Get Android App

Phone Link Samsung Not Working? Fixes for One UI Users (2026)

Phone Link Samsung not working or won't connect? One UI's battery killer is usually why. The exact Galaxy settings that fix it — plus the durable alternative.

Phone Link Samsung Not Working? Fixes for One UI Users

Samsung is the phone Phone Link is supposed to work best with — Galaxy devices get the deepest integration, including app streaming. So when Phone Link Samsung stops working, it's especially maddening. The good news: on a Galaxy, the cause is almost always One UI's aggressive app-sleeping, and there are two specific settings that fix it for good.

Quick answer: on your Galaxy, add Link to Windows to the Never sleeping apps list and set its battery to Unrestricted. That's the fix for the large majority of "Samsung Phone Link not connecting" and "keeps dropping" cases. The exact menu paths — and everything else — are below.

Why One UI breaks Phone Link specifically

One UI runs its own app-sleeping system on top of stock Android's battery manager — two layers, both trying to shut down background apps. Because you never open Link to Windows on the phone by hand (you use it from the PC), One UI decides it's unused and puts it to sleep. A sleeping app can't connect or sync. That's the whole disease; the settings below are the cure.

Fix 1: Add Link to Windows to "Never sleeping apps"

This is the single most important setting on a Samsung.

  1. Settings → Battery (or Battery and device care → Battery) → Background usage limits.
  2. Open Sleeping apps and Deep sleeping apps — if Link to Windows is in either list, remove it.
  3. Open Never sleeping apps → Add → select Link to Windows.

Fix 2: Set its battery to Unrestricted

  1. Settings → Apps → Link to Windows → Battery.
  2. Choose Unrestricted.

Fixes 1 and 2 together stop One UI killing the app. If your Phone Link worked and then quietly died after a day or two, this is why, and this is the fix.

Fix 3: Turn off "Put unused apps to sleep"

One UI has a global toggle that re-sleeps apps it thinks are unused — and it'll flag Link to Windows again even after Fix 1.

  1. Settings → Battery → Background usage limits (or the Adaptive battery section).
  2. Turn off "Put unused apps to sleep."

Fix 4: Stop Samsung revoking the permissions

Android silently pulling SMS or Phone permission looks exactly like Phone Link being broken.

  1. Settings → Apps → Link to Windows → Permissions → confirm SMS, Phone and Contacts are Allowed.
  2. Settings → Apps → Link to Windows → turn off "Pause app activity if unused."

Fix 5: Re-link cleanly

If it still won't connect:

  1. On the Galaxy: Settings → Apps → Link to Windows → Storage → Clear data, then sign out.
  2. On the PC: Phone Link → Settings → My devices → remove the phone.
  3. Restart both, then pair again. On Samsung, you can also start from Settings → Connected devices → Link to Windows on the phone.

Fix 6: Menu names moved? Search for them

Samsung shuffles menu names between One UI 5, 6 and 7. If a path above doesn't match word for word, type "sleeping apps" into the Settings search bar and One UI jumps you straight there. After a big One UI update, re-check Fixes 1–3 — major updates reset battery settings.

A note on app streaming and calls

Two Samsung-specific things worth knowing:

  • App streaming (running phone apps on the PC) needs both devices on the same Wi-Fi and can be blocked on work-profile phones by your IT admin — a greyed-out toggle there is the admin, not you.
  • Calls still ride Bluetooth, even on a Galaxy — so if texts sync fine but calls fail, that's the Bluetooth pairing, not One UI. See Phone Link calls not working.

The honest catch with Samsung + Phone Link

Here's the frustrating truth: even Samsung's "best-supported" integration fights One UI's own battery killer, and every One UI update can reset the settings you just fixed. You can win this battle — the settings above genuinely work — but you may have to re-win it after the next update. If your Galaxy is your work phone and dropped connections lose you real calls, that's worth weighing.

ComputerCaller (our product) is brand-agnostic — it doesn't depend on Phone Link's Samsung integration or on Bluetooth at all. A companion app on your Galaxy connects over the internet to a browser tab and reconnects itself; it runs on any OS, and it comes with the same One UI battery guidance built into setup so it actually stays alive. It's Android-only — see how it works. If you specifically want the Samsung-tuned ComputerCaller setup, we have a step-by-step: Call and text from your Samsung phone with your computer.

And if Fixes 1 and 2 brought Phone Link back to life on your Galaxy — great, that's built in and it works. Bookmark this for the next One UI update.

Related guides: