Apple Watch 9 is too dim at night

I just bought a Series 9 and have the same issue- even after the watch update. Dims during low light … too low. Shine a flash light on it…it brightens. But then dims again. Apple please fix! I will return the watch. Let us the user be in control of brightness.

Just a little more info. I have been testing the watch out in darker areas. It does appear to brighten up when I turn my wrist, but still wish it was brighter. There should be a way for the user to determine how bright it gets when the room is dark. Older people need things brighter to see them.

It's December 7 and I haven't seen any new watch updates or fixes to this problem.

I'm surprised it isn't the most talked about problem. The watch simply is NOT visable in the dark or in dim lighting. It's not bright enough. It's SO dim. You can barely see it. Unless you shine a flash light on it...then it maximizes it's brightness for 5 seconds, but returns to a low light. I'm returning this before the January 2024 deadline unless Apple fixes asap. Put on your watch. Get in your car at night. Run to the grocery store. In a dark car you CANNOT read your watch. You can't read it outside in the dark either. It's crazy! Why isn't this all over the news?

There’s an option to add a minimum brightness now. Not sure what version this was added in, but to access it. Go to the Watch app, then go to accessibility, then scroll down to “minimum brightness”. Then enable it.

While Apple will deny this being a problem it is all over the internet and forums. The most common answer is the watch is "performing as designed". I guess as long as it was designed to be to dim to read, then it must be okay. Apple needs to get this corrected.

Again, you missed the point: This SHOULD BE a user-adjustable setting. A simple toggle on/off or, better still, selectable by the amount of dimming. This is a five-minute (or less) code re-write. I mean there is already a toggle for "always on" and a slider for "brightness level", this is not a big ask! An even better solution would be to include a switch to control the dimming by watchface or app. That might take a little more time. 😀 After all this time and discussion, I find it difficult to believe that Apple has not addressed the issue.

I hear your frustration, but my experience has been the opposite. I've never had an issue with an Apple computer, except the time, many years ago, when my Lombard Powerbook went up in smoke. Literally. Apple sent a new one overnight FedEx and it still works, decades later. It resides in my antique collection along with quite a few "no longer used but still works" Apple products.

My 16" MBPro was just fine but I 'downgraded' to a 15" MBAir only because it's a lot lighter, cooler runing, a little smaller, and equally as capable.

The Watch illumination thing is a PITA (pain in the ***, or arse for you folks not familiar with that) and I can't imagine Apple software developers are not working on a fix. It's a friggin few lines of code---the hardware controller works fine, just needs the right instructions. This is obviously not a priority for them. Let's keep hounding Apple to get this done.

I was on the phone with Apple support last week. Was at place of purchase. They were going to exchange my watch with new one. Support said they were aware of issue and were working on it. I didn’t end up exchanging watch. Will wait for fix that will hopefully be resolved soon.

I agree that the dimness issue hasn't been fixed. I thought it was with the update. If I tap the watch face on an area without a complication it will brighten up for a bit. The user needs to be able to decide how dim (or bright) the watch should be at night.

The iPhone 13 inside Settings/Accessibility/Display and Text Size, has an option to switch on/off Auto-Brightness.

My iWatch series9 does not have that setting. Auto-Brightness switch should be added to the iWatch. Under the Auto-Brightness it would be more beneficial to have an extra setting, minimum brightness level. That would allow the screen to get brighter in sunlight if the Auto-Brightness was left on but also allow users to set their lowest brightness depending on their vision when the screen auto dims in dark settings.

Make sure your iPhone and Apple Watch are updated to the newest software versions. Apple Watch - watchOS 10.4, iPhone - iOS is 17.4. Then go to the Watch app on your iPhone, the go under accessibility, then scroll down till you see “minimum brightness”. Then enable it. You should be good to go after that.

Well, as I said earlier in this thread, I'm going to return this watch. And I did. Today. For a full refund.

This has been a problem with the Apple Watch long before the Series 9 based on what I have read.

Apple hasn't addressed or fixed the issue, and I doubt they ever will.

The quality of Apple products has declined over the years.

As I also said in my earlier post, I've had nothing but trouble with the 16" MacBook Pro.

I'm on the third one and it still has issues (see attached picture).

With that said, I'm done buying Apple products until they get their act together and start putting out quality products that work.

LISTEN UP APPLE!!!!!

JTechEV22 wrote:

There’s an option to add a minimum brightness now. Not sure what version this was added in, but to access it. Go to the Watch app, then go to accessibility, then scroll down to “minimum brightness”. Then enable it.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/a505666a-a99a-457b-9c9a-9c41b3bcb7e1

YES, YES YES!!! I updated my Apple Watch Series 7 to watchOS 10.4, and my iPhone SE 2020 to iOS 17.4 (though I don't think that part was required to make this work), and now the Watch app on my phone has the Minimum Brightness control. It's an on/off toggle switch, not a slider, but maybe it just leaves your watch at whatever brightness level you've set it for. Hey, that works for me. And it DOES appear to be doing what it's supposed to do. Even in a dim or dark room, I've got full brightness.

THANKS SO MUCH for posting this!

I did read through a couple of the complaints posted here. It all comes back down to the environment the watch is in. Auto brightness is a feature built into the watch, but unlike other Apple products it can’t be turned off. So eventually at some point, it will override a user’s brightness choice depending on the lighting in its environment. There’s not much more than can be done, at least to my knowledge. If you’d like, you can submit feedback to Apple here: Feedback - Watch - Apple

Same here. I am looking all over internet and it doesn't seem to be a fix or a setting for this issue. So annoying.