M2 MacBook Pro brightness dimming even though "automatically adjust brightness" and "true tone" is turned off.

This happens to me consistently on the laptop itself (no external monitor) when unplugging from power. I'm on Sonoma 14.4.1 (23E224) (M2 MacBook Air). It's incredibly annoying. I have tried with True Tone on and off; with automatically adjust brightness on and off; and with slightly dim the display on battery on and off; and all of these in every permutation. Nothing fixes it.

I am having this same problem on the same device. It has only become evident since I updated MacOS to Sonoma yesterday. The addition I would like to add here is that this only happens when the external screen is connected (in my case an LG 35WN75C (running at WQHD resolution) connected via USB-c. In Display settings I can see the slider for the brightness jump up and down consistently.

Haven't been able to solve this so far...

flengord, did you ever resolve your issue? I bought an M2 MacBook Air last Monday (29th April 2024) and this is driving me crazy, I've been into System Settings, Display and used the slider to move brightness to the mid-point I've tried True Tone on and off and automatically adjust brightness on and off. I don't use an external monitor only the screen on the MacBook Air but every time I go back to my computer the screen is so dark I can't even find the Apple Menu - when I finally hit it and got to System Settings, Display I discover the the 'slider' is back down to almost zero. More than extremely frustrating! Yes, I'm also on Sonoma 14.4.1.

Nevermind - this issue turns out to be caused by the specific monitor; issue with the Power Delivery which was dropping out and switching back on. This caused the flucuations; being on adapter power or battery.

Purely coincidental and nothing to do with having updated to Sonoma.

XD

Hello pehall2021,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Thanks for sharing these details with us. We want to help out and recommend some steps you can try. According to this resource here: If your Mac display doesn’t look right - Apple Support

It suggests that you should try to adjust your display brightness: Change your Mac display’s brightness - Apple Support

But it does sound like you've already gone down that route. From here, we'd like to further isolate this issue you're experiencing by testing the issue in safe mode. This step can help isolate possible software related issues: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

Apple silicon

1.) Shut down your Mac.

2.) Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window.

3.) Select your startup disk, then press and hold the Shift key while clicking “Continue in Safe Mode.”

4.) Log in to your Mac. You might be asked to log in again.

Depending on your results, follow the steps under “If the issue continues in safe mode” or “If the issue doesn't continue in safe mode”.

We hope this helps out. Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Best of luck.

I think you'll need a 3rd party app.

I'm also using 2 DELL monitors and logitech keyboard as you.

I recommend "MonitorControl - for Apple Silicon and Intel" to you.

link is here:

This is a must-have app for those who use multiple external monitors.

You can set brightness as you want.

Thanks.

[Edited by Moderator]