This article explains how to prevent an iPhone display from dimming automatically, including how to turn off Auto-Brightness and the Night Shift feature.
What to Know
- To turn off Auto-Dimming: Open Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size, and tap the Auto-Brightness toggle.To turn off Night Shift: Open Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift, and tap the Scheduled toggle.Your iPhone display will also dim when Low Power Mode activates due to the battery running low.
How Do I Stop My iPhone From Dimming Automatically?
If you want to stop your iPhone from dimming on its own and take complete manual control over the brightness of the screen, then the first step is to disable Auto-Brightness. That will prevent your iPhone from automatically adjusting its screen brightness based on ambient light conditions. If you want to take total control, you’ll need to also disable the Night Shift feature.
Try adjusting the iPhone Auto-Brightness feature before turning it off altogether, your phone may just be calibrated wrong.
Here’s how to disable Auto-Brightness on an iPhone:
Reducing screen brightness is one way to save battery on an iPhone. Disabling Auto-Brightness may result in needing to charge your iPhone more often.
- Open Settings.
- Tap and drag to scroll down the list of settings.
- Tap Accessibility.
- Tap Display & Text Size.
- Tap the Auto-Brightness toggle to turn it off.
- Your iPhone will no longer dim in response to ambient light conditions.
How to Turn Off the iPhone Night Shift Feature
In addition to the Auto-Brightness feature, the brightness of an iPhone display can also be reduced by the Night Shift feature. Turning off both Auto-Brightness and this feature will prevent the iPhone display from adjusting automatically at all, so you will have to adjust it yourself using the Control Center.
Open Settings.
Tap and drag to scroll down the list of settings.
Tap Accessibility.
Tap Display & Text Size.
Tap the Auto-Brightness toggle to turn it off.
Your iPhone will no longer dim in response to ambient light conditions.
Here’s how to turn off Night Shift on an iPhone:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Display & Brightness.
- Tap Night Shift.
- Tap the Scheduled toggle to turn it off.
- Tap Back to verify Night Shift is off, and Night Shift will no longer adjust your display at night.
How to Adjust Your iPhone Brightness Manually
When you turn off Auto-Brightness and Night Shift, your iPhone will no longer adjust its brightness in response to lighting conditions or the time of day. You may find the display is too bright at night after making these changes, or it’s difficult to see in bright sunlight. If so, you’ll have to adjust the brightness manually each time you want the display to be brighter or find it to be too bright.
Tap Display & Brightness.
Tap Night Shift.
Tap the Scheduled toggle to turn it off.
Tap Back to verify Night Shift is off, and Night Shift will no longer adjust your display at night.
Here’s how to adjust your iPhone display brightness:
- Open the Control Center.
- Swipe down from the top right corner of the screen, or swipe up from the bottom depending on which iPhone you have.
- Slide your finger down to decrease the brightness.
- Slide your finger up to increase the brightness.
Why Does My iPhone Keep Lowering the Brightness?
Your iPhone is designed to automatically change its brightness throughout the day based on the current conditions. Depending on the time of day and your current lighting conditions, either one of these features could be responsible for your phone lowering brightness. There is also a low power mode that kicks in when your battery is close to running out.
Open the Control Center.
Swipe down from the top right corner of the screen, or swipe up from the bottom depending on which iPhone you have.
Slide your finger down to decrease the brightness.
Slide your finger up to increase the brightness.
Here are the features that can lower the brightness of an iPhone:
Auto-Brightness: This feature uses the light sensor that’s built into your iPhone to match screen brightness to your current lighting conditions. If you’re in a brightly lit room, this feature will adjust your display to be brighter. In a darker room, the brightness will go down. This can help reduce eye strain.
Night Shift: This feature adjusts the brightness and color temperature of your iPhone screen based on the time of day and your location. When it’s on, the brightness will lower and the screen temperatures will shift at sunset to reduce eye strain.
Low Power Mode: This feature activates when your battery drops below a critical level. Low Power Mode adjusts a number of settings to increase battery life, which includes lowering screen brightness. You can turn this mode off in battery settings, or plug your phone in and let it charge.
How do I stop my iPhone lock screen from dimming?
If you have an iPhone with Face ID and the screen dims too quickly even when you’re looking at it, turn off Attention Aware from Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Attention Aware Features. If you’d like your screen to stay on longer before dimming or never dim, adjust the auto-lock mode from Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock.
How do I stop my iPhone from dimming music when a notification arrives?
You can work around this built-in behavior by putting your iPhone in Silent Mode. Flip the hardware switch on the side of your device to silence notifications. Another option is to set up Do Not Disturb on your iPhone, which you can access from the Control Center or Settings > Do Not Disturb.
If you have an iPhone with Face ID and the screen dims too quickly even when you’re looking at it, turn off Attention Aware from Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Attention Aware Features. If you’d like your screen to stay on longer before dimming or never dim, adjust the auto-lock mode from Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock.
You can work around this built-in behavior by putting your iPhone in Silent Mode. Flip the hardware switch on the side of your device to silence notifications. Another option is to set up Do Not Disturb on your iPhone, which you can access from the Control Center or Settings > Do Not Disturb.
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