Can No Longer Adjust Brightness After Update

[Gst95]

Hello,

Recently, I updated Macbook Pro Retina (15 inch 2013 model) to Big Sur 11.6. However, a recent bug has emerged where I can no longer adjust the brightness on my display. Before the update I was able to do so completely fine. The brightness buttons on my keyboard have no effect, there is no option to change it in the preferences, and the bar on the display widget is blanked out.




Anyone who can explain why this has happened? It's very annoying to be honest, and is one of the reasons why I'm hesitant to install updates as they just seem to cause issues (last time it was a USB and HDMI port being disabled, now no longer an issue thankfully).

 

[Ruggy]

You say recently: have you rebooted since the update because it has been known to fix issues like this?

 

[Gst95]

You say recently: have you rebooted since the update because it has been known to fix issues like this?

Yep, I've restarted the system numerous times. Even tried resetting the SMC and PRAM. Issue is still not resolved.

 

[Unsupported]

Hello,

Recently, I updated Macbook Pro Retina (15 inch 2013 model) to Big Sur 11.6. However, a recent bug has emerged where I can no longer adjust the brightness on my display. Before the update I was able to do so completely fine. The brightness buttons on my keyboard have no effect, there is no option to change it in the preferences, and the bar on the display widget is blanked out.

View attachment 1855552
View attachment 1855551

Anyone who can explain why this has happened? It's very annoying to be honest, and is one of the reasons why I'm hesitant to install updates as they just seem to cause issues (last time it was a USB and HDMI port being disabled, now no longer an issue thankfully).

You seem to be missing some options:

I've had a similar issue which was resolved by going to Display Preferences:

 

[Gst95]

You seem to be missing some options:
View attachment 1856340
I've had a similar issue which was resolved by going to Display Preferences:

View attachment 1856341

Yep, that's the thing. I have no idea where the options disappeared to, or why I can no longer access them. I tried getting up the Preferences from the Display widget, but still no sign of them. The True Tone option also appears to be non-existent.

 

[usagora]

Your MacBook Pro year (2013) is right on the edge of compatibility with Big Sur. According to this page, there are three 15 inch MBP models for 2013: 10,1 (early 2013) and 11,2 or 11,3 (both late 2013). And according to this page, out fo those two models, only 11,2 (late 2013) is compatible with Big Sur.

So, can you confirm yours is a MacBookPro11,2 or MacBookPro11,3 (in other words, a late 2013 model)? If it's not, then this might be the result of the hardware not being 100% compatible.

 

[Gst95]

Your MacBook Pro year (2013) is right on the edge of compatibility with Big Sur. According to this page, there are three 15 inch MBP models for 2013: 10,1 (early 2013) and 11,2 or 11,3 (both late 2013). And according to this page, out fo those two models, only 11,2 (late 2013) is compatible with Big Sur.

So, can you confirm yours is a MacBookPro11,2 or MacBookPro11,3 (in other words, a late 2013 model)? If it's not, then this might be the result of the hardware not being 100% compatible.

It appears to be a late 2013 model, not entirely sure if it's 11,2 or 11,3. Here are the specs.



I should also point out that adjusting the brightness has worked fine with past versions of Big Sur. It just seems this update has broken it, for whatever reason.

 

[njvm]

If you go to the System Report the Model Number should be indicated in 'Model Identifier' on the first page.

 

[usagora]

It appears to be a late 2013 model, not entirely sure if it's 11,2 or 11,3. Here are the specs.

View attachment 1856595

I should also point out that adjusting the brightness has worked fine with past versions of Big Sur. It just seems this update has broken it, for whatever reason.

Yep, that definitely says Late 2013, so that's not the problem, at least not officially, though I still do wonder if they've now introduced an update that knocks off the Late 2013 MBP from the compatibility list. (btw, if you click on System Report there, it will show your Model Identifier (11,2 or 11,3) in the System Information app.

 

[Gst95]

Checked it. Yep, it is an 11,2.

 

[appltech]

Hi! Apart from NVRAM & SMC reset, have you tried Safe Mode or a new user account? If that doesn't work, you could try rolling back to previous macOS version if you made a backup before.

 

[csbpl]

Same machine here, 11.2.3 was the last version where my brightness slider worked. I tried 11.3/4 etc. it was grey. So sad, they didn't fix it

Went back to catalina, everything is working fine

 

[Gst95]

Hi! Apart from NVRAM & SMC reset, have you tried Safe Mode or a new user account? If that doesn't work, you could try rolling back to previous macOS version if you made a backup before.

Nope, neither of those seems to work I'm afraid.

As for downgrading to a previous version, I don't have any backups unfortunately.

 

[FireArse]

I have a similar issue with 11.6 but I’m
using completely different hardware.

I have M1 Mac Mini with a 23-inch Cinema Display (with DVI).

Brightness settings aren’t shown and the only way I can adjust is using the monitor itself. I’ve used both HDMI to DVI and USB-C -> Mini DP -> DVI with the USB cable Plugged in for the display.

Apple rep told me today it was down to my Old monitor, but this appears to be a bug if OP can’t adjust for a supported built-in MBP display.

I filed a report on apple.com/feedback

 

[starless]

Hi! I have exactly the same problem on my MacBook Pro 15" mid-2014.
After much time, a couple of days ago I finally decided to upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur (11.6.1), and after the upgrade I had this issue where the display brightness is locked at an intermediate value and cannot be changed, because every brightness control does not work or is unavailable at all, as in the first post of this thread.

I tried every possible solution found on the web: reset NVRAM and SMC, force shutdown, safe mode, change display scale... with no success.
I also asked to Apple support but up to now they were not able to suggest more than a reinstall, which I now know is useless: I performed a clean install of Big Sur on an external SDD and the same happens, while a clean install of Catalina on the same external drive works perfectly (i.e. brightness controls work fine).

It seems like the internal display is treated by Big Sur like an external monitor, where the OS brightness controls are usually not available.

By the way, I've seen reports of this happening with non-Apple display replacement parts. I bought my MacBook second hand, but the previous owner assures me that it was never serviced outside of official Apple support.

 

[starless]

Hi again, so... I managed to install Big Sur 11.2 and 11.3 on two separate volumes on an external drive, and I can confirm that when I boot into 11.2 brightness controls work fine, while booting into 11.3 I have no brightness controls.
Now, I would like to try moving some system library or preferences over from 11.2 to 11.3 to isolate the cause of the issue. Any suggestions? I had a quick look at system folders but nothing caught my eye as possibly related to monitor settings.

 

[ab225]

Hi again, so... I managed to install Big Sur 11.2 and 11.3 on two separate volumes on an external drive, and I can confirm that when I boot into 11.2 brightness controls work fine, while booting into 11.3 I have no brightness controls.
Now, I would like to try moving some system library or preferences over from 11.2 to 11.3 to isolate the cause of the issue. Any suggestions? I had a quick look at system folders but nothing caught my eye as possibly related to monitor settings.

Same. I have the latest Big Sur update on a MacBook Pro 2014 and changing the brightness through software or function keys doesn't work. The only way I've found around it is closing the lid, making it sleep then opening again. But every time I restart it gets disabled again.

 

[josephheaven]

I used OpenCore Patcher to update a late 2013 iMac 27" to Sonoma. I had this issue until I did the Post Install ROOT Patching and that fixed this issue AND an issue that meant logging in was problematic as the bluetooth mouse and keyboard became so slow to respond they were almost unusable!

Did OpenCore Post Install Root Patching and it's working like a new iMac now!!