Improve brightness / Disable auto dimming on apple watch

Im having the same problem. It appears you cannot turn off auto brightness which I think is bad design. For me at night it’s too dark. I tried the flashlight test and it’s definitely at night in my room like 50% brightness which isn’t good at all.

they really need to fix it. Please.

Apple…. PLEASE PLEASE Respond….. This is a glaring problem with the Watch Series 6

This has been asked for by many people on many posts on many forums and I'm sure a lot of people have flagged this as an issue with Apple, as I have, by using this link:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

However I think until Apple makes a response, here or otherwise, it's worth keep mentioning it

The ambient light sensor in the Watch Series 6 is a problem for a lot of people. Yes I know it makes the battery last longer but for thousands of people that's not a problem so please allow the user the ability to switch off the ambient light sensor completely so we can have a nice bright screen, especially in low light

I've had Series 3 and Series 4 and loved them but this new Series 6 is terrible

Not only is the screen far to dim in low light it also responds to a 'wrist raise' far too slowly....... let me explain further....:

On the Series 4, that doesn't have an ambient light sensor, when you raise your wrist it instantly goes full brightness but when you raise your wrist on the Series 6 it is much slower to respond from it’s ‘always on’ display. I’m pretty sure it’s so sluggish because the software is going through the ambient light sensor circuitry before it responds to the wrist raise

If you have an old Series 3/4 as well as the 6 try it out and you'll find there is a lag on the 6’s response to a wrist raise

The ‘workaround’ to get the Series 6 to show maximum brightness is the following:

1. Select the 'Phone' app
2. Select 'Keypad'
3. Click on the little green '<' icon
4. Reselect 'Keypad'
5. Press the Digital Crown twice to return back to your clockface

You will be amazed how good your Series 6 looks by doing this and also the sluggish response to a ‘wrist raise’ is totally gone too, however this is not a permanent fix because when you take off the watch to charge it goes back to being dim, so you have to do it all again

In case anyone asks, yes I've set the brightness to full and yes I've rebooted both the iPhone and the Watch many times and I've tried un-pairing and re-pairing a number of times both from a back up and as a completely new watch but nothing works

So PLEASE Apple can we have control over the over zealous ambient light sensor on the 6?

I've seen this multiple times. Is it supposed to be a permanent fix or just a one-time fix to brighten the display? Because it doesn't really seem to do anything for me. Who in their right mind would go through this every time to brighten their display?

Sorry but these standard responses are not going to solve the underlying issue. Even with brightness turned up to maximum it’s impossible to read any text off the watch screen in dim or dark conditions, even seeing the time isn’t easy. If your going to dim the light surely you’d do it in bright daylight not in the dark! A software update is needed so users can disable auto dimming if we want to. Get it sorted Apple.

This workaround works, I’ve copied it from another post.... hope that person doesn’t mind. This 100% works but don’t ask me why....

-1- Select the 'Phone' app.

-2- Select 'Keypad'.

-3- Click on the little green '<' icon.

-4- Reselect 'Keypad'.

-5- Press the Digital Crown (watch winding button) twice to return back to your clockface.

Hello WebDevGuy,

Thank you for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. We understand the display of an Apple Watch Series 6 is too dim.

It's important to adjust the brightness level of your Apple Watch, and we'd like to help.

Just to be sure, did you go in Settings > Display & Brightness and maximize the brightness? If so, we suggest to restart your Apple Watch and see if that helps improve the brightness of your Apple Watch: How to restart your Apple Watch

Please be sure that your Apple Watch is updated to watchOS 7.0.1: Update your Apple Watch

In addition, you can enhance the visuals and text of your Apple Watch by going to Settings > Accessibility. Here's more information: Use Accessibility features on your Apple Watch

Please let us know if that helps.

Best regards.

Apple needs to let us decide how bright we want our watch to be. I would gladly take the hit in battery life to have a usable watch in dim settings. I will be returning my watch soon.

Yes the workaround works but surely if we are paying a minimum of £400 for a watch we should be able to have better control over how bright we would like our display?

Hi thanks for the link I didn’t realise this option to provide feedback existed.

I would encourage anyone else who finds this issue irritating to use the link to ask for a software fix so that auto dimming can be disabled.

Feedback left. With a long sleeve jacket on (cold weather), when I go to look at my SE Apple Watch, it's very dim and takes many seconds to come to a normal brightness. This is dumb. I have the watch settings on maximum brightness as well as the setting in the watch app on my iPhone. Yet still, it's dim.

I have the display set to turn off in 1 minute anyways, so using auto-dim to save battery is not helpful.

I totally agree. I just go the new iWatch 2 weeks ago, and I'm tempted of returning it. The iPhone has an option to turn of Auto-brightness. The iWatch needs the same feature. Flashing my iPhone flashlight on the screen to turn it brighter is not a sustainable option. Even watchOS 7.1 does not have that feature, and it is still has a low brightness in dark areas, hard to read at times. watchOS7.2 should have an Auto-brightness option to turn off.

I have just received an Apple Watch SE as a Christmas present - the auto dimming is not a positive as many other customers / users have clearly stated. Can / when will there be an update fix for this to allow constant higher brightness. I changed from a Fitbit to the Apple SE - refund maybe needed if not fixable.

I found a work around. I just received my first Apple Watch (SE) as a gift and the maxed out brightness setting is insufficient in a low light environment. Shining a flashlight on it makes the screen brighten up enough to work but that's ridiculous to deal with.

My workaround is I turn my wrist to see the time display (too dim) and then I just touch to access the power display screen. I added this as a complication to my main watch face but it's also easily accessible by swiping up to the control panel. Launching the power percentage display (it also has the Power Reserve slider at the bottom of the screen) causes the screen to get bright and then just touch Done to return to a beautiful, bright, main time screen.

NOTE: This must be the first screen you launch when you tip your wrist to turn on the display. If you go to some other app or screen first, it won't work.

I'm in the EXACT a same place as you. Moved from FitBit to my first Apple Watch SE today and this is a problem. See my answer below in this forum for a one touch workaround that will work for me until Apple fixes the problem. Hope it helps you too. Merry Christmas.

Two days ago, I noticed my Apple Watch SE screen was brighter than normal. I also noticed that the screen was stuck ON and at high brightness. The watch was completely operational, but the screen would not turn off. It must have been like that for a while because the battery was at 24 (never gets below 60 for a full day).

So for a while, I got to experience what my AW would look like if I could set the brightness to maximum. It was nice. :)