[Bug] - Light/Dark display arbitrarily ignoring automatic schedule

[sparky672]

iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 17.3 and 17.3.1

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Thursday AM (iOS 17.3) : Woke up sometime well after sunrise and grabbed my phone off the nightstand. I noticed it was stuck in Dark display despite my settings of "Sunset to Sunrise". Rebooted phone and it automatically switched over to Light display as it should.

Friday AM (iOS 17.3.1) : Woke up sometime well after sunrise and grabbed my phone off the nightstand. I noticed it was again stuck in Dark display. This time I toggled the "automatic" setting to OFF and did a hard reboot. It booted up into Light display, and I switched the automatic Sunset to Sunrise schedule back ON.

I have checked and verified my Location settings, which are all enabled. I double checked that my location was correct by locating myself on the Map. Even after that, Dark display did not automatically switch. My date/time is correct and set to automatic.

Saturday AM (iOS 17.3.1) : Woke up sometime well after sunrise and grabbed my phone off the nightstand. I noticed it was again stuck in Dark display. This time I walked my phone out of the dark bedroom and into the sunlight of the kitchen. Then it automatically switched into Light display.

NOTES:

• I use a charging stand with Standby Display ON. This all works and has been working fine for months.
• The room has blackout curtains so it's dark after sunrise if I am still sleeping.
• I am not talking about AOD (Always On Display), Standby Display, or Night Shift, which all seem to be working.

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At the top of the "schedule" screen it says "iPhone may wait to transition until you are not using the screen". I am not using the screen if I am sleeping when Sunrise occurs, so it should have automatically transitioned from Dark to Light display.

Otherwise, is there a hidden feature where it's allowed to completely ignore the set schedule, or ignore sunrise, if the ambient light sensor says the room is still dark? This is not necessarily a bad experience, but it's completely unexpected because this is not how it's previously been working.

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EDIT:

Same thing happened this morning, except it eventually transitioned back to Light display after I unlocked, locked, and unlocked the phone. Definitely something is off with this feature if it's supposed to transition on a set schedule but it's doing it later based on unknown or arbitrary criteria.

 

[blotchy-veil]

In my experience, auto light/dark only works around 90% of the time and sometimes gets stuck or delayed by hours. I don’t know how such a simple feature doesn’t work 99.9999% of the time.

 

[Böhme417]

I don’t have problems in the morning being stuck in dark mode. Mine seems to ignore the nighttime transition to dark mode. I have it set with specific times—11 PM to 7 AM. I’ll be using my phone when it will suddenly decide to switch to dark mode well after 11 PM.

 

[sparky672]

In my experience, auto light/dark only works around 90% of the time and sometimes gets stuck or delayed by hours. I don’t know how such a simple feature doesn’t work 99.9999% of the time.

I agree. Today, after doing the same thing for a almost a week, suddenly did something completely different. I woke up after sunrise, unlocked my phone and it was already in Light display mode, which is perfect. So one day out of five it worked as one would expect it to.

I don’t have problems in the morning being stuck in dark mode. Mine seems to ignore the nighttime transition to dark mode. I have it set with specific times—11 PM to 7 AM. I’ll be using my phone when it will suddenly decide to switch to dark mode well after 11 PM.

Now that you mention it, I'm not sure I paid much attention to that. Mine might be doing this too, so tonight I will verify. EDIT: Sometime after sunset today, I unlocked my phone and it was already in Dark display as it should... although that doesn't mean it will do the same thing 24 hours from now.

It's a computer... a logic machine with 1's and 0's... mind boggling how these things can't just work with some reliable consistency. If time of day, then Light, or if some other time of day, then Dark... it's not that complicated.

 

[Jerry_D]

Hmm. It's also happening to me on a brand-new iPad. Yesterday I bought a new iPad Pro and set it up by transferring everything from my previous iPad. It was a quick and smooth process, and everything works perfectly. With one exception: I have Settings > Display & Brightness set to Automatic and Options to Light until Sunset. However, the display stays light even after sunset and never switches to dark. It does work correctly however in the opposite scenario - if I set it to Dark manually and leave the Automatic on, the Options switches to Dark until Sunrise and the display does change correctly to light in the morning. I checked and my time zone is correct, the location services are on, and Night Shift works correctly, being set to Sunset to Sunrise.

 

[Paddle1]

I don’t have problems in the morning being stuck in dark mode. Mine seems to ignore the nighttime transition to dark mode. I have it set with specific times—11 PM to 7 AM. I’ll be using my phone when it will suddenly decide to switch to dark mode well after 11 PM.

It's designed to not automatically switch while the device is in use unless the screen dims from inactivity.

 

[Böhme417]

It's designed to not automatically switch while the device is in use unless the screen dims from inactivity.

But, it does. Like I said, I'll be using my phone when it will suddenly change—often at some arbitrary time.

 

[Paddle1]

But, it does. Like I said, I'll be using my phone when it will suddenly change—often at some arbitrary time.

So you mean it changes when you're currently touching the screen? The only time it should automatically change while the screen is on is if your phone is about to auto-lock from inactivity.

I can be on my phone for 15 minutes or whatever past the start time and it will wait until the screen starts dimming to switch.

 

[Jerry_D]

Hmm. It's also happening to me on a brand-new iPad. Yesterday I bought a new iPad Pro and set it up by transferring everything from my previous iPad. It was a quick and smooth process, and everything works perfectly. With one exception: I have Settings > Display & Brightness set to Automatic and Options to Light until Sunset. However, the display stays light even after sunset and never switches to dark. It does work correctly however in the opposite scenario - if I set it to Dark manually and leave the Automatic on, the Options switches to Dark until Sunrise and the display does change correctly to light in the morning. I checked and my time zone is correct, the location services are on, and Night Shift works correctly, being set to Sunset to Sunrise.

UPDATE: Actually, I've discovered that the display does switch to dark, just not exactly at sunset but 35 mins later. BTW, same happens on my iPhone. In a certain way, it makes sense because that's when it actually gets dark.

 

[splifingate]

Yah; "Light Until Sunset" seems to be subjective.

On Desktop, Dark Mode is steadfastly adhering to the latter-stages of the dying light.

<Side-Note>

I recently had a chance to physically witness the transition from one Timezone, to another . . . though not recorded, my iPhone transitioned from CST to EST almost instantly.

[I was driving a large truck Inter-State, so I was not able to record the instance]

</Side-Note>

 

[Jerry_D]

WRT time zones, I have the same experience. I travel a lot and the time zone switching works perfectly. Regarding the sunset, the native weather app, as well as a few others show the correct time for sunset, which for me (presently in Barcelona, Spain) yesterday was 9:08 pm. However, the display switched to dark at 9:40 pm which is exactly the Civil Twilight time according to the astronomical authorities. So, perhaps it's not a bug after all but possibly a good idea to darken the display when it really gets dark outside.

 

[splifingate]

WRT time zones, I have the same experience. I travel a lot and the time zone switching works perfectly. Regarding the sunset, the native weather app, as well as a few others show the correct time for sunset, which for me (presently in Barcelona, Spain) yesterday was 9:08 pm. However, the display switched to dark at 9:40 pm which is exactly the Civil Twilight time according to the astronomical authorities. So, perhaps it's not a bug after all but possibly a good idea to darken the display when it really gets dark outside.

Yes. The accuracy of the TZ transition implies the ability to correctly navigate such as similar.

Flux app approaches this with a more graceful transition.