Apple Watch 9 is too dim at night

In the interim … you can use your iPhone flashlight to shine on your iWatch, which causes the backlight brightness to increase so you can see the iWatch screen again. Just remember if you move the flashlight away it goes dim again after a few seconds so you have to hurry… or just use your iPhone since it is in your hand already. 😂

I am having the exact same issue. Watch brightness is set as high as it goes. It is fine during the day, but in the evening when the room is dark the display dims too much and is really hard to read.

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!

It’s MUCH dimmer at night than the S7 was. I can barely see it in low lighting, and I also have mine maxed out. This is a huge mistake and almost makes me want to return this watch.

Same issue. What clued me in was when my Watch was near my Macbook screen, the display brightness increased. Back in my lap and it dimmed. I also note that when adjusting the brightness in Settings, in a darkened room there are four brightness landmarks, the last two are the same. In a well-lighted room, the fourth increment does actually go brighter than the third.

Clearly, this is a software issue. It's a good thing that the display brightness decreases at night---the ambient sensor is clearly working. But the *user* should have the final say in how bright the display, not some algorithm. APPLE, fix this already!

so, in the evening what I usually do is reach in my pocket, pull out my iphone, turn on the flashlight, shine it on the watch series 9 and then i get a couple of seconds of readability. If i m not fast enough i may have to repeat a couple of times with the flashlight on and off thing.

my question is…did you really designed it this way?

And why aren’t you adding a software button to select brightness always at full if someone wants it?

i have ended up not really using it in the evenings most of the time cause i got bored with the flashlight thing, and that is a sad thing for an Apple product

I've noticed a different behavior on my Series 9 running 10.1.1 when Theater mode is on or off. In full light, the watch display is fully bright, or actually whatever setting I have set. In darkness, the display is dimmed to a level that I seem to have no control over. When Theater mode is on, the display is MUCH dimmer, regardless of ambient light condition. Sure, that makes sense. But dang it, if Theater mode is *not* on, the display brightness should be high enough for me to read.

Maybe the settings need to have a separate level for general/daylight and another for "dim" light conditions. Theater mode might be even dimmer. But the current algorithmic choice of brightness in dim situations is non-functional to the point that people are returning watches.

Someone @Apple should notice

Clearly you haven't been reading any of the complaints. Including mine. Yes, the watch would brighten up when raising our wrist, but not enough. It was still way too dark in low or no light conditions. It didn't matter raising our wrists. It was just still too dark. Even with the brightness at its highest level. As stated, by MANY others, the brightness was set to maximum.

JTechEV22 stated: "If you raise your wrist it should brighten up a bit." Do you actually think people are NOT raising their wrist? Or arm for that matter? Do you think they are TRYING to look at the watch while their arm is straight down to their side? I mean, do you even think about your responses before you post them?

But you're NOT trying to provide a solution. You're making SUGGESTIONS on what to try. As if people haven't tried everything already, and haven't contacted support. You HAVE NO SOLUTION! If there was a solution, Apple would have provided it!!!

"I do think about what I say before I respond. In that particular line, that was part of my explanation of how the display brightness or dims. I’m not saying no one is going to raise their wrist as it’s fairly obvious that people are going to."

Raising and lowering your wrist either wakes or puts the watch to sleep based on the accelerometers. It has nothing to do with the brightness. The brightness is controlled by the light sensor.

Please, just stop. You should refrain from posting on this issue as you clearly do not know what you are talking about.

Absolutely agree, as a coder, it should be a very simple coding fix. Give us the power to control our own battery life. Make me accept a “battery life” disclaimer if you have to, but this needs to be fixed and it isn’t that hard to do. It’s been a problem for many iphone generations now, it’s time to fix it.

Update - watchos 10.3 did not resolve this issue, and it seems that there is no intention to solve this whatsoever , it seems that apple is not aware of it enough. Maybe the sales drops / product returns rise will make them reconsider current stand on this ?

I’d love a fix. I recently received the series 9 as a gift.

I’m legally blind. When I opened the watch, I was so impressed with the brightness. Then the room darkened. The display dimmed. Now I can’t see it. I used all the accessibility features but nothing helps. I guess I will need to return the watch. I’m deeply disappointed.