Turn Background Data Usage On or Off
If your Samsung phone burns through mobile data even when you are not actively using an app, background data usage is likely the cause. Apps rely on this setting to refresh content, sync accounts and push notifications while running in the background. Blocking it for specific apps can cut data usage, but it may also delay alerts or updates.
Add App Shortcut to Home Screen
When App Overview is turned on, new apps stop landing on your home screen automatically. That means some tools sit buried in the app drawer where you have to search for them every time you want to open them. Adding a shortcut manually solves that without changing any other home screen settings.
Find Apps and Files with Samsung Finder Search
Scrolling through folders on the home screen or app drawer to find one app can take longer than just typing its name. When Finder search is not your default habit, you end up swiping through pages instead of getting instant results, including files stored in your phone's memory and not only installed apps.
Turn On/Off App Drawer
If your Samsung Home screen only shows a handful of app icons while everything else stays tucked away behind a swipe-up gesture, the App Drawer layout is active. Some users find it faster to have every installed app sitting directly on the Home screen instead of opening a separate overview. Switching between these two layouts changes how One UI organizes and displays your apps.
Allow or Block Display Over Other Apps
When a chat bubble or floating icon from an app like Facebook Messenger keeps covering your screen no matter what you open, that app has permission to draw over other apps. Some tools need this to work, like screen recorders or floating widgets, but many apps request it without a clear reason. If the overlay gets in the way or feels like a privacy risk, you can turn it off per app.
Uninstall Secure Folder
Secure Folder can't just be deleted from your Samsung phone - it has to be uninstalled through its own settings menu. Confirming the uninstall wipes everything stored inside it, including apps, photos, contacts and documents. Once removed, you can set up a new Secure Folder from scratch later.
Change Default Messaging App
If your preferred messaging app never opens incoming texts, Samsung is still routing standard SMS through its own Messages app. Samsung lets you actively pick which app handles text messages, unlike some other Android setups. A screen lock combined with a restart can also delay message loading until you unlock the device once.
Show or Hide the App Drawer Button on the Home Screen
On Samsung phones the app list normally opens with a swipe up on the home screen, and many users miss the dedicated button from older models. If that swipe gesture feels unreliable or you simply prefer a fixed icon, a hidden home screen option lets you bring back a visible shortcut for the app list.
Hide Apps from the Home Screen
If an app icon keeps cluttering your Samsung home screen even though you barely use it, uninstalling feels too drastic, especially for preinstalled apps you might need later. One UI has a built-in Hide apps option that removes the icon from the home and apps screens without deleting anything. The app stays installed, keeps running in the background, and is still listed in your full app settings.
Set App Timers
If one app on your phone keeps eating more of your day than planned, Samsung's App Timer can shut it down automatically once the daily budget runs out. The app closes itself and stays locked until midnight, then resets. Apps inside Secure Folder or dual-app clones are not affected by this limit at all.
Set Custom App Icons
If your home screen still shows the default Samsung icon set even after installing an icon pack from the Galaxy Store, the pack is downloaded but not switched on yet. One UI keeps custom icon sets separate from your current app grid until you apply them manually inside the Themes app. No root access or third-party launcher is required to activate them.
Add Apps to Secure Folder
Apps you drop directly into Secure Folder often seem to vanish - they never turn up in the regular app list or in your device settings. That is expected: Secure Folder keeps its content in a separate, Knox-protected space, so an app can exist twice on the same phone without either copy sharing data.
Allow Unknown App Installations
Downloaded an .apk file straight from a website and your Samsung phone refuses to install it? That block comes from the system default that only trusts apps delivered through the Google Play Store or Galaxy Store. Since Android 9, this permission is no longer a single global switch, it has to be granted separately for every app that tries to install something.
Reset App Preferences
If a link keeps opening in the wrong app, notifications stay silent, or a permission you never touched suddenly blocks a feature, one of your apps might have leftover setting changes piling up. Instead of checking every app individually, Samsung lets you roll all app preferences back to default in one step. This does not remove any app data, so accounts, files, and photos stay untouched.
Allow or Restrict Background Activity of Apps
If your Samsung phone loses battery fast even when you barely touch certain apps, background activity is often the reason. Some apps keep syncing, refreshing content or checking location while you are not using them, which quietly drains the battery between charges. You can turn this off for individual apps without disabling their notifications completely.
Exclude Apps from Automatic Sleep Mode
If a messaging or fitness app stops sending notifications hours after you last opened it, Samsung's background power management is probably putting it into deep sleep. Apps in that state get delayed sync, skip background refreshes, and often miss push alerts. You can protect specific apps from this automatic sleep behavior instead of disabling battery optimization for everything.
Schedule Update Installation
Not every firmware update on your Samsung phone has to go in right away. Installing it in the middle of the day means the restart interrupts whatever you're doing. Samsung lets you pick a time within the next 24 hours so the install and restart happen automatically when you're not using the phone.
App Icon Badges: Enable or Disable per App
If your home screen keeps showing a red notification dot on apps you barely open, while a messaging app you actually check stays silent, the global App icon badges switch is not doing the job. Samsung lets you control badges for each app separately, but many people only ever touch the main toggle. Without checking the individual app settings, badges end up either everywhere or nowhere.
Change Home Screen Wallpaper
If your home screen still shows the old background after picking a new photo, Samsung One UI likely applied the change to the lock screen instead. The Wallpaper menu treats the start screen and lock screen as separate targets, so choosing the wrong one is the most common reason nothing visibly changes. This applies to both the built-in wallpaper packs and photos from your own gallery.
Install Print Service Plugin
If your printer does not show up when you try to print from your Samsung phone, the built-in print service most likely does not cover your printer model. Samsung ships with a standard print service that works with popular brands, but many manufacturers require their own plugin to print files correctly. Without that plugin, print jobs either fail or the printer never appears as an option.
Manage Sleeping Apps
If a messaging app suddenly stops pushing notifications or a tracking app won't sync overnight, One UI may have put it to sleep. Background usage limits on Samsung phones can pause individual apps completely, so they neither update nor notify until you open them again. Knowing whether an app sits in Sleeping, Deep sleeping, or Never sleeping explains a lot of missed alerts.
Allow Apps to Use Data While Data Saver Is On
When Data saver is active on a Samsung phone, background data gets cut for most apps, which often causes delayed messages, missing notifications or apps that refuse to sync until you open them manually. This happens because Data saver blocks mobile data in the background by default, even for apps you actually rely on. A few apps can be whitelisted individually so they keep working normally while the rest of your data stays restricted.
Add Apps to a Home Screen Folder
Once a folder sits on your Home Screen, dragging in one app at a time gets tedious fast. If you need to move several apps into the same folder, dragging each one individually wastes time and often fails when your fingers overlap icons. Samsung includes a faster method through the folder edit menu that handles multiple apps in a single pass.
Remove App Shortcut from Home Screen
If you keep adding shortcuts for the same app to your Samsung Home screen, they pile up fast and there is no obvious delete button in sight. This happens because One UI treats every shortcut as its own tile, separate from the app icon in the App Overview. Many users end up dragging the wrong icon or accidentally uninstalling the app instead of just clearing the extra shortcut.