

I recently had an issue with my S4 lock screen and when I googled around for advice on a fix I couldn't find a definitive answer other than try this that or the other and see what happens. Now I've found the issue I thought I would come on and post the fix that worked for me and see if that helps anyone else.

The issue I had was that when I locked the screen and put the phone away I then had an issue trying to wake it back up again when I wanted to use it. The back and menu keys would light up but nothing else would happen. Sometimes the screen would come on but was unresponsive when I tried to unlock it.

Some people said it was due to KitKat but I had this issue before that, the update just made it a lot worse. I tried restoring the phone to factory settings which didn't help either.

I found a temporary fix that worked which was to download a new lock screen but I didn't like it so I gave in and sent it off to Samsung for repair. In the mean time I needed a phone so my fiance let me use his phone which is the same phone except it's white. He's never had this lock screen issue yet once I started using it the issue popped up. So we figured out we needn't have sent the other phone off to be looked at.

The only difference we could think of was the apps we had installed so I started the process of removing apps one at a time to see if there was any difference... I got lucky nearly right away and removed an app and since then have had no issues at all.

The app I removed was "Advanced Task Killer" ... i've never had issues with this app in the past so I am assuming it is something to do with one of the apps recent updates or something. I have no idea why it does it but I know that it was the cause of my problems.

If you have this issue and this app installed try uninstalling the app and see if that fixes the issue. If it doesn't then go through all the apps one at a time until you find the issue before sending it in to be repaired. I know it wont be a fix for everyone but it could be for a few people.

Whenever I look for help with an issue on anything (not just phones) I find lots of people asking the same question but no one seems to come back with an answer so I thought seeing as I have an answer that may save some people time, money and having to send in their precious phones I would share what I know and what helped me.

I hope this solves the issue for some of you. Maybe if anyone finds that it is a different app or completely different reason for the issue they could post it here so people can find answers easily??

 

[Rukbat]

The app I removed was "Advanced Task Killer" ... i've never had issues with this app in the past so I am assuming it is something to do with one of the apps recent updates or something. I have no idea why it does it

If you'd like to it's simple. Android isn't Windows.

Windows wants RAM to be as empty as possible. The more empty RAM you have, the better. If Windows needs RAM for something and it's full, somethning has to be saved to the hard drive, so that the RAM it was in can be used for something else. (The program being "swapped out" stays on the screen, but if you click on it, it has to be swapped back in, which means that something has to be swapped out first, to make room for it.) Since swapping takes time, if you're really tight on RAM, you can be clicking back and forth between 2 programs and all Windows is doing is swapping them back and forth - and you wonder why your computer isn't "doing anything".

Android is different. As an app runs, it saves its current state. If Android needs the space the app is in, it force kills it. That takes almost no time (and I mean almost no CPU time - it takes nanoseconds). Then it loads another app from storage (which takes a little time). The more full RAM is, the more chance that something you're going to need is already in RAM, so the phone runs faster.

Someone who knew programming, but not Android, came up with the idea of "task killers" - killing off anything you didn't think you needed. This is VERY counterproductive in Android. (For example, Tasker, an app that lets you automate your phone [my phone switches my wifi on when I get home and unlocks my screen - by itself] needs parts of Google's Maps program [IIRC] to run. So you're running a Tasker app, you see Maps running and you're not using it so you kill it. Android just loads it right back in, because the Tasker app needs it. That's why you can't kill some apps - you keep killing them and they keep coming back.)

What you were doing was killing the processes that the lock screen needed to wake the phone up and run the launcher. Which aren't needed when the phone is sleeping, but should be in RAM, because they're about the only thing you're going to use next.

Stop running task killers and memory cleaners. The very best they do is slow your phone down.

Multitasking the Android Way was written by one of the people involved in developing Android, and explains the whole philosophy that goes into developing a mobile device - which is totally different than the way you develop a desktop computer.

 

[JodieALee]

I had no idea about any of that. I was recommended that app when I first used android a few years ago and just always used it if I had an android phone. I've got rid of it now and won't be replacing it

 

[swimshark1988]

You actually don't have to uninstall the whole program. Just disable the screen off kill feature and it fixes the issue.

 

[jj14x]

You actually don't have to uninstall the whole program. Just disable the screen off kill feature and it fixes the issue.

Actually, if you read the detailed explanation that @Rukbat wrote, uninstalling it is the better option. The task killer really serves no useful purpose on an Android 4+ device.

 

[JodieALee]

That feature was disabled when I used it anyway so it wouldn't have made a difference in my case.

It was strange how it all of a sudden started doing it. I saw a lot of different complaints about their most recent update at the time though so I guess it was just a bug.