I would vote #4 very confident, #1 excluded because it works with your wife's MBP, #2 excluded by the same thing, #3 excluded by post #24. 
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LG Ultrafine 5K on Mac mini M1 Keeps Dimming
- Thread starter gadgetfreak98
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I have only skimmed this thread as it's not totally relevant to me, but my M1 MBP dims the internal display randomly since I upgraded to 11.1. It was fine on 11.0.1 from 20th November when I picked it up until after the upgrade.
I haven't noticed it with my M1 mini on a cheapo Samsung 4k monitor, but I haven't got a lot of hours on it since 11.1 came out. In fact I don't even know if the monitor supports the Mac setting brightness in that combo.
I haven't noticed it with my M1 mini on a cheapo Samsung 4k monitor, but I haven't got a lot of hours on it since 11.1 came out. In fact I don't even know if the monitor supports the Mac setting brightness in that combo.
Using an Apple keyboard attached to the Mac mini you can use the F1 and F2 keys for brightness on the UltraFine. For the MacBook you should be able to use ctrl-F1 and ctrl-F2.
I have the exact same issue except mine is too bright coming out of sleep. I have an m1 mac mini and an LG ultrafine 5k. I keep my display pretty dim plus night shift. Coming out of sleep most times, it'll be the original brightness and then I tap on the display brightness button up or down and it sets it back into my dimmer zone. It's like coming out of sleep it forgets I had it dim and me manually upping or downing the brightness sets it back to how I had it before
Unfortunately it has not been rectified in Monterey. I’m assuming at this point, it never will. I just have built up a reflex to immediately tap the brightness down and up keys upon waking to jostle the setting back to where it was supposed to be (and shows correctly in display settings — even thought the actual brightness is wrong).
@edgr.sanchez Same issue with my LG Ultrafine 24" 4k hooked up to a M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16". My display brightness resets to some default (likely 200) every time the MacBook Pro wakes from sleep. I suspect the bug impacts M1 powered Macs.
Props to @saulinpa for dropping the Ctrl-F1 / F2 shortcut for external monitor brightness. That makes living with the problem much easier. I've been running MacOS since Puma but didn't know about that shortcut! FWIW, I noticed that Option-F1 opens display preferences so that's a handy way to get the brightness slider.
Hopefully Apple will figure this out as more people get on the Apple silicon train.
Props to @saulinpa for dropping the Ctrl-F1 / F2 shortcut for external monitor brightness. That makes living with the problem much easier. I've been running MacOS since Puma but didn't know about that shortcut! FWIW, I noticed that Option-F1 opens display preferences so that's a handy way to get the brightness slider.
Hopefully Apple will figure this out as more people get on the Apple silicon train.
Has anyone tried this utility? It claims to check the brightness and adjust during wake from sleep.
github.com
GitHub - MonitorControl/MonitorControl: 🖥 Control your display's brightness & volume on your Mac as if it was a native Apple Display. Use Apple Keyboard keys or custom shortcuts. Shows the native macOS OSDs.
🖥 Control your display's brightness & volume on your Mac as if it was a native Apple Display. Use Apple Keyboard keys or custom shortcuts. Shows the native macOS OSDs. - MonitorControl/Moni...
github.com
Another "me too" post.
I have a brand new MBP 14 (M1 obviously), and 2 x LG 4k ultrafines. Running 12.0.1. I run in "clamshell" (laptop closed, only using the 2 external displays).
My preferred settings are to disable auto brightness, and run at full brightness. I have my screen saver kick in at like 5 min and display sleep at 10. I just noticed today than when I wake - both screens are noticeably dimmer. I go into preferences and the settings look fine (brightness is maxed). As soon as I touch the brightness sliders, the monitors snap back to the proper brightness.
For now, I have the display set to never sleep. (PS: Is the warning about shortening the life of the display really serious ? I don't want to run this way - but nor do I want to fix the brightness every time I sit at my desk).
I previously had a 2019 MBP 13 (Intel). Same monitors - never had this issue.
I guess another solution would be to just buy 2 x XDR Pro displays
I have a brand new MBP 14 (M1 obviously), and 2 x LG 4k ultrafines. Running 12.0.1. I run in "clamshell" (laptop closed, only using the 2 external displays).
My preferred settings are to disable auto brightness, and run at full brightness. I have my screen saver kick in at like 5 min and display sleep at 10. I just noticed today than when I wake - both screens are noticeably dimmer. I go into preferences and the settings look fine (brightness is maxed). As soon as I touch the brightness sliders, the monitors snap back to the proper brightness.
For now, I have the display set to never sleep. (PS: Is the warning about shortening the life of the display really serious ? I don't want to run this way - but nor do I want to fix the brightness every time I sit at my desk).
I previously had a 2019 MBP 13 (Intel). Same monitors - never had this issue.
I guess another solution would be to just buy 2 x XDR Pro displays
I just tried this and it didn't seem to help. There is a drop down setting with 3 options - the middle of which gave me hope. It basically says it will "reapply" settings to a display after wake. No dice (for me at least).Has anyone tried this utility? It claims to check the brightness and adjust during wake from sleep.
GitHub - MonitorControl/MonitorControl: 🖥 Control your display's brightness & volume on your Mac as if it was a native Apple Display. Use Apple Keyboard keys or custom shortcuts. Shows the native macOS OSDs.
🖥 Control your display's brightness & volume on your Mac as if it was a native Apple Display. Use Apple Keyboard keys or custom shortcuts. Shows the native macOS OSDs. - MonitorControl/Moni...
Has anyone tried Lunar ? Looks very polished. I also see an advanced option to reset the brightness on screen wake.
lunar.fyi
Lunar - The defacto app for controlling monitor brightness
Control monitor brightness, adapt using the ambient light sensor, adjust volume, switch inputs and turn off displays without fiddling with clunky buttons.
I'll answer my own questionHas anyone tried Lunar ? Looks very polished. I also see an advanced option to reset the brightness on screen wake.
Lunar - The defacto app for controlling monitor brightness
Control monitor brightness, adapt using the ambient light sensor, adjust volume, switch inputs and turn off displays without fiddling with clunky buttons.
I tried Lunar. It has a ton of settings and functionality - really cool tool. Unfortunately it didn't help this issue. I contacted the main developer and he confirmed that the "sync" setting doesn't work in clamshell.
Just chiming in to say I have the same issue here with the LG 34BK95U-W 5K2K monitor. It's not terribly dim, but it's there and I know the monitor can go brighter. Happened with my Intel Macbook Pro, and my Macbook Pro M1 Max. Using an Apple Pro braided black Thunderbolt 3 cable.
This exactly describes how it works for me. And a year+ on, I still have the issue. 12.1 didn't solve it, the (finally!) M1-compatible LG updater utility didn't solve it.Another "me too" post.
I have a brand new MBP 14 (M1 obviously), and 2 x LG 4k ultrafines. Running 12.0.1. I run in "clamshell" (laptop closed, only using the 2 external displays).
My preferred settings are to disable auto brightness, and run at full brightness. I have my screen saver kick in at like 5 min and display sleep at 10. I just noticed today than when I wake - both screens are noticeably dimmer. I go into preferences and the settings look fine (brightness is maxed). As soon as I touch the brightness sliders, the monitors snap back to the proper brightness.
For now, I have the display set to never sleep. (PS: Is the warning about shortening the life of the display really serious ? I don't want to run this way - but nor do I want to fix the brightness every time I sit at my desk).
I previously had a 2019 MBP 13 (Intel). Same monitors - never had this issue.
I guess another solution would be to just buy 2 x XDR Pro displays
Out of curiosity, what keyboard are people with the issue using?
I have a Das Keyboard Mac-specific mechanical keyboard. Function keys 14 and 15 are dedicated screen brightness keys. I'm just wondering if somehow the keyboard has a role in this? Does anyone who is using an Apple-made keyboard having the issue?
Good thought but doesn't look related. I was seeing the same issue with a M1 Macbook Air using internal keyboard, MBP 14" with internal keyboard, M1 Mini with Apple keyboard.
They probably don't even know about it. My guess is that not enough people have complained to flag it as an issue that they need to look at.
I spent a ton of time with AppleCare a year ago on this and it got kicked up to engineering. While I had the computer and the monitor replaced, nothing ever got resolved obviously.
I'm thinking Apple's "engineering" you dealt with was simply 3rd level support. Having you replace hardware when the issue can be recreated elsewhere isn't engineering, it is a waste of everyone's time. A real engineering group would set it up in a lab to test to see if they could recreate the issue.
This issue is STILL unresolved. I've contacted Apple Support and they have no clue how to fix it.