Apple Watch Brightness Problems – how to fix in seconds
Whether the brightness on your Apple Watch is too bright or too dim, you want it to stay a particular brightness, or you’re not sure how to adjust it, we’ve got you covered. We’ll go over all the fixes to many of the most common Apple Watch brightness issues.
The brightness on an Apple Watch can be adjusted directly on the Apple Watch screen or through the Apple Watch mobile app. Sometimes, however, fixing brightness issues require a few extra steps that may include restarting the Apple watch or disabling the power-saving mode.
To learn more about how to adjust your Apple Watch brightness and fix other brightness problems, continue reading for our step-by-step guides to easy fixes.
How to adjust Apple Watch Brightness in Watch Settings
The easiest way to adjust your Apple Watch’s brightness is through the watch settings themselves. If your brightness is too low to see in natural outdoor lighting, you may have to go inside a building or move to a shady area. If it’s still too dim, you may need to move to a dark room so you can see the screen better.
The first thing you’ll need to do is wake the screen of your watch by raising your wrist, tapping the display, or pressing the home button (digital crown). If your Apple Watch is completely off, you’ll need to press and hold the home button.
The next step is to open the Apple Watch settings app. This looks like a little gear. Once you’ve tapped it, a list of settings will appear on your screen. Tap Display & Brightness to bring up the brightness adjuster.
This will be the first row under Appearance, and it looks like a green bar with a small sun icon on one side and a large sun icon on the other side. You can tap the sun icon to adjust the brightness, or tap the slider and use the home button (digital crown) to adjust the brightness by turning it like a dial.
How to Adjust Apple Watch Brightness with the Mobile App
If your Apple Watch is too dim to see and you’re not able to get to a dark room, you can adjust the watch brightness using the Apple Watch mobile app on your iPhone or smartphone. You should already have this installed on your iPhone, but if not, you can download it from the App Store. Make sure to have your iPhone paired with your Apple Watch.
Once you have your Apple Watch app open on your iPhone, you’ll first want to tap My Watch in the lower left corner of the screen, then scroll down and tap Display & Brightness.
Under the Brightness heading, you’ll find a brightness adjust bar, which you can slide left to dim your Apple Watch or right to brighten it. This will automatically control the brightness of your Apple Watch without you having to touch it.
Apple Watch Brightness is Too Dim – Easy Fix
If your Apple Watch screen is too dim and neither of the above adjustments works to brighten it enough, for example, both settings show that the brightness is already all the way up, your watch may be experiencing a temporary glitch. This is more likely to occur if you haven’t powered off your watch completely for a while.
The quickest way to fix this glitch, if that is what is causing your Apple Watch screen to shine too bright, is to restart the watch. Just below the home button (often called the digital crown) is the long power button located on the side of your watch.
You’ll want to press and hold this power button until the screen changes to a power menu. Slide the Power Off toggle button to the right to completely shut down your watch. Next, give your watch a few seconds to shut down, then restart the watch by pressing and holding that power button once more until the Apple logo lights up the screen.
If this doesn’t seem to work, you can also double-check that your Always On feature is enabled. This is found on your Apple Watch settings app under Display & Brightness. This will ensure that the watch face and time will always be on display.
Apple Watch Brightness is Too High – Easy Fix
If manually lowering the brightness of your watch via the watch settings and the Apple Watch mobile app doesn’t change your brightness and your watch screen is still too bright, you may need to try these easy fixes.
If you’re trying to view your Apple Watch at night or in a dark room, the brightness should automatically dim. However, this sometimes doesn’t work or the brightness is still too bright for some. To make sure that your Apple Watch automatically dims as needed, follow these steps:
- Open the settings (gear) app on your Apple Watch.
- Slide up to scroll down until you see the Sleep App and tap it.
- Press the toggle button next to “Turn On at Bedtime.” The toggle should be green to indicate it is on.
- Scroll down and press the toggle button next to “Sleep Screen.” The toggle should also be green.
You can then toggle any other sleep functions you want on or off while you’re sleeping, including Show Time, Sleep Tracking, and Charging Reminders.
The first two toggles will dim your screen during bedtime and reduces distractions that come from your watch or your iPhone so that you can sleep peacefully, and when you wake up, you won’t have to deal with a bright screen on your wrist. You can also adjust these settings on your iPhone via the Apple Watch app or the Health app, and set your sleep schedule hours through the Apple Watch app.
You can ease eye strain additionally if your Apple Watch is the Ultra model. Turning on Night Mode can be done by activating the Wayfinder watch face by swiping the screen, then turning the Digital Crown to activate night mode.
Can You Turn Off Apple Watch Auto Brightness?
One of the most common complaints about the Apple Watch is that it is consistently and unreasonably dim in bright environments. Some have asked if the auto-brightness, which automatically adjusts the brightness, can be turned off manually.
Apple Watch has auto brightness automatically installed into the system, but it cannot be manually turned off by the user. This feature automatically adjusts the brightness based on the lighting and during and after sleep hours when Sleep Mode is enabled and sleep hours are scheduled through the Apple Watch app.
The designers of the Apple Watch chose not to make this auto-brightness setting available and adjustable to the user in order to conserve the small battery of the watch and to keep it working all day.
How to Turn Off Power-Saving Mode
The power-saving mode may cause your Apple Watch to dim and some features, including “Always On”, may shut off. You can turn off power-saving mode by charging your Apple Watch to at least 80% battery, but sometimes your Apple Watch can get stuck in power-saving mode, even if it’s fully charged.
In this case, you’ll need to perform a restart on your Apple Watch by pressing and holding down the side power button for about 10 seconds until an option on the screen asks if you want to power it off. Toggle this button and allow it a few seconds to power off, then press and hold the power button to power it back on.