Although virtually harmless, this has reportedly happened to some Galaxy Note 20 users before, and as it was the case with me the bug crops up oftentimes after the device is restarted. It then immediately locks you out by denying accepting either your PIN, password or pattern.
In case you are wondering what may be the cause of this unwelcome naughty bug, I learnt it could be due to a firmware glitch or a corrupted system cache. But in case this happens to you out of the blue, worry not. Although it can be quite annoying, it turns out this infamous screen issue – which often fails with the Soft Reset (holding down the volume down key and the power button simultaneously for 10 seconds) – can be easily fixed, as I got to find out myself.
Ways to troubleshoot unresponsive Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra (5G) touch screen issues
So before you attempt to call the folks at Samsung Care, or your network provider out of panic, try one of these troubleshooting tips:
HARD RESET
- Turn the device off
- Press and hold the Volume up and Power buttons until the green Android logo appears, then release.
- Press the volume down button to select Wipe data/factory reset.
- Press the power button to select Wipe data/factory reset.
- Press down the key to select Yes and delete all user data.
- Press the power button to select Yes to delete user data.
- When the reset is finished, press the power button to Reboot the system.
SAFE MODE REBOOT
- Turn the device off.
- Press and hold the power button until the Samsung logo appears on the screen
- Then let go of the power button and immediately press and hold the volume down button.
- Keep holding down the volume down button until you see Safe mode on the bottom left corner of the screen.
WIPE CACHE PARTITION
- Turn the device off.
- Press and hold the volume up and power/Bixy buttons at the same time until you see the Android recovery menu appears
- Then let go of power and volume up buttons
- Press the volume down button and navigate to Wipe cache partition
- Press Power/Bixby key to select (Yes)
- Press Volume down key to select Yes, and then press Power/Bixby key to select
- When the Reboot system now option appears, press the power key to restart the device.
NB: Priced from R24, 999 for the entry (LTE) version to R36, 999 for the Note 20 Ultra 5G, the Galaxy Note 20 devices are available for purchase directly from the Samsung South Africa online store here.
*Keep an eye on our daily Tech news updates for practical expert reviews and roundups of some of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’s most talked about features!
