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OnePlus

Guides for OnePlus 5T

444 guides

Network & Connectivity

Enable or Disable Mobile Hotspot

If your laptop or tablet cannot see your OnePlus phone's WiFi hotspot, or the connection keeps dropping, the toggle for it is not in the quick settings panel on OxygenOS. It sits inside the network menu together with the hotspot name and password. Leaving it on unnecessarily also drains the battery faster than a normal WiFi connection.

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Apps & Installation

Allow App Installs from Unknown Sources

Trying to install an APK outside the Google Play Store and getting blocked on your OnePlus phone? Your browser or file manager needs explicit permission before it can install anything from outside the store. Without that permission enabled, Android refuses the installation as a security precaution.

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Display & Home Screen

Adjust screen brightness manually

If the screen on your OnePlus phone feels too dim indoors or too bright at night, automatic brightness is often making the call instead of you. Once Adaptive Brightness kicks in, the slider can jump around on its own, making it hard to lock in a comfortable level. Setting the brightness by hand gives you a fixed, predictable result every time.

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Other

Enable or Disable Lift to Wake

If your OnePlus screen keeps lighting up every time you pick up the phone or just shift it in your hand, the motion sensor behind 'Pick up your phone to show' is reacting too eagerly. That constant wake-up drains battery faster and can expose your lock screen notifications at moments you did not intend. The setting is meant to save you a tap when checking the time, but it often triggers from pocket movement or when passing the phone between hands.

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Notifications & Focus

Set Up Bedtime Mode

If your OnePlus screen stays in full color and notifications keep buzzing right before you fall asleep, the built-in bedtime routine probably isn't active yet. Without a schedule, the phone never dims its colors or silences alerts on its own, so late-night scrolling gets no visual cue to stop. Bedtime mode ties grayscale and silence to a fixed time window or to your charging habit, so it works without you touching a single toggle each night.

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Network & Connectivity

Enable or Disable a SIM Card

On a Dual SIM OnePlus phone, one line sometimes needs to be shut off completely instead of just switched to the background. Turning off a SIM card stops it from receiving calls and texts right away, while mobile data and messaging priorities move automatically to the remaining card. This is useful when a second line sits unused for a while but should not be removed from the tray.

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Security & Privacy

Disable Lock Screen Password

If your OnePlus phone still asks for a pattern, PIN or password every time you wake the screen, the lock screen security feature is still active. This also keeps fingerprint and face unlock tied to that passcode, so removing it wipes any saved biometric data. You need your current unlock method on hand before you can turn the request off.

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System & Settings

Add a Printer Manually by IP Address

If your OnePlus phone does not detect your printer automatically, the built-in Default Print Service probably does not recognize your model. This happens with older or less common printers that are not listed in the supported device catalog. You can still connect the printer over your local network by entering its IP address directly.

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Battery & Power

Enable or Disable Battery Saver

When your OnePlus phone drains faster than usual, background apps, animations and sync jobs are often still running at full power. Battery Saver throttles that activity to stretch the remaining charge, and it can also switch on by itself at a set time, for example overnight while the phone is idle.

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Calls & Messages

Add Members to a Contacts Group

A label or group in the OnePlus Contacts app stays empty until you actually assign people to it. Many users create a group but then struggle to find where to add contacts afterward, especially when they want to select several people at once instead of adding them one by one.

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Notifications & Focus

Assign a Custom Ringtone to a Contact

When your phone rings, you often can't tell who's calling until you glance at the screen. OnePlus lets you assign a distinct ringtone to individual contacts, including your own MP3 files, so specific callers stand out just by the sound.

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Network & Connectivity

Open WiFi Network Notification

If your OnePlus keeps popping up alerts every time you walk past a coffee shop or airport hotspot, the open network notification is doing its job a little too well. This constant pinging gets old fast in busy public areas. You can control exactly when and if these alerts show up.

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Language & Input

Enable or Disable Keyboard Auto-Correction

Typing a technical term, a name, or slang on your OnePlus and watching Gboard swap it for a completely different word is frustrating, especially in a WhatsApp chat or a work email you cannot easily edit after sending. Auto-correction speeds up typing for most people, but it also guesses wrong often enough to break sentences or change meaning. If wrong substitutions keep showing up, the fix sits in the keyboard's text correction settings.

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Network & Connectivity

Print a PDF File via Wi-Fi

When a printer sits in the same room but a PDF still will not print from your OnePlus phone, the Wi-Fi printing feature usually is not activated correctly. Android needs to detect the printer on the same network before the print dialog shows any device to choose from. Without that connection, the option list stays empty even though everything looks fine at first glance.

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Display & Home Screen

Edit Quick Settings in the Status Bar

If your quick settings panel is cluttered with icons you barely use, or a toggle like Flashlight or Screen Recorder is nowhere to be found, the layout just needs a manual edit. OxygenOS keeps every extra shortcut hidden in a separate row until you drag it into the visible panel yourself. Until you sort that list, you keep swiping past icons you never touch while the ones you actually need stay out of reach.

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Battery & Power

Show Detailed Battery Usage

If your OnePlus battery screen only lists a few apps since you unplugged the charger, you are not seeing the full picture of what drained your battery. Oxygen OS keeps a more detailed breakdown that covers every app and background process since your last full charge, but it is tucked away from the main battery screen.

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Notifications & Focus

Change Alarm Volume

If your OnePlus phone barely wakes you up, the alarm might still be tied to your media volume level. OnePlus lets you adjust the alarm tone on its own scale with seven volume steps, independent of whatever you last set for music or games. That means a quiet media setting from the night before won't leave you oversleeping in the morning.

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Security & Privacy

Remove a Fingerprint

If a fingerprint no longer unlocks your OnePlus reliably or a scan keeps failing at the payment screen, an old or damaged fingerprint entry is often the cause. Up to five fingerprint IDs can sit on one device, and a faulty one among them slows down every unlock attempt. Removing the wrong finger entirely also switches off fingerprint unlock and fingerprint payment if no other ID remains.

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Notifications & Focus

Enable or Disable App Notification Dots

When WhatsApp, Messenger or another app gets a new message, OnePlus shows a small dot above the app icon by default, even after you have already checked the notification shade. This behavior comes from a single system toggle called Allow notification dots, not from the apps themselves. If the dots feel redundant or distracting next to your badge counts, you can switch the whole feature off in one step.

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Security & Privacy

Enable or Disable Incognito Mode in Chrome

If a search on your OnePlus suddenly opens inside a dark grey browser tab with a small mask icon in the status bar, incognito mode is active in Chrome. Bookmarks, history and autofill data stop saving in that tab, which can be confusing if you expect your usual browsing setup to load. Knowing where this mode lives helps you switch it on for private searches or turn it off when regular browsing feels off.

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Photo, Video & Media

Change Camera Mode

If the OnePlus camera keeps opening in the wrong mode, or you cannot find the switch between Photo, Video and Pro, the mode bar at the bottom of the viewfinder is easy to overlook. Many users only ever tap the shutter button and never realize the row of mode labels above it can be swiped or tapped directly. Knowing exactly where that bar sits saves time whenever you need to switch quickly between stills and video.

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Apps & Installation

Hide Apps on Home Screen and in App Drawer

If an app keeps showing up on your home screen or inside the app drawer even though you never use it, the shortcut is simply set to visible in the launcher settings. This is common for pre-installed apps or tools you only open occasionally and do not want cluttering your layout. The fix works whether or not the App Drawer is switched on, since OxygenOS handles hidden shortcuts separately from the visible grid.

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Storage & Backup

Change Google Backup Account

If you have several Google Accounts added to your OnePlus phone, your backups can end up saved under the wrong one. That makes it hard to find contacts, app data, or settings later, especially after a reset or when setting up a new device. Switching which account handles Backup fixes where that data actually lands.

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Security & Privacy

Enable Fingerprint Unlock

If you are still typing in your PIN or pattern every time you pick up your OnePlus phone, you are missing the fingerprint sensor built into most models. Fingerprint scanning lets the device recognize you instantly without a code, but it only works once a fingerprint has been enrolled in Security settings. Skipping this step also blocks fingerprint-based app locks and quick approvals for payments.

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