Samsung users on One UI 6.1 report bug when expanding notifications on lock screen or home screen

In the past few days I’ve been caught up on the Samsung forums and other sub-reddits dedicated to the company’s smartphones. Reports of various bugs and issues popping up after the One UI 6.1 update are flooding the communities. Now, another particular issue has caught my eye. Several users are reporting (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13) that they’re facing an issue when expanding notifications after updating to One UI 6.1.

According to users who installed One UI 6.1, they can no longer interact with notifications after using the swipe down gesture from the home screen. Performing the gesture brings the notification panel in view, however, users cannot interact with the notification right away. They have to tap on the notification twice instead.

Similarly, even on the lock screen, users claim that tapping the notification icons just brings down the notification panel. Tapping on the icons should otherwise expand the notifications and bring the contents in view. Notably, the problem isn’t exclusive to any device. I’ve seen many reports primarily from Galaxy S23 users (due to the popularity), but there are also users with the Galaxy Z Flip 5 who’re facing the same problem. Here’s a video shared by a user on the Samsung community forums showing the bug.

Note: The video below loads from our Imgur account:

I’ve also added a couple of detailed user explanations of the bug for your reference too:

I found a very frustrating but on the lock screen. When i try to swipe to unlock, my first swipe isn’t registered on every few attempts. I need to swipe again to enter. The reason behind that is that there’s an active gesture for bringing down the notification shade from any part of the screen on lock screen. I notices that this only happens when notification icons are active. Not the other option for full notifications.

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Ever since updating to 6.1, when I expand notification shade via gesture (such as swipe down anywhere on home screen), the notifications are non-interactive on the first tap. I have to tap twice to interact with them. If I want to swipe down to expand an individual notification, the first swipe expands the quick settings panel, then if I swipe up/down again, it expands the individual notification.

Confirmed the same behavior with both OneUI Home and Nova Launcher. Also confirmed that the bug does not occur when initiating the swipe down from the top of the screen (i.e. – not using gestures).

After reading dozens of comments, I did notice that some even linked this bug to the fingerprint issues that people have been facing. How so? Well, when you try tapping on the fingerprint sensor to unlock the device, the phone randomly triggers the notification panel instead. Here’s how one user explained it:

This bug is also present on the lock screen.

It prevents swiping to unlock or taping on the FP reader for the first time.

Also, if music player is active, every few times when i try to change a song on the lock screen, it opens the notification panel instead.

Also, when swiping on the notification icons, first you get a regular full view of the notification, and on another attempt it just skips to the full toggle view.

Factory reset doesn’t help also.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any immediate fix for the problem. Users have tried restarting their phones and other troubleshooting tips to no avail. Some even took the big step of resetting their devices completely, only to be greeted with the same bug after setting up their devices.

The only thing that you can do right now is to stop using the swipe gestures that let you swipe down from anywhere on the home screen or lock screen. Instead, you can trigger the notification panel by swiping from the status bar directly. This trick worked for most users and was even recommended by a mod.

If you swipe from the top of the screen to the bottom to open the Notification panel, then tap the drop down arrow to the right of the notification, then this will expand it without the need to swipe down a second time to expand the panel.

Samsung hasn’t acknowledged the glaring issue yet. So it’s likely that we might not see a fix for the issue any time soon. However, as more reports and complaints pour in over the days, I’m sure the folks over at Samsung won’t be able to ignore it any longer.

Well, that’s it from my side. If you feel like the article was useful, please consider dropping a like. In case you have figured out an alternative workaround, feel free to share it in the comments below. Thanks in advance!