Auto Sunrise and Sunset off by an hour (Night Shift and Dark/Light Appearance)

[JM]

The auto switch for Dark/Light Appearance and Night Shift is off by an hour. The behavior is that it adjusts an hour before sunset, and I would assume it also changes an hour before sunrise.

Sunrise and Sunset times are accurate in Weather, so what's the deal? Where is the setting or system toggle that corrects this?

-on a hope and a prayer....

 

[gwhizkids]

The auto switch for Dark/Light Appearance and Night Shift is off by an hour. The behavior is that it adjusts an hour before sunset, and I would assume it also changes an hour before sunrise.

Sunrise and Sunset times are accurate in Weather, so what's the deal? Where is the setting or system toggle that corrects this?

-on a hope and a prayer....

Are you by any chance on the edge of a time zone?

 

[JM]

Are you by any chance on the edge of a time zone?

Thanks, no, according to map I'm solidly in the middle of a time zone.

My only theory right now is that the programming is pulling data of sunrise/sunset from a database that doesn't do daylight saving time.

I have most of the locations toggles on, including System Settings.

 

[gwhizkids]

Thanks, no, according to map I'm solidly in the middle of a time zone.

My only theory right now is that the programming is pulling data of sunrise/sunset from a database that doesn't do daylight saving time.

I have most of the locations toggles on, including System Settings.

Are your somewhere where daylight savings time is now in effect?

 

[JM]

Are your somewhere where daylight savings time is now in effect?

Yes, haha. Twenty Questions and I’m Doxxed. ?

Well, daylight saving time starts in March and ends November. So, I guess DST isn’t in effect anywhere right now…. Just had to look it up.

Well, I had a feeling I was wrong about the DST. So why the one hour off then? This is strange…. Wait a minute. Maybe because I traveled east for one hour zone change last week for five days maybe it’s thinking the sun is setting an hour earlier than where I am now?

Maybe this will fix itself in a few days.

I put the toggle back on for time zone location service.

 

[gwhizkids]

Yes, haha. Twenty Questions and I’m Doxxed.

Well, daylight saving time starts in March and ends November. So, I guess DST isn’t in effect anywhere right now…. Just had to look it up.

Well, I had a feeling I was wrong about the DST. So why the one hour off then? This is strange…. Wait a minute. Maybe because I traveled east for one hour zone change last week for five days maybe it’s thinking the sun is setting an hour earlier than where I am now?

Maybe this will fix itself in a few days.

I put the toggle back on for time zone location service.

lol. Not trying to fix you but to figure out what might be causing this. Post back if what you did fixed the issue.

 

[JM]

lol. Not trying to fix you but to figure out what might be causing this. Post back if what you did fixed the issue.

I know. Haha, it was just funny to think of that.

I’ll update if it changes.

 

[w5jck]

Maybe recheck your settings in: Settings-->Date & Time-->Time Zone. Also check if Set Automatically is ON. If so it might be messing up by using Location Services. In other words, it might be trying to track where you are and automatically set the correct time for that location. So perhaps the location services server is messed up or off line.

It could of course be a bug. There seem to be plenty of those in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15.

 

[JM]

So my dark mode switched an hour early again, but the night shift hasn’t shifted over yet. (Both set to sunrise to sunset)

 

[telvelor]

So my dark mode switched an hour early again, but the night shift hasn’t shifted over yet. (Both set to sunrise to sunset)

Hey, curious to know if you're still getting this? I've noticed my Mac has been doing this since auto dark mode was first introduced. I also noticed that when using dynamic desktops with simulated sunsets (e.g. the stock Catalina dynamic wallpaper), these would also be a little bit off and would still show a sunset at around midnight, which would then cut to a sunrise later in the night/early hours of the morning. It would never *actually* show the midnight wallpaper.

After doing some digging a while ago, I found that macOS decides on the wallpaper it shows if set to dynamic depending on the position of the sun, including when it's below the horizon, and I would assume that auto dark mode works in a similar way. If you want to get technical, there are multiple levels of twilight between sunset and night, which depend on how far below the horizon the sun is:

Civil Twilight: 0º - 6º below horizon
Nautical Twilight: 6º - 12º below horizon
Astronomical Twilight: 12º - 18º below horizon
Night: beyond 18º below horizon

Because my location is north enough to not have night time during some summer months, it probably never triggers the midnight wallpaper because the sun isn't low enough past the horizon. My running theory is that the threshold for dark mode probably works in a similar way, and is set to one of the twilight zones rather than actual sunset. My dark mode turned on around an hour after sunset today, which according to this website https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ was when the sun was at an azimuth of -8º. Maybe this is a trigger?

Might be worth having a look and seeing if this lines up with your local -8º azimuth times? Tbh it would be pretty nice if Apple let us change this threshold if it is that...

 

[JM]

Hey, curious to know if you're still getting this? I've noticed my Mac has been doing this since auto dark mode was first introduced. I also noticed that when using dynamic desktops with simulated sunsets (e.g. the stock Catalina dynamic wallpaper), these would also be a little bit off and would still show a sunset at around midnight, which would then cut to a sunrise later in the night/early hours of the morning. It would never *actually* show the midnight wallpaper.

After doing some digging a while ago, I found that macOS decides on the wallpaper it shows if set to dynamic depending on the position of the sun, including when it's below the horizon, and I would assume that auto dark mode works in a similar way. If you want to get technical, there are multiple levels of twilight between sunset and night, which depend on how far below the horizon the sun is:

Civil Twilight: 0º - 6º below horizon
Nautical Twilight: 6º - 12º below horizon
Astronomical Twilight: 12º - 18º below horizon
Night: beyond 18º below horizon

Because my location is north enough to not have night time during some summer months, it probably never triggers the midnight wallpaper because the sun isn't low enough past the horizon. My running theory is that the threshold for dark mode probably works in a similar way, and is set to one of the twilight zones rather than actual sunset. My dark mode turned on around an hour after sunset today, which according to this website https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ was when the sun was at an azimuth of -8º. Maybe this is a trigger?

Might be worth having a look and seeing if this lines up with your local -8º azimuth times? Tbh it would be pretty nice if Apple let us change this threshold if it is that...

I’ll check today and set something noticeable to see when the nighttime trigger activates.

I have an Apple Watch that shows all the twilights, but my issue is that the subset is always around an hour EARLY. When sunset is the first twilight change from day.

I’ll get back with you though

 

[JM]

Alright I have dark mode set to turn on at sunset, night shift set to turn on at sunset, and made a shortcut to change wallpaper at sunset.

Let’s see what happens 🫣

 

[JM]

@telvelor

Interesting. Different sunsets. Haha.

Wallpaper automated shortcut triggered at sunset. And night shift triggered at sunset.

But the dark mode lagged until much later. These screenshots were taken nine minutes after sunset.

Edit: and no I wasn’t using screen.

.