Help White Rectangle at bottom of screen

[Midnight1811]

Hi, basically this strange white rectangle has started to appear at the bottom of my phone screen. Any idea what it is? I have tried turning my phone off, and on again, but to no avail. Please can someone shed some light onto the matter...

 

[lunatic59]

Is it still there when you open an app? It looks like some sort of collapsed menu bar. Try sweeping up from the bottom.

 

[Midnight1811]

Firstly, thank you for replying.

That is a good suggestion, I will consider it.

It doesn't happen all the time, just some times. I tried swiping up but nothing happened. I closed all apps, yet it still remained there. Like I said, sometimes it isn't there, which is bizarre.

Could it be some form of Malware you reckon?

 

[lunatic59]

You could use a task killer to close off apps one by one until it disappears. Normally I don't recommend task killers, but in this case, the diagnostics would be helpful.

 

[Midnight1811]

You could use a task killer to close off apps one by one until it disappears. Normally I don't recommend task killers, but in this case, the diagnostics would be helpful.

Ok, thanks for helping. My first port of call was google, but it was difficulty trying to describe what is wrong. I have a sneaky suspicion it has something to do with WhatsApp. I say this because its an app I use frequently, and it seems to appear around when I open it. I tried closing the app to see if the box disappears, but it hasn't. So I will experiment further by uninstalling Whatsapp, and seeing of the problem reoccurs.

I shall report back soon with the findings. I'm yet to install this task killer, any particular you recommend? Thanks again for your time.

 

[ironass]

PLAN B

Run the phone in Safe Mode as per #1.4 of S4 Lollipop Update Problems - Dummies Guide
and see if the issue is still there. If so, it is a system issue. If not it is a user app or setting. Should help narrow things down for you.

 

[lunatic59]

Doesn't Samsung include a task manager? Go to menu>settings>general tab and select application manager. From there scroll to the right until you get to "running" then you can kill them off one at a time.

 

[Midnight1811]

Doesn't Samsung include a task manager? Go to menu>settings>general tab and select application manager. From there scroll to the right until you get to "running" then you can kill them off one at a time.

Hi fellas, I removed Whatsapp yet it still appeared. So I went back to what lunatic59 said earlier regarding a collapsed menu bar, and decided to see which apps open with a white bar, and t was AppSwap. I allowed for the white bar to appear on the screen, then quickly removed and uninstalled that app and hey presto, white bar vanished!

Cheers guys, my question has been answered.

On a side note, say if you were to get a virus on your phone, if you factory reset it, would it also go?

 

[ironass]

On a side note, say if you were to get a virus on your phone, if you factory reset it, would it also go?

It depends on the virus/malware as it could work its way into the OS. I would suggest a Full Wipe+Factory Data Reset and flash your stock firmware again. Just to be sure. See, #2.3, #2.4, #2.5 and #2.7 of S5 Lollipop Update Problems - Dummies Guide

 

[PJMann]

HI I seem to have a similar problem on an s8+ With me it always happens when I push the home button. this makes the phone unusable as that is what I need to do to enter the pin code before I can do anything with it. Prior to that, after a reboot, the display shows ok in that area of the screen, with the usual screen display with the time which is what made me think it must be a software problem.. The 2 phone shops I've been in tell me the display is broken even though it does work ok as I've described... They havent given 'me an explanation of why it works ok some of the time.