Apple Watch 9 is too dim at night

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.

Thanks for the feedback link @JTechEV22 and your constructive attempt for a solution. Ignore the other rage posts, do not even reply to those individuals it is not worth the time. They never learned from a mentor figure if you do not have anything positive or constructive to add then just listen.

I did open an issue with Apple but they wanted me to rest my watch and try again before they would go further with the case investigation and I have not gotten around to it.

Since more people are posting in here with the same concerns I now know it is not just me, so I will give that a shot and see if it brings any awareness to Apple. I’m not very optimistic since some users said this has been occurring on older watch series but who knows. Thanks again, and keep being a positive individual.

I had this issue on my new Series 9 but it seems to be okay now, at least I can read the display in dim light now though it's still marginal, whereas before it wasn't legible at all. I'm not sure what fixed it or if it will stay "fixed." I tried some of the workarounds mentioned in this thread, and had the display set to always on for a while but has since disabled that, and powered the watch off and back on. I'm not sure at what point the brightness increased, checks done at the beginning were disappointing and I just gave up, and then I checked it again one day and noticed the improvement in brightness.

His "attempt for a solution" has already been posted by others, and tried numerous times by numerous people. He provided nothing new. His "attempt for a solution" is to post a link to click to report the problem to Apple. Again, it was already posted in this thread. Many people have reported this issue to Apple. They are aware of the problem and are not doing anything about it.

"They are aware of the problem and are not doing anything about it." You only know that as of the current WatchOS the problem remains, not that they are not "working on it." Although to me it appears that a simple (or a little less than simple) code change will fix it, Apple software people have to ensure that a fix for us doesn't cause a glitch for pre-9 and pre-Ultra users. We all know how that works, right?

I'll be more patient and wait for the next software update. There WILL be that. Meanwhile, there are intelligent, usable workarounds (like using a watch face and complications/apps that can still be read when dimmed).

This has been an ongoing issue for at least 3 years and as far back as the Series 6 watch. That's what I can see based on a simple search of complaints. So it has affected every watch series since at least Series 6. If it was a "simple (or a little less than simple) code change", you would think they would have done it over the past 3 years. This leads me to believe they are not doing anything about it. I ended up returning my watch. The majority of the time I use my watch is in low light or no light conditions. It was unreadable. I'm reluctant to buy anything Apple anymore as it isn't only the watch I have had issues with. I've had issues with my MacBook Pro 16". So much so, that they replaced it 3 times. And all replacements had the same issues. The quality of Apple products has gone down in my opinion. I have my eyes set on a Garmin D2 Mach 1 now.

I just purchased the watch yesterday and I am having the exact same issue and by the looks of it, there is no solution. Looks like I’m gonna be making another trip to the Apple Store to return this. What a shame

Dear Apple,

I, as well as many others, would appreciate a fix for the dimming issue at night or in the dark. It is near impossible to see and appreciate the watch and its capabilities. I just bought mine yesterday and would rather not return but this is particularly upsetting.

Will there be an update correcting this issue soon as I have 14 more days to return.

Thank you.

Just decided to drop some cash on a Series 9. What a disappointment with the dimness issue. This is a silly problem for Apple to not have dealt with already. I barely can see my watch at night. If I want to see it I have to point my freaking iPhone flashlight at my watch. The fix above doesn’t work for me either.

Do better Apple!

I just bought an Apple Watch 9 and ran into same issue but I found the solution. I went into my iPhone settings>Accessibility>Display & Text Size> scroll down to the bottom and turned off the Auto-Brightness. This resolved me auto dimming issues and now it’s set to the correct brightness. Hope this helps!

DaddoRW wrote:

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.

Blathering nonsense.

davanh115 wrote:

That’s where you need to turn off via your iPhone settings. Since the watch mirrors phone.. turning that setting off via iPhone settings resolved it for me

Mirroring just means that, via AirPlay you can control the apps on your watch using your phone by swiping/tapping a large image of your watch screen which displays on your phone. There is no "disable auto-brightness" option in the Settings app on the watch. The fact that you can choose that in the Settings app on your phone doesn't make the watch "mirror" that behavior.

I just purchase my 9 series watch and notice the dim issue immediately. I wish I read this prior I would have waited. Apple needs to address this issue I may send my watch back. Apple had to be aware of this problem.

The ACTUAL fix for this, as any graphic designer will tell you, is for Apple to allow you to ACTUALLY customize the color choice of the watch hands and digits. None of this pre picked swatches of colors or only white digits or watch hands BS!

Then you could choose a color for the hands of the watch or the digits that is at the proper hue, saturation, and value for the environment you’re going to be in. It’s so simple. But they didn’t do that, because then they wouldn’t be maximizing profits by appealing to their base hordes of followers with serious OCD issues who don’t realize or deny the fact that their clearly being played.

I have 10.5. I do not have a "watch app" - just settings. I have gone to the app store and cannot find an apple watch app there either. I don't see an icon that is b/w with a profile view of a watch. I have gone into settings and my watch there and still don't see this. I have an 'accessibility" choice on app but it does not have the choice you mentioned.