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Display darkens when connecting to monitor

Using Catalina on a 2020 MacBook Air, my laptop display colors change to a much darker profile when I connect to another display, so much so that it becomes difficult to see darker shades that are normally easy to see. This is not a brightness issue, but appears to be some change in color profile that I can't seem to identify or control. Nightshift is off, and the display profile is unchanged when this occurs. The issue presents itself whether connecting to a monitor via thunderport or using sidecar. Even after disconnecting from the monitor, the display stays in the darker state, but generally resolves itself after I close/open the screen.


A "solution" has been to turn true tones off (and I can turn it back on, the issue does not reoccur), though I do not believe it is true tones causing the problem in the first place, but rather this may be forcing the system to recalibrate the display settings. I can see the true tones begin to fade in or out gradually, but then there is a much more dramatic switch as the contrast/color profile changes back to normal. If I do this when connected to the monitor still, when I disconnect my laptops switches back to the darker scheme, until I close/open or toggle true tones again.


An idea how to prevent the display when switching to the darker settings, or how to control this?

Posted on May 14, 2020 3:47 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 14, 2020 4:02 PM

mack3ral Said:

"Display darkens when connecting to monitor: [...]An idea how to prevent the display when switching to the darker settings, or how to control this?"

-------


Two Thoughts:



A. Reset the SMC and your NVRAM:

Sometimes when changes are made to the system(i.e. updates), system configurations (i.e. for sound) become manipulated, technically. So, reset the SMCand NVRAM.


B. Scan for Malware:

Start with running a scan for malware, using Malwarebytes for Mac and remove what is found. Perhaps something was installed that made this occur. Remove what is found from the quarantine. Malware is short for: Malicious Software. It makes you computer act in a mislead manor

Downloads:

  1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac
  2. Malwarebytes uninstaller

Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 14, 2020 4:02 PM in response to mack3ral

mack3ral Said:

"Display darkens when connecting to monitor: [...]An idea how to prevent the display when switching to the darker settings, or how to control this?"

-------


Two Thoughts:



A. Reset the SMC and your NVRAM:

Sometimes when changes are made to the system(i.e. updates), system configurations (i.e. for sound) become manipulated, technically. So, reset the SMCand NVRAM.


B. Scan for Malware:

Start with running a scan for malware, using Malwarebytes for Mac and remove what is found. Perhaps something was installed that made this occur. Remove what is found from the quarantine. Malware is short for: Malicious Software. It makes you computer act in a mislead manor

Downloads:

  1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac
  2. Malwarebytes uninstaller

Display darkens when connecting to monitor

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