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

okkibs

macrumors 65816
Sep 17, 2022
1,069
1,004
Do Macs reduce the brightness when running hot?
Technically those with miniLED can, at least Apple says so. The Airs cannot as they have display tech that cannot heat up much in the first place. My Macbook even with set to 1000 nits for hours in summer does not turn brightness down at a point where the bottom part of the display gets so hot you can't touch the back of it for more than a second. And that's with a third party tool enabling those 1000 nits, it's not even default behaviour.
 

chmania

macrumors 65816
Dec 2, 2023
1,036
1,509
well the next MacBook m# will do the same thing as mine does four times today already.
also the screen saver ignites after 30 minutes while watching a game online.
this is not a logic board issue, this is a OS one were I.... we need to swipe the proper dongle..tongle..that elongated circle thing on a setting in our preferences...system in power? battery? huh?

whew..... I just should go back to Mountain lion from Monterey forever!
Well, it could be a M-chip matter, who knows. Nothing like that happens with my 2018 15" MBP, now on Sequoia dev beta 8. I usually do a manual reboot even after a OS update to get everything going as it should be. Most problems, if there are any, would go away after a simple reboot.
 

krspkbl

macrumors 68020
Jul 20, 2012
2,440
5,855
I have 15” M3 Air. When I was on Sonoma I didn’t have this but when I moved to the Sequoia beta I started getting this brightness issue. I just assumed it was a bug.

It doesn’t happen all the time and happens on both charge and battery.
 

SG-

macrumors regular
Jun 8, 2015
149
88
My screen brightness wouldn't increase at all this morning when coming out of sleep. I had to reboot and it fixed it.

Hope Apple patches this. It's not a big deal but it is annoying.
try waiting 30 seconds or so, it seems to let me increase it after.
 

Parowdy

macrumors regular
Mar 16, 2024
124
91
Europe
Technically those with miniLED can, at least Apple says so. The Airs cannot as they have display tech that cannot heat up much in the first place. My Macbook even with set to 1000 nits for hours in summer does not turn brightness down at a point where the bottom part of the display gets so hot you can't touch the back of it for more than a second. And that's with a third party tool enabling those 1000 nits, it's not even default behaviour
What tool do you use for that? You only said MacBook and 1000 nits and now I’m intrigued.
 

Parowdy

macrumors regular
Mar 16, 2024
124
91
Europe
Technically those with miniLED can, at least Apple says so. The Airs cannot as they have display tech that cannot heat up much in the first place. My Macbook even with set to 1000 nits for hours in summer does not turn brightness down at a point where the bottom part of the display gets so hot you can't touch the back of it for more than a second. And that's with a third party tool enabling those 1000 nits, it's not even default behaviour
What tool do you use for that? You only said MacBook and 1000 nits and now I’m intrigued.
 

okkibs

macrumors 65816
Sep 17, 2022
1,069
1,004
What tool do you use for that? You only said MacBook and 1000 nits and now I’m intrigued.
There are multiple, personally I use Vivid as I found it works the best for me and I wanted something I can get from the Mac Apple appstore.
 

Parowdy

macrumors regular
Mar 16, 2024
124
91
Europe
There are multiple, personally I use Vivid as I found it works the best for me and I wanted something I can get from the Mac Apple appstore.
Hmm, unfortunately it doesn't work with non HDR capable screens, like any MacBook before the M1 Pro and Max
 

MBAir2010

macrumors 604
May 30, 2018
6,975
6,354
there
This darkening effect is worse in sequoia 15 beta as the screen was 30% darken or 70% grey.
just a quick slide of the screen brightness fixed that in an instant.
everything else about Sequoia is a god cooksend!
 

s0h4md

macrumors newbie
Sep 8, 2024
1
0
I have the same issue on my 3 week old M2 macbook air. Did I make a mistake for not reutrning it? I hope it gets fixed in Sequoia
 

okkibs

macrumors 65816
Sep 17, 2022
1,069
1,004
Hmm, unfortunately it doesn't work with non HDR capable screens, like any MacBook before the M1 Pro and Max
The 14" and 16" miniLED displays are a requirement. The desktop XDR display works too. If the hardware can't do 1000 nits then software won't help. Vivid merely unlocks the 1000 nits capable hardware to actually increase the brightness to that level and keep it there. It's a major reason I use one of those Macbooks as your display will never be too dim again.
 

Parowdy

macrumors regular
Mar 16, 2024
124
91
Europe
The 14" and 16" miniLED displays are a requirement. The desktop XDR display works too. If the hardware can't do 1000 nits then software won't help. Vivid merely unlocks the 1000 nits capable hardware to actually increase the brightness to that level and keep it there. It's a major reason I use one of those Macbooks as your display will never be too dim again.
Yeah that figures and I get your decision to get one of those Macs. I was just hoping to be able to push my MacBook Pro place brightness to the very very top as well when I see it before I upgrade once this machine dies as I don’t have auto brightness enabled and figured it worked similarly to on the iPhone, I was curious if I could unlock some extra brightness gain despite auto brightness turned off.

This message was dictated using an iPhone 11 Pro on iOS 18.0, btw. My display is broken so I can’t be bothered to prove read I’m sorry.
 

SG-

macrumors regular
Jun 8, 2015
149
88
it seems upgrading to Sequoia has fixed the dimming on wakeup issue for me. I upgraded on Monday and it hasn't done it once.
 

mikey61

macrumors newbie
Sep 26, 2024
1
0
same thing just happened to my new M3 Air, it prompted me took look it up and join this forum, when reopening the lid screen was very dim and adjusting the screen brighness key did nothing, I had to reboot, how annoying, my last air which I had for 12 years and recently died never did this at all.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.