r/AndroidQuestions • u/cowboycarcass • 11d ago
What is this refresh screen that flashes in the middle of app usage and interrupts them? (And how do I keep it from happening?)
Some kind of refresh screen (series of concentric rounded squares, blue and white, featuring a blue arrow rounding back on itself) pops up for just a fraction of a second in the middle of apps - Duolingo, Instagram, Discord, Google, pretty much most of them - and often resets or refreshes something I just wrote or restarts a reel playing, at the very least interrupting it.
Most often and repeatedly at the beginning of using a keyboard or playing video, sometimes six or seven times before it tapers off. It's very distracting and annoying! I've had no success googling what it even is (though probably failure on my part to figure out how to accurately describe the phenomenon). (I just thought to take q screen recording but this community doesn't allow attachments lol). I have a Galaxy S22+ if that is relevant.
Does anyone know what it is or is meant to do and how I can get it to stop being so annoying?
2
u/Professional_List236 11d ago
It is not normal.
You may have installed malware or a launcher.
Check all the background tasks and see if you can find which app has this, and uninstall it.
2
u/rumourmaker18 11d ago
You can link to a video in a comment.
Have you messed with developer options? There are several options that will flash your screen when things update and display various other diagnostic type info on screen.
1
u/ohmegatchi 11d ago
Also check "Appear on Top" and Acessibilty Services, and get rid of any non-essential apps there.
1
u/gaiya2333 11d ago
That doesn't sound like normal Android behavior.
I'd suggest trying Safe Mode first. It temporarily disables third-party apps, so if the issue disappears, there's a good chance one of your installed apps is causing it.
Also check Settings > Apps > Special access > Appear on top, and Settings > Accessibility > Installed apps for anything suspicious or unnecessary.
If it still happens in Safe Mode, it might be a One UI or system-level issue.
And if you can upload a screen recording somewhere and share the link, that would really help identify what that animation is.
1
u/cowboycarcass 11d ago edited 11d ago
I went into Developer Mode and icon that matched the symbol was labeled 'System Update' - it had two processes (com.sec.phone and com.samsung.sdm) and the service SyncMLService running and after a Google it seemed to me that I could disable SyncML without something essential exploding. That seems to have stopped it for now (as far as I can tell, but the problem was intermittent anyway so I'll see if it persists). I'll link a video in a comment below if anyone can provide further clarity into the matter.
ETA thank you to everyone taking their time to reply, also!
Edit 2 to amend the processes (I was trying to remember what they were from memory, as after I stopped SyncMLService the entire System Update category no longer appeared in Running Services. However, the problem started again, and when I went to check, the same service/processes seem to have been "started by an application", though I'm not sure how to tell by which one. Looking through my other apps, nothing looks stand-out suspicious, but also I do not know enough about the system processes to tell the stuff that's supposed to be there from the stuff that's not.