Why does my phone do this? Can I prevent it?

Factual Questions
1

It turns the flashlight on; it turns the ringer off. These happen independently of each other. I carry it in my shirt pocket, pants pocket, or in a belt case (pocket style with a flap, not snap-in style). I always hit the power button briefly so the screen goes black before putting it away. It’s a Samsung Galaxy S8 Active.

Arguably the ringer volume could go down from the power button getting pressed and then the volume button being pressed for a few seconds, but sometimes it goes to vibrate which (as far as I know) can only be done by swiping down on the screen – after it’s turned on so that the apps show – and pressing the icon then revealed on the screen. The only way I can turn the flashlight on is that same swipe then press procedure.

So far I haven’t found a solution by googling. I’m baffled as to how this happens.

2

My phone (OnePlus 6T) switches to non-ringing vibrate-only mode if you press the power and volume-up buttons at the same time. It’s easy to do accidentally. It’s a ridiculously stupid feature, especially since this phone has a dedicated slider switch to turn the ringer on and off. I’ve looked for a way to disable it but have not found one.

3

Mine doesn’t seem to do that.

4

Maybe yours has a different button combination?

Oh and the flashlight – on mine, in Settings under Button & Gestures -> Quick Gestures, you can choose an action associated with a gesture on the screen while it’s turned off. I have mine set to to turn the flashlight on when I draw a large V on the screen. I’ve occasionally managed to do that accidentally while it was in my pocket.

5

On my phone you can turn the flashlight on and off just by shaking the phone. I’m sure there’s a setting somewhere that allows you to turn that feature on and off, but damned if I can find it.

6

Yes, it sounds like you have some gestures enabled - functions triggered by moving the phone a certain way. For example, shaking the phone side-to-side turns on the camera. You can turn these off in the phone settings.

7

I have a Moto android phone. Some settings are located in “phone settings” , but others are buried within “Moto settings” (such as the flashlight turning on/off by chopping).