Samsung S21 Screen Doesn’t Light Up When Gets a Notification

On most Android devices, when you receive a notification while the device’s screen is turned off, it usually wakes up the screen to notify you.

However, this is not the case for Samsung Galaxy S21 smartphone users. Since Samsung has removed some notification settings on the latest Android version, users now struggle because their Samsung S21 Screen Doesn’t Light Up When Gets a Notification.

But you don’t have to be worried! Because we dug up the problem and found some working solutions you can try.

If your Samsung S21 screen doesn’t light up or wake up when you get a notification, this guide is for you!

Note: Solutions for this problem given in this guide suit every model of Samsung Galaxy S21 (S21+, S21FE, S21 Ultra) 

Editor’s note: We created these instructions using a Samsung Galaxy S21 running Android 12. Depending on your device’s software version, some steps and menu positions may look slightly different.

Why doesn’t my Samsung S21 light up when I get a notification?

The two main reasons your device doesn’t wake up are some missing features on the new Android 12 and 13 updates and a bug in the Android system itself.

But sometimes, misconfigured notification settings can also cause the screen not to wake. On Android 12 and 13, when you go to the notification settings on your Galaxy S21, you will see there are two modes to select for popup notifications. One is the “Brief,” and the other is “Detailed.”

If you select the “Detailed” mode, most of the time, your phone will not wake when a notification arrives. So if you have turned it on, this might be the case.

Those are the reasons that we focused on finding solutions to fix the issue. Now without further ado, let’s go to those solutions that you have been waiting for.

How do I make my Samsung S21 screen wake up when I receive Messages?

First, we will tell you how to fix some settings on your Galaxy S21 to make the screen light up (wake up) when a notification is received. If it doesn’t work, you can use a third-party app to fix the notification issue, which is also explained in this guide.

Fix 01: Turn on “Brief mode”

When you turn on the Brief mode, you will be able to access the edge lightning notifications, which will help you get around the wake-up issue on your S21. 

If you don’t know, when enabled, the edge lighting feature will light up the edge of the screen when you receive a message or other notification. Also, you can allow which apps can access the “brief mode,” and it will allow you to filter out unnecessary notifications from popping up on the screen.

Here is how to turn on and configure the brief mode for edge lightning;

1. Go to Settings > Notifications.
2. Tap on the “Brief” option to enable the brief pop-up notifications.

3. Tap on “Brief-popup settings”.

4. Toggle on the “Show even while screen is off”.

5. Now tap on the “Edge lightning style” and customize the edge lightning effects as you want.

Now you can turn off the screen and send a message from another device to make sure the screen wakes up and the edge of the screen also lights up when receiving the message notification.

Fix 02: Turn off “Remove animations”

There is a feature called “Remove animations,” which turns off the notification animations on your device. Usually, this feature is turned off by default, but if it is accidentally turned on, your device won’t wake up for notifications.

Therefore, you have to check and make sure it is not turned on. If it is turned on, you have to turn it off, and here is how you can do that;

1. Go to Settings > Accessibility.
2. Tap on “Visibility enhancements”.
3. Toggle off “Remove animations” if it is turned on.

After that, you can test the device as before to make sure the problem is solved.

Fix 03: Turn on “Always on display”

As you might know, the Always on Display feature keeps the clock and notifications turned on without compromising a lot of battery power on your device.

Since the notifications keep up on the screen, combining the Always on Display and Edge lightning features will fix the screen wake-up problem for you.

Follow these steps to enable the “Always on display” on your Galaxy S21;

1. Open Settings and go to Display.
2. Scroll down to bottom and tap on “Always on display”.
3. Turn the toggle on to enable the Always on Display feature.
4. On the same window, tap on “Show always”.

Fix 04: Download and install the “Notification light for Samsung” app

If none of the above solutions worked for you, don’t worry. So far, we have tried to fix the problem by configuring the options on the android system. In the beginning, we told you about a third-party app you can use to enable the wake-up notifications, right? The “Notification light for Samsung” is the app we are going to use here.

Now you might ask why we chose this app. Well, here are the reasons;

• The “Notification light for Samsung” app can turn on the edge lightning if the native settings do not work.
• Even after the screen goes off (After notifying by waking up the device) the edge lightning will keep turned on, which means even if you are off the table and come back later, you will still see the notification.
• The app fully supports Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21+, S21Fe, and S21 ultra models as well.

Sounds good, right? Let’s see how to install and set up the app to fix the notification problem.

1. Install Notification light for Samsung from the Google Play Store.
2. Open the app.
3. First, select the apps you want to enable the notifications.

4. Then, allow the app to access notifications.

5. After, allow the app to draw on the screen.

6. Now you can tap on the done button to configure the notification settings.

You have the freedom to configure the notification settings as you want. But for the sake of this guide, we will only explain the must-enabled settings to fix the notification problem. Keep these settings with your preferences;

1. Tap the “Notification light”.
2. Select “Camera Edge”.

That is it. Now let’s see how it will light up your screen when you receive a notification. See the images below.

Wrapping Up

We hope this guide helped you to solve the screen doesn’t light up (wake up) problem. Which method worked for you? Don’t forget to tell us in the comment section.

If you have any questions regarding this guide, leave a comment below. We will be there to help you.

Have a nice day!