my ipad screen dimming without affecting the darkness when watching stuff

Hey there cheng141,

Thankyou for sharing your issue in a detailed explanation.

This is actually a known behaviour on iPads (and iPhones) called Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL) or Auto-Brightness/Temperature Shifting, and it tends to become more noticeable after major iOS updates because Apple sometimes tweaks display management.

Here’s why it happens and what you can try:

What’s Happening

• When the iPad shows a very bright scene (like a mostly white screen or a bright flash), the system briefly reduces panel brightness to prevent overheating and reduce power draw.
• It’s more noticeable on HDR content (Netflix, YouTube HDR videos) because HDR can push the display to higher peak brightness levels.

Troubleshooting & Fixes

1. Turn Off Auto-Brightness

• Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Auto-Brightness > turn it off and test again.

2. Disable True Tone

• Settings > Display & Brightness > True Tone → turn it off.

Sometimes True Tone + HDR content causes visible dimming shifts.

3. Disable Reduce White Point

• Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Reduce White Point → turn off.

4. Disable "Limit Frame Rate" (ProMotion iPads)

If you have an iPad Pro with 120Hz display:

• Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Limit Frame Rate → turn off.

This allows ProMotion to adjust refresh rate dynamically and can reduce perceived dimming.

5. Turn Off Auto HDR (for Video)

• Settings > TV > Playback > HDR → turn off.
• YouTube HDR can only be disabled by choosing a non-HDR resolution manually in the app.

6. Cool Down Your iPad

• If your iPad is warm, iOS will throttle screen brightness for thermal reasons.

Try:

• Removing case temporarily
• Watching in a cooler environment
• Reducing brightness manually to 70–80%

7. Reset All Settings (Last Resort)

If the issue only started after the update and persists:

Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPad > Reset > Reset All Settings

(This won’t erase data, but will reset display settings, Wi-Fi passwords, etc.)