Saturday, August 20, 2016

how to fix and solve screen overlay detected problem in Android Marshmallow

Many devices like oneplus one, oneplus two, Galaxy s7, note 5, note 4, galaxy s6, s6, s6 edge, oneplus three, nexus 5, nexus 6 etc which are running android marshmallow 6.0 and 6.0.1 has this problem. This problem can be due to many reasons, and hence there cab be many solutions too fr this problem. This post will guide you on how you can fix the screen overlay detected.




I won't be going much in technical details on what is the real reason behind that etc. I am just sharing my personal experience with various devices and via interacting with various users through my YouTube channel comments how they have solved it.

In Short Why This is Happening 

Starting from Android Marshmallow, Android has been more secure by protecting users data like,

  • Phone, 
  • Call, 
  • Storage, 
  • SMS, 
  • Location, 
  • Camera etc


Which are the various user data category. Whenever you are installing any app, the app needs some of basic requirement to work. For example Google Drive app needs
  • Camera
  • Contact
  • Storage


Features to work for its various features. It is upto you which app you want to trust and give all permissions. Under any android marshmallow device when you install any app and if you are going to launch it first time, it will ask some set of permissions that it needs, As an example you can see below When you will start using Whats app it is asking for SMS related permission, if that feature and permission is mandatory for the app to work you have to give this, else the app may not work. You can later change the permissions by going again to apps/application manager under setting and can give permissions that it need.

How That is Related to Screen Overlay ?

Screen Overlay is a feature in Android which lets app to display and work on the top of other apps. For example, you are working on Twitter app and you got whats app message displayed as a popup window or a floating window over the twitter. This functionality happens due to "Draw Over Other Apps"feature in Android. Now to get this feature apps must be allowed to modify system settings, Which can be seen under apps configuration option under settings. 




The location position and name may vary depends upon the OEM OS you are running. Under Android 6.0.1 running on OnePlus 3 it looks like this,




One you go inside the 'Draw over other apps', you will see list of apps which are allowed to draw over other apps. Taking an example of twitter,




Alright Got It, Now How to Solve It

How do I (Author) Solve it, when I get this error

Thats not strange and surpise too if I got this problem in my Android phones too. Takiing an example if I am trying to oprn whats app. Here are the quick tips that I try to do,

  • Try cosing all the apps from the Android app switcher or recent app button and again try to open the app (whats app here)
  • If the above doesn't work then I try to see if there is any tools/productivity based that I have installed recently. I first try to stop them from "settings>apps>app_name". Then open the whats app again.
  • If the above two doesn't work a reboot work in 9/10 times for me. 
I tested these on OnePlus 3, Micromax Canvas Spark 2 Plus, Yu Yureka, Doodle 3. My Nexus 6P, Nexus 6 and Google Pixel XL does have these problems yet. :) Benefit of pure Android,


Trying basic solutions

I am going ti tell basic and simple solutions that you should do with even going deeper inside the settings and doing anything further,

A quick Reboot might help you

Most of the Android problems like lags, freeze and including 'Screen Overlay' can be solved by rebooting the system. Note: Make sure to close all the apps before you reboot, Android Marshmallow keeps apps in memory and resumes them.

Note: This is most simple solution. I personally use thios most often when I face this problem. Usually a 2 - 3 times keep on trying and reboot works.

Think again when the problem started

If your phone us working perfectly and suddenly you started seeing this error, which clearly means you must have played with your device. This can be,
  • Changed any system settings
  • Installed any app which causes other apps to stop working properly.

Try to recheck the app which you have installed very recently. Remove that app, generally removing any such app can solve the problem.

Remove apps from Device Administration




Each Android phone has built in device administration which gets many system level privilege like 'Double Tap to Lock', these settings tend to interrupt other app settings also.  As you can see below, try to remove all the apps from these privilege.  Also I will suggest to keep 'Android Device Manager' to have in your phone for security purpose.

Killing all Apps for Now




Usually I never recommend any Android user to install such apps which can clean all apps from memory, but I have heard from many users that they have solved there problem by a simple technique that I am going to share. Follow these steps,
  1. Clear all the apps from recent app drawer. 
  2. Now go to settings and under 'apps'/'application manager' go to your selected app and try to give permission.
  3. Then start your app again, this should work. If it does then follow below steps further.
  4. After step 1 reboot the phone then go to settings and under 'apps'/'application manager' go to your selected app and try to give permission. After this start your app and see if that works or not.
  5. If above all doesn't work then use any memory cleaner/ram cleaner app and try to clear the memory. You can optionally try to reboot the phone (though not mandatory).
  6. Try to start your app again and see if that works or not.

I have tried above solution on OnePlus Three (3) and it always worked for me. Still your problem isn't solved then  try the below method.

Reboot to Safe Mode



If you are not aware of safe mode, then here is a quick answer, its way you can use your android with running any third party apps. The OS only runs whats needed for your phone to just functional. The benefits,
  • Debugging malfunctioning app
  • Detecting virus
  • For other development works (not needed here) 

Now how to reboot to safe mode, It mainly depends on the the phone manufacturer, which key combination they are using to that. You need to check that how reboot your phone to safe mode. I am just writing here are few of the,

General way to reboot the phone (Android) in safe mode

Press and hold your phone’s power button for a few seconds until you see a prompt to turn off your phone. Next, tap and hold Power off for a few seconds until your phone asks you to confirm that you want to enter safe mode. Tap OK, and your phone will restart into safe mode.

The above mentioned method is a universal method until unless your phone manufacturer modifies the way it has been done. I am just giving an example of how you can reboot the phone to safe mode.

Reboot the Samsung Phone (Android) in safe mode

Many Samsung phone follows below method to get in to the safe mode,

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
  3. When 'SAMSUNG' appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  7. Release the Volume down key when you see 'Safe Mode'.

Turn off safe mode
  1. Press and hold the Power key.
  2. Tap Restart.

As said there are lot of manufacturer, so you need to check with phone specific model no how to reboot your phone in safe mode.



Now once you are in safe mode,
  • Go to Settings
  • Search for 'apps'/'application manager' depends upon your phone
  • Look for the app that has the problem 'with screen overlay detected'
  • go inside the app,ad give the permissions. (Better give all permissions)
  • Reboot back normally. 
  • Try to open app, It should work fine.

Video Demo


We have two videos for this. The first video also shows some detailed way on how you can solve this,





The second method is direct safe mode method,





Some Working Suggestion from Users

Based on the various feedbacks from users of my YouTube channel, Here are few tips again to solve this problem,

Uninstall Any Cleaner based apps

Given an example on Moto G4 and Moto G4 plus, many users have tried to just uninstall certain apps like 'Clean Master', 'CCleaner' etc. I have just taken a few example. In summary uninstalling any such apps which takes the control on various system level functionality like killing apps, cleaning memory stops functionality of other apps. Try to remove any such app and reboot the device to see the effect. It should work

Uninstall Recent apps

Go bacl to previous days and just remeber from when i started getting this problem. Removing any such app or apps will sove the problem.



If you still have this problem you can connect with us and can mentioned the problem we will  try to help you in the same.


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