When using the LINE app on a smartphone, there are cases where the normally white screen or background suddenly turns black.
If only the background of LINE is black and you can see the menus in white, the main cause is that you are in dark mode.
In this article, we will introduce in detail what to do when the LINE screen is black / the background is black. It is assumed that Android/iPhone is used.
Solution 1: Turn off Dark Mode
It is possible that the screen/background of the LINE app is black because the dark mode function of Android or iPhone is turned on.
Therefore, disabling the Dark Mode feature may resolve the issue. To turn off the Dark Mode feature, follow the steps below.
- For Android:
- Open the “Settings” app.
- Tap “Display”.
- If you can’t find the item, tap Accessibility > Display.
- Toggle the switch for “Dark Theme (or Night Mode)” to “Off”.
- For iPhone:
- Swipe down from the upper-right corner of the screen.
- For iPhone 8, iPhone SE 2 or earlier, swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen.
- When Control Center appears, press and hold “Brightness (sun icon)”.
- Tap Dark Mode (on until sunset) to toggle it to Off.
- Swipe down from the upper-right corner of the screen.
After dark mode is turned off, check if the LINE app screen has a normal white background. If turning off Dark Mode does not resolve the issue, proceed to the next solution.
Solution 2: Change LINE dress-up settings
It is possible that the screen of the app is displayed black because the black background theme is used for LINE’s dress-up function.
Also, in the case of Android, if the setting to apply black theme in dark mode is turned on, the background will automatically darken in dark mode.
Therefore, please check your LINE dress-up settings and try returning to the basic theme. To change LINE dress-up settings, follow the steps below.
- Open the “LINE” app.
- Open the “Home” tab and tap “Settings (gear icon)” in the upper right.
- Tap “Dress Up” in the shop.
- For Android, uncheck “Apply black theme in dark mode”.
- Tap “My dress-up”.
- Tap “Apply” for “Basic” or “White” dress-up.
- The “white” dress-up does not exist by default, so it must be downloaded from the line shop.
After changing the LINE theme settings, check that the screen and background have turned white.
Solution 3: Restart the LINE app
The screen and background may be black because the settings are not reflected in the LINE app.
Therefore, if the screen or background is still black even after changing the dark mode or dress-up settings, try force quitting the LINE app and restarting it. Follow the steps below to restart the LINE app.
- For Android:
- Swipe up on the home button and swipe up on “LINE” to exit.
- For Android 8 or earlier, tap the “Multitask” button at the bottom of the screen and swipe “LINE” up to exit.
- Open “LINE” from the home screen.
- Swipe up on the home button and swipe up on “LINE” to exit.
- For iPhone:
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen on the home screen, then swipe up on “LINE” to exit.
- For iPhone 8 or earlier, quickly tap the “Home button” twice and swipe “LINE” upwards to exit.
- Open “LINE” from the home screen.
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen on the home screen, then swipe up on “LINE” to exit.
After restarting the LINE app, check to see if the black screen or background has been resolved.
Read Also: How To Fix “Current Payment Method Is Not Accepted” – IPhone
Solution 4: Disable Dark Mode Automatic Switching
If you set a dark mode schedule, your device will automatically switch to dark mode and the LINE screen will also turn black at certain times of the day.
Disable the schedule setting if you don’t need the automatic dark mode switching. To disable automatic dark mode switching, follow the steps below.
- For Android:
- Open the “Settings” app.
- Tap “Display”.
- Tap the “Dark Theme (or Night Mode)” item.
- Tap Schedule and change it to Never.
- For iPhone:
- Open the “Settings” app.
- Tap Display & Brightness.
- Make sure the Appearance Mode is set to Light.
- Toggle the “Automatic” switch to “Off”.
Once you’ve successfully disabled the automatic dark mode switching, make sure that LINE no longer automatically goes black at certain times of the day.
Solution 5: Unenforce Dark Mode
Android has a feature to force dark mode in developer options. It is possible that the screen of the LINE app is black because this function is turned on.
So for Android, if the option to force dark mode is on, switch it off. The specific steps are as follows.
- Open the “Settings” app.
- Tap “Developer options”.
- If you don’t see developer options, then developer options are turned off, so try another solution.
- Toggle the “Force Dark Mode” switch to “Off”.
After the forced dark mode is canceled, check if the LINE screen and background have returned to normal colors.
Solution 6: Turn off Dark Mode with the Shortcuts app
On the iPhone, by using the automation function of the shortcut app that is installed as standard, you can automatically switch to light mode when opening a specific app even in dark mode.
Therefore, if you want to open LINE in light mode even if your iPhone is in dark mode, please set the shortcut app automation. Here are the specific steps for automating the Shortcuts app:
- Open the “Shortcuts” app on the home screen.
- Open the Automation tab.
- Tap Create Personal Automation.
- Tap “Apps”.
- Tap “Select” on App, select “LINE” and tap “Done”.
- Confirm that “Open” is checked and tap “Next”.
- Tap “Add action”.
- Tap “Scripting”.
- Select “Set appearance mode” in the device item.
- Change the appearance mode to Dark by tapping “Dark” to change it to “Light”.
- Tap “Next”.
- Tap Done.
With the above settings, when you open LINE, it will switch to light mode. After completing the settings, check if the LINE screen opens in normal mode.
Solution 7: Update LINE to the latest version
It is possible that the screen or background is black due to an old version of LINE that has a bug.
Therefore, updating LINE to the latest version may resolve the issue. Follow the steps below to update LINE.
- For Android:
- From the home screen, launch the “Play Store” app.
- Tap the profile icon in the upper right corner of the app screen.
- Tap Manage apps and devices.
- Tap to open the Manage tab.
- Find and tap the “LINE” item in the list.
- When the “Update” button appears, tap the button to update the app.
- If the “Open” button is displayed instead of the “Update” button, the app has already been updated to the latest version and no action is required.
- For iPhone:
- Open “App Store” from the home screen.
- Tap the profile icon at the top of the app screen.
- Tap the “Update” button for the “LINE” app in the “Available Updates” list to perform the update.
- If LINE is not displayed, the app has already been updated to the latest version and no action is required.
After updating LINE to the latest version, check to see if the black screen or background problem has been resolved.
Solution 8: Clear LINE cache data
There are many cases where the screen or background is black due to a problem with the cache data of the LINE app.
Therefore, clearing and resetting LINE’s cache data may resolve the issue. However, if you are using an iPhone, you cannot delete LINE cache data, so please try another solution.
Follow the steps below to clear LINE cache data on Android.
- Open the “Settings” app.
- Tap Apps & Notifications.
- Tap “LINE” from the list of apps.
- If you can’t find the app, tap “All apps”.
- Tap “Storage”.
- Tap “Clear cache”.
After clearing LINE’s cache data, restart the app and check if the black screen problem is resolved.
Solution 9: Restart Your Device
There may be cases where the LINE screen remains black and does not return due to a temporary problem with the Android or iPhone system.
Therefore, powering off the device and then restarting it may resolve the issue. To reboot your device, please follow the steps below:
- For Android:
- Press and hold the “Power Button” and tap “Restart”.
- For iPhone:
- Press and hold the iPhone’s “side button” and “volume control button” at the same time and drag the power off slider. Press and hold the “power button” to turn on the power.
- For iPhone 8 or earlier, press and hold the “Side Button” and drag the power off slider.
- Press and hold the iPhone’s “side button” and “volume control button” at the same time and drag the power off slider. Press and hold the “power button” to turn on the power.
After restarting the device, open the LINE app and check if the screen has returned to normal.
Solution 10: Reinstall LINE
If you’ve tried the solutions above and it still doesn’t work, there may be some problem with your LINE app data.
Therefore, please consider uninstalling the LINE app and then reinstalling it. However, if you reinstall LINE, your chat history will be deleted, so please back it up if necessary. To back up the talk history, you can do it from ‘Home’ → ‘Settings (gear icon)’ → ‘Talk’ → ‘Backup/restore talk history (or talk backup)’.
Follow the steps below to reinstall LINE.
- For Android:
- Open the “Settings” app.
- Tap Apps & Notifications.
- Tap “LINE” in the list of apps.
- Tap “Uninstall (or remove)”.
- Tap OK when a confirmation pop-up appears.
- Open the “Play Store” app, search for “LINE” and install it as usual.
- For iPhone:
- Press and hold the “LINE” icon on the home screen.
- When the menu appears, tap “Delete App”.
- Tap Delete App when the confirmation pop-up appears.
- Open “AppStore”, search for “LINE” and install it as usual.
After reinstalling LINE, open the app and log back into the account you were using to see if the black screen issue is resolved. Once the issue is resolved, restore your chat history backup if necessary.
