Develop Bugs

Brightness reduced when some apps launched

With auto-brightness turned off and brightness turned up all the way, I am seeing the brightness go down when some apps are launched and turn back up when the app is closed. I noticed this today when launching GoChat and then also saw it when launching the stock jellybean web browser. I am not sure but I think this has only been happening since the last software update (T-Mobile USA).
I wonder if others are noticing this.

gruuvin said:
With auto-brightness turned off and brightness turned up all the way, I am seeing the brightness go down when some apps are launched and turn back up when the app is closed. I noticed this today when launching GoChat and then also saw it when launching the stock jellybean web browser. I am not sure but I think this has only been happening since the last software update (T-Mobile USA).
I wonder if others are noticing this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Saw the same thing when I launched camera app, I am on the latest update.
One difference is that I'm on auto bright and the brightness never came back
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda premium

gruuvin said:
With auto-brightness turned off and brightness turned up all the way, I am seeing the brightness go down when some apps are launched and turn back up when the app is closed. I noticed this today when launching GoChat and then also saw it when launching the stock jellybean web browser. I am not sure but I think this has only been happening since the last software update (T-Mobile USA).
I wonder if others are noticing this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From DisplayMate:
Since the display often uses 50 percent or more of the total Smartphone power, various display power management schemes are frequently used. The Galaxy S4 uses one innovative approach to overcome this – when Automatic Brightness is turned on, the Peak Brightness becomes significantly brighter in high ambient lighting than is possible with Manual Brightness, up to as high as 475 cd/m2, which is 34 percent higher than is possible with Manual Brightness. This is done so that users can’t permanently set the brightness to very high values, which would run down the battery quickly.​From Samsung:
Samsung Adapt Display: The Galaxy S4 "learns" what you are viewing and adjusts the display's brightness accordingly. If the phone senses you are reading an article, for example, it will illuminate from a more muted brightness.​

BarryH_GEG said:
From DisplayMate:
Since the display often uses 50 percent or more of the total Smartphone power, various display power management schemes are frequently used. The Galaxy S4 uses one innovative approach to overcome this – when Automatic Brightness is turned on, the Peak Brightness becomes significantly brighter in high ambient lighting than is possible with Manual Brightness, up to as high as 475 cd/m2, which is 34 percent higher than is possible with Manual Brightness. This is done so that users can’t permanently set the brightness to very high values, which would run down the battery quickly.​From Samsung:
Samsung Adapt Display: The Galaxy S4 "learns" what you are viewing and adjusts the display's brightness accordingly. If the phone senses you are reading an article, for example, it will illuminate from a more muted brightness.​
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Click to collapse
Well, I have auto-brightness, auto adjust screen tone and power saver ALL TURNED OFF, but this 'feature' persists... and as I said, this is not just during web browsing, this is also during messaging with a 3rd party app, namely GoChat, with black background theme.... this is just not a smart feature.

maybe this is taken care of in the new update. i haven't unpacked it just yet. hoping to do that over the weekend or maybe even tonight.

gruuvin said:
this 'feature' persists.
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Click to collapse
What you're describing sounds like how Adapt Display is supposed to work. Does the display act any differently when you enable Adapt Display?

gruuvin said:
Well, I have auto-brightness, auto adjust screen tone and power saver ALL TURNED OFF, but this 'feature' persists... and as I said, this is not just during web browsing, this is also during messaging with a 3rd party app, namely GoChat, with black background theme.... this is just not a smart feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same issue. Turned everything off completely and it still happens. I posted about a week ago and some people were having the same issue.
Some people said it was adapt display on, but I have it off. Once I switched to.the CM10.1 the issue went away. I switched back to wicked Rom and I'm still getting the same problem.
Maybe a dev will eventually figure it out while building a Rom
Sent from my SGH-M919

Actionx1 said:
I have the same issue. Turned everything off completely and it still happens. I posted about a week ago and some people were having the same issue.
Some people said it was adapt display on, but I have it off. Once I switched to.the CM10.1 the issue went away. I switched back to wicked Rom and I'm still getting the same problem.
Maybe a dev will eventually figure it out while building a Rom
Sent from my SGH-M919
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems like this is a feature that cannot be disabled by the end user. This is from Anandtech's review
"On the brightness front, the SGS4 includes dynamic contrast functions that cannot be disabled and change as a function of what is being displayed. There's an "auto adjust screen tone" checkbox under display but don't let that fool you, that doesn't disable dynamic contrast, just white point."
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6914/samsung-galaxy-s-4-review/8
If it really annoys you, you can always try rooting it and install CM10. I'll be a drastic change but at least you wont have to deal with Samsung's bloat

Screen dimming before lock

I'm sorry to ask something so seemingly simple, but I've scoured the settings in my phone, as well as checking solutions like tasker, and have yet to find a solution, and searching for similar threads.
Prior to going into a lock/sleep mode, the phone's screen dims for a few seconds. If the phone is set to stay awake while powered by AC/USB, the screen will still dim, but not lock. How do I go about completely disabling the dimming function, as this is troublesome when using the phone in the car?

One of the aokp ROMs allowed for adjusting the time of dimming such as 15/30/45 but did not disable it.
Also in developer options on custom ROMs you can enable stay awake so the screen never turns off while charging.
Otherwise I saw from internet searches there are apps on the play store that will prevent screen turning off and possibly dimming as well.
****edit***-i read a bit more closely. Sorry, looks like you may need an app. If a dev is willing the option is controlled from android source and can be modified using a toggle to turn it off. Good luck!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Auto brightness is useless!

In a 100% dark area (movie theater, etc.), when I flick my wrist to turn on the watch, it turned on with full brightness on. It stay there indefinitely... sometimes it'll go away by itself, other time I have to do something, like swiping cards before the screen will go dim.
In a semi (50% dark), the screen will not turn on to its full brightness, but at... dim. WTH?!

Stick watch face?

I've noticed this as well (when driving at night). Since it turns on all the time (I steer with the same hand I wear my watch on), I've noticed lots of strange behavior. Sometimes it turns on very bright, and then goes back to sleep. Sometimes it turns on bright and then dims to the minimal brightness that it should be. Sometimes it turns on with the appropriate, minimum brightness. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. I'm running a stock watch face, and have very few apps installed.
As someone offered up 'muting' the watch while driving in another thread as a possible solution, it doesn't help me. Whether or not the watch is muted, it still wakes up all the time, and varying brightness levels.

bruceo said:
Stick watch face?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Emm...you mean stock watch face? If yes, I am using the classic one.

Auto brightness works well for me with ambient mode ON, I think I remember it being buggy with ambient mode OFF, what is yours set to?

v3ngence said:
Auto brightness works well for me with ambient mode ON, I think I remember it being buggy with ambient mode OFF, what is yours set to?
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Click to collapse
I have ambient mode OFF to save battery. Will turning it on fix the issue? I use Sleep as Android for sleep tracking and turn Ambient off and it lights up here and there at night.

Cut it out guys. ..or this thread will be locked
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

pakure said:
Cut it out guys. ..or this thread will be locked
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^^This...well probably not locked
I did a little thread cleaning to remove the off topic arguments about using a device (phone or watch) in a movie theatre. There were a lot of people who quoted these posts, and unfortunately I had to remove these posts as well...sorry for that.
Here is the thing, this thread is about the buggy behavior of the watch waking up at full brightness. It doesn't matter if it is in a theatre, whilst driving the car, or you just woke up in the middle of the night and want to check the time. More that one person has reported the issue and there has been a proposed fix...please keep the thread focused on finding the root causes, fixes, work arounds, etc. No matter what, please knock off the name calling, that will only get you into trouble!
Thanks!:good:

lanwarrior said:
I have ambient mode OFF to save battery. Will turning it on fix the issue? I use Sleep as Android for sleep tracking and turn Ambient off and it lights up here and there at night.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try turning ambient mode ON during the day,
I just tested and with it off the screen does occasionally come on at full brightness even in the dark. With ambient on it only comes on bright the first time, quickly dims, and stays dim until taken into daylight :good:

v3ngence said:
Try turning ambient mode ON during the day,
I just tested and with it off the screen does occasionally come on at full brightness even in the dark. With ambient on it only comes on bright the first time, quickly dims, and stays dim until taken into daylight :good:
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Click to collapse
Interesting. So with ambient ON, it still turn on at full brightness but momentarily. I'll test this and will report back.

Well, I'm having the opposite problem following the last update.
it frequently (at work right now, for example) comes up EXTREMELY dim, I'd guess maybe 5x dimmer than brightness setting '1'.
I'm setting it to '1' as a workaround for now.
- Frank

Wait for the next 5.0 update. .there's options like theater mode. ..and other brightness modes coming to wear
Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk 2

Smart Brightness for Moto 360
Try the application "smart brightness for moto 360" from the Google play. With this application you can set a minimum brightness and better view in low light environments.
With the minimum set to 20% and auto brightness on you will get better battery life and better experience in dark situation.

[email protected] said:
Try the application "smart brightness for moto 360" from the Google play. With this application you can set a minimum brightness and better view in low light environments.
With the minimum set to 20% and auto brightness on you will get better battery life and better experience in dark situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instant buy. Thanks allot, that makes in combination with the 5.0 update, Watchmaker and Bubble Cloud Launcher my watch perfect.

[email protected] said:
Try the application "smart brightness for moto 360" from the Google play. With this application you can set a minimum brightness and better view in low light environments.
With the minimum set to 20% and auto brightness on you will get better battery life and better experience in dark situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly, the auto brightness doesn't seem to work...yeah, just realized that after using it for a week.

Smart Brightness for Moto 360
TheGoD said:
Sadly, the auto brightness doesn't seem to work...yeah, just realized that after using it for a week.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The application really works. If you want see how works, do the followings steps:
1. open Smart Brightness App
2. Turn on the application
3. Set the minimum brightness to 20%
4. Turn on the auto brightness.
5. Go to a dark room and wait until Moto360 to turn off the screen.
6. Touch the screen to wakeup the screen. (This is necessary because the Smart Brightness application start when the screen is on and stop when the screen is off).
You will see a clear image after this steps. Now go to the smart brightness app and turn it off (Using the on/off switch located at the top of the screen). Repeat the steps 5 and 6. Now the screen will look dark, because it is the factory auto brightness.
I recommend to use the 7 days trial. After 7 days after using it you will notice the difference.
I'm using this app over a month and works fine. Please let me know any other concern about the application.

For me its not the low light the problem as this works, is outside doens't go bright enough in direct sunlight
Enviado do meu HTC One através de Tapatalk

no problems
i have always used it, never experienced any problems

Moto 360 on the second generation does not work
Fabio

[Q] Another noob question please

Is it possible in the Settings to change the timeout before the screen dims when showing a clock face, like you can on a smartphone? All the videos show only a very few seconds before the screen dims if you are using the 'always on' setting. I realise that can consume more battery but if I am at home near my charger that may not matter to me.
TIA

A 3rd party app, like StayLit Wear: Longer Backlight from the Play Store is what you may be looking for.
Sent from my Moto Droid Turbo 64G using Tapatalk.

karlmf said:
A 3rd party app, like StayLit Wear: Longer Backlight from the Play Store is what you may be looking for.
Sent from my Moto Droid Turbo 64G using Tapatalk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Sounds perfect.

norm2002 said:
Is it possible in the Settings to change the timeout before the screen dims when showing a clock face, like you can on a smartphone? All the videos show only a very few seconds before the screen dims if you are using the 'always on' setting. I realise that can consume more battery but if I am at home near my charger that may not matter to me.
TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you use Watchmaker (and you should) it has a setting to extend the screen on time for Watchmaker faces.

Screen dimming functionality

Do you use the auto screen dimming feature? If mine is working it doesn't seem to be very "aggressive" for lack of a better description...I find myself manually changing the screen brightness more often than not.

teerout said:
Do you use the auto screen dimming feature? If mine is working it doesn't seem to be very "aggressive" for lack of a better description...I find myself manually changing the screen brightness more often than not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like the polling interval is lengthy, I noticed as well compared to CF Lumen I've used before. But I'm aware a shorter poll interval uses more battery, it's a trade-off I guess. I think it works as designed, you can install an app with a shorter polling interval but you might take a hit on battery.

I recommend giving Lux Auto Brightness a try, it's a paid app but there is a lite version available for download.
I use it mainly for the night mode feature since I sit in front of a desk all day.
Only annoying part about it is since its an app that gets detected for drawing over other apps, I have to constantly disable Lux in order to allow permissions.

right, I will look into it for some third party apps. It just seems to not be as responsive or offer as wide a range of dimming capability as my droid ultra did.

luciddreamin92 said:
I recommend giving Lux Auto Brightness a try, it's a paid app but there is a lite version available for download.
I use it mainly for the night mode feature since I sit in front of a desk all day.
Only annoying part about it is since its an app that gets detected for drawing over other apps, I have to constantly disable Lux in order to allow permissions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am Annoyed also. Status Bar pro has the same bug. Is it a bug or what? Why are we about to take N and this persists?