A fundamental feature of any device today, whether it be a smartphone, laptop or a tablet, is the Auto-Brightness feature. As the name suggests, it uses an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust the screen’s brightness according to your surroundings. It automatically increases the screen’s brightness when you enter a bright environment – for example when you step outside in the sunlight. Similarly, it reduces the brightness to a minimal level in a dark room. While the benefits of this essential feature are obvious, many people prefer to keep the function disabled and control their device’s brightness manually all the time.
In this article we cover how to disable the auto-brightness on your iOS / iPadOS device. The option to do so has changed its location in the Settings app over the past few iOS releases, with every successive version having a different location for the Auto-Brightness feature.
Turning off auto-brightness also slightly conserves battery life, so if you really like to squeeze the max out of your iPhone/iPad’s battery, you can choose to turn this feature off.
How to Disable Auto-Brightness in iOS/iPadOS 13
To disable auto-brightness on iOS 13:
1. Open up the Settings app on your device.
2. Scroll down and select Accessibility.
3. Here, select “Display and Text Size.”
4. Scroll down and find the “Auto-Brightness” setting and turn that to the OFF position by tapping the button.
That’s it. Your device will no longer change the display brightness automatically. You’ll need to change it yourself from the Settings app or the Control Centre.
How to Disable Auto-Brightness in iOS 12
iOS 12 featured the Auto-Brightness setting in a different sub-section of the Accessibility settings. To disable it:
1. Open the Settings app on your iOS device and navigate to “Settings -> General -> Accessibility.”
2. Scroll down and tap on “Display Accommodations.”
3. Here, simply disable the option for Auto-Brightness.
How to Disable Auto-Brightness on Previous iOS Versions
If you’re running a previous version of iOS (anything before iOS 12), the option of disabling auto-brightness is located in a separate menu in the Settings app. To access it:
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap on “Display and Brightness.” (Older devices might label this as “Brightness and Wallpaper.”)
3. From here, disable the option for Auto-Brightness.
Using the options described above, you can easily disable Auto-Brightness on your iOS device if you wish to do so. We recommend keeping the option enabled, but it’s totally up to each user’s choice. We’ve seen the Auto-Brightness option change locations in iOS multiple times, so don’t be surprised if the option is found somewhere else in the next iteration of Apple’s famous mobile operating software.
Do you use Auto-Brightness on your device, or have you chosen to keep it disabled? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments section below.
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