When Auto Brightness is turned off, the phone screen dims in the sun. In the shade, it does not return to normal over time. To restore the original colors, you need to turn Auto Brightness on and off or reboot the phone.
Happens mostly when the phone's brightness is turned to maximum when there is no Auto Brightness turned on. Black colors seem to turn gray.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 16
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.
it is an indoor mobile phone like my 15pro !
cannot use in bright light (even snow turns it dark) no use for photos because I cannot see what ist on the screen, no use as a navigator in the car.
recently I had do to a call from outside - I could not succeed as the display was too dark.
frustrating - my old iPhone SE (first gen) does all the job ....
How to conclusively determine if your I Phone has a software bug:
Two methods:
(1) Go to Settings, click your name at the top, then scroll down until you see the model number of your phone. If it starts with an "I", your I Phone has a bug.
(2) List your symptoms on this forum. If the mediator repeats previous, ineffective instructions, or, if the mediator goes radio silent, you have a bug.
Two things come to mind.
So it is not 100% a hardware or software issue, but it is suspicious if it gets worse after iOS updates.
The only kind of display I've seen that works well in bright ambient light is the e-ink displays on e-readers.
I have the same issue through multiple phones now, I asked someone at apple and they give me the same tips I read here, tried everything and nothing works, I just got the iPhone 16 hoping it might be a phone problem but I have the same issue now, I compare my screen with my husband’s phone, he has a 15 and his screen is brighter under the sun, with the exact same settings I have. It’s really annoying and nobody seems to have a solution for this!!!
Posted on Oct 6, 2023 6:28 AM
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.
I’m a truck driver using my phone for all kinds of work related stuff but the phone continues to dim and I can’t see to do what I need to for work. Stop dimming our phones. I don’t want it to auto do anything especially to auto dim!
Exactly. My TrueTone is off, brightness, all the things. It literally just happens randomly and inconsistently. My phone is not hot right now. It suddenly turned down, and then suddenly turned down again, and then turned up again. No light changes in the room (plus this isn't relevant because I have the setting OFF). It's a bug!
If this is an overheating thing, you should have a message indicating such (like when charging gets put on hold), and you should allow us to turn that setting OFF. Because clearly it's doing it at the wrong times. I need brightness and contrast to see what I am doing, and I imagine it is an accessibility issue for many people.
I seem to have fixed it somewhat with the white scale setting turned down, but it still dims in bright sun. I’m in Massachusetts in March and it’s not hot out. This just started about a week ago too. Irritating for sure.
The brightness is not adjustable when auto brightness is off. I'm saying that black colors seem to turn gray, the contrast of dark ones changes.
But it isn’t connected to my topic.
Turning off the auto brightness in two places and restarting didn’t fix my phone dimming in the Sun. It also isn’t hot because it has only been in sunlight a minute or two before it happens.
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.
Same issue. Tried all the same “solutions” offered by Apple & the community, to no avail.
It is extremely frustrating.
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.
Well said, yes it must be a bug, a1400$ phone that turns black in sun what a shame
iPhone screen dims in sunlight
