Coming across an Android black screen is one of the most terrifying situations that you can get yourself into. Especially if you own an expensive device or if you can’t afford another one at the moment.
Assuming that your phone or tablet isn’t completely bricked, there are a few solutions to this problem. The exact process will differ depending on the reason that you’re getting a black screen in the first place. So, without any further ado, let’s dive right into it!
1: Make Sure That Your Screen Isn’t Disconnected
First of all, make sure that your display isn’t connected or that your screen’s cable that connects the display to the phone isn’t done for. You see, your phone’s display isn’t actually “glued” to your phone. There is a very short cable that connects to it and it looks like this:
If you drop your phone hard enough, the shock can pull the cable from its slot. Of course, it’s much more likely that the actual display will shatter. But, trust me – I’ve seen this happen before.
The biggest problem with this issue is that you can’t really see it. But there are still a couple of things that you can do:
- See if there’s anything that the phone displays at all while booting
- Open your phone and take a look inside or take it to a pro to do it for you
So, the first choice is rather easy. If you see anything while booting the device, then chances are that this is not what happened. You could’ve damaged the software or something else in the device. But, more on that later.
In case that you actually don’t see anything, yet you still get some sort of vibration or any sign that the phone itself isn’t entirely dead, then your only option is to either open it on your own and see if the cable is to blame or take it to a pro so that he’ll do the all the complicated (and obviously risky) work.
2: Try Charging
I know this sounds dumb. But, listen for a moment… Or actually read. There was a time where a little bit of moisture made it into my phone. I got the Android black screen problem with everything else working just fine. Sound, touch, calls, you get it.
Then it runs out of battery and when I try to plug it in, it just refuses to charge. A few days pass and I decide to plug it in once more. Again, nothing happened. But, after a minute or so, the phone came back into life fully working and it has been fine ever since. Maybe that’s the case for you as well.
Try plugging it in and leave it there for a couple of minutes. See if that helps. If you happened to gather moisture or water as well, leave the phone to dry and use a dehumidifier if there’s one.
3: Wipe Your Cache Partition And/Or Perform a Factory Reset
The first time that your screen refuses to turn on, it’s common sense to think that it’s a hardware related problem. However, there is also a chance that your operating system is to blame.
If your phone goes through the first boot stage, meaning that you can see the icon, but goes black before booting into Android, then this is most likely what you’re going through. To solve it, you can either:
- Wipe your cache partition
- Perform a factory reset
- Install a whole new ROM
The first two options are rather easy. You need to turn off your phone then:
- Hold down the power and volume up buttons (Exact combination may differ from phone to phone. In such cases, Google is your friend)
- Select “Wipe Cache Partition”
- Reboot and pray that this will work
Wiping your cache partition shouldn’t cause you any problems as it mostly contains temporary files or data from previous updates and generally stuff that don’t affect you too much in case that you end up deleting them. So, you can go ahead and try it.
Performing a factory reset, however, will end up deleting everything that is saved on your phone’s internal storage. So, do keep that in mind. If the previous step did nothing for you, then you basically need to follow the previous steps. Except, this time, you need to select “Wipe data/factory reset”. Then simply reboot and wait to see if that worked.
Installing a new ROM is your last resort and unfortunately, we can’t guide you through it. After all, the process differs from phone to phone while some devices do not allow you to touch such things in the first place. So, again, Google is your friend.
Still Can’t Solve The Android Black Screen Of Death?
Still can’t get out of the black screen? Then there’s a chance that your phone is bricked. Especially if you dropped it into water. And even if you did nothing wrong, electronics do have a limited lifespan. Smartphones are actually extremely endurable. But, every now and then someone gets unlucky.
Then again, you know what they say: “Hope dies last”. There are still a few miscellaneous fixes. But, don’t expect too much from them.
- Try removing your SD card if you have one installed. Some users have reported that this fixed their problem – not sure why.
- Remove and re-insert your battery if it’s removable.
- Try booting into safe mode. The exact button combination differs from phone to phone. For example, the Galaxy Note 9 boots into safe mode by turning it off, powering up again, and holding the volume down button as soon as the Samsung icon pops up.
Android Black Screen Issue: Wrapping up
This problem can occur with both hardware and software related issues. So, make sure to go through all of the above recommended steps and hopefully one of them will work for you.
If you feel like we forgot to mention something important or that we got something wrong, then do let us and everyone else know about it in the comments section down below!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-k-8246a1169/
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Richard Wells says
December 20, 2019 at 5:23 pmI have an almost new LG 8.1and when I try to use my phone and type in the number and then press the green phone, my screen goes black.
George Kasiouras says
December 24, 2019 at 3:50 pmHello, Richard. The way I see it, there are two possible causes for your specific issue:
1: You’ve got a faulty/dirty proximity sensor (Or a screen protector which covers that sensor)
2: The phone app has a bug
If the problem is the sensor, make sure that it’s clean and that nothing is blocking it so that it won’t keep on turning off the display automatically while you’re calling.
If the problem is on the dialer, you could try performing a factory reset which may be able to fix that issue. Just make sure to backup everything that’s important first as a factory reset deletes everything on the phone. Update: You could also try manually clearing the data and cache of the phone app through the settings app. Just do keep in mind that on some rare occasions, this may end up deleting your contacts. (Some phones may use both the contacts and the dialer as a single app)
Michael Vance says
February 2, 2020 at 9:50 pmI have a Blu Vivo XL+ and the screen recently was cracked. It worked fine with a cracked screen, but I ordered a replacement and followed steps in a youtube video to replace the screen. I followed the steps perfectly and after putting in the new screen and powering up the device, my screen was blank. I thought maybe I was sent a faulty screen so I returned that screen for another one, still have the same issue. Also, you have to replace the screen with the digitizer in this device, so everything is completely new. I can get notifications and phone calls so I know the device is booting up.
George Kasiouras says
February 4, 2020 at 10:08 amHello, Michael. My best guess is that the screen connector has been damaged and no signal or power is going through to the screen. If that’s what is going on, then there’s not much that we common folk can do about this. In fact, even most repair shops will suggest that you replace the motherboard which costs almost as much as the phone itself. But, again, that’s assuming that this is what’s going on.
Alternatively, maybe you happened to pick an incompatible display. But, if you followed someone else’s instructions step by step, then I highly doubt that this is the case.