Samsung Galaxy J3 Tips and Tricks

Locking your phone is a great security feature, but when you’re at home it’s normally not necessary.

A featured called Trusted Places enables you to bypass the lock screen when you’re at specific geographic places.

To set it up go to Settings – Lock screen and security – Smart lock – Trusted places. You can also set up the bypass to work when your phone is connected to specific Bluetooth devices such as Smartwatches or Audio devices.

You can also override this (i.e. lock your screen when it is at the location). To override, just press and hold the padlock icon on the lockscreen.

This may not work on all phones, models or networks.

If you would like to unmount your SD card for whatever reason, then drag down your notifications menu from the top of the screen and press the Settings icon.

Then find Storage – SD card – Unmount SD card.

While viewing your list of Contacts you can swipe from Right to Left to send a text message to the selected contact.

This might not work on all models.

Depending on how your phone is set up, sometimes you will see lag when swiping between homescreens. There are a number of things you can try to fix this, as follows:

First, try restarting your phone. This will fix many problems.

If that doesn’t work, then remove any Widgets that pull data to the phone, such as Twitter, Weather widgets etc.

If you have Live wallpapers turned on, then try turning them off by going to Settings – Wallpaper, then changing to a different Wallpaper.

Go to Settings – System – Developer options – Window Animation Scale and Transition Animation Scale. Try changing these to 0.5x (or even 0).
(you will need to unlock Developer options if you can’t find this. Use the search form on this site).

Sometimes the problem can be with the phone or operators skin or launcher, so try going to the Play Store and downloading a third party launcher such as Nova launcher or Go LauncherEx. Note: you will need to re-create your homescreen shortcuts, but they are both great launchers.

Another tip is to always press the Back key instead of the Home key when leaving Apps. The Back key will often close the App properly, while the Home key can leave it running in the background.

To stop the Photo App or the Music player from indexing your files, place a blank text file called .nomedia in the folder containing your photos or music.

The best way to do this is to connect your device to a PC and then navigate to the relevant folder via your PC.

If you want to conserve battery life, you can turn off the WiFi while the phone is asleep.

Pull down the notifications screen. Then long press on the WiFi icon. Then press the Menu or More button and select Keep WiFi on during sleep.

The Do Not Disturb is a very useful feature if you are in a meeting or somewhere where you want to block incoming calls or messages.

To enabled Do Not Disturb, drag down your notifications and go into Settings – Sounds and notifications. Then under the Notifications section, press Do Not Disturb.

Once this is setup, you can allow exceptions for certain Apps. To set these up, press Allow Exceptions, then App notifications. You should now see a list of all of your Apps. Choose one and then select Set as priority.

Now, when notifications come in via this App and you have Do Not Disturb enabled, you should see the notifications.

To find out information about Signal Strength, Network Information, Remaining Battery Time and Battery Usage (by Application), drag down your notifications screen and select Settings.

Then under System, select About device and choose Status.

Looking for a charger for your Samsung Galaxy J3? Our guide shows you the best deals and provides advice on charger types.

Important: We take no responsibility for chargers purchased that are incompatible with your device. Please check your user manual or product descriptions before you buy.

The good news is that unless you own an iPhone (which uses the Apple Lightning Charger), almost all smartphones on the market today use the standard 5 watt Micro USB connection. This is great for consumers because it means you can normally borrow a charger from someone else if your phone is out of juice (unless they own an iPhone of course). Many shopping centres and events also provide charging stations for this connection.

Charger types
Chargers can be classified into the following four categories:

USB Charger – This is normally a simple cable that connects from your phone (micro USB port) to your laptops or desktop PCs (normal USB port). They’re super cheap and super convenient. They are often included in your phone box, but we recommend you buy extras so you can leave one at home, one at work, one at friends place etc.

Mains Charger – These also normally come in your phone’s box, but it’s also useful to have them dotted around the house or workplace so you’re never far away from a re-charge.

Car Charger – If you have a car, you should get a car charger. These simply plug into your cigarette lighter and the other end plugs into your phone. We recommend buying one for each car that you own.

Portable Charger – Also known as an external battery pack, these are great for camping, festivals or going anywhere where you may not have a mains power supply. They come in many sizes ranging from tiny portable ones providing one charge, to large power packs allowing you to charge your device multiple times.

Get the best chargers!
To help you choose, we’ve listed the best-selling chargers for the Samsung Galaxy J3. Simply click on the products below to find out more (if you don’t see any products below, make sure you pause any ad blocking software):

If you want to check how much RAM you have available, drag down your notifications screen and select Settings. Then under Device, select Applications and then Application Manager.

Then swipe from right to left so you see the Running Apps.

At the bottom it should say how much is used and how much is free.