How to Fix Incoming Calls Not Showing on Screen

If you have an Android phone, you would have surely faced an issue in which your incoming calls are not showing up on the screen. Not only Android but also iPhone users have also reported the same issue.

When you receive a call normally, your phone starts ringing and the screen turns on or wakes up. Even if your phone is in silent mode, the screen is supposed to wake up to let you know you are experiencing a incoming call. But this does not happen sometimes for various reasons.

You may miss important calls due to this issue. The only solution is to unlock your device and manually check incoming calls, which is practically not possible. In this article, we are going to show you how to fix screen not showing with incoming calls on your iPhone or Android device.

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Disable Do Not Disturb Mode

The most common reason for the screen not turning on during incoming calls is Do Not Disturb mode. If this feature is enabled, it will automatically mute all incoming calls on your device so that you don’t see the screen wake up.

Do Not Disturb Mode is a productivity feature that helps you be more productive by limiting distractions on your phone such as calls, notifications, and editing. If incoming calls are not appearing on your phone screen, the first thing to do is turn off Do Not Disturb mode.

This applies to Android and iOS users. iPhone users can open Control Center by swiping down their screen from the top right corner. Then tap the Do Not Disturb icon. Press it again to deactivate the function. When Do Not Disturb mode is on, you will see a half moon icon in the status bar (upper left corner).

If you have an Android device, you can access Do Not Disturb mode from the Quick Settings panel. Just swipe your screen down from the top and find the Do Not Disturb option. If it’s on, tap it to turn it off. Alternatively, you can navigate to Settings > Sound & notification > Do not disturb and turn off the toggle button.

Enable display over other apps

The default Phone app on your Android device has been given a special permission called Show over other apps. This permission allows the Phone app to show incoming calls on your screen even when you’re using other apps.

If for some reason this permission is disabled then you may face the issue of incoming calls not showing on screen. To check if Phone app has enabled View over other apps permission, follow these simple steps-

Open the Settings app on your Android device.
Go to Apps & notifications.
Tap the menu button (three dots), then select Special app access.
Now choose Show over other apps option.
Find the default phone app you use to receive calls. Make sure it has been allowed to show on other apps.

This method is for Android users only. iOS has this permission enabled by default.

Check Phone app permissions

Certain permissions must be enabled for the Phone app to display your incoming calls on the screen. If these permissions are disabled for some unknown reason, then you are most likely to experience issues with incoming calls not showing on screen.

Here is how you can check if all necessary permissions are enabled for the Phone app –

Open the Settings app on your Android phone.
Click on Apps and Notifications.
Now find and open Call list app.
On the App Info page, navigate to Notice. Now make sure all the toggles are active. If not, turn them on. By default, they are enabled and grayed out. You are not allowed to disable them.
Go back to the app info page and select Permissions. Here you will find a list of permissions divided into two categories: allowed and denied. Make sure all these permissions are under Authorized section in particular these: Call logs, contacts, SMS and Telephone.

Clear cache of Phone app

Another thing you can try is clearing the cache of the Phone app. This will fix any technical issues in the Phone app and reset it to its default state. Clearing the cache will not Delete your contacts and other data, so don’t be afraid of that.

You should always keep your contacts backed up to your Google account. For more on this topic, check out our article on how to backup contacts to your google account on android. Anyway, let’s continue with the method. Follow these simple steps to clear the cache of the Phone app:

Open the Settings app on your Android device.
Move towards Applications and notifications > Phone.
Go now to Storage app info page option.
Faucet Empty the cache options. That’s it!

Your phone should now be able to wake up or turn on the screen with an incoming call. You can test this by calling your number from another phone. If that doesn’t work, try clearing the app data.

Reset app preferences

Android has this option to reset app preferences, which will change all your default custom app settings. So, if you made any changes by mistake that caused you to not turn on the screen with incoming calls, such as changing the Phone app permissions, they can be fixed by this method.

To reset app preferences on Android, open your settings and go to Apps and Notifications. Now tap the 3-dot menu button in the upper right corner and then select Reset app preferences options. You will get a pop-up window asking you to confirm your action. Click on Reset apps and you did. This method will only work for Android users.

Use Google Phone app

Google Phone is an alternative phone app that can be manually installed on your device and used to receive all your incoming calls. Some Android smartphones already use Google Phone as the default phone app, but if you have another native app from your manufacturer, you can install it from Play Store.

Just open Play Store on your Android device and search Google Phone. Once you find the app, tap the Install button and wait for it to download. After installation, open the app from the home screen and follow the onscreen instructions. You will be prompted to set it as the default phone app.

You will now receive all your incoming calls through the Google Phone app and hopefully this will fix the issue of incoming calls not showing on screen. Call your number from another phone and check if you receive calls through Google Phone or your previous app.

Factory reset your phone

This is the last method and should only be used if the other methods do not work. It requires you to have a backup of your data including photos, videos, contacts and other files because you will lose them all after factory reset. You can transfer this data to your PC or create a online backup on google.

As the name suggests, factory reset returns your phone to the state it was in when you first bought it. This means you won’t have any third-party apps or custom preferences saved on it.

If any technical glitch, bug, or update caused your screen to not turn on during incoming calls, it will be fixed by this method. To factory reset your Android device, open the Settings app and go to System > Reset options > Erase all data (factory reset). Click now Erase all data again and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the whole process.

Last Words

Incoming calls not showing on screen is a very common problem that can happen to any user. It must be addressed immediately, otherwise you will miss important calls. We have shared some of the best methods to fix this issue on your iPhone or Android device. If you have any questions related to this topic, feel free to share them in the comments below.