Auto Display Brightness Gets Confused With Direct Sun

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Level 3

807 points

Auto Display Brightness Gets Confused With Direct Sun

Now that the sun is 1) out and 2) coming in through the window the computer often faces, I've noticed a strange issue with my 2020 i5 MBA (running Catalina 10.15.7). When the sun hits the light sensors by the camera, the screen shoots up to full brightness, then falls to minimum brightness as soon as the sun is no longer direct (it's still bright in the room). In the meantime, it also blasts the contrast so everything is "covered" in a gray haze, whether or not the screen is at max brightness. Then it gets "stuck" at minimum brightness until the sun hits it again. Covering the light sensor brings contrast back under control (blacks become black instead of dull gray). Actual backlight brightness gets stuck.

Turning on/off TrueTone has no effect. Turning off Automatically adjust brightness stops it from doing the contrast thing, but I also want it to automatically adjust brightness when necessary.

Ideas?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 26, 2020 2:46 PM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

217,250 points

Oct 30, 2020 11:53 AM in response to umparrothead

Sensors cannot handle high intensity, direct energy. It has no ability to know that it is just getting a ray of light that isn’t representative of the entire ambient room intensity. Pull down a shade.

Change "pull down" to "close".

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Answer 2

SnickZ.

Community Specialist

Oct 30, 2020 7:17 AM in response to umparrothead

Hi umparrothead,

We looked over your post, and it seems like the ambient light sensor in your MacBook Air is being affected by bright sunlight.

Your MacBook Air is equipped with an ambient light sensor to help automatically adjust the brightness, however it does have a couple of options to tweak how it works.

You can see this outlined in the following article:

If your Mac display is slow to reach full brightness

"Turn on the ambient light sensor so your Mac can automatically adjust brightness based on current ambient lighting conditions. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Displays, click Display, then select “Automatically adjust brightness” or “Ambient light compensation.”

We'd recommend checking under Display and if you have an option for Ambient light compensation, select it, and see if the problem improves.

Take care.

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Answer 3

umparrothead Author

Level 3

807 points

Oct 30, 2020 7:46 AM in response to SnickZ.

Thanks for the reply. That article doesn't apply at all, as there are no options to tweak how it works, short of turning it on/off. My screen does not "take time to warm up", as it's LED lit, nor would that apply to contrast adjusting in software.

I don't have Ambient Light Compensation. I have Automatically adjust brightness. It's on. It happens when it's on. It doesn't when it's off.

The issue is that the software causes a contrast change in the screen beyond that of the backlight levels. I don't want that. And then it tends to "get stuck" if ambient brightness (sun shining in) changes too much, too quickly, causing the screen to stay too dim in bright sun. Or, it gets bright, then washed out (contrast change) as the sun passes.

Basically, I'm asking if there's a way to turn off the contrast (not brightness) adjustment without disabling the entire brightness system.

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Answer 4

umparrothead Author

Level 3

807 points

Oct 30, 2020 11:54 AM in response to Old Toad

Point taken. Still looking for insights on the change of contrast.

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Answer 5

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,730 points

Oct 30, 2020 11:37 AM in response to umparrothead

Sensors cannot handle high intensity, direct energy. It has no ability to know that it is just getting a ray of light that isn’t representative of the entire ambient room intensity. Pull down a shade.

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Answer 6

umparrothead Author

Level 3

807 points

Oct 30, 2020 11:45 AM in response to Barney-15E

Of course. However, the bigger question is why the system changes contrast so dramatically and if that can be disabled.

PS - With vertical window treatments, you can't pull down a shade. Tall, vertical shadows move horizontally across a room.

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Auto Display Brightness Gets Confused With Direct Sun

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