Apple Watch 9 is too dim at night

They are not addressing this issue. I’m returning mine unfortunately. I’m a musician and DJ. I strictly work in dark environments. It’s just garbage for me. Sadly, because I really like the watch during the day.

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

Look. It's not really a bad thing that the watch doesn't go full bright in a dark room. I'm okay with that. But how dim it is, under which watch face (that would be extra nice) and when (how much reduced ambient illumination)--this should be a user-adjustable setting. This has got to be simple software coding to make that happen. Does Apple actually read this forum? Why has there been no comment from them?

Each and every one of us should call Apple Support and start a case file. Present this issue to the Mac-centric websites so that it gets more attention. Upset the Apple Cart. (I couldn't resist ;-) It would probably take their software people about five minutes to fix this and it speaks volumes if we complain and they don't.

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?

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!!!!!

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.

Even if it did work, it's not a good workaround because setting to "always on" does drain the already too-low capacity battery even faster. This should be a simple software fix if Apple is willing to make the effort I would think. Just set the low light display level a little higher. Or more involved, but seems to already function like this in my iPhone, make the dimmed level adjustable in display settings.

I am new to the Apple world and just purchased my first Apple Watch and iPhone. I was very surprised that given Apple's reputation for making user-friendly products that something so simple as being able to see the time on a smart watch in dim light proves so difficult an issue. I feel a little silly having to turn on a light just to read the display on my expensive smart watch. I can ask Siri to tell me the time and some other things when the speech won't disturbed others nearby, but some information is only available only by reading the display.

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.

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.

Dude. Do you think the hundreds of people complaining about it, didn't try everything possible? Do you think we didn't contact support? When in "the environment" of low or no light. THE WATCH IS TOO DIM! Much like your responses!

I’m just trying to help to the best of my ability, I don’t need to deal with smart remarks. I understand you and others are trying many possible solutions and are having no luck. There isn’t much I can do besides provide info or possible solutions. I’m another user just like you, not an Apple employee. Anyways, hope you find a solution and have a great day.

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.