Overly Aggressive "Always On" Display (with Action Button workaround)

Hardware
1

I’m using an iPhone 15 Pro, and have had occasional problems with the always-on display at night. I leave it on an Anker charging pad on my nightstand overnight. Most of the time, the screen goes fully dark very quickly. I assume that a lack of motion, low ambient light, etc., all factor into the “decision” to turn off.

Over the summer, I had a few nights in a row when it would not go dark, but were were in a hotel (USB-C charging, not wireless) with our kids also in the room, so there was more noise, more light, and more motion. I didn’t think too much of it, and just flipped the phone over.

Since updating to iOS 18, though, the display has, more often than not, failed to turn off at night. It will go dark at other times - if I’m at the gym, stretching on a mat on the floor with the phone off to the side, it usually turns off. So I know it can turn off, but for some reason it generally won’t. (Even a few hours later if I wake up during the night, the display will still be on.)

If anyone has any ideas about why this might be, I’d be very interested. For now, though, my workaround has been to add to my Action Button shortcut. When I hit the Action Button late at night or early in the morning, I had it set to toggle the ringer on / off. (I have it silenced almost permanently, except when it’s in CarPlay mode, but there are rare times when I would need to be awakened during the night by an emergency phone call, so I need the ringer on overnight.) I added a step to also toggle the always on display. So now, right before I put it on the charger, I hit the action button, and the ringer is un-silenced and the display can go dark. When I get up, hit the button again to reverse.

Curious.

-Eric

2

Have you tried using the iPhone’s Sleep mode? I.e. dropping into DND at bedtime.

I use it every night (I don’t use the always on display on any of my tech) Sleep mode comes on at 10pm and switches off at 6am.

My iPhone screen goes off quickly and I wear my night Apple watch to bed, it only comes on if I tap it a couple of times.

2 Likes
3

I don’t use sleep mode, but I do have it in DND (with all phone calls allowed through but all other notifications silenced).

-E

4

I heartily recommend Sleep Mode. Give it a try, it’ll achieve what you need.

1 Like
5

+1 on Sleep Focus.

What you have experienced is exactly how Apple has designed it: you were in a different surrounding, there was more noise, more light, more motion - all of them signal to the iPhone that this apparently was not the usual bedtime surrounding:

The display automatically turns off when iPhone is either face down or obstructed from view, not near a paired Apple Watch, when a CarPlay session begins, while Continuity Camera is in use, while Low Power Mode is on, while Sleep Focus is on, or at your usual bedtime.

The two reliable options in your case are:

  • put it face down on a table while charging or
  • use Sleep Focus (which I do automatically on a time-based schedule, I switch the Sleep Focus off manually when needed)

Sleep Focus is the (only) reliable way to tell the iPhone that you are sleeping. To me, it even is a must-have when I am wearing the Apple Watch while sleeping.

P.S. Your Action button solution can of use here, too. You could configure your Action Button in a way that it triggers Sleep Mode On/Off when triggered in the evening and Ringer On/Off when triggered during daytime (further reading).

1 Like
6

That all makes sense, except when the display stays on (dimly) in a pitch-black, silent, no-motion-except-my-head-turning-in-bed room, yet it will turn off in a brightly lit, very loud, motion-filled gym when I’m not interacting with it for long enough.

It’s odd. I’ll look into Sleep mode; I seem to remember when it first came out, there was an aspect to it that I didn’t like, but I can’t recall exactly what.

Thanks!

-Eric

7

The iPhone may try to guess if you are nearby or not and it realizes that others may be nearby. And in this surrounding, it may turn its screen off (privacy). Are you wearing an AppleWatch? The “Always On” display feature works reliably in my experience when I am wearing the AppleWatch. If not, it can be a guessing game for the iPhone, what is or is not right at the moment… Focus Modes are the unmistakable way to tell the iPhone what to do with its display.

8

I wear an Apple Watch during the day, and charge it at night. So the phone should “know” that I’m not wearing the watch while I sleep.

9

I don’t use the alarm feature in sleep mode, for some reason it doesn’t work the way I want it to. I set alarms independently.