It's coming from the top-back-right side, sounds like either a fan or pump with possibly bad bearing. It stops when I open the doors. It doesn't run all the time but quite often.
Is there a pump that maybe draws a slight vacuum? Which would explain the stop/start with the doors? (Samsung stainless steel, 5-6 yrs old, bottom freezer, fancy LEDs, etc for reference)
Could be a vacuum pump. My deep freeze and my refrigerator, both have them.
Most fans are in the bottom of the units.
My freezer had the line for the ice maker drip. An ice block built up around the fan until it was big enough for the fan to hit and make noise.
Hm. Maybe worth unplugging for a day to see if it froze up. I'm a bachelor, there's never a lot of stuff in it.
Our Samsung fridge has a fan in the freezer portion that has frozen up on us twice making a similar noise to what you are describing. I took the fan out, cleaned it up and put it back, noise gone.
Is it OBD-II? Have you pulled the codes? 
I've had some weird noises from the fridge before that turned out to be things vibrating and tapping each other. Probably not your case, but you never know.
My freezer has a small fan behind a panel at the back wall. The blade slides down the shaft slowly, so every five years or so I have to take it off and pull it back to where it belongs on the shaft.
It sounds like a fan blade ticking on a screw...That's all I got.
Thats where the water filter is on our Samsung. It makes noise from it on occasion for no reason i can ever figure out.
There is a fan back there. It shuts off when you open the doors (i think, some of them shut off). this is a super common problem with samsung refrigerators, and there is no permanent fix. The issue is that Samsung, to reduce energy usage, has too short of a defrost. It can not be lengthened, and they have not fixed the problem on new ones either. Ice builds up over time, and eventually the fan starts "tick"ing against it. The "fix" is to treat it like a partially manual defrost refrigerator. When this happens, move your food to another fridge, shut the samsung off, and leave the doors open for a day or two. Then plug it back in and it'll be fine. Unfortunately, all the "fixes" you read about online are not permanent, and we don't know a single appliance repair place (us included) who wants to work on them, because the fix isn't permanent and the customers call back angry. The problem is exacerbated by humid weather, air leaks (like a door gasket problem or door left open) or even putting in a bowl of something liquid uncovered, like jello cooling. Also age makes it worse, as the insulation slowly soaks up moisture and becomes less insulating.
In reply to Rufledt:
Very helpful, thanks. I haven't grocery shopped yet, think I might just shut the thing off overnight & put the few things I care about in a cooler.
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