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iPad Pro Update on my replacement 12.9” iPad Pro…

iPad Bro

iPad Bro

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 2, 2021
393
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I don’t know if any of you have been following my journey of sorts on trying to get my M1 12.9” iPad Pro replaced through Best Buy. I had screen dimming problems with the first one and battery issues too it seems. I’ve been using my new one, a Space Gray model (which I love and prefer to the bland Silver IMO) and there’s no screen dimming and my battery is not draining when I have it plugged up through the pass through charging with the Magic Keyboard unlike the first one I had. That one was draining regardless of the fact that I had it plugged in. I am immensely happy right now that I have a perfect iPad Pro that has no defects whatsoever. I was literally praying I would get one that wasn’t messed up, but yeah. That’s the end of that story hopefully. I’ll keep my fingers crossed I don’t run into any problems, but so far so good! Thanks for reading you guys! :D
 
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Awesome, glad you got one that is perfect. These are expensive products and accepting one with any type of defect out of the box is unacceptable in my opinion. I also had an issue with my original one but had it replaced and all is well now.
 
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Son of a bitch. My screen is dimming AGAIN. Is this just a normal thing for these iPad Pros to do or something? Because I find it highly unlikely that two iPad Pros in a row are defective. It’s not a bad dimming of the screen. Just a slight dimming from max brightness.
 
Or maybe there’s a setting I have on that’s doing it? I’m not sending it back again. It’s not bad enough to really complain about. It just drops the brightness slightly. I would have preferred to keep it at max brightness at all times, but maybe you can’t do that or just I’m having bad luck with these iPads. *shakes head*

Does anyone here run their iPad Pro at max brightness all the time? Maybe you’re not supposed to do that and the screen auto dims after so long? I’m going to try dropping the brightness and see if that makes it stop.
 
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Do you use "True Tone" ? I have the feeling that with True Tone and after some time in standby, the brightness varies even if you set the brightness manually to max before standby.

Do you even set the brightness at max indoor? I only use max brightness outside on a sunny day, like right now.
 
When I have it set at max brightness or now at even lower brightness, the screen will just randomly go dimmer at random times while I am browsing the internet and then randomly back up to max or wherever I had it set. It’s weird. Never experienced it with the 2018 or 2020 iPad Pros. This is my second 2021 iPad Pro.

EDIT: lorsl, yes, I do use TrueTone and I do set it at max brightness indoors. I’ll try turning that off and see if it fixes the problem. Thank you for the suggestion!
 
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That dimming sounds really strange but could be normal. Is the lighting around you changing? I keep my iPad and iPhone at just above the middle mark for brightness. Both do change when the lighting changes. I.e. even when the sun goes behind a cloud and comes out again.
 
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The lighting might be changing around me. It went from night to morning when the first dimming started, I think. But I could have swore that it did it in the middle of the night with my first one. BoiledCabbage, I’m using it in landscape, but it’s docked on the Magic Keyboard, so there’s no way I’m hovering my hand over the camera.

EDIT: TrueTone was off and it’s still dimming my screen. I really don’t want to send this one back. I guess if I end up doing it I’m going with the 11”. This is starting to really piss me off.
 
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iPad Bro said:
The lighting might be changing around me. It went from night to morning when the first dimming started, I think. But I could have swore that it did it in the middle of the night with my first one. BoiledCabbage, I’m using it in landscape, but it’s docked on the Magic Keyboard, so there’s no way I’m hovering my hand over the camera.

EDIT: TrueTone was off and it’s still dimming my screen. I really don’t want to send this one back. I guess if I end up doing it I’m going with the 11”. This is starting to really piss me off.
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Sorry to hear about your poor experience. :(
 
I contacted Apple support and they took me through some steps, but I’m not sure it did anything. They provided an article that said this:

About brightness levels​

iOS devices use an ambient light sensor to adjust brightness levels based on the light conditions around you. The sensor lowers brightness in dark locations and raises brightness in light locations. The auto-brightness feature is on by default.
When auto-brightness is on, you'll notice that the brightness slider on your device moves according to changing light conditions.
You can turn auto-brightness on or off in Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size. To reset the auto-brightness settings, turn off auto-brightness and then turn it back on.


So, maybe the ambient sensors are acting up on mine? I dunno.

EDIT: I decided to turn on auto-brightness. Might as well stop fighting it.
 
I’ve ran into issues while running at max brightness from time to time. The iPad will begin to overheat and drop the brightness until it cools down a bit. Normally while playing a game or watching video over a long period of time.
 
On almost every iPad and iPhone I've owned, if I run it at max brightness for a short while the screen will dim. And it's not a 'smooth' dimming of the screen either, rather, it just 'snaps' to a lower brightness (but the OS says it's still at full brightness).

As per the post above mine, it's likely because the screen gets warmer when it's ran at full brightness and as such it will drop the brightness in an effort to stop it from getting too hot. Running at a lower brightness or using auto brightness will mitigate the issue to the point that it rarely happens. In fact now, I only ever see the issue when I'm using my iPad / iPhone outside in bright sunlight.
 
I always turn off auto-brightness on my iPads, because it kept changing the screen on me.
 
Do you have auto brightness turned off? Assessability>display auto brightness Assessability
 
adamlbiscuit said:
On almost every iPad and iPhone I've owned, if I run it at max brightness for a short while the screen will dim. And it's not a 'smooth' dimming of the screen either, rather, it just 'snaps' to a lower brightness (but the OS says it's still at full brightness).

As per the post above mine, it's likely because the screen gets warmer when it's ran at full brightness and as such it will drop the brightness in an effort to stop it from getting too hot. Running at a lower brightness or using auto brightness will mitigate the issue to the point that it rarely happens. In fact now, I only ever see the issue when I'm using my iPad / iPhone outside in bright sunlight.
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This would have been excellent to know before I sent my last one back for a replacement. Thought it was defective. I guess it never really happened to me with previous year’s models. Either that or I never took notice of it. It soothes my soul to know that this is just a regular occurrence and now having auto-brightness on I’m hoping it won’t be an issue as much anymore. Thank you so much for your insight on the matter. It really helped me from thinking this whole thing was a defect instead of “normal.” Still, I’m glad I sent my last one back because I really do prefer the Space Gray over the Silver, especially with the White Magic Keyboard. It looks splendid.
 
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iPad Bro said:
This would have been excellent to know before I sent my last one back for a replacement. Thought it was defective. I guess it never really happened to me with previous year’s models. Either that or I never took notice of it. It soothes my soul to know that this is just a regular occurrence and now having auto-brightness on I’m hoping it won’t be an issue as much anymore. Thank you so much for your insight on the matter. It really helped me from thinking this whole thing was a defect instead of “normal.” Still, I’m glad I sent my last one back because I really do prefer the Space Gray over the Silver, especially with the White Magic Keyboard. It looks splendid.
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Probably never happened before as an LCD screen will likely run cooler than a miniLED screen (or so i should think it would) glad you have sorted the issue 👍
 
Wait your iPad is supposed to charge when the Magic Keyboard is plugged in and its on it?
 
kp98077 said:
did you get replacement from best buy or apple?
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Best Buy. They didn’t have the Silver in stock when I asked for a replacement, so I opted for a refund and I just placed another order when I received it.
JSteele said:
Wait your iPad is supposed to charge when the Magic Keyboard is plugged in and its on it?
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Well, yeah. The keyboard doesn’t have a battery in it. It is powered by the iPad itself.

Also, as a note on the original subject, I haven’t had anymore issues since turning auto-brightness on. I guess it was the Mini-LED screen getting too hot and having to cool down since I had the brightness set to max the whole time. Total duh moment for sure! :p
 
iPad Bro said:
Best Buy. They didn’t have the Silver in stock when I asked for a replacement, so I opted for a refund and I just placed another order when I received it.

Well, yeah. The keyboard doesn’t have a battery in it. It is powered by the iPad itself.

Also, as a note on the original subject, I haven’t had anymore issues since turning auto-brightness on. I guess it was the Mini-LED screen getting too hot and having to cool down since I had the brightness set to max the whole time. Total duh moment for sure! :p
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Oh wow I had no idea, it didn't charge last time I plugged it into the keyboard, but the keyboard works fine.
 
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