My MacBook Air screen would dim, and even when I try to put it at the highest brightness it still stays dimmed. Even after restarting it many times, I have no idea how to fix this, has this been happening to anyone?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.2
Make sure you have no camera covers or anything covering the upper central area of the screen around the black notch/camera since there is a light sensor there which is used to control screen & keyboard brightness.
There are several brightness settings available as well. Unfortunately Apple has moved these System Preferences/Settings around several times with different recent versions of macOS. It is probably easiest to just to search for "brightness" and "dim" in the System Preferences/Settings.
One of the annoying settings for me is the one called "Slightly dim the display when on battery power" since every time the screen goes dark or you have to log in, the display will be dimmed slightly.
If you are saying adjusting the screen brightness to the highest setting still results in a dark screen, then you have a hardware issue with the laptop which will need to be repaired. If it is an Intel Mac, then you could try a PRAM Reset (hold the PRAM Reset for two chimes if possible)....this does not apply to an Apple Silicon Mac. I guess you could also try an SMC Reset if it is an Intel model (doubtful it will help though).
Sometimes if you close the lid of the laptop and very slowly & carefully lift it just a bit you may see the backlight & video come on. If this is the case, then you may be able to slowly & carefully open the lid a bit further (usually no more than about 45 degrees). If this is the case, then the internal display cable is bad and the laptop will need to be repaired (only happens with the USB-C models).
Make sure you have no camera covers or anything covering the upper central area of the screen around the black notch/camera since there is a light sensor there which is used to control screen & keyboard brightness.
There are several brightness settings available as well. Unfortunately Apple has moved these System Preferences/Settings around several times with different recent versions of macOS. It is probably easiest to just to search for "brightness" and "dim" in the System Preferences/Settings.
One of the annoying settings for me is the one called "Slightly dim the display when on battery power" since every time the screen goes dark or you have to log in, the display will be dimmed slightly.
If you are saying adjusting the screen brightness to the highest setting still results in a dark screen, then you have a hardware issue with the laptop which will need to be repaired. If it is an Intel Mac, then you could try a PRAM Reset (hold the PRAM Reset for two chimes if possible)....this does not apply to an Apple Silicon Mac. I guess you could also try an SMC Reset if it is an Intel model (doubtful it will help though).
Sometimes if you close the lid of the laptop and very slowly & carefully lift it just a bit you may see the backlight & video come on. If this is the case, then you may be able to slowly & carefully open the lid a bit further (usually no more than about 45 degrees). If this is the case, then the internal display cable is bad and the laptop will need to be repaired (only happens with the USB-C models).
macbook screen dimming
