Are you worried about your Galaxy Z Fold 3 having touchscreen issues? Samsung’s pricey transforming phone is a trendsetter in the phablet market, but increasingly users have complained that the device’s touchscreen is becoming unresponsive.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to fix the Galaxy Z Fold 3 touchscreen issue once and for all. We’ll detail 11 proven-and-tested fixes to get it done, plus a slew of tips to keep your phablet screen in tiptop shape — so keep reading throughout.
| Difficulty | Easy ●●○○○ |
| Duration | 8 to 10 minutes |
| Things You Need | Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3A working internet connection |
How to Fix Touchscreen Issues on Galaxy Z Fold 3
The touchscreen issues on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 can be fixed by resetting the device. Also, change phone settings, update the software, clear the cache, or clean the screen and remove the screen protector to bring the screen back to life.
But there are more ways to fix this, so let’s get into action. The following troubleshooting methods can resolve Galaxy Z Fold 3 touchscreen issues!
1. Restart your Galaxy Z Fold 3.
The touchscreen can sometimes react slowly due to a minor issue on your Galaxy Z Fold 3. Restarting your device lets it refresh its system, which is a quick and easy solution for minor touchscreen issues.
Follow these steps to restart your Galaxy Z Fold 3:
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 3 |
| Duration | 20 seconds |
- Press/hold the volume down and side buttons simultaneously.
- Tap Restart on the power menu.
- Give the device a few seconds to boot back up.
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Pro tip: In the power menu, you can click side key settings to configure the side key. By default, holding the side key will launch Bixby, but you can set it to open the power menu if you don’t use Bixby.
If the touchscreen in your Galaxy Z Fold 3 is unresponsive, you won’t be able to tap the restart key in the power menu. To circumvent this, you can force restart your device using the button combinations instead.
Follow these steps to force restart your device:
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 3 |
| Duration | 20 seconds |
- Press/hold the volume down and side buttons until the phone shuts down.
- Press/hold the side button to turn it back on.
- Give the device a few seconds to boot back up.
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2. Clean the display screen.
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 1 |
| Duration | 10 seconds |
The touch sensors on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 are sensitive, which allows it to respond to touch gestures quickly and accurately under normal working conditions. But such sensitivity can be intrusive, unfortunately.
The sensor can be compromised when the display screen has moisture or dirt. This means it is not as responsive as you want it to be.
It’s paramount, therefore, to clean the display. To do it, use a cloth made from microfiber since it’s the best material for gently cleaning Samsung screens without making the problem worse.
3. Remove its screen protector.
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 1 |
| Duration | 15 seconds |
While screen protectors provide an extra layer of protection on your device’s screen, they also affect the sensitivity of the display. Using unsupported screen protectors, in particular, may hamper the functionality of the display screen.
If the touchscreen becomes slow and inaccurate because of this, it’s better to remove the protective film. Or you can replace it with a Samsung-accredited screen protector.
Note: Ensure no dirt is trapped between the screen and the protective film during replacement, as it will also cause touchscreen issues.
4. Use a different charger.
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 1 |
| Duration | 10 seconds |
Believe it or not, even the touchscreen can stop working if your charging accessories aren’t supplying the device with enough power. Also, you should avoid using your phone while charging as users have reported that the touchscreen can be slow during this.
Test your charger with another device to see if it’s working correctly. If it’s broken, have it replaced immediately and avoid using counterfeit or fake charging accessories as they don’t comply with safety standards.
Note: If your device’s touchscreen remains unresponsive after trying the simple troubleshooting tricks above, you will need to use the Samsung DeX functionality of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 to access its controls. Indeed, it’s a step up.
Using Samsung DeX
| Difficulty | Easy ●●○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 3 |
| Duration | 10 seconds |
Samsung DeX is a built-in software on flagship Galaxy devices since 2017. This allows you to cast your phone’s display on a monitor via an HDMI cable and control it using a mouse and keyboard, so you need to have these peripherals in advance.
Follow these steps to set up Samsung DeX:
- Connect your phone to a TV or PC monitor using an HDMI cable, DeX cable, or multiport adapter to launch DeX.
- Connect your mouse and keyboard to your phone via Bluetooth or plug them into the multiport adapter.
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- Access your phone’s apps and settings using this setup.
Now that Samsung DeX is ready, you can continue below to find out how to straighten out Galaxy Z Fold 3 touchscreen issues using other troubleshooting methods.
5. Optimize your device.
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 3 |
| Duration | 7 seconds |
Galaxy devices have a performance optimization feature under Device care. This helps scan and fix your phone’s storage space issues and minor problems to improve its performance.
Follow the steps below to optimize your device:
- Open Settings.
- Click Battery and device care.
- Click Optimize now.
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6. Adjust the touch sensitivity.
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 3 |
| Duration | 7 seconds |
The touch sensitivity feature is used to improve how the touchscreen responds to touch gestures when the display has a screen protector on. Enabling this feature without a screen protector will make the display over-sensitive to touch and malfunction.
Use these steps to adjust the touch sensitivity based on your needs:
- Open Settings.
- Click Display.
- Scroll down/click Touch sensitivity to toggle it on or off.
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7. Boot into Safe Mode.
Safe Mode is a troubleshooting feature that allows you to determine if an app is the root cause of issues in your device. Once you’re in this mode, you should be able to fix Galaxy Z Fold 3 touchscreen issues by uninstalling the culprit app.
Boot into Safe Mode using these steps:
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 6 |
| Duration | 25 seconds |
- Swipe down the home screen twice.
- Click the power icon.
- Click/hold Power off on the power menu.
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- Click Safe mode.
- Give the device a few seconds to reboot into safe mode.
- Enter your PIN if asked.
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During this mode, downloaded apps are temporarily disabled, allowing you to test your phone and see whether the problems persist. If you’re not experiencing touchscreen issues in this mode, uninstall your recently installed apps.
Exit Safe Mode using these steps:
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 4 |
| Duration | 20 seconds |
- Swipe down the home screen twice.
- Click the power icon.
- Click Restart on the power menu.
 | |  |
- Give the device a few seconds to reboot into normal mode.
Uninstall apps on Galaxy Z Fold 3 using these steps:
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 3 |
| Duration | 5 seconds |
- Press/hold the app.
- Click Uninstall.
- Click Uninstall again to confirm.
8. Wipe its cache partition.
| Difficulty | Easy ●●○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 7 |
| Duration | 35 seconds |
The cache partition stores temporary data from the system and the apps on your Galaxy Z Fold 3. If the files and data stored here get corrupted, it can cause all sorts of problems, which include the touchscreen being slow, inaccurate, or unresponsive.
By accessing recovery mode, you can fix Galaxy Z Fold 3 touchscreen issues once you’ve deleted the corrupt data on the cache partition.
Boot into recovery mode and wipe the cache partition using these steps:
- Connect your phone to a PC using its USB-C cable.
- Press/hold the volume down and side buttons until the phone shuts down.
- Press/hold the volume up and side buttons to boot into recovery mode.
Note: While in recovery mode, you can use the volume buttons to navigate options, while the side button confirms your selection.
- Select/click Wipe cache partition.
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- Select/click Yes.
- Give it a few seconds to complete the action.
- Select/click Reboot system now.
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9. Update the software.
| Difficulty | Moderate ●●●○○ |
| Number of Steps | 5 |
| Duration | 35 minutes |
The reason you have touchscreen issues on Galaxy Z Fold 3 could be due to outdated software. It’s a generally accepted rule that software updates are important since they patch errors in the previous versions and improve your device’s security measures.
We recommend checking for an available update so you can install it immediately. This will ensure that your device performs at its best while fixing the touchscreen issues.
Use the steps below to perform a system update:
- Open Settings.
- Scroll down/click Software update.
- Click Download and install.
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- Click Install now.
- Wait for several minutes for the update to be completed.
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10. Reset all settings.
| Difficulty | Easy ●●○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 9 |
| Duration | 30 seconds |
Do you suspect some changes you’ve made in your phone’s settings to be the root cause of the problem? If so, you can revert your phone settings to default and fix the Galaxy Z Fold 3 touchscreen issues.
Follow the steps below to reset all settings:
- Open Settings.
- Scroll down/click General management.
- Click Reset.
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- Click Reset all settings.
- Click Reset settings.
- Draw your pattern if asked.
 |  |  |
- Click Reset to reset all settings.
- Give the device a few seconds to complete the action.
- Enter your PIN to access your phone.
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11. Factory reset the device.
| Difficulty | Easy ●●○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 7 |
| Duration | 1 minute |
Once you’ve reached this part of the guide and none of the previously mentioned methods was able to fix the Galaxy Z Fold 3 touchscreen issues, your last resort would be to factory reset your device.
Factory reset wipes your phone’s data completely, along with any corrupt files or apps causing the touchscreen issue. It’s advisable to back up your data beforehand in order to recover everything afterward.
Follow these steps to perform a factory reset via recovery mode:
- Connect your phone to a PC using its USB-C cable.
- Press/hold the volume down and side buttons until the phone shuts down.
- Press/hold the volume up and side buttons to boot into recovery mode.
Note: In recovery mode, you can use the volume buttons to navigate options while the side button confirms your selection.
- Select/click Wipe data/factory reset.
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- Select/click Factory data reset.
- Give it a few seconds to complete the action.
- Select/click Reboot system now.
 |  |  |
Tips on How to Prevent Touchscreen Issues on Galaxy Z Fold 3
Here are some useful tips you can use to prevent touchscreen issues from plaguing your Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3:
- Avoid using your Galaxy Fold 3 underwater or in humid conditions as moisture prevents the touch sensors from responding accurately to touch controls.
- Don’t wear gloves because the display screen may not recognize your touch gestures.
- Be sure to moisturize your fingers because they may not be recognizable when it’s chapped or extremely dry.
- Avoid scratching the screen’s surface with hard or sharp objects to prevent damage.
- Take care not to drop your phone as it could suffer internal and external damages causing the touchscreen to stop working.
- Put the appropriate amount of pressure when touching the screen to ensure they’re perfectly registered.
FAQs about Galaxy Z Fold 3 Touchscreen Issues
Screen calibration is not natively available on the Galaxy Z Fold 3. You can instead enter the test mode to check if your touchscreen is working correctly.
To enter test mode, open the phone app, type “*#0*#” on the keypad, and click the dial button. You can click touch and touch (sub) on the list to test your phone’s touch controls.
According to Samsung Support, screen repair costs $357 for a broken inner screen of the Galaxy Z Fold 3. Screen module replacements for the inner and outer screen are priced at $479 and $149, respectively.
Galaxy Z Fold 3 screen protector should be removed if the phablet is slow and unresponsive with the screen protector on. Thus, this depends on how responsive your touchscreen is.
However, if you’re using a Samsung-accredited screen protector, it should work perfectly fine. You can also adjust the touch sensitivity to account for the screen protector.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 has a durable screen that can survive drops up to 2 meters even when landing on hard and rough surfaces, thanks to its Corning Gorilla Glass Victus display screen.
