screen too dark

feifeipig

I found my pixel 8 pro with GOS always show a darker screen than expected. I have tried to train it for a long time but no luck.
Is there any way to make the screen a little brighter in auto mode, otherwise I have to manually adjust it.

Jdjdoefndbej

feifeipig I feel you

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/939#issuecomment-1021633561

Let me know if you will find a workaround

feifeipig

I don't understand. This doesn't sounds a big change but can improve the experience of many people if not all.

roamer4223

feifeipig I'm certainly not an expert as to how these things work, but I imagine the GOS team is worried about committing to too many small changes like that, which makes GOS diverge from AOSP in those areas, as then they would also have to maintain them and make sure they don't break when things change upstream. They aren't a very big team at all, and they always prioritize things like security enhancements.

But I am not sure and do not speak for the GOS team. And to be clear, I'm not saying your problem isn't worth fixing as I don't use adaptive brightness for that very reason

Onlyfun

roamer4223 I don't use adaptive brightness too, but the brightness changes still with the ambient illumination level. And what's really annoying, it changes in an opposite way than it ~~should~~ not. Making it invisible to the point where I think the device is off and try to turn it on but instead I only prompt the swipe-to-unlock screen which is still too dark to see and think device is broken. I'm not joking, it used to happen on p5 a lot and now same on p8, it took me a while to get used to it and not to change the device. It still takes few moments and an attempt to turn it on to realize what's happening. Btw my vision is not impaired at all, I don't use any vision improving equipment as lenses or glasses. So I can't really blame myself for it.

Onlyfun

Onlyfun
I am using a dsrkenjng screen protector, so that probably makes it invisible, i suppose without i wouldn't have so dark thst it seems off.
But still adjusting btightness when adaptive is off is a sensitive enough issue to mention.

roamer4223

Onlyfun Wait, am I totally misunderstanding you or are you saying that even with adaptive brightness turned off, your phone still changes brightness?

Is that normal? I have never noticed that on any of my Pixels except when they get too hot and the brightness decreases slightly. I'm not disputing you by the way, it could be true. Though I don't see why they would do that by design if your adaptive brightness was turned off and your phone was a normal temperature

Speeduser7533

A simple change, allowing the user to set a minimum brightness level, would go a long way to making this issue a lot better. The AOSP brightness control is really, really bad.

Onlyfun

roamer4223 yes, exactly, the adaptive brightness is toggled off. And regardless screen brightness changes sometimes, from my observation often such behavior matches the change of ambient illumination.

CottonTexas

Onlyfun Old post, I know, but I wanted to chime in here, and say that I've noticed the same issue here. Turned off adaptive brightness, & set the screen to 100%, only to find out (when I REALLY need to see my screen in a hurry) that my 6A has turned the screen down to 70% brightness, & is completely invisible in the sun. Change it back to 100%, and next time I'm chasing shadows trying to see my phone, check the brightness, & it's been severely reduced again for no obvious reason. VERY frustrating. I don't care if it improves the life of my device, or gives it longer battery life, or even prevents blindness, because when I need my screen, I NEED my screen. Otherwise I love GOS. Hope this issue gets some attention, as a fix would be a great improvement overall. That's my 2¢ anyway. Cheers, Cotton

Toiletterider

Same problem here, pixel 8a.
Adaptive brightness is set to OFF. No dev options.

Screen still lowers brightness, seemingly randomly. The bar stays at 100% - but screen is darkened.

Only way to get the screen brighter is to put on airplane mode -> toggle adaptive brightness ON/OFF -> drag brightness slider left(down), then right(up).

Koudio

Same problem here

Spleendid

Got same problem pixel 9.

Why the heck do the brightness change when adaptive is set to OFF?
And why do turning airplane mode on fix it?!

Dupelet

I'm experiencing this as well, pixel 9a. Adaptive brightness is off, yet screen brightness changes every so often. Incredibly annoying to have brightness slider at 100% yet actual display brightness looks like around 80% or so.

Dupelet

Follow up: Preliminary testing suggests this may be due to overheating causing the phone to throttle the max brightness. For the sake of confused users, I suggest some sort of indication when that is the case.

niko-goso

The one thing we need to work on phones is screen legibility — through our eyes and the screen it is the only way we use the device.

A correctly operating screen brightness is continuously being requested over and over and over — ad nauseam. One person made excuses that maybe a simple fix added by the GOS team might break down the road but clearly screen control is not a technology that Google needs to continuously reimplement.

AOSP and GOS screen brightness is BROKEN. No ifs or buts about it. What does the GOS team need to create a fix and maintain it alongside their other modifications? Do they need an extra amount of income? How much? What about an in-house GOS crowdfunding scheme to fund specific capabilities deemed important to GOS users?

There are a few issues in GOS that seem to originate from AOSP that remain broken that actually need to be fixed in the long term. Do we need to crowdfund these?

A GOS crowdfunding website would help the GOS team gather real interest from users willing to put their money where their mouth is. It would be a unique GOS-specific implementation of what is done through sites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe.

A GOS crowdfunding website could be attached to GitHub feature requests reviews and marked initially as a candidate for GOS crowdfunding and listed as a crowdfunding project seeking expressions of interest (EOI).

The crowdfunding website could be integrated into GOS' main funding and donations page and could be used to revitalize GOS funding and better engage the community and it's users.

niko-goso

On a more critical note what GOS needs is a solid funding platform to survive the growing attacks on it by global corporate and institutional interests (including governments and government-corporate sponsored groups operating in Open Source, better known as Public Private Partnerships — like the USG and Palantir partnership) that want to identify, surveil and control ALL digital interactions.

California just announced the Age Verification Bill and this move is a pilot test that will be used to destroy Libre Open Source — globally over time through increasingly federated legal, policy and technical systems. This is going to accelerate especially on the back of the Epstein drop which is being used as Casus Belli for more controls. Australia already has Age Verification laws and they will modify them to embrace what California has implemented. The UK and the EU aren't far behind. These aren't about age and protecting children — it is about global identification, surveillance and enforcement.