Database Users

Backlight for touch-keys

Does anyone know how backlight is suppose to work for Home, Menu, Back and Search keys? Is it suppose to stay on as long as the screen backlight stays on or is it certain amount of time? What triggers them to come on- key press, screen touch, trackpad touch or all of the above? Mine don't seem to follow any rhyme or reason, at least I couldn't trace a pattern. I know that I was messing around with the phone last night in the dark and they would come on and go off as they pleased. Does light sensor have anything to do with it? Please sound off your findings and ideas.
Thanks!

Mine don't seem to follow any rhyme or reason either - it's a bit maddening. And the same goes for the backlight of the physical keyboard (sometimes it comes on, sometimes it doesn't - no telling why), and also the automatic adjustment of brightness (i use the phone for a minute and suddenly it gets super-bright).
Hopefully these are all just bugs that will be fixed with an OTA update, but it is weird and I'm glad to know it's not just my unit since I don't want to replace it (I got a solid hinge - good stuff!).

I think I figured it out. Backlight for touch keys is controlled by light sensor and also has a timer (few seconds), so if it's bright enough outside - they will not even come on. If it's dark - they come on and stay on for certain time then go off untill you press one of them again.
Now, the other thing that I'm noticing is that my haptic feedback is not working when pressing one of those buttons or long-pressing the screen. Anyone else has that problem?

I have used my phone primarily in the dark. All my lights are always on (when the screen is) and the auto-brightness is too bright. If I turn brightness to minimum, the always on lights are way too bright compared to the screen. I really wish the designers had tried to use this phone in the dark (laying in bed) and realized the auto-brightness and lights are too bright in pitch-dark!
Also I am getting real sick of rotation. On my G1 I could disable it completely unless the keyboard was out. I like to lay in bed or on a couch and use my phone sideways, but not rotated. This seems impossible to do on the G2. Disabling rotation doesn't do anything for 3rd party apps or even GMail for that matter. For some reason this was not the case on the G1.
It will be hard to go back to the G1's one-second+ lag after every press and the incredibly slow loading webpages now that I have experienced the G2, but there are too many really annoying problems, so I think it is getting sent back.

if you have your backlight set to automatic... it will cut on only if the room is dark... check your backlight settings

It's an issue with the way android uses the light sensor. It's very poorly coded.

Keyboard Light

Hi all,
I was wondering if there was a way to force the keyboard keys to stay lit up until you close it. It seems to be cutting out mid type.
Thanks.

It turns off when you it's bright enough in the surrounding area. You can flash cyanogenmod and set all the brightness settings.

Thanks,
I guess I was hoping to be able to control this manually without having to flash a different rom.

At this time its not possible to control it manually from stock froyo. Maybe in gingerbread?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 running Cyanogenmod.

do you have it set to automatic brightness? I noticed my keyboard turning on and off while typing and the screen dimmed and brightened with it. Turned off the auto brightness and hasn't done it since.

dietotherhythm said:
do you have it set to automatic brightness? I noticed my keyboard turning on and off while typing and the screen dimmed and brightened with it. Turned off the auto brightness and hasn't done it since.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turning off the auto brightness hasn't made any difference to me on my DZ. The backlight for the keyboard and capacative buttons seems to turn off and on quite often for no apparent reason (badly calibrated light sensor ?).

has anyone tried covering up the light sensor with a sticker or something? lol idk

daaango said:
has anyone tried covering up the light sensor with a sticker or something? lol idk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would certainly work, you can put your finger over it and show how it's the light sensor doing it. Probably not the best long term solution though

Should I Switch My S4 for Another One?

I got my S4 last week and it's great. This one doesn't have any lag, or at least not anything that concerns me. However, it does have screen issues, especially with the light adjustment. Sometimes the screen will randomly go full brightness for a second and then go back to normal, I notice this when accessing messaging sometimes. I know it also does this for Instagram, but it is suppose to do that.
Now, sometimes it seems like it does a colorshift. the screen will appear less blue and more yellow. It did this when I was accessing the facebook messenger app once and maybe another one. I might be making this up, but it just seems like the color changes ever so slightly. Also, once in a blue moon when it is adjusting screen brightness, all these vertical black lines appear for a microsecond on certain parts of the screen, it seems like an even distribution of lines. Reminds me of something old game boys might do.
I am very happy with the phone though, and I don't want to switch it if I don't have too. However, if another version might not have these issues, I want to switch ASAP, I only have a week left to swap for a new one. After that, my 14 days are up and they said they would only give me refurbs. :[

Do it.
I'm stuck with a defective screen 16GB because the 32GB did not come in on launch day which was my last day to return.
My only option at this point is to get another 16GB that's refurbished from warranty.
The irony in all this is that I manage the kiosk where I purchased the phone on my personal account.
My employees' phones and demo don't have the same screen issues I have.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

There is a setting in accessibility that called color adjusment mess with that and see if that helps it
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app

I will check out the settings. The events that this glitches happen are rare, but it has only been a week and they have happened numerous times. The auto lighting adjustment sucks, times when it should be bright it's not. Plus the black line stuff that happens sometimes. If all of them experience this I dont want to trade in for another one. I don't want to risk trading my working phone for one that won't work so well.

DuffmasterFresh said:
I will check out the settings. The events that this glitches happen are rare, but it has only been a week and they have happened numerous times. The auto lighting adjustment sucks, times when it should be bright it's not. Plus the black line stuff that happens sometimes. If all of them experience this I dont want to trade in for another one. I don't want to risk trading my working phone for one that won't work so well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would swap it if I were you.. I came from the HTC one because of repeated problems and switched to the s4... I've only had it a few days now but have only experienced some lag (fixed by tweaking settings) and the auto brightness is a little slow to adjust sometimes (I've always though this about all my Samsung devices).. But no color changing or bars appearing.. Just my 2 cents..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app

that is partially due to the type of color meter and ambient light sensor type (should be a 40-something segment black and white unless my info on the sensor specs are off. i believe apple has designed a proprietary multisegment rgb meter for theirs). b/w meters get lumens correct, but not perceived brightness (human eye is not the same as a sensor).
the color changing issue you are having may be due to the display mode being set on auto (start, settings, display mode) and under lighting that the sensor cannot correctly meter for (fluorescent lights flicker at the same hertz as your AC current, and are actually pretty dim and WAY off for color balance, so that SHOULD throw the sensors off continuously, which would lead to auto brightness hunting and inaccurate selection of the 'correct' color mode).
try turning auto brightness off and color mode to professional photo or movie (i use move as its very flat and closer to real colors). there ought to be a way to trick the ambient brightness sensor to sample and average at a faster rate, and ramp up/down more smoothly, but i cant code for android otherwise i would have been working on one.
i work in tv/film industry on the sensor/lighting side btw. if the issue goes away, turn on auto brightness and check it out under NON FLUORESCENT lighting. if its gone, it was probably the display mode changing along with auto brightness.

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Slade8525 said:
that is partially due to the type of color meter and ambient light sensor type (should be a 40-something segment black and white unless my info on the sensor specs are off. i believe apple has designed a proprietary multisegment rgb meter for theirs). b/w meters get lumens correct, but not perceived brightness (human eye is not the same as a sensor).
the color changing issue you are having may be due to the display mode being set on auto (start, settings, display mode) and under lighting that the sensor cannot correctly meter for (fluorescent lights flicker at the same hertz as your AC current, and are actually pretty dim and WAY off for color balance, so that SHOULD throw the sensors off continuously, which would lead to auto brightness hunting and inaccurate selection of the 'correct' color mode).
try turning auto brightness off and color mode to professional photo or movie (i use move as its very flat and closer to real colors). there ought to be a way to trick the ambient brightness sensor to sample and average at a faster rate, and ramp up/down more smoothly, but i cant code for android otherwise i would have been working on one.
i work in tv/film industry on the sensor/lighting side btw. if the issue goes away, turn on auto brightness and check it out under NON FLUORESCENT lighting. if its gone, it was probably the display mode changing along with auto brightness.
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Click to collapse
I had no idea the S4 had these options. I guess I am used to my Atrix which didnt do much. I went in and adjusted the settings. The auto screen brightness never really did a good job, I feel that it is way too dim in situations where it should be brighter. I will text your advice the next week and see what happens. If I still get issues, I will return it as I have one week left of my 14 days. Thank you very much for the excellent advice!

DuffmasterFresh said:
I had no idea the S4 had these options. I guess I am used to my Atrix which didnt do much. I went in and adjusted the settings. The auto screen brightness never really did a good job, I feel that it is way too dim in situations where it should be brighter. I will text your advice the next week and see what happens. If I still get issues, I will return it as I have one week left of my 14 days. Thank you very much for the excellent advice!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no problem; the auto brightness on the GS4 is only slightly better than the Atrix 4G (had one too), and same as the GS3. The color mode thing (which is awesome; closer to real life colors versus waaaay oversaturated screens on most phones. also check power saving settings.
also see this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=41616076#post41616076

Well, I have not seen those black lines since I turned off auto brightness and turned off the screen automatically doing it's own color adjustments. I will turn these back on to see if I can duplicate the issue. I do feel that I have more lag now, but I could just be paranoid.

OK, when I am using my Facebook Messenger App, sometimes these black lines appear horizontally across the screen on low brightness. However, sometimes they dont. I dont want to call them black lines, but maybe I should say they are ghostly tv lines that are barely noticeable. Ideas?

Could someone explain the defective screen issue?, mine looks great...

The phone works great most of the time and is totally useable, the only issue is that sometimes it does these weird things as I have explained. Tomorrow is the 14 day mark, so I am having a hard time deciding if I should switch for another one just in case, or assume all of this is normal and hope the phone lasts me 2 years.

DuffmasterFresh said:
The phone works great most of the time and is totally useable, the only issue is that sometimes it does these weird things as I have explained. Tomorrow is the 14 day mark, so I am having a hard time deciding if I should switch for another one just in case, or assume all of this is normal and hope the phone lasts me 2 years.
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Click to collapse
Could possibly be a GPU issue. Have you had any problems playing heavy duty 3d games?
Sent from my GT-N7100

No problems playing the Iron Man 3 game, everything seems fine.
It seems like any time the keyboard is pulled up, the screen shifts color to something more yellow. all of the keys go from a nice grey to a off grey yellow tint color. During this transition, I can literally see the screen transition as weird lines appear for a fraction of a second, like switching channels on an old TV. I tried recording this on my DSLR 1080P camera but it could not pick up the color change visibly. I might try again. It does this on Google Chrome, Facebook Messenger, Snap Chat even. sometimes it color shifts even when the keyboard is not involved. I have the auto adjustments on the screen off and the color set to Standard Mode.
The ATT store said I am a day out of my 14 day limit and there is nothing they can do. They said I have to talk to warranty and see if they will be nice enough to send me a new one. I dont want a refurb, last time that happened, I went through 4 of them. I talked to ATT support and they said they would extend my 14 days another 3 days but the ATT store said I was out of luck for an exchange for a new phone.

So no one elses screen color shifts to yellow when the keyboard pops up? Mine does this now all the time, mainly in low light. It might do it in all light situations but in sunlight I prolly just can't see it. It's incredibly annoying because the screen itself wacks out every time it does it.

[Solved] Brightness dims very dark every wake?

Ever since as long as I can remember, my phones brightness will dim to a brightness so dark you just can't see it. Even if you manually set the brightness, once you lock and wake the screen, it's fine then suddenly switches to dark.
I've used multiple ROMs and they all do it. Is it a device issue, or could it be a kernel issue? I've not screwed with kernels so I don't know if it could be it. If it's a device issue, I'll be getting a replacement ASAP.
Any help is appreciated!

Now that I'm able to Google, I realize it's a common problem with the S4.
Sent from my SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

Serfma said:
Ever since as long as I can remember, my phones brightness will dim to a brightness so dark you just can't see it. Even if you manually set the brightness, once you lock and wake the screen, it's fine then suddenly switches to dark.
I've used multiple ROMs and they all do it. Is it a device issue, or could it be a kernel issue? I've not screwed with kernels so I don't know if it could be it. If it's a device issue, I'll be getting a replacement ASAP.
Any help is appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only time I had the screen go dim like you describe is I remember once following a phone call. It goes dark when you put the handset to your ear like it's supposed to, and lights back up when I pull it away from my head. I was stepping out of a truck into the broad daylight when I tried to hang up my phone, I couldn't see the screen very well. The other party ended the call, and my screen timed out while I was squinting at it. I pushed the home button and it lit right back up nice.
You got something going on, and if you tried all those different roms, say... can you nandroid back to stock? Did you try that?
I'd try everything I could on the outside chance of repair instead of replacement. If you get a replacement you might be stuck with that MF3 where you cannot install a custom recovery.

fukenbiker said:
The only time I had the screen go dim like you describe is I remember once following a phone call. It goes dark when you put the handset to your ear like it's supposed to, and lights back up when I pull it away from my head. I was stepping out of a truck into the broad daylight when I tried to hang up my phone, I couldn't see the screen very well. The other party ended the call, and my screen timed out while I was squinting at it. I pushed the home button and it lit right back up nice.
You got something going on, and if you tried all those different roms, say... can you nandroid back to stock? Did you try that?
I'd try everything I could on the outside chance of repair instead of replacement. If you get a replacement you might be stuck with that MF3 where you cannot install a custom recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mf3? Is that something new with the S4s to prevent custom ROMs?
It does not go pitch black. It goes very dim every time I wake the device. If you Google S4 screen dimming it's a wide problem.
Once you wake it, it's fine for 2 seconds and dims quite dark. It is not screen timeout/sleep/etc since I can still see the screen.
Sent from my SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

I'm on MDJ and don't get any auto dimming of any sorts. Auto brightness is off, brightness controls about 1/3 brightness (indoors), but Power Saving mode is on with all three options on.

My S4 is MDL. I found out the problem (More than likely) was the Paranoid Android ROM. I was on ver. 3.69 and since switched to CM 10.2 Nightlies, latest as of today, and no screen dimming. I will install my usual apps and use it as normal and if it happens, it's probably an app. However, the only apps I use are ones such as SwiftKey, LightFlow, ASTRO, Chrome, and Dashclock.

I'm on stock MDL. It has only been occurring since I upgraded from MDB 3 days ago, and is a huge PITA because brightness controls are unresponsive during this time - I go into settings to adjust brightness since I have removed all the brightness controls from the notification panel as they've always worked just fine, and turn off auto brightness, scale it all the way to max, and it is still dim as crap.... Only fix I've seen is to reboot, which is obviously not ideal in most situations when I need to wake the device! I'm using STOCK kernel, STOCK ODEXED ROM as well, nothing crazy should be going on to screw with brightness settings being unresponsive either!

KryptosXLayer2 said:
I'm on stock MDL. It has only been occurring since I upgraded from MDB 3 days ago, and is a huge PITA because brightness controls are unresponsive during this time - I go into settings to adjust brightness since I have removed all the brightness controls from the notification panel as they've always worked just fine, and turn off auto brightness, scale it all the way to max, and it is still dim as crap.... Only fix I've seen is to reboot, which is obviously not ideal in most situations when I need to wake the device! I'm using STOCK kernel, STOCK ODEXED ROM as well, nothing crazy should be going on to screw with brightness settings being unresponsive either!
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Click to collapse
Do you by chance use Light Flow?
I solved the problem. I had "lcd_backlight" control flipped on in the settings of Light Flow. It fixed it. To tell if it's an app problem, just factory reset and try, once you boot up, to lock and wake the device to see if it happens. If it doesn't, it's an app problem more than likely, or even a general setting. Troubleshoot for the win!

Serfma said:
Do you by chance use Light Flow?
I solved the problem. I had "lcd_backlight" control flipped on in the settings of Light Flow. It fixed it. To tell if it's an app problem, just factory reset and try, once you boot up, to lock and wake the device to see if it happens. If it doesn't, it's an app problem more than likely, or even a general setting. Troubleshoot for the win!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do use Light Flow, but I don't have either one of the LCD Backlight controls enabled, never have and never will, so I don't know how that could be affecting my phone at all.... That's a good start for some, but not for me, unfortunately! Good catch though
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S 4 using the XDA app

Serfma said:
Ever since as long as I can remember, my phones brightness will dim to a brightness so dark you just can't see it. Even if you manually set the brightness, once you lock and wake the screen, it's fine then suddenly switches to dark.
I've used multiple ROMs and they all do it. Is it a device issue, or could it be a kernel issue? I've not screwed with kernels so I don't know if it could be it. If it's a device issue, I'll be getting a replacement ASAP.
Any help is appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this issue before on my Galaxy S3. I ended up replacing the front glass because of a dead pixel. Come to find out I had a sensor issue and that was causing my brightness auto going to whatever level it wanted.
Perhaps you're experiencing that too. Haven't heard or read of any sensor issues yet with the S4 but you could be the lucky winner!

How to adjust Always On Display (AOD) brightness?

I really love this new Always On Display (AOD) feature, it's really classy and elegant.
But, one thing I noticed is that the brightness level seems to be automatically adjusted, and when its bright it surely drains the battery.
Is there anyway to set this brightness manually? I tried changing the display brightness in manual mode, but it does not seem to use that settings.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I dont think there is an option, if there is i am also interested.
I personally thought the Display sometimes was too bright.
i..e In a Dark Room and the Light was more ambient than it really needed to be.
Then the misses would ask me to turn off the night light lol!

Always On
Dear All, I just bought my S7 Edge and picked it up yesterday. I'm quite impressed with this display!
I thought the same thing you guys tought... The Always On Display is very bright!
But here is some info that I searched over the internet. Don't know about it's reliability, but seems legit.
New Always On Display
An interesting function that first appeared on the Galaxy Note 4 Edge in 2014 was always keeping a portion of the OLED screen on when the phone is off (in standby), so certain content can be displayed all day and all night long, but with a very small power drain that has very little effect on the battery running time. This is possible on an OLED display with a mostly black background because every sub-pixel is independently powered, so black pixels and sub-pixels don’t use any power.
The new Always On Display mode shows various personalized clock, calendar, status messages, notifications, and images on the main screen when the phone is on standby. It measures the ambient light level and has both day and night modes, plus it’s smart enough to stay off when the phone display is face down, or it senses a dark confined space such as a pocket or handbag. The OLED display produces an illuminated main screen image 24 hours a day so you can always discreetly check it with just a glance. As a result, the OLED Always On Display will reduce the need for a smartwatch, which seems likely to become an endangered species. We’ll cover this in more detail below.
Here is where I picked it up. Cheers Guys!
(Received a message with the information that I can't post url's.. ) sorry...
Type this in google, "always on display s7 edge brightnes" then it is the 3rd link in the url contains displaymate

same, it quite bright, and with my testing if you can keep ut at its lowest brightness, it consumes 0.3%/hr. that would be absolutely great.

there is an app always on display plus which helps in that

if you mark on auto brightness , it will be done

I unmarked Auto Brightness and seems not brights

Hello guys did anyone find a solution to this?

metko said:
Hello guys did anyone find a solution to this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1

I've noticed that it is automatically adjusting by the amount of light in the room (and it's quite sensitive, always brighter than needed). It would be great if there was an option to manually set the brightness, but only small bunch of people are actually interested in this.

[email protected] said:
there is an app always on display plus which helps in that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This app does not changing the actual brightens, seams to be there is no solution yet.

I tried changing the screen brightness to minimum and disabling auto brightness, but the AoD brightness seems to be controlled independently.
Trying out an app called Always On AMOLED - it has a night mode. Gonna test power consumption of both

Mine used to auto adjust but not anymore. I think the last software update changed this.
GS7

I'd love to have an adjustment setting. I'm having the opposite problem as most. Mine isn't bright enough! Oh well. Hope they change that!

AOD brightness fix for Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus. May fix others
This may not help everyone as I am giving you the solution for the S9 and S9 Plus, but look in your settings to see if you have the same thing.
Under 'Lock Screen and Security' select AOD and select 'Show Always'. Once you've selected the Content to Show, disable Auto Brightness then move the slider as far right as possible and underneath that select Show Always.
Job done. Next time you see your AOD it'll be full brightness. It is still not bright enough but better than before. If you then go into 'Clock Style' and change the colour after type and choose a fairly stand out colour, this will make your clock stand out even more.
I hope I've helped at least a few people.

hoi
themaestro023 said:
This may not help everyone as I am giving you the solution for the S9 and S9 Plus, but look in your settings to see if you have the same thing.
Under 'Lock Screen and Security' select AOD and select 'Show Always'. Once you've selected the Content to Show, disable Auto Brightness then move the slider as far right as possible and underneath that select Show Always.
Job done. Next time you see your AOD it'll be full brightness. It is still not bright enough but better than before. If you then go into 'Clock Style' and change the colour after type and choose a fairly stand out colour, this will make your clock stand out even more.
I hope I've helped at least a few people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i feel like its to bright... i want to dim it. dont need it to be that clear.... i wil continue my search....

Threw search and having both s7 and s9+ I noticed the 9+ has the ability to adjust the brightness of the AOD very easily in settings or double tap the screen and u see the settings. Works perfect on the 9+ as for the s7 doesnt have the same settings they both say the latest version available is downloaded but it's an s7.. so I just think that setting dont exist on the s7. The brightness is controlled on it's own and u really have no control manually on the brightness.. I think it's a new thing for new galaxies but the 7 isnt gonna do it.. eh.. so I suggest a contrast color which makes it "brighter" to the eye. And basic and big.. it's for quick glances anyways... sucks tho..