iPhone screen dims in sunlight

None of these are factors. It's a bug in the software somewhere. And it's very annoying. Auto brightness off, night shift off, and true tone off, and it still dims to like 50% brightness when I am in the sun.

Why won't you guys believe us that this is a bug in the software? We know how to work the phone. We know not to leave it in a hot car. No one said, hey, my phone is blazing hot and the screen dims. No... we go outside or get out of our cars, and the screen dims for no apparent reason.

There seems to be no fix for this issue. I've had many iPhones, and my 15 pro (IOS17) is the first to ever do this. Everything checks out (by Apple) hardware wise. What is going on?? There must not be enough people with this problem for Apple to address. The only "fix" from Apple seems to be to turn off everything that makes your phone great. Well, it only took 4 returns of my AirPods pros..and a new generation..to "fix" the static issue. It was a loooong, frustrating, process of once again explaining what's happening, with nobody seeming to know anything about what's going on, pretending like I'm the only one with the issue...until I wasn't. I really don't want to be stuck with a brand new $1000.00 phone that goes blind once in a while.

Hey, I think I fixed this finally. It’s been frustrating me for years. I do a lot of outdoor work and I live in Orlando, FL. Yes. The Sunshine State. ☀️ 🤦🏻‍♂️

Turn True Tone off.

Settings > Display & Brightness.

Hey Apple. This shouldn’t behave like this. Looks like you have a bug to fix. The color spectrum of daylight, 6500 K, may be off the end of the scale of where the iPhone is reading the ambient lighting, then causing it to default to the factory default, perhaps? This may be more prevalent in southern or high altitude areas, or especially bright days.

I am literally on Daytona Beach. Been here a hundred times. I can actually read my screen without straining.

Here’s what’s happening specially:

Auto Brightness Off

Brightness at 100%

True Tone On

In bright daylight, the screen dims. If anything, we should get the opposite. A little boost, like 120%.

Turn True Tone Off: The screen stays bright.

Hit me up if I can help more.

You’re definitely not the only one, my iPhone 13 Pro Max is doing the exactly same. I’m in Sydney, Australia. I have everything turned off, I can walk out of my door and it will dim where I cannot see a thing, I turn my brightness all the way up and then it goes back dark. Mind you, I check the brightness slider and it’s still at the highest brightness.

It’s extremely frustrating.

Same issue. Tried all the same “solutions” offered by Apple & the community, to no avail.

It is extremely frustrating.

Hello relsson,

There are actually two different places to adjust automatic brightness. You can see the steps to turn both of them off below:

1. Go to Settings > Displays & Brightness > Appearance. Turn Automatic off.
2. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size. Turn Auto-Brightness off.

If you think the screen is still changing with these set to off, tap on Settings > Displays & Brightness. Note where the Brightness slider is set. When you think the brightness has changed, come back to the slider and see if it is where it was left.

If it has moved, we would suggest reaching out to Apple Support here: Get Support  

They will be in the best position to assist further.

Cheers.

Hi relsson,

To clarify, does this only happen after your device has been in the sun? If so, this could be normal behavior as a result of temperature as outlined below: If your iPhone or iPad gets too hot or too cold - Apple Support

"Avoid these conditions and activities because they might change the performance of your device:

• Leaving your device in a car on a hot day.
• Leaving your device in direct sunlight for an extended period of time.
• Using certain features in hot conditions or direct sunlight for an extended period of time, such as GPS tracking or navigation in a car, playing a graphics-intensive game, or using augmented-reality apps.

If the interior temperature of your device exceeds the normal operating range, you might notice these changes:

• Charging, including wireless charging, slows or stops.
• The display dims or goes black.
• Cellular radios enter a low-power state. The signal might weaken during this time.
• The camera flash is temporarily disabled.
• Performance slows with graphics-intensive or augmented-reality apps or features."

This could account for what you're seeing. If you need further assistance, use this link to contact us directly: Get Support

Take care.

Well said, yes it must be a bug, a1400$ phone that turns black in sun what a shame

Try turning off True Tone. That seemed to work for me.

I am getting the screen dimming at random times now while indoors, even with auto dim and true tone off. There's definitely a bug in the software.

This just started happening to me this week after I plugged my 13 pro into my new MacBook Air and some update was required. I had Auto-Brightness and True Tone off in the Display & Brightness section. But as srbwanderer

mentioned there are 2 places to turn it off.

1) Go to Settings > Displays & Brightness > Appearance. Turn Automatic off.

2) Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size. Turn Auto-Brightness off.

What did it for me is under #2, there is another option to "REDUCE WHITEPOINT" which seems to be a new feature and automatically switched on. I turned it off and its back to normal finally.

Hello relsson,

To help continue troubleshooting the issues with brightness, check your display preferences. This process may explain why you're noticing the differences. Here's how Use display and text size preferences on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

Additional display accommodations are explained below:

1. "Go to Settings  > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
2. Adjust any of the following:

• Bold Text: Display the text in boldface characters.
• Larger Text: Turn on Larger Accessibility Sizes, then adjust the text size using the slider.

This setting adjusts to your preferred text size in apps that support Dynamic Type, such as Settings, Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Messages, and Notes.

• Button Shapes: This setting underlines text you can tap.
• On/Off Labels: This setting indicates switches turned on with “1” and switches turned off with “0”.
• Reduce Transparency: This setting reduces the transparency and blurs on some backgrounds.
• Increase Contrast: This setting improves the contrast and legibility by altering color and text styling.

Apps that support Dynamic Type—such as Settings, Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Messages, and Notes—adjust to your preferred text size.

• Differentiate Without Color: This setting replaces user interface items that rely on color to convey information with alternatives.
• Smart Invert or Classic Invert: Smart Invert Colors reverses the colors of the display, except for images, media, and some apps that use dark color styles.
• Color Filters: Tap a filter to apply it. To adjust the intensity or hue, drag the sliders.
• Reduce White Point: This setting reduces the intensity of bright colors.
• Auto-Brightness: This setting automatically adjusts the screen brightness for current light conditions using the built-in ambient light sensor."

This information is from Adjust the display and text size on iPhone - Apple Support.

Take care.

When mine would dim, the slider would show all the way down, and sliding it up would correct it. It hasn’t happened since, so maybe it was addressed in the last update. Would be nice if Apple would give us a little more info on what was addressed in their updates. But I imagine it would be a bit of reading.

It's still happening, but not as often, with auto brightness, night shift, and true tone all off.

I have 4000k LEDs in my home that seems to sometimes cause this and I live in Florida.

I have been using iPhone since 2007 and this problem still bugs me. My wife has the same cellphone and she doesn’t have this problem. I totally concur with Tom.