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iphone time at night used to be on dark screen. now the lock screen lights up

I have always used my iPhone to check the time at night. I have do not disturb on. I would touch the Lock Screen and the time would be displayed against a dark screen. Two nights ago when I did it, my wallpaper photo lit up the room. I haven’t changed any settings. Has apple done something? How do I get my dark nighttime screen back?

iPhone 11 Pro, iOS 15

Posted on Dec 10, 2021 7:04 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 11, 2021 5:19 AM

Thanks, but no luck. I double checked those settings and then turned my phone off and on but it didn’t help. Not only does the lock photo light up the room, but without my contacts in, reading the time against that backdrop is difficult.


I always assumed the dark screen was part of the do not disturb feature and it was great. I’m going to have to buy a bedside clock if I can’t fix this!

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 11, 2021 5:19 AM in response to Axel Foley

Thanks, but no luck. I double checked those settings and then turned my phone off and on but it didn’t help. Not only does the lock photo light up the room, but without my contacts in, reading the time against that backdrop is difficult.


I always assumed the dark screen was part of the do not disturb feature and it was great. I’m going to have to buy a bedside clock if I can’t fix this!

Dec 10, 2021 7:16 PM in response to srobs

Is it possible that you may have had the Automatic Appearance (Dark or Light) set up on your iPhone when things were working right? If you did, then at night, the iPhone would have entered Dark Mode showing darker (dim) background. By morning, your iPhone would have moved to Light Mode and everything would appear brighter and normal.

If you want to try this out then, open Settings ➔ Display & Brightness ➔ Automatic: Set this to ON under Appearance.


If you do not like the Dark Mode at nights then you can check to see whether Automatic Brightness is set to ON. This feature would have set the brightness of your screen to very low during night time and thus keeping the screen dim. You can check for this by opening Settings ➔ Accessibility ➔ Display & Text Size ➔ Auto-Brightness: Set this to ON.


Axel F.

iphone time at night used to be on dark screen. now the lock screen lights up

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