Replacement iPhone 6, 7 & SE Screens Now Have Auto-Brightness Issues Too
(Note; when we talk about “original” screens below, we use “original” to mean those which contain an Apple-manufactured panel rather than a “copy” screen, including unofficially-refurbished ones. This isn’t necessarily the original screen that came with the phone.)
About six months ago, we discussed a problem affected the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X’s ALS (Ambient Light Sensor) if the screen had been replaced. To cut a long story short, if the replacement screen hadn’t been paired with the phone (i.e. its serial number and calibration data transferred from the original screen), then the screen’s automatic brightness adjustment stopped working under iOS 11, due to the ALS- required to measure how bright the surrounding light is- having been disabled.
This affected original and “copy” screens. Fortunately, companies in China designed programming devices that were able to transfer the serial and calibration data from one original screen to another, so that the iPhone was unable to tell that the screen had been replaced. (This still only works with original screens, which is another reason we recommend avoiding copies).
When Apple released iOS 12, it looked like the issue had (sort of) disappeared, since the ALS/auto-brightness on affected phones worked again (although Apple disabled their TrueTone feature instead). However, at the time we said that owners of phones with replacement screens that had not been paired were at the mercy of Apple’s whims, and that it might happen again. With the release of iOS 12.1.4, it appears that the issue has indeed returned, and this time it affects the iPhone 6, iPhone 7 and iPhone SE.
When this came to our attention, we tested it on an iPhone 6. We replaced the original screen already fitted to it with another screen which- although also original- had not been paired. We then upgraded it, and it turned out that the ALS/auto-brightness had stopped working.
After further investigation, it turns out that the issue also affects the iPhone SE even under certain versions of iOS 11!
At the time of writing, we’re still looking into this, and will keep you posted with the latest developments as we find out about them.
