Help - New Samsung tablet doesn't seem to sleep/power down unless I turn it off?

[mojo filters]

I work in an Apple environment, but prefer to spend my hard earneds on Samsung Android for personal phones and a recently purchased tablet. I'm not worried about iPads, iPhone etc as they all technically belong to current or former employers.

With my personal Android phones, I leave them plugged in/charging for about 80% of the time. I never turn them off, and once their screens time out they require a hard press of the power on/off button to log back in. I'm sure such treatment is suboptimal, but so far I've always got 2-3 years life out of them before they die, which is fine since they are so relatively cheap.

This new Samsung tablet does the modern iPad thing where there's no "home" button to press, hence a firm swipe on the screen is all that's needed to immediately bring up the login requirement.

Even though my current Samsung phones only have soft keys on the surface, once the screen times out I need to press the power button on the side to log back in. I expected this tablet to do the same.

When I set up this new tablet, I logged into my Samsung account to ensure all the settings, apps etc from my phones were imported. Nevertheless I can't find a way to power down the screen, in the same way my Android phones work.

If I do a short press on the side power button it seems to deactivate the screen; if I press a bit longer I get options to turn off or restart. If I let it time out I originally got a black screen, since then I've tried adding a screensaver - yet either way it never powers down, as I'm always able to get the login screen simply by swiping.

Since this actually belongs to me and is only really used for occasional shits, giggles and personal stuff, I'd like to ensure it has the longest possible lifespan in the circumstances. I'm concerned that by leaving it on in the current state, the screen is always active, since it just takes one swipe to log straight back in.

Even if it was practical for me to physically power down when I'm finished using it, another aspect that's disappointed me is the incredibly long boot up time, at least 2-3 minutes or more (notably longer than any Android phone I've owned!)

For my use case, both physically pressing either one button (which presumably puts it and/or the screen in some kind of sleep state) or pressing that button then pressing the screen option to turn it off, is simply not feasible. I often want to watch live or time-shifted cable news as I drift off to sleep. I also want to do the same with YouTube video content, podcasts and audiobooks.

The manual doesn't seem to address this issue, nor have I been able to find suitable help searching online. Thus I'd appreciate any advice around how I can get this tablet to at least power down its screen, once the content I've been consuming has finished and I'm fast asleep?

I'm also keen to discover how much unnecessary use/stress is put on this device, when it sits unused for several hours in a state whereby a simple screen swipe is sufficient to bring up the login screen, after which it immediately begins working?

I've gone as far as instructing it to go into a sleep cycle (or whatever the correct name is) for the hours I expect to be asleep. Unfortunately this "feature" doesn't seem to do much apart from darken the screen and withhold any kind of notifications - though I did see a proviso when setting that up, indicating it only works if no apps etc are in use.

Ideally I want this tablet to either turn off the screen to some kind of sleep type state, or if that's not possible then have it automatically turn off, once it's detected no active use for some reasonable period of time. Ideally I'd be able to set both the specific type of shutdown state and the period of inactivity to trigger this.

Realistically I appreciate there's a reason this device is so much cheaper than an iPad. Hence I'm not going to complain about the lengthy boot-up time, or any lack of granularity around settings that allow it to sleep or shutdown automatically.

I'm frustrated to find a new tablet doesn't have the same functionality as older Samsung phones. Technically the phones are even older than they should be, as I was much happier buying older models which retain the valued headphone jack manufacturers seem determined to lose! I like my 32R Beyer DTs which sound like the higher impedance models at work. I suspect Bluetooth headphones suffer data compression, compromising sound quality. Although latency isn't an issue here, I'm suspicious manufacturers will sacrifice quality in pursuit of lower lag times.

For the TL;DR folks:
Man who bought new Samsung tablet can't make it sleep or turn off automatically after periods of inactivity; worries leaving it on 24/7 will shorten lifespan, as screen is always ready to swipe and sign in. Please advise if latter concern is correct, but *most importantly* please can anyone provide help and information to assist me with making it sleep/turn off automatically?

[Dex Sawash]

I work in an Apple environment, but prefer to spend my hard earneds on Samsung Android for personal phones and a recently purchased tablet. I'm not worried about iPads, iPhone etc as they all technically belong to current or former employers.

With my personal Android phones, I leave them plugged in/charging for about 80% of the time. I never turn them off, and once their screens time out they require a hard press of the power on/off button to log back in. I'm sure such treatment is suboptimal, but so far I've always got 2-3 years life out of them before they die, which is fine since they are so relatively cheap.

This new Samsung tablet does the modern iPad thing where there's no "home" button to press, hence a firm swipe on the screen is all that's needed to immediately bring up the login requirement.

Even though my current Samsung phones only have soft keys on the surface, once the screen times out I need to press the power button on the side to log back in. I expected this tablet to do the same.

When I set up this new tablet, I logged into my Samsung account to ensure all the settings, apps etc from my phones were imported. Nevertheless I can't find a way to power down the screen, in the same way my Android phones work.

If I do a short press on the side power button it seems to deactivate the screen; if I press a bit longer I get options to turn off or restart. If I let it time out I originally got a black screen, since then I've tried adding a screensaver - yet either way it never powers down, as I'm always able to get the login screen simply by swiping.

Since this actually belongs to me and is only really used for occasional shits, giggles and personal stuff, I'd like to ensure it has the longest possible lifespan in the circumstances. I'm concerned that by leaving it on in the current state, the screen is always active, since it just takes one swipe to log straight back in.

Even if it was practical for me to physically power down when I'm finished using it, another aspect that's disappointed me is the incredibly long boot up time, at least 2-3 minutes or more (notably longer than any Android phone I've owned!)

For my use case, both physically pressing either one button (which presumably puts it and/or the screen in some kind of sleep state) or pressing that button then pressing the screen option to turn it off, is simply not feasible. I often want to watch live or time-shifted cable news as I drift off to sleep. I also want to do the same with YouTube video content, podcasts and audiobooks.

The manual doesn't seem to address this issue, nor have I been able to find suitable help searching online. Thus I'd appreciate any advice around how I can get this tablet to at least power down its screen, once the content I've been consuming has finished and I'm fast asleep?

I'm also keen to discover how much unnecessary use/stress is put on this device, when it sits unused for several hours in a state whereby a simple screen swipe is sufficient to bring up the login screen, after which it immediately begins working?

I've gone as far as instructing it to go into a sleep cycle (or whatever the correct name is) for the hours I expect to be asleep. Unfortunately this "feature" doesn't seem to do much apart from darken the screen and withhold any kind of notifications - though I did see a proviso when setting that up, indicating it only works if no apps etc are in use.

Ideally I want this tablet to either turn off the screen to some kind of sleep type state, or if that's not possible then have it automatically turn off, once it's detected no active use for some reasonable period of time. Ideally I'd be able to set both the specific type of shutdown state and the period of inactivity to trigger this.

Realistically I appreciate there's a reason this device is so much cheaper than an iPad. Hence I'm not going to complain about the lengthy boot-up time, or any lack of granularity around settings that allow it to sleep or shutdown automatically.

I'm frustrated to find a new tablet doesn't have the same functionality as older Samsung phones. Technically the phones are even older than they should be, as I was much happier buying older models which retain the valued headphone jack manufacturers seem determined to lose! I like my 32R Beyer DTs which sound like the higher impedance models at work. I suspect Bluetooth headphones suffer data compression, compromising sound quality. Although latency isn't an issue here, I'm suspicious manufacturers will sacrifice quality in pursuit of lower lag times.

For the TL;DR folks:
Man who bought new Samsung tablet can't make it sleep or turn off automatically after periods of inactivity; worries leaving it on 24/7 will shorten lifespan, as screen is always ready to swipe and sign in. Please advise if latter concern is correct, but *most importantly* please can anyone provide help and information to assist me with making it sleep/turn off automatically?

Maybe can map power/lock to the bixby button or sumthin instead of in the swipe down settings might trigger a deeper sleep, fuck if i know.

x

[Dex Sawash]

Do you have "always on display" enabled? Can search for it in settings in pull down tray if it isn't already one of the pull down tray icons. I always turn that shit off.

[mojo filters]

Do you have "always on display" enabled? Can search for it in settings in pull down tray if it isn't already one of the pull down tray icons. I always turn that shit off.

Thanks for your suggestions. My tablet doesn't have any "always on display" option, and I couldn't find it on my phones either. I did a bit of Googling and it seems like a common feature on iPhone and is apparently on some android phones. Unfortunately it's definitely not on my tablet.

So basically it seems like the tablet screen will be on all the time if I use it for consuming media to go to sleep with. That seems like a pointless waste. I didn't have to enter any special settings on my android phones for them to automatically power off the screen when it times out.

Also it turns out the tablet screen stays on even if I press the power button to turn it off, as I found I can always restart it by tapping or swiping the screen.

As far as I can tell, the tablet is simply either always on or completely turned off. Given the absurdly long (over 2 minutes) boot up time, I'm going to end up only ever turning it off if I'm travelling or leaving it in the house for long periods.

I am happy leaving my phones on all the time, as they need the power button pressing to wake up the screen. So far I've always got a good 2-3 years out of every android phone, which is fine. I've no idea if leaving the tablet on all the time puts extra wear on the screen itself? I'd have assumed so, but that's just a guess.

Unless anyone else has any advice, I guess it's just a case of waiting to see how long it lasts!

[touchingcloth]

Is it correct that your screen doesn't stay "on" in the sense of being lit up, and you're more worried about the device being active even with the screen off due to how quickly it seems to come back to life after a while of not using it? I can't quite picture how it is behaving differently from a smartphone.

I listen to podcasts and stuff while I go to sleep, and I use a fifteen minute countdown timer set to "stop playing" rather than to sound an alarm once the time is up. That's on an iPhone, but maybe Android tablets have a built in timer with the same option.

[Dex Sawash]

FWIW I've had a series of Samsung tablets and even the oldest (2015ish) still works and has reasonable battery life. They won't update some streaming apps so not really useful but not fucked do to power-down/ screen off behavio(u)r. I have an ipad2 that has amazing locked-but-on battery life, like only touch it every 6 months to see if it still works and it does. The Samsungs won't match it.

[falafel]

Short answer: the screen and the touch sensor are two related but different things, so I probably wouldn't worry if I were you.

Long answer: If your screen is black when it times out and also when you press the power button, and there is definitely no light coming through, then I think you are fine. When I say "light coming through", I mean in that way that sometimes when watching a video and it goes black it is still black but noticeably somehow "backlit", or not as black as when it is actually powered off.

It won't be the screen itself that is on, but the touch sensitive component which uses negligible amounts of battery. Every phone I have had for the last seven or eight years has had either a feature where you can double tap the screen to turn it on, or an under-the-screen fingerprint sensor which relies on detecting a touch to enable the sensor itself and turn the screen on to show if your finger is in the right place. Newer versions of Android have lots of fancy gubbins that allow it to respond very quickly when it needs to wake back up and still use very little power.

If you can still detect a backlight then that seems a problem. But I would wager that if your screen is off, it's off, and swiping it is just doing the same thing that pressing the power button would do - ie, waking it up. Have your tried just leaving it on standby without using it and seeing how long it takes to go flat?

[mojo filters]

Short answer: the screen and the touch sensor are two related but different things, so I probably wouldn't worry if I were you.

Long answer: If your screen is black when it times out and also when you press the power button, and there is definitely no light coming through, then I think you are fine. When I say "light coming through", I mean in that way that sometimes when watching a video and it goes black it is still black but noticeably somehow "backlit", or not as black as when it is actually powered off.

It won't be the screen itself that is on, but the touch sensitive component which uses negligible amounts of battery. Every phone I have had for the last seven or eight years has had either a feature where you can double tap the screen to turn it on, or an under-the-screen fingerprint sensor which relies on detecting a touch to enable the sensor itself and turn the screen on to show if your finger is in the right place. Newer versions of Android have lots of fancy gubbins that allow it to respond very quickly when it needs to wake back up and still use very little power.

If you can still detect a backlight then that seems a problem. But I would wager that if your screen is off, it's off, and swiping it is just doing the same thing that pressing the power button would do - ie, waking it up. Have your tried just leaving it on standby without using it and seeing how long it takes to go flat?

Thanks for all the information, I didn't understand that the touch sensitive part is seperate from the screen.

I get exactly what you mean about "properly" black and "backlit" black. I'm quite certain that it goes completely black after the screen times out. I did try a screensaver for a day or so, and that was lit all the time I wasn't using it, so I turned the screensaver option off and now the black screen looks properly turned off.

I haven't tested the battery at all yet, as I've added this tablet to the iPads in my home office (basically to watch several feeds and TV channels at once, as an improvised alternative to the big screens in the office that are usually divided into 4 separate quarters) and I just leave them all plugged in all the time. I'll try and find a convenient time to give your suggestion a try.

I certainly don't expect it to last the way my Apple devices have. At the end of the day even if it shits the bed after a year of constant use, it'll have cost me less than a $1 per day which I can live with.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Check the battery/power settings, often it'll give you a breakdown of what's using your battery and how much "time" it's using so if the backlight was staying on that would be quite high. Although it'll often feature in there if you're using it normally for watching vids/browsing as it's a naturally fair drain.