Why Does My iPhone Screen Keep Dimming with Auto-Brightness Off?

ByKern Campbell, MBA

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You’re using your iPhone outside when the screen suddenly becomes overly dark. It’s frustrating and confusing when you know you have the Auto-Brightness feature turned off. It’s important to know why this happens with your iPhone and how it can be fixed so you can get back to seeing your screen again.

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Why Does My iPhone Screen Keep Dimming with Auto-Brightness Off?

Your iPhone’s screen might grow dim for any number of reasons if Auto-Brightness is off. Low Power mode, True Tone or Night Shift being enabled, and even your iPhone becoming overheated can all cause this problem. Fortunately, some fixes can stop your screen from dimming.

Usually, when an iPhone’s screen continuously dims, it’s because Auto-Brightness is turned on. This is a feature that will automatically adjust the brightness on your screen based on varying lighting conditions. The screen is meant to become lighter when you’re outside in the bright sun and darker at night.

Double-Check That Auto-Brightness Is Off

Even if you think you already have Auto-Brightness turned off, it’s best to double-check to see if this is indeed the case. To do that, go to Settings and Accessibility, then choose Display and Text Size. Scroll to the bottom and see if it’s enabled or disabled.

If Auto-Brightness is enabled, toggle it off. You should know that having this feature disabled can affect your iPhone’s battery life depending on how bright you have set your screen. If the brightness is set very low, however, it shouldn’t be a concern.

Check Whether Night Shift Is Turned On

If Auto-Brightness is turned off in your iPhone’s settings, then there is a different problem causing the screen to randomly dim. The Night Shift feature could be the culprit. It’s designed to provide your iPhone’s screen with a warmer display, making it easier to fall asleep at night after you use the device before bedtime.

To check Night Shift, go to Settings, Display, and Brightness and choose Night Shift. You may have the feature enabled, but you will want to toggle Manually Enabled Until Tomorrow to the off position.

Next, you will want to check the time schedule you have enabled for Night Shift. It should be fine if you have it set for hours when it’s still dark outside or when it’s still dark up until around the time when you wake up in the morning. 

If you have it set for too many hours when it’s light outside, you can adjust the time.

If you prefer to do away with Night Shift altogether to see whether it fixes your dimming iPhone screen issue, you can toggle off Scheduled under Night Shift. 

You can also do this from the Control Center by swiping up from the top if your iPhone has Face ID or from the bottom if your iPhone uses Touch ID.

After that, you will want to press and hold the brightness slider in the Control Center. Tap the Night Shift button and turn it off.

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Check to See if True Tone Is Turned On

True Tone is an iPhone feature that allows your display’s color to change based on the lighting in any environment you might be in, whether indoors or outdoors. Sometimes, a specific lighting condition might cause your iPhone’s screen to suddenly grow dimmer than you’d like it.

If the above tips have been unhelpful thus far, you can check True Tone by going to Settings, then Display and Brightness. If True Tone is turned on, you can set it to the off position to see if it solves your screen dimming problem.

Turn Off Low Power Mode

If you’re a heavy user of your iPhone, you’re probably already familiar with Low Power Mode. The feature allows you to save your battery life so that you can continue using your iPhone longer if you’re away from a charger or can’t currently use one. It adjusts and disables certain features on the device.

It’s important to know that Low Power Mode also dims your iPhone’s screen as a way to conserve battery power. If you regularly enable it, you will want to turn it off so your screen can be brighter. Go to Settings, Battery, and toggle Lower Power Mode to the off position.

Check to See if Reduce White Point Is On

The purpose of Reduce White Point is to reduce the intensity of brightness on your iPhone’s screen. However, it does cause your display to become dimmer.

If the above suggestions have still not been helpful in reducing dimness in your iPhone’s screen, you can check to see if Reduce White Point is enabled. This is a feature found under Settings, Accessibility, and Display and Text Size. Scroll down to the option for Reduce White Point.

If this feature is turned on, you can toggle it off. Or, if you prefer to continue using it, you can just drag the slider left to adjust it so that your screen won’t get as dim while adjusting bright colors.

What if Your iPhone’s Screen Is Still Too Dim?

If you’re still having a problem with your iPhone’s screen being too dim, there might be other issues causing it. It could be a software issue. Check Settings, General, and Software Update to see if there is a new version of iOS ready to be downloaded and installed.

Sometimes, problems like an iPhone’s screen becoming too dim might just be due to the device requiring a software update. Let the iPhone reboot after it’s finished and see whether this solves the problem.

Another reason your iPhone’s screen might be overly dim is a minor software issue that doesn’t require an iOS update. You can restart your Face ID-enabled device by pressing and holding the side button and a volume button at the same time until the screen appears to toggle it off. Restart afterward to see if the screen is back to normal.

If your iPhone uses Touch ID, you can restart by pressing and holding the power button and then toggling it off when the icon appears on the screen Press and hold the button to restart to see if this gives your iPhone’s screen a refresh.

If a simple restart of your iPhone doesn’t do the trick, you might want to try a hard reset. 

To do this on an iPhone with Face ID, press and release the Volume Up, then Volume Down, and then press and hold the side button. You’ll see the Apple logo appear to signify that the device is rebooting.

On an iPhone 8 or iPhone SE that’s not the original version, press and release the Volume Up button, do the same for the Volume Down button and then press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears.

For an iPhone 7, press and hold the Volume Down and Sleep/Wake buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears.

If you use an iPhone 6s or first-generation iPhone SE, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and Home button at the same time until the Apple logo appears.

Another reason why your iPhone’s screen might be getting too dim when you’re outdoors – or even indoors if it’s hot and you don’t have air conditioning – is because it’s getting overheated.

The iPhone will automatically dim as a way to prevent hardware problems from happening in this situation. If this is the culprit, you must let your iPhone get cooler so that it can continue functioning normally.