Cannot adjust brightness after Big Sur update

App & System Services Hardware
gotquestions OP
Created Mar ’21
Replies 19
Boosts 0
Views 9.5k
Participants 20
I upgraded to Big Sur 11.2.3 and now the toolbar brightness keys do not work. Brightness indicator appears on screen and the buttons appear to adjust up or down, but the actual brightness does not change unless I manually go into Display Settings and adjust.

I've seen old posts about this issue from ~5 months ago, all marked as resolved. Is this a new issue with the upgrade?

Have tried restarting and turning off / on all auto brightness settings. My system is <1 week old, M1 Macbook Pro.

Thanks for your help.
Replies  19
Boosts  0
Views  9.5k
Participants  20
JacobWT OP
Mar ’21
Got the same problem, but on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014).

  • Used the screen brightness toolbar keys yesterday, upgraded to Big Sur 11.2.3 and now they don't work anymore.

Key backlight toolbar keys still work.
0
sehej OP
Apr ’21
Any updates? Facing the same problem.
0
Osioke OP
Apr ’21
I'm having the same issue since yesterday's update to BigSur 11.3 (20E232) on MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017). Please help.
0
sehej OP
Apr ’21
I reverted back to Catalina, took a day. Everything is fine here. Definitely a bug. Won't update to Big Sur until this is fixed.
1
Osioke OP
May ’21
Tried everything, no luck; eventually downgraded successfully to the previous version and problem solved:


0
tedytag OP
May ’21
I have this problem too. MacBook Pro 2017, BigSur 11.3.1.
0
Suki10 OP
May ’21
I am also on a MBP 2017 Touch Bar model and since updating to 11.3 and 11.3.1 I have experienced the same issue.

I have spoken to Apple on Live Chat, they have taken control of my screen, tried resetting SMC, NVRAM, rebooting in safe mode, making me uninstall third party apps and are now suggesting to create a partition on the disk to reinstall the OS to see if my user profile is causing the issue.

I declined in doing that because 1) they said it would be a lengthy process, 2) I don't have space on my SSD due to having bootcamp installed, 3) I have seen other posts on forums saying a clean OS install didn't solve the issue.

I guess we have to wait for Apple to fix the issue via a system update.
0
Fahad-Binmuhayni OP
May ’21
Same issue .upgrade BigSur 11.3 on MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017) .. now my screen in higher brightness level .using small app (brightness slider)
0
OneBadPig OP
May ’21
I just dealt with support about this problem. It appears that apple has removed this functionality for all non-mac displays. I am hoping that this can be addressed in a firmware update somewhere along the way, since I can't afford to shell out $5000+ for an apple display.
0
Snifer OP
Jul ’21

Confirming, I am facing the same issue on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014). My MAC display is original and not sure why this is not working since the 11.4 update.

0
leonenkogalyna OP
Jul ’21

Same issue MBP 13, late 2013. Not only that but also the screen doesn't light up after the wake up from sleep. Brightness keys ain't doing anything. SCM/VNRAM reset doesn't do anything related to above mentioned issues

0
ZuZanoa OP
Aug ’21

I have the same problem for the last 5 months after the Big Sur update. My issue is that I can't adjust the brightness in anyway. The touchbar show the bar of the brightness but nothing changes, the brightness is always at maximum. I updated my OS 4 or 5 times and nothing changes. Machine info: MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports) 3,1 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 1536 MB

0
mat1696 OP
Dec ’21

Do you know if that’s fixed with Monterey ? I have the same issue with my iMac (plus nightshift not responding after 2 nights sleep) on 11.6.1…

0
gotquestions OP
Dec ’21

Just checked and....no. Really frustrating.

0
henle OP
Dec ’21

fingers crossed waiting for a fix 🤞🏾

0
Cannot adjust brightness after Big Sur update
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