iPad Pro Automatic Brightness has a issue on M4 iPad Pro

[AppleFeller]

So I commonly use my iPad in bed with it just laying flat. The light sensor on these is on the back camera housing now apparently and falsely thinks your in a pitch black room if you set the iPad down on any surface. Really annoying because my iPhone doesn’t have that issue and also if you pick up the iPad the brightness correctly adjusts to idk 5% like my iPhone sets to with most my lights off in the room. This is super annoying and causes eye strain I hope apple can fix the behavior to not rely just on the back camera light sensor as that method of light measuring seems poor due to various positions someone may have their iPad during normal usage.

 

[aevan]

So I commonly use my iPad in bed with it just laying flat. The light sensor on these is on the back camera housing now apparently and falsely thinks your in a pitch black room if you set the iPad down on any surface. Really annoying because my iPhone doesn’t have that issue and also if you pick up the iPad the brightness correctly adjusts to idk 5% like my iPhone sets to with most my lights off in the room. This is super annoying and causes eye strain I hope apple can fix the behavior to not rely just on the back camera light sensor as that method of light measuring seems poor due to various positions someone may have their iPad during normal usage.

Their auto-brightness is sometimes a bit too agressive, but they wouldn’t design it in a way you describe and it doesn’t happen to my M4 iPad Pro.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Mine works fine . . . .

 

[garethjs]

I’ve never had an issue with minimum brightness on an Apple device until now. Even my iPhone 15 in the dark at minum brightness is too bright I feel but with the iPad Pro m4 11” the screen is so dark I have to manually adjust the brightness.

 

[AppleFeller]

Their auto-brightness is sometimes a bit too agressive, but they wouldn’t design it in a way you describe and it doesn’t happen to my M4 iPad Pro.

Have you adjusted your brightness ever since using it? Because in my experience stops it from dimming below whatever you set and you have to manually go re toggle auto brightness to get full auto. I will test more when I get home in a daytime lit room. I swear when the back light sensor is covered auto brightness thinks it’s pitch black and takes brightness to literally 0 which is understandably difficult to see but if I uncover it or hold it different it’ll work as normal and brightness is adjusted perfectly for the dim or lit room. I can see the behavior in control center too the brightness slider adjusting from 5% to 0% when covering it and then back when it’s uncovered.

 

[AppleFeller]

I’ve never had an issue with minimum brightness on an Apple device until now. Even my iPhone 15 in the dark at minum brightness is too bright I feel but with the iPad Pro m4 11” the screen is so dark I have to manually adjust the brightness.

Yep same thing and I’ve finally isolated it to that rear camera/light sensor being obscured that’s when I see auto brightness go to 0. If I uncover it, the auto brightness behavior is identical to my 15 pro and I have no issues visibility wise.

 

[aevan]

Have you adjusted your brightness ever since using it? Because in my experience stops it from dimming below whatever you set and you have to manually go re toggle auto brightness to get full auto. I will test more when I get home in a daytime lit room. I swear when the back light sensor is covered auto brightness thinks it’s pitch black and takes brightness to literally 0 which is understandably difficult to see but if I uncover it or hold it different it’ll work as normal and brightness is adjusted perfectly for the dim or lit room. I can see the behavior in control center too the brightness slider adjusting from 5% to 0% when covering it and then back when it’s uncovered.

Something is not working properly if your iPad behaves that way.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

So I commonly use my iPad in bed with it just laying flat. The light sensor on these is on the back camera housing now apparently and falsely thinks your in a pitch black room if you set the iPad down on any surface. Really annoying because my iPhone doesn’t have that issue and also if you pick up the iPad the brightness correctly adjusts to idk 5% like my iPhone sets to with most my lights off in the room. This is super annoying and causes eye strain I hope apple can fix the behavior to not rely just on the back camera light sensor as that method of light measuring seems poor due to various positions someone may have their iPad during normal usage.

The light sensor is still on the front according to recent articles. The new one on the back is for different use.

 

[profdraper]

I turn off auto-brightness & just set where I want manually. In terms of a dark room, Netflix or similar, for HDR/4k the display needs to be full-wack to make the most of that - 13” iPad Pro here. The display in this context is excellent. I also tend to turn on low power mode in this context, seems to make zero difference to the display quality.

The only setting I use for display is true tone on, the rest is manual & added to the Control Centre for easy access. Generally 75% for daily work, 100% for TV.

 

[AppleFeller]

Something is not working properly if your iPad behaves that way.

Yah I’m confused not noticing the behavior if room is lit normal when I set the iPad down. So idk what I’m even seeing now.

 

[klasma]

Yah I’m confused not noticing the behavior if room is lit normal when I set the iPad down. So idk what I’m even seeing now.

Maybe the front sensors (there are two, one beside the camera and one on the short side) are less sensitive on your unit. Still that might be a defect.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

I’ve never had an issue with minimum brightness on an Apple device until now. Even my iPhone 15 in the dark at minum brightness is too bright I feel but with the iPad Pro m4 11” the screen is so dark I have to manually adjust the brightness.

I have the 13” and 11”, both have very aggressive auto brightness especially in low/no light as you describe. Pretty annoying really.

 

[daneg]

i just ran into this very issue in bed with lights off. i hadn’t considered a light sensor issue. it’s behaving like an aggressive g1 OLED monitor burn-in protection routine. i’ll start a youtube video and it dims ~70% within 5 seconds of playing the stream. but as soon as i touch the screen, it goes bright again. this has only happened in firefox so far. i did not experience it reading kindle or playing carcassonne. then again, i’m touching the screen quite frequently in those apps.

edit: 2024 ipad pro 13” (M4) IOS v17.5.1

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Own both current gens sizes and auto brightness is very aggressive especially low light situations to where its barely visible. There are two sensors, one by the main camera and other by the faceid just hold your hand over them for a few seconds. Even have the ipados 18 beta and its an issue.

 

[Surfsalot]

Own both current gens sizes and auto brightness is very aggressive especially low light situations to where its barely visible. There are two sensors, one by the main camera and other by the faceid just hold your hand over them for a few seconds. Even have the ipados 18 beta and its an issue.

if you could only choose 1 which size?

 

[stiligFox]

Just chiming in to say I’m also having a similar issue with my M4 iPad Pro - whenever i wake the iPad up either at night in bed, or when I first wake up, the brightness seems to set itself to minimum brightness which even in a pitch dark room is too dim to read or see anything. I wonder if it’s due to the fact that the screen is able to dim so much that Apple hasn’t sorted out the auto-dimming algorithm?

 

[asleep]

Mine works fine . . . .

Mine too, if anything it a bit too bright at times. I’d like to be able to knock down the base auto brightness curve by about 20%, except at the very lowest auto brightness levels.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Mine too, if anything it a bit too bright at times. I’d like to be able to knock down the base auto brightness curve by about 20%, except at the very lowest auto brightness levels.

‘Only time my M4 is too bright is if I reboot, which is seldom. When it reboots it takes a second for the auto brightness to kick back in.