phone is dim after power off/on too fast

[djl333]

if i unlock screen soon after locking it then the display is dim. if i wait a few minutes the issue doesn’t happen.

 

[mustang7757]

Which device?

Sometimes it may take few minutes to adjust to your surroundings and some phone manufacturers do it better then others .


I'll leave a Link to register so you can communicate here, As a guest account you can only post questions but can't reply.
https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=409154

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are you able to bring up the brightness slider and manually increase the brightness?

 

[djl333]

its S9. yes i can adjust the brightness but its already at full. this is a new issue. it never happened until a few weeks ago. adaptive display is off. once the phone unlocks dim, it stays dim regardless of any time lapse. only way to fix it is to lock and wait a few minutes and unlock. thanks for listening.

 

[VidJunky]

I have a few wild thoughts that spring to mind.

Initially to me it sounded like a touch display feature to save battery power from accidental touches. Like if it were in a pocket and something tried to wake the device and it only comes on dimly at first to be sure it was an intentional waking. But even after it is clear that it was no accident it still remains.

It also sounded like an app overlaying the screen with something like an ad. The screen wouldn't really be dim, it would actually have a pop-up overlaying the display making the background appear dim but really it is just a blank ad. At the moment I kind of like this one. There is an app that @B. Diddy likes to recommend, 'toast notification' or something like that, that tells you where pop-up ads and notifications come from. What app they come from that is. I assume if this is an ad it will work on it as well even if it's blank.

How quickly do you have to try to open the screen after putting it to sleep in order to get this effect? If you close and open it without removing your finger, almost instantly then, does it happen then, if you put the phone down and pick up in 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 1 minute?

You say that you have to wait a few minutes for it to open normally after this occurs, is there a magic amount of time where you know it will wake correctly? I just turned my screen off, if I go back and check the weather it will be dim but if I wait 2 1/2 minutes it'll be OK, or I'll have to wait 5 minutes?

Does this happen in Safe Mode? If it doesn't happen in SM that more than likely points to an app being the cause. If it happens in SM that could indicate that there is a hardware or system problem. This is probably the most important question, please include the answer to this question in your reply.

 

[mustang7757]

its S9. yes i can adjust the brightness but its already at full. this is a new issue. it never happened until a few weeks ago. adaptive display is off. once the phone unlocks dim, it stays dim regardless of any time lapse. only way to fix it is to lock and wait a few minutes and unlock. thanks for listening.

Welcome to AC!
Yes with adaptive Brightness off it can't automatically adjust the brightness that means you would have to manually move the brightness bar in pull down notification panel.

 

[mustang7757]

I also changed you to post owner and moved this to s9 Forums

 

[B. Diddy]

@VidJunky, the app you're thinking of is Toast Source -- that's a good thought, but it only helps for toast notifications (which are the notifications that show up in the middle of the screen in a very limited window). It wouldn't help with full screen ads. What might help with full screen ads is going to the App Overview to see if it shows up there.

 

[djl333]

yes it happens in safe mode. it happens as phone is powering on. first it displays the fancy logo screen fine. then it switches to just white SAMSUNG. then a second later, the screen dims and i can barely see SAMSUNG. the flashing unlock logo is also barely visible. once it says phone is starting then display is more visible. lock screen, wait and then unlock and display is fine.

not sure of magic number yet. its at least a few minutes. anything less will cause the issue for sure.

 

[B. Diddy]

yes it happens in safe mode. it happens as phone is powering on. first it displays the fancy logo screen fine. then it switches to just white SAMSUNG. then a second later, the screen dims and i can barely see SAMSUNG. the flashing unlock logo is also barely visible. once it says phone is starting then display is more visible. lock screen, wait and then unlock and display is fine.

not sure of magic number yet. its at least a few minutes. anything less will cause the issue for sure.

I think in that situation, the boot screen is dimming automatically due to the display timeout, or possibly the ambient light. If you shine a bright flashlight into the front-facing camera, does the screen brighten up again?

 

[djl333]

bright light did not affect anything. i watched a video in the dim mode and the phone ran hot. i have done the cache wipe. that leaves full reset as next option.

not a fix but a workaround. i turned on always on display. if i lock the screen and wait till the time and little dots appear, i can unlock and no issues. if i lock and unlock real quick, issue still appears. real quick as in before the little dots appear on black screen.

 

[B. Diddy]

I can't think of a good reason why the phone should be running hot while dim, so that makes me think more of some kind hardware problem. If the problem persists after a factory reset (and BTW, don't automatically reinstall your previous apps -- see if it persists with a pristine phone), then there's probably not much to do besides bring it to a repair shop or get a new phone.