Often, especially when calling automated systems such as customer service
or the like, it is necessary to enter numbers from the keypad to choose an
option, enter a "last 4 digits" number, etc. My Samsung Galaxy A12 running
Android 12 , with the default phone app, has a tendency to turn the screen
off at that point, making the keypad inaccessible. Sometimes it is
possible to wake it up by turning or shaking the phone, but other times it
remains stubbornly off and nothing seems to help.

This should be unrelated to the automatic screen timeout, which is set to
30 min and gives no trouble otherwise. Am I missing another setting?

Pierre
--
Pierre Jelenc
The Gigometer www.gigometer.com
The NYC Beer Guide www.nycbeer.org

On 2023-11-11 23:26, Pierre Jelenc wrote:
> Often, especially when calling automated systems such as customer service
> or the like, it is necessary to enter numbers from the keypad to choose an
> option, enter a "last 4 digits" number, etc. My Samsung Galaxy A12 running
> Android 12 , with the default phone app, has a tendency to turn the screen
> off at that point, making the keypad inaccessible. Sometimes it is
> possible to wake it up by turning or shaking the phone, but other times it
> remains stubbornly off and nothing seems to help.
>
> This should be unrelated to the automatic screen timeout, which is set to
> 30 min and gives no trouble otherwise. Am I missing another setting?

The display is set to turn off, not only what you see, but the touching
part, so that your ear doesn't push buttons unintentionally. The display
should turn back on as soon as you remove it from your face. If it
doesn't, touch briefly the home button, or power button, or whatever
your phone has.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On 11/11/2023 3:26 PM, Pierre Jelenc wrote:

> Often, especially when calling automated systems such as customer service
> or the like, it is necessary to enter numbers from the keypad to choose an
> option, enter a "last 4 digits" number, etc. My Samsung Galaxy A12 running
> Android 12 , with the default phone app, has a tendency to turn the screen
> off at that point, making the keypad inaccessible. Sometimes it is
> possible to wake it up by turning or shaking the phone, but other times it
> remains stubbornly off and nothing seems to help.

On my Galaxy S10+:

Settings > Advanced Features > Motions and Gestures > Keep screen on
while viewing: Turn on the switch.

The explanation under my setting says: "Keep screen on while you're
looking at it, using the front camera to detect your face."

If you have such a setting, give it a try. Good luck...

In article <uip480$3mess$1@dont-email.me>, AJL <noemail@none.com> wrote:
>On 11/11/2023 3:26 PM, Pierre Jelenc wrote:
>
>> Often, especially when calling automated systems such as customer service
>> or the like, it is necessary to enter numbers from the keypad to choose an
>> option, enter a "last 4 digits" number, etc. My Samsung Galaxy A12 running
>> Android 12 , with the default phone app, has a tendency to turn the screen
>> off at that point, making the keypad inaccessible. Sometimes it is
>> possible to wake it up by turning or shaking the phone, but other times it
>> remains stubbornly off and nothing seems to help.
>
>On my Galaxy S10+:
>
>Settings > Advanced Features > Motions and Gestures > Keep screen on
>while viewing: Turn on the switch.
>
>The explanation under my setting says: "Keep screen on while you're
>looking at it, using the front camera to detect your face."
>
>If you have such a setting, give it a try. Good luck...

Yes, I have that setting as well. I turned it on and it seems to work!
Thanks a lot!

Pierre

--
Pierre Jelenc
The Gigometer www.gigometer.com
The NYC Beer Guide www.nycbeer.org

In article <krag2eFtvc1U11@mid.individual.net>,
Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>On 2023-11-11 23:26, Pierre Jelenc wrote:
>> Often, especially when calling automated systems such as customer service
>> or the like, it is necessary to enter numbers from the keypad to choose an
>> option, enter a "last 4 digits" number, etc. My Samsung Galaxy A12 running
>> Android 12 , with the default phone app, has a tendency to turn the screen
>> off at that point, making the keypad inaccessible. Sometimes it is
>> possible to wake it up by turning or shaking the phone, but other times it
>> remains stubbornly off and nothing seems to help.
>>
>> This should be unrelated to the automatic screen timeout, which is set to
>> 30 min and gives no trouble otherwise. Am I missing another setting?
>
>The display is set to turn off, not only what you see, but the touching
>part, so that your ear doesn't push buttons unintentionally.

That makes sense.

> The display
>should turn back on as soon as you remove it from your face. If it
>doesn't, touch briefly the home button, or power button, or whatever
>your phone has.

That didn't work properly. Touching either button turns the screen on
for a fraction of a second, but it turns off again, faster than I can
react.

Fortunately, the setting that uses face recognition appears to work.

Pierre
--
Pierre Jelenc
The Gigometer www.gigometer.com
The NYC Beer Guide www.nycbeer.org

Pierre Jelenc <rcpj@panix.com> wrote

> Fortunately, the setting that uses face recognition appears to work.

It looks like you resolved your problem, which is good for the archives.
There may be additional useful ways to solve the problem set, perhaps...

A few weeks ago (as I recall) we had a discussion on this newsgroup about
setting the power button doubleclick to specifically toggle the flashlight.

I haven't tried it, but you might be able to set up the power button
doubleclick to make the keypad come up since it's just an Android activity.

You can also make a "keypad" shortcut on your homescreen, if you want to.

For example, on my Samsung Galaxy A32-5G, the phone app is the package
named <com.samsung.android.dialer> which has a public "Dialacts Activity"
named <com.samsung.android.dialer.DialtactsActivity> for the keypad.

You can test that out on a Samsung by running this on a Windows PC.
C:\> cmd activity start --user 0 -a android.intent.action.VIEW -n com.samsung.android.dialer/com.samsung.android.dialer.DialtactsActivity -f 0 com.samsung.android.dialer
Which will bring up the dialer even if the screen was turned off.

This is probably more than you want to know, but here is more detail:
URI=intent:#Intent;package=com.samsung.android.dialer;component=com.samsung.android.dialer/.DialtactsActivity;end
ACTION=android.intent.action.VIEW
COMPONENT=com.samsung.android.dialer/com.samsung.android.dialer.DialtactsActivity
PACKAGE=com.samsung.android.dialer
MATCHING ACTIVITIES 1
LABEL=Phone
NAME=com.samsung.android.dialer.DialtactsActivity
PACKAGE=com.samsung.android.dialer

However, if you're not tying that keypad to the hardware power button,
then you need to wake up the screen in order to press the 1-tap shortcut.
--
On Usenet, you can suggest ideas for others to try even if you
haven't explicitly tried that specific task on every device.

On 11/11/2023 23:12, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2023-11-11 23:26, Pierre Jelenc wrote:
>> Often, especially when calling automated systems such as customer service
>> or the like, it is necessary to enter numbers from the keypad to choose an
>> option, enter a "last 4 digits" number, etc. My Samsung Galaxy A12 running
>> Android 12 , with the default phone app, has a tendency to turn the screen
>> off at that point, making the keypad inaccessible. Sometimes it is
>> possible to wake it up by turning or shaking the phone, but other times it
>> remains stubbornly off and nothing seems to help.
>>
>> This should be unrelated to the automatic screen timeout, which is set to
>> 30 min and gives no trouble otherwise. Am I missing another setting?
>
> The display is set to turn off, not only what you see, but the touching
> part, so that your ear doesn't push buttons unintentionally.

Yep. I found a simple solution - I just held the back of the phone to my
ear. I couldn't detect any difference in sound quality or loudness using
it that way.

Surely this has been an issue since touchscreen smartphones appeared.
Why does it still require solutions mentioned in replies here? Is it
/ever/ mentioned in the instruction manuals, and how to deal with it?

--

Jeff

On 2023-11-12 04:29, Pierre Jelenc wrote:
> In article <krag2eFtvc1U11@mid.individual.net>,
> Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2023-11-11 23:26, Pierre Jelenc wrote:
>>> Often, especially when calling automated systems such as customer service
>>> or the like, it is necessary to enter numbers from the keypad to choose an
>>> option, enter a "last 4 digits" number, etc. My Samsung Galaxy A12 running
>>> Android 12 , with the default phone app, has a tendency to turn the screen
>>> off at that point, making the keypad inaccessible. Sometimes it is
>>> possible to wake it up by turning or shaking the phone, but other times it
>>> remains stubbornly off and nothing seems to help.
>>>
>>> This should be unrelated to the automatic screen timeout, which is set to
>>> 30 min and gives no trouble otherwise. Am I missing another setting?
>>
>> The display is set to turn off, not only what you see, but the touching
>> part, so that your ear doesn't push buttons unintentionally.
>
> That makes sense.
>
>> The display
>> should turn back on as soon as you remove it from your face. If it
>> doesn't, touch briefly the home button, or power button, or whatever
>> your phone has.
>
> That didn't work properly. Touching either button turns the screen on
> for a fraction of a second, but it turns off again, faster than I can
> react.
>
> Fortunately, the setting that uses face recognition appears to work.

Curious.

Now that you mention the screen turning itself off again, fast, I recall
that happening to me as well.

I got a call while I was still asleep, and I had to fight the phone to
answer the call because it kept turning itself off and going back to the
application I use to track sleep. I don't remember much detail, because
I was also fighting the sleep fog, but I think I will give a try to your
solution.

For the curio, how did I get a call while in don't disturb mode? The
phone did not ring, did not make a sound or vibrate, but the xiaomi my
smart band 6 "smart watch" vibrated and I noticed, and saw the name of
the caller in my watch. The daft watch ignores the do not disturb mode.
And this one was an important call, anyway.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On 2023-11-12 09:49, Jeff Layman wrote:
> On 11/11/2023 23:12, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> On 2023-11-11 23:26, Pierre Jelenc wrote:
>>> Often, especially when calling automated systems such as customer
>>> service
>>> or the like, it is necessary to enter numbers from the keypad to
>>> choose an
>>> option, enter a "last 4 digits" number, etc. My Samsung Galaxy A12
>>> running
>>> Android 12 , with the default phone app, has a tendency to turn the
>>> screen
>>> off at that point, making the keypad inaccessible. Sometimes it is
>>> possible to wake it up by turning or shaking the phone, but other
>>> times it
>>> remains stubbornly off and nothing seems to help.
>>>
>>> This should be unrelated to the automatic screen timeout, which is
>>> set to
>>> 30 min and gives no trouble otherwise. Am I missing another setting?
>>
>> The display is set to turn off, not only what you see, but the touching
>> part, so that your ear doesn't push buttons unintentionally.
>
> Yep. I found a simple solution - I just held the back of the phone to my
> ear. I couldn't detect any difference in sound quality or loudness using
> it that way.
>
> Surely this has been an issue since touchscreen smartphones appeared.
> Why does it still require solutions mentioned in replies here? Is it
> /ever/ mentioned in the instruction manuals, and how to deal with it?

They detect your ear, and some do it better than others.

Some people keep the phone slanted on the ear instead of flat (only the
top edge touches the ear). I have to do that sometimes.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

"Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote

>> Surely this has been an issue since touchscreen smartphones appeared.
>> Why does it still require solutions mentioned in replies here? Is it
>> /ever/ mentioned in the instruction manuals, and how to deal with it?
>
> They detect your ear, and some do it better than others.
>
> Some people keep the phone slanted on the ear instead of flat
> (only the top edge touches the ear). I have to do that sometimes.

It was years ago, but when that face-recognition screenblank first came out
and I didn't like that it did something strange with portrait mode so I
killed it.

However...

I don't even rememmber how I killed it (I think I deleted a package or
sumphun') but it's long gone on my Android 12 (since moved to Android 13).

Pierre Jelenc <rcpj@panix.com> wrote:
> Often, especially when calling automated systems such as customer service
> or the like, it is necessary to enter numbers from the keypad to choose an
> option, enter a "last 4 digits" number, etc. My Samsung Galaxy A12 running
> Android 12 , with the default phone app, has a tendency to turn the screen
> off at that point, making the keypad inaccessible. Sometimes it is
> possible to wake it up by turning or shaking the phone, but other times it
> remains stubbornly off and nothing seems to help.
>
> This should be unrelated to the automatic screen timeout, which is set to
> 30 min and gives no trouble otherwise. Am I missing another setting?

In addition to the Settings 'Keep screen on while viewing' setting
which AJL mentioned and seems to work for you:

Have you enabled 'Always On Display' mode for the screen (Settings ->
Lock screen -> Always On Display)?

As you probably know, the description 'Always On Display' is a bit of
a misnomer, because the *display* does not stay on all the time, but
goes black/dark normally, but the *touch* part of the screen stays
active.

So when the display goes black/dark, you can (single or double) tap
the screen to unblank the display. Of course in your situation, you
should try to tap on an 'empty' part, because otherwise you might
accidentily tap one of the button or keypad buttons, while trying to
unblank the display.

On my Samsung A51, I have turned the 'Always On Display' mode from the
beginning and have always been able to unblank the keypad (and other
buttons, for example speaker) during a call.

HTH.