Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPad mini 4 screen keeps dimming

boston04and07

boston04and07

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 13, 2008
1,838
943
Ever since I updated to iOS 10, I've noticed the screen dimming and then brightening on my iPad mini 4 in a weirdly regular pattern. Before, if I was doing a lot on my iPad and taxing it somehow, I'd often see the screen dim on its own a few notches (without me dimming it myself) but a few minutes later it would always come back. Now, ever since the update, if my screen is at full brightness I'll notice it dim a few notches, then about thirty seconds or so later, dim a few more notches, then thirty seconds or so after that, come back up a few notches, then about thirty seconds after that, finally come back to full brightness. This down-down-up-up pattern repeats constantly and happens when I'm plugged in and when I'm running on battery power. Also, the onscreen brightness adjuster that I get when adjusting brightness with my Apple bluetooth keyboard doesn't display, which I guess means my iPad doesn't somehow think it's being told to do this, but rather is dimming the display on its own. Other than that, my iPad has been working great since the update. If anyone has been seeing this too or has any ideas I'd love to know!
 
Mine was doing this under full brightness on the treadmill the other day outside, happened two day in a row and I wasn't on iOS 10, but 9.
 
windowpain said:
Do you have auto-brightness turned on?
Normal behavior if you do.
Click to expand...

Ah, I should have mentioned that I have auto brightness turned off. And, when the display dims, the brightness slider in control center still displays as being up all the way.
 
I am fairly certain I turn auto brightness off on my devices as well but I will have to check.
 
I've done some more testing of this, and have confirmed that none of my display settings, like reduce white point or anything like that, are somehow changing on their own when the display dims. When I originally posted, my display was going through this dim-brighten-repeat pattern constantly, but since then, I've noticed it'll stop for a little while before starting the pattern up again. When it is doing the dimming thing, I've also noticed that those are times when my battery life is really bad and the back of the device is getting warmer than it normally gets. I'm not doing anything super out of the ordinary - mostly web browsing and watching some videos and stuff. Maybe some process is running in the background that's overtaxing the system, causing the battery life hit and the dimming of the display, idk. I haven't figured out what that could be, though.
 
Yeah, I am not sure what could be causing it, sometimes if auto-brightness is turned on the screen can dim and brighten quite noticeably which be a little surprising if you weren't expecting it.

Does it happen if you tape over the light sensor (I think located near the camera)?

You can check that the sensor is working correctly by shining a flashlight on it (to simulate a bright room) and watching the indicator line move.
 
Newtons Apple said:
If your device gets too warm from full brightness and intensive CPU usage it will dim the display by itself until it cools down a bit.
Click to expand...

Thanks for confirming this @Newtons Apple. After a few days of using iOS 10, my iPad has been showing this behavior much less frequently, so I was starting to wonder if it was something like that. Hopefully it'll continue to decrease over time.
 
boston04and07 said:
Thanks for confirming this @Newtons Apple. After a few days of using iOS 10, my iPad has been showing this behavior much less frequently, so I was starting to wonder if it was something like that. Hopefully it'll continue to decrease over time.
Click to expand...

Sometimes the CPU is a little stressed for a while after installing a new iOS. Hope it goes away for you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: boston04and07
Rok73 said:
You're welcome.
Click to expand...

I can only imagine you mean that my initial question was too long for you to comprehend, in which case, I'm sorry you have such trouble with these things! I'll try my best to break future posts into teeny bite sized pieces for you to more easily understand.
 
It's basic English. Use paragraphs when they need to be used instead of veering off into something which could be more readily understood in a new one. You should use some semi-colons too.

Big blocks of text aren't nice to look at, either
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rok73
I came upon this old thread because my iPad mini 4 running iOS 11.3, way after I updated it, suddenly began faintly dimming for a few seconds and then brighten. I've had this tablet for almost a year and never noticed this behavior before. And it's doing it while it's charging so it's getting a steady dose of power, up to 95% now, in fact. None of my settings instruct the device to dim in response to ambient lighting. I've tried to trigger the behavior by moving the tablet so light hits it from different angles and that does not seem to be causing it.

After reading this thread, it seems to be just one of those things I can live with. It's not as bad as the lighting problem on the first Kindle paperwhite; the bottom of that screen is ever so slightly darker.

It also seems as if this thread has devolved into a snarky discussion of English usage. I am a retired editor and can comment on that too. And just for fun, I added a semicolon to this comment, although it could've been a colon or an em dash. Usage is funny that way, lots of styles are acceptable. (I think I found another place for a possible semicolon. But I am leaving it as a comma so the pause will be briefer.)

I didn't find it confusing to read a complaint about an iPad mini that did not contain paragraphs or semicolons, certainly not as much as, say, Finnegans Wake. And maybe OP was dictating his, her or their question and inserting commands such as new line, and, even, semicolon would have broken his/her/their train of thought. iOS dictation is so bad as to have become something of a joke. If OP did use it, much slack should be cut.

OP described the problem clearly with enough detail for it to be understood and helpful to me. I thank him/her/they for it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back