Set the amount of time that elapses before the Samsung Galaxy S9 times out and shuts off the screen with these steps.
Set Screen Timeout
- From the Home screen, select “Settings” > “Display” > “Screen timeout“.
- Choose one of the following:
- 15 seconds
- 30 seconds
- 1 minute
- 2 minutes
- 5 minutes
- 10 minutes
Enable or Disable “Smart Stay”
The Galaxy S9 has a feature that will detect if your eyes are looking at the screen. If your eyes are detected, the screen will not time out. Enable or disable this setting with these steps.
- From Home, select “Settings“.
- Choose “Display“.
- Set “Smart stay” to “On” or “Off” as desired.
Disable Screen Timeout
The Galaxy S9 does not have an option to completely disable the screen from timing out when the phone is not plugged in. You can however set the phone to never disable the screen when it is plugged in using these steps.
- Select “Settings” > “About phone“.
- Tap “Build number” 7 times to unlock developer mode.
- Now under “Settings” you have an option for “Developer options“. Under this menu, there is a “Stay awake” option.
Jamie says
This is one fatal flaw about my Samsung s9, along with the lack of width in space bar making.every.sentence.look.like.a.we.page. 🙄
The auto timeout over 30 seconds is extremely annoying and an unnecessary waste of time when trying to navigate phone while doing life. Is this on EVERY Samsung phone or just s9? If later versions don’t struggle with this I will upgrade. But, please, for the love, Samsung how is it you can’t give us an override option that will actually STICK?!? 😣
Gregory A McGaw says
I have an unlimited data plan so I am not worried about overage costs. I can go to “Settings, Display, Screen Timeout” and change it to 5 minutes but it reverts back to the 30 second mode within a day or two.
Joseph D Lindberg says
Ok i believe i have the same problem while im in a call, i need to type numbers, ex( press 1 for this!), the screen goes dim every 10 seconds, I’ve asked this ? Why, and how do I fix it, I’ve called Samsung, and t-mobile, asked for a tech and got advanced tech, in both companies even had them on the phone together, that was 6 months ago, alot of people have this problem! Almost everyone I know, and no answer, why or how to fix it! There used to be an app, i had that kept screen on but an update canceled the app! This has to be a serious issues for Samsung, or some kind of secrets being kept, employees that know why will be fired if it gets out! And the messed up thing they know this is seriously irritating, and gets people passed off, I believe they want to charge you one day, 1 or 2 dollars for every option you have on your phone, just like cable and satellite every channel!
Mysterri says
This has been my problem for more than a year. Thanks for putting it into words. But, still no fix,? Changing phone brands seems like the best option for me.
Bob Wells says
Hi Mitch Bartlett
I think it may be time for a revisit on this one, on any S8 upward samsung, running android 9 one UI, the Dev mode under “stay awake” is “screen will never sleep while charging”, If you set adaptive brightness to off the phones still dim after 10 mins as per Charlie’s comment.
The original question was how to get the screen to NEVER turn off which is what everyone here wants, and from scouring the net it looks like that is NTP (not technically possible).
Please prove me wrong.
SCOTT M CAMPBELL says
Even with developer option to stay awake my phone switches back to 30 second timeout!
Chris says
When I go to settings/display my phone keeps saying ” Settings has Stopped ” close app. It won’t let me adjust my lkenght if time, it won’t allow me into the area at all
Laurie says
I followed the instruction to disable screen timeout, but the description when in developer mode under “stay awake” is “screen will never sleep while charging”…I want to disable timeout when I’m using the phone, not when I’m charging the phone…what now?
Thanks
Samuel Peterson says
Can’t turn off screen timeout?
Welp, guess it’s jailbreak-time! Thanks for the great product Samsung!
PH4S1N says
It work when i charging but when i not charging it back to normal setting screen timeout
julia ramos says
i cant set it so while im on phone the screen goes black. im doing work on phone that requires screen when in on phone. how do i fix it
JD says
My phone will not time out at the chosen 30sec time. It takes forever.
Kyrie says
Even if I set my screen to timeout after 10min. every morning I have to re-set this because it seems overnight it’ll “reset” itself to turn off after 30sec.
David South says
Download no screen off from play store
This will disable screen time out,
Mitch Bartlett says
You may have Adaptive Brightness turned on. You’ll want to turn that off.
Charlie Warren says
The Phone is Still Dimming… When I Get a Phone Call, but at Least It’s Not Black.