Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Sometimes my Watch 6 wakes but the screen in extremely dark. Been doing this for years. I wonder if I'm the only one and/or if this could potentially be related?

I experienced that randomly with my Series 4. I think it was related to the Ambient Light sensor and related software not adjusting fast enough. It adjusts to a darker level, and then fails to readjust to a brighter level.
 
Jesus H Christ. What is going on this year? Did they lose all their top software engineers? Overheating iPhones and Screen Retention are huge issues. Now, one of the headline features of the premium Apple watches should be turned off as a workaround? Simply unacceptable for a company of this caliber.

Others in this forum have already commented that their watches have not been exhibiting this issue, and there were conflicting reports of both the overheating issue and the screen ghosting issues. Not every device is exhibiting, which means it's not really a "design flaw" or lack of testing. Once millions of devices go through the manufacturing stages, some are bound to have issues that just don't work exactly to spec. It's unrealistic to expect 100% perfection when dozens of companies are involved. We should give kudos to Apple for delivering products that work so exceptionally well. The consumer expectations are out of control.

Apple has identified and is fixing the problem, rather than ignoring it. How about we recognize that?
 
Only odd thing I see with my S9 is my complications (temp, conditions, date) will turn into a grey square. Not sure if this is privacy but it takes time for them to come back or a restart is needed. Annoying at times but nothing too terrible.
 
Let me guess…. It’s a software issue!

What a bunch of morons they have in the software department. I don’t understand why they don’t give a termination letter to the one in charge of software over there. They terminated Forstall over maps. Why can’t they terminate this one over the mess that the whole ecosystem turned out to be?? do
Jesus H Christ. What is going on this year? Did they lose all their top software engineers? Overheating iPhones and Screen Retention are huge issues. Now, one of the headline features of the premium Apple watches should be turned off as a workaround? Simply unacceptable for a company of this caliber.
Plainly you have never worked in software development or QA. Even with automated tools you can’t test alll combinations
 
I experienced that randomly with my Series 4. I think it was related to the Ambient Light sensor and related software not adjusting fast enough. It adjusts to a darker level, and then fails to readjust to a brighter level.
Min was happening in a completely dark room. Too dark to see in near pitch black.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Victor Mortimer
I think the reason software and hardware has gotten less impressive is because of the fact that Steve Jobs took **** from no one and wasn't afraid to throw leaders out who didn't perform. Tim Cook is just a PR machine focused on numbers and it shows. It's really disappointing to see how they do business but I'm already seeing so many signs of degradation from Apple in software, hardware, customer service, and so on. None of this really is surprising and it's not like the grass is greener elsewhere either.

Industry wide I think people are just plain burned out and have nothing left to give and why should they, when you look at how corp America is treating its workers. Pretty sad.
 
On my S9, I have also seen it. Seems to happen when it is trying to decide whether it should go to always on sleep mode instead of active mode. When my wrist is slightly tilted down, it doesn’t know what to do and flickers back-and-forth. That is definitely software based. Probably due to change in screens brightness and ambient light sensors too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bobcomer
I think the reason software and hardware has gotten less impressive is because of the fact that Steve Jobs took **** from no one and wasn't afraid to throw leaders out who didn't perform. Tim Cook is just a PR machine focused on numbers and it shows. It's really disappointing to see how they do business but I'm already seeing so many signs of degradation from Apple in software, hardware, customer service, and so on. None of this really is surprising and it's not like the grass is greener elsewhere either.

Industry wide I think people are just plain burned out and have nothing left to give and why should they, when you look at how corp America is treating its workers. Pretty sad.

Steve shipped MobileMe.
 
Sometimes my Watch 6 wakes but the screen in extremely dark. Been doing this for years. I wonder if I'm the only one and/or if this could potentially be related?
I had that issue too.. What's happening is that you are rotating the crown and it acts as a backlight intensity control.
It took me a long time to figure it out, I even called Apple a few times and because they had no clue, they exchanged my watch under AppleCare.
Then one day I realized that was the problem.
You should be able to disable this annoying 'feature' by going to Settings -> Display & Brightness -> disable Wake on Crown Rotation.
 
I've been having this issue with my Ultra 2 since day 1. I had to turn off the always on display because it was so annoying. It seems most prevalent with the modular ultra display. When dimmed my screen would flash about once per second. Nice to see Apple finally acknowledge this.
 
Others in this forum have already commented that their watches have not been exhibiting this issue, and there were conflicting reports of both the overheating issue and the screen ghosting issues. Not every device is exhibiting, which means it's not really a "design flaw" or lack of testing. Once millions of devices go through the manufacturing stages, some are bound to have issues that just don't work exactly to spec. It's unrealistic to expect 100% perfection when dozens of companies are involved. We should give kudos to Apple for delivering products that work so exceptionally well. The consumer expectations are out of control.

Apple has identified and is fixing the problem, rather than ignoring it. How about we recognize that?
You're absolutely right. Haters gotta hate I guess.
I think the reason software and hardware has gotten less impressive is because of the fact that Steve Jobs took **** from no one and wasn't afraid to throw leaders out who didn't perform. Tim Cook is just a PR machine focused on numbers and it shows. It's really disappointing to see how they do business but I'm already seeing so many signs of degradation from Apple in software, hardware, customer service, and so on. None of this really is surprising and it's not like the grass is greener elsewhere either.

Industry wide I think people are just plain burned out and have nothing left to give and why should they, when you look at how corp America is treating its workers. Pretty sad.
What a populist garbage thing to say. Apple's standards have improved a lot more in the last 10 years than the 10 years before that.

Cracking surrounds of the first MacBook Airs. Screens that delaminate in 2013, Antennagate on the iPhone 4s. The only major issue that have had in the last 10 years has been the butterfly keyboard.
 
Last edited:
  • Angry
Reactions: Victor Mortimer
The lower frequency of PWM on OLED is a big bag of hurt that these companies keep on pushing as energy saving and technologically advanced. Anti-flicker this, ProMotion that. The sooner it dies the better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Victor Mortimer
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.