Samsung’s One UI 5 is the latest iteration of one of the most popular Android skins from the South Korean tech giants. The days of TouchWiz are gone but not forgotten. That user interface was a clunky and buggy mess with loads of stuttering and lag issues. But what TouchWiz did get right, and eventually laid the foundation for, was the horde of useful features now residing in One UI.
As with any software that tries to be a jack-of-all-trades, things might become complicated thanks to too many features and operations. Samsung, despite this, should be praised for streamlining the modern One UI into something that is feature-rich and fluid in operation for the most part. Unfortunately, nothing is perfect, and quite understandably so.
High numbers of features bring complications, which create problems, and these require solutions. This article will address five of the most annoying One UI 5 issues and how to fix them easily. Let’s dive in.
Five most irritating issues in One UI 5 and their solutions
1) Stutter and inconsistent animations in the user interface
One may notice that as a new Samsung device is used more and more, the inconsistent animations and stutters get noticeably worse. This doesn’t mean that the hardware has given up or that the phone has started to age; it is merely a question of reallocating resources and freeing up memory.
To fix the problem, all you need to do is restart the phone and let the UI take care of everything from there. Ideally, you should restart their phone at least once a week. Doing this frees up the VRAM utilized by the GPU of the device and clears unnecessary data from misbehaving applications.
It is possible to automate this process and leave it to One UI 5 to do this job. To make this happen:
- Head to Settings.
- Look for Auto-optimization, and turn on the Restart When Needed option.
The phone will detect if anything is off and optimize the experience on its own.
2) Incessant battery drain
While Android phones do come with large batteries, this doesn’t automatically ensure better battery life in general. In an advanced OS like One UI 5, a lot of things are usually happening in the background, away from the user's notice. This can eat up the battery.
While you cannot disable essential system processes, it is possible to put rogue apps or unused apps to sleep. To do this:
- Head to the Settings
- Access Battery and Device Care.
- Select the Battery option.
- Find and enter Background Usage Limits.
- Turn on the Put unused apps to Sleep.
This puts any infrequently used programs to sleep to save battery. Furthermore, it is also possible to categorize applications into sleeping, deep-sleeping, and never-sleeping apps based on what one may see fit.
3) Phone is not charging past 85% and not charging fast
This is one annoying problem in One UI 5 that is much easier to solve and does not require jumping through hoops. When one purchases a brand new device from Samsung and notices that it's not fast charging as advertised, and neither is the charge level moving past 85 percent, it is time to head to Settings. After that, do the following:
- Go to Battery and Device Care
- Select Battery and, in that window, scroll down to select More Battery Settings. This is where one needs to turn on Fast Charging and turn off the Protect Battery toggle, which is what limits charging to 85 percent.
4) Phone not switching to a better Wi-Fi network automatically
People with dual-band Wi-Fi at home or at work may find that their One UI 5 Samsung phone isn’t automatically selecting the faster 5 GHz band. This can be infuriating for those wanting to utilize a higher bandwidth of faster bands.
Thankfully, all you have to do is:
- Access Settings
- Select Connections right at the top,
- Tap on Wi-Fi.
- Now, you need to locate the three-dot hamburger menu at the top and select Intelligent Wi-Fi.
- Finally, inside this option resides a toggle that says "Switch to Better Wi-Fi Networks." Turn this on, and the phone will automatically connect to faster and more stable Wi-Fi.
5) Screen timing out, even when you are looking at it
Many users keep their screen timeout durations short because, in case they forget to lock the display, it will remain on and consume battery while also acting up in their pockets. This can make the screen go black even when you're staring at it, which is especially annoying while you're reading something or looking at detailed office sheets without needing to touch the phone.
Thankfully, One UI 5 lets you correct this. All you have to do is follow these steps:
- Head over to Settings
- Scroll down to select Advanced Features
- Access Motions and Gestures.
- Now, you will find an optional toggle called Keep Screen On While Viewing. Turn it on.
This feature keeps the screen open if the front camera detects the user’s face. It is fairly reliable.
Transitioning to a newer OS or a newer version can get a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, most of the annoying issues associated with One UI 5 can be easily resolved with little to no effort, making the experience great again.