Common Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 Problems and How to Fix Them

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is an amazing phone to own, thanks largely to the beautiful screen and novel folding body. But it’s not immune to the problems that even the best handsets can experience — and there’s nothing worse than your new phone having issues you can’t figure out how to fix.

If your Galaxy Z Flip 3 is behaving strangely or not functioning as expected and you’re losing sleep over it, we’re here to help. We’ve gathered together some of the most common Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 problems and found simple fixes and workarounds for them.

You can find out more about the Z Flip 3 in our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 review — and while you’re here, why not check out some of the best Z Flip 3 cases to protect your new phone?

Issue: The rear of the phone gets hot to the touch, especially while gaming

Users on the Samsung Forum have experienced the Z Flip 3 overheating while using Android Auto. It seems this isn’t an isolated incident, either. Other users on the XDA Developers Forum have reported the phone getting very hot to the touch in the area under the cameras when playing graphically-intensive games like Call of Duty: Mobile. And perhaps worrying, some users have also reported the phone gets unusually hot while doing basic things like making a call or browsing the web. This could be due to the Snapdragon 888 processor, which does get significantly hotter than previous processors, or it could be caused by an app consuming a lot of battery.

Solution:

One recommended solution is to remove your phone from its case while watching videos or during heavy gaming sessions, particularly on a hot day, as this may help it to keep cool. You could also download a temperature monitoring app like CPU Monitor to check whether the phone is actually overheating, as it may just be getting a bit hot to the touch. If it appears to be seriously overheating, the next steps would be to contact Samsung for a repair or a replacement handset.

Issue: Unable to change the brightness while listening to music in Flex Mode

A user on the Samsung Forum in Korea reported issues with changing the brightness in Flex Mode while listening to music. Apparently, when trying to adjust the brightness in Flex Mode, a second column appears for volume, and the brightness does not change, but the volume instead increases. This video shows the issue a bit more clearly.

Solution:

Samsung is aware of the problem and has promised a software update in September to fix the issue. In the meantime, if this happens, close down the brightness or volume control window and open it again to re-adjust your settings.

Issue: Huge battery drain in standby

There have been reports on the XDA Forum about battery drain while the Z Flip 3 is in standby mode, with one user reporting a 32% drain over eight hours while they were asleep and others reporting a huge battery drain on the first day of owning the phone. The causes for this may vary — for example, a new phone takes time to learn your habits and optimize battery life, so it’s a good idea to monitor drain over the first week. If it’s still an issue, there are a number of things you can try.

Workarounds:

First, check out Settings > Battery and Device Care > Battery. This will help you see what’s draining the battery and identify if a specific app is at fault. You could also try disabling Always On Display or check to see what features and processes are running when the screen is off by going to Settings > Advanced Features > Motions and Gestures. Or try disabling features you don’t need, like Edge panels and Edge lighting. Another thing that’s worth trying is optimizing battery usage. Here’s how to do that:

Step one: Go to Settings > Apps.

Step two: Tap the Three Vertical Dots at the top-right of the screen, then select Special Access.

Step three: Tap on Optimize Battery Usage, then tap the drop-down arrow and select All.

Step four: You can then toggle the slider for each app you want to optimize.

Other things you could try are putting unused apps to sleep, turning on power-saving mode, uninstalling or disabling bloat you don’t use, or even disabling the Cover Screen when notifications arrive if this isn’t a feature you’ll use.

Issue: Samsung Pay not working

Issues with Samsung Pay not working on Samsung phones seems to have been around for some time now, and it looks like it continues to be an issue with the Z Flip 3 and the Z Fold 3. This seems to mostly be affecting users in the U.K. and other parts of Europe, with some mentions that the Samsung Pay app opens with a page in German — obviously not ideal if you don’t speak German!

The issue is actually caused by a mixup in the CSC code when the phone is set up, leading to Samsung Pay to operate in German, which isn’t good news for those residing in the U.K.

Possible solution:

Until Samsung has a permanent fix for this, there are a few things moderators over on the forums have suggested trying — though some users have reported these fixes don’t work.

Restart your Z Flip 3. Then go to Settings to check for Software Updates and/or Samsung Pay updates. Once these are installed, turn off your phone’s Wi-Fi, then turn it on again. Then, uninstall and reinstall Samsung Pay.

Hopefully, Samsung will soon address this problem via an update, but for now, all you can really do is give the above tips a go to see if that resolves the issue.

“NoSubject” line appearing at the top of every group text

This is a known issue that has affected Samsung phones on T-Mobile in the past. When sending an MMS — or group text, since group texts use MMS — users are reporting the line <Subject: NoSubject> appearing at the top of every message.

Solution:

We recommend reporting this issue to your carrier and to Samsung. Hopefully, a fix will be found in the near future. In the meantime, you could try using Google Messages as your messaging app or try installing a different messaging app from the Play Store, like Textra, which doesn’t have the subject line issue.