Chosen Solution
I’ve had the display (full upper case) replaced third party after I somehow managed to crack the LCD. My insurer’s terms are you have to use a repairer company that they specify (and accidental damage is not covered by Applecare in the UK) which is not Apple Authorised, so they have to use refurb parts. It’s all good except for the light sensor. Shine a torch at it, cup your hand over it, nothing happens. I wouldn’t mind so much as the display and keyboard can be manually adjusted, but unfortunately the touch bar cannot - it relies entirely on auto adjustment based on ambient light level. So it’s always on full brightness, which is distracting in a low light environment. I’ve tried the following: NVRAM reset (several times) SMC reset (several times) Reinstalled the OS from scratch And of course auto brightness is turned on. Is there anything else I can try or is it just likely to be a duff sensor? I don’t really want to send it back to the repairers if I can help it as it’s a very slow process, it’s been over 3 weeks turnaround and I’d probably be in for that timescale again. The iSight camera works fine, and as I understand it the sensor is on the same board.
There’s an app called “Lab Tick”, this allows to control with an slider located on the top bar the light intensity of the keys (i’m using it since my old 2010 MBP sensors kinda died or so after a glass replacement [front glass broke due a bent corner] ) i think this app is able to control the Magic Touchbar as well, you can give it a go
I would go to an Apple Store and have them do an estimate on your system (not repair) Tell them some one borrowed you system and you need to get them to pay for the damage. Don’t tell them someone else worked on the system. Once you get the cost of the repair and whats needed let us know as well.
This could be a simple fix for them they most likely haven’t refitted the cable for the light sensor that runs behind the screen, was the back cover of the Mac where the apple logo is the same as the one before the screen repair or has it changed.. just wondering if they did a full assembly replacement or weather they just replaced the screen.
I have the exact same problem. After replacing the display of my 2017 MBP with touchbar (A1706) the ambient light sensor did not work anymore. Also, when adjusting the keyboard’s backlight brightness a “blocked” symbol is shown. Have you solved your issue?
My insurer ended up replacing the replacement screen. The gist I got when digging around Google was that third party screen replacements have that side effect. It is pretty common for Apple to “accidentally” introduce side effects to third party parts. It was also quite obvious it was a fake as the chin said “Mac Book Pro” instead of “MacBook Pro”, and the backlighting had a stage light effect along the bottom (I.e. it was side lit instead of backlit like they’re supposed to be afaik)
As the terms of insurance are to replace like for like, they had to take it back and fit a genuine screen.
I’ve dealt with them a second time now (butterfly keyboard issues and not eligible for repair program due to third party repair on the device). They tried to pull a fast one again and give me some weird Azerty/Qwerty mix someone had mashed together, they were once again told to take it back and replaced the laptop with another.
If you are having this problem, it is because your screen was replaced with a display assembly replacement that did not come with a light sensor (True Tone) technology. There are many screens sold on the market with and without true tone sensor. True tone screens are more expensive. You just have to ask the repair shop if they are using true tone screens or not. They can buy and use both screen types to repair your MacBook screen. we use both screen types in our own repairs and sell them as well on maclaptech.com, It really depends on how much the client wants to spend.
