iPhone 17 always on display issues

My iPhone 17 Pro Max does the same thing. Always-on just stops working. Power off and power on only fixes it temporarily.

I was having the issue while I was reading this forum. I saw someone mention they have an Apple Watch Ultra 3. I have one as well and decided to take it off and see if that has something to do with it.

low and behold. The minute I took my watch off, the phone’s Always on Display worked. Immediately. I put the watch back on and it is still working.

never use a focus mode and none was set

before I took my watch off.

I’ll see if this is a pattern.

I have a 17 Pro Max and a paired Watch Ultra 3. I'm having weird issues with the AOD as well. My phone is never in Low Power Mode, Charge Limit is set to 80%, Battery Health is Normal, and finally, Adaptive Power Mode is also off.

I do have one Focus setup, however, that only enables between 22:00 to 07:00 ET.

The issue I have is when I'm near my phone, the AOD works perfectly fine, but when I walk away from my phone, most likely out of range, the AOD turns off. Now, the AOD turning off was also a thing on iOS 18, so I don't mind it at all. My issue is that now under iOS 26.0.1, the AOD will turn off and won't turn back on again, even after I have come back to my phone. Under iOS 18, when I returned to my device, even if I wasn't using it, the AOD would turn back on by itself. The only way to get the AOD to switch back on again under iOS 26.0.1 is to use my phone for a good 5 minutes (with the screen on), or restart my phone. I hate having to do either, because I shouldn't have to.

I have tried the following to try to fix this issue:

-Restarted my phone (which temporarily fixes the issue)

-Unpaired and re-paired my Watch Ultra 3

-Fully erased and restored phone from iCloud back-up

-Did a hard-restart as per the instructions provided by one person in this thread

Nothing seems to be helping.

I genuinely believe that this is a bug in iOS 26.0.1 and needs to be addressed.

First disable all Focus mode features and there is a feature to share

focus between devices. That you have to turn off too. That worked for

me.

First disable all Focus mode features and there is a feature to share focus between devices. That you have to turn off too. That worked for me.

Many screen issues can be resolved by a forced restart. Please review the Apple Support article I shared below.

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

Do you have any Focus modes set?

I have a iPhone 17 pro max and ultra 3. If my watch disconnects, the AoD stops working until I cut the watch back on or until I turn the setting off and back on.

Yep. My AOD feature started acting up about a week ago on my 17 Pro. It won't respond to the darkness when I go to bed, and stays brightly lit, and yet during the daytime the screen goes dark. There's no sense to it. I've tried all the troubleshooting/reset stuff too. I went into the Genius Bar, and they really didn't have an answer for it. The guy suggested that the new Apple Intelligence was trying to adapt to my daily routine... I'm not sure that makes sense considering this seems to be a glitch in the sensor response to light/dark surroundings. I've submitted a feedback report to Apple, and I suggest you do the same. Hopefully they'll address this in the next iOS if enough people report the problem.

Try resetting your accessibility settings

Same here. Tried everything; restart, toggle the options, a full restore (to try and fix a slew of other problems). Nothing works. Another iOS release plagued with tons of little things like this.

I got exactly the same problem as yours. And I believe that it is related to the phone’s connection with Apple Watch, because I first noticed this issue after I bought an Ultra 3, and the AOD function on my iPhone becomes wired as I sometimes wearing my watch and something’s don’t, now I am at work not wearing my phone with me and my phone AOD didn’t work.

Same. No Apple Watch and Always-On Display doesn’t work on my phone with iOS 26. I turned AOD on so that I could use my phone as a night light and alarm clock. The minute I turn off the lights, the phone goes dark. :(

Power saving mode is off.

It does say in the settings for AOD that it will turn off to save power, it just doesn't say what the interval is. Not really AOD then? My old Pixel from years ago had actual AOD and it was really something I liked. I wish my 17 did it like that, but it's not a dealbreaker.

I don’t use focus at all. My aod works most of time but have noticed if I am away from my phone it begins to shut off. Also at night using MagSafe charger stand in night mode displaying clock it stays on but I wake up later at night and it’s off. So I’m still confused as ALWAYS ON should be ALWAYS ON. Never to shut off.