About five minutes, once. Nothing here needs a computer.
First, check if your phone qualifies: a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip or Z Fold running Android 15 (One UI 7) or newer. The trackpad needs a Samsung-only mode that powers both screens at once, and older versions either lack it or drop it every time you switch apps.
After that, most of this is installing Shizuku. It is the only awkward part, it is a one-time job, and the reason it is needed is explained below — it is not busywork.
On a newer Samsung, turn off Auto Blocker first. It is on by default and it quietly blocks the rest of this page, which looks like something being broken rather than a setting being in the way.
While a foldable is open, Android switches the cover screen off completely and hides it from every app. No permission, setting or Good Lock module changes that.
There is a way through: your phone already has a mode that powers both panels at once — it is what the camera's dual preview uses. Cover Screen Trackpad asks the system to switch into it, and asking requires a privilege ordinary apps do not have. Shizuku is a free, open-source app that grants exactly that privilege, and nothing else.
Shizuku is widely used and does not need root. It is a separate app with its own developer and its own privacy policy.
Prefer to watch? The setup video walks through every step below on a real phone, in about six and a half minutes.
Samsung turns this on by default on newer phones, and it blocks the next step before you get to it. Auto Blocker stops apps installing from anywhere except the Play Store and blocks USB connections, which is exactly what the rest of this guide needs. It does not announce itself: the install simply refuses, or the connection never happens, and it looks like something is broken.
You can turn it back on when you are done. It is a Samsung security feature, not a Cover Screen Trackpad one, and leaving it off is a choice about your phone rather than something this app requires.
Not from the Play Store, and not from the download page's first link. Play reports Shizuku as incompatible on many phones where it works perfectly well, and Shizuku's own site lists Play at the top of its download page, so it is easy to end up back there. The GitHub link above is the direct APK, which is the route that works. Shizuku is free and open source; its site is worth a read if you want to know what it does.
Settings → Developer options → Wireless debugging. If Developer options is not there, go to Settings → About phone → Software information and tap Build number seven times.
After a restart, Shizuku usually starts itself — recent versions start automatically, without root, when the phone is on the Wi-Fi network you paired it on. Measured on a Galaxy Z Flip 7, 19 September 2026: three minutes after a reboot, Shizuku was running and the trackpad worked with nothing opened by hand.
If the trackpad does not work after a restart, open Shizuku and start it again the same way. The most likely reason is that the phone is on a different Wi-Fi network from the one you paired on. Shizuku's Start on boot setting does not help here: it is labelled (root) and only applies to rooted phones.
Shizuku has probably not started. It starts itself after a reboot only when the phone is on the Wi-Fi network you paired it on, so a different network — or Wi-Fi being off — means starting it by hand. Open Shizuku and start it again through the same wireless-debugging flow you used during setup. Cover Screen Trackpad's main screen detects this and shows a button that takes you straight there.
Check the status line at the top of the app — it says what is missing. The usual causes are that the phone is not fully open, or that Shizuku is not running.
The pointer is also hidden on purpose while the settings screen is full screen: your finger is placing the active zone rather than driving the pointer. Leave the settings screen and it comes back. If you want to change settings and use the trackpad at the same time, put the app in split screen or a pop-up window.
Rare, and it means the trackpad turned off without cleaning up. Open and close the phone once with Cover Screen Trackpad running, and it resets itself.
Barely. Cover screens are OLED, where a black pixel is simply switched off, and the trackpad lights very little of one: a few words, and a trail that follows your finger while you are actually using it. The cost sits inside the ordinary noise of a day’s use. A larger cover screen has more panel to light, so a Fold costs a little more than a Flip.
PRO switches the words and the animation off, which leaves the panel black — quieter to be seen using, as well as very slightly cheaper to light.
If you want to be thorough, the idle fade-out setting turns the trackpad off automatically when you stop using it, and pointer memory brings the pointer back where you left it.