Skip to main content

How-To: Use Night Shift and Low Power Mode at the same time on iOS 9.3 [Video]

Night Shift and Low Power Mode iOS 9.3

There are tons of new features included with yesterday’s release of iOS 9.3, and Night Shift — the new feature that automatically adjusts the screen’s color temperature to reduce blue light — is arguably its best new addition.

Unfortunately, Night Shift is automatically disabled when you enable Low Power Mode on your iPhone. Thanks to a clever workaround, however, it’s possible to use Night Shift in combination with Low Power Mode. In the brief tutorial that follows, we’ll show you how.

How to enable Night Shift while using Low Power Mode

Step 1: Enable Low Power Mode

Step 2: Invoke Siri and say “Enable Night Shift”

Night Shift will then enable even though Low Power Mode is on. Note that you can’t manually enable Night Shift while Low Power Mode is enabled, as its Control Center toggle is greyed out along with its preference panel in Settings → Display & Brightness.

Video walkthrough

Needless to say, it’s a bit inconvenient that enabling Low Power Mode automatically shuts off Night Shift mode, but by using this handy Siri workaround, it’s easy to enjoy both features simultaneously.

For more handy tips and tricks like this, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel. Special thanks to YouTube subscriber Sam Fanelli for the tip.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. vandiced - 8 years ago

    Which Apple will latch up next week in iOS 9.3.1

    • vandiced - 8 years ago

      *patch

      • srgmac - 8 years ago

        I think that is a good thing…OTA / Delta updates are awesome…They should release them every two weeks or so IMHO, on a schedule.

  2. I’m curious to know the reasoning behind Low Power mode turning off Night Shift. Does Night shift consume extra resources? I know the sunset/sunrise scheduling relies on location data, but you can easy use a timed schedule instead.

    • The Chaotic Buddhist - 8 years ago

      Of course it does. Think about it, it constantly remains aware of the time of day so it can change the color of the screen actively.
      It is resource intensive and enabling it in low power mode just negates some of the low power savings. Might as well not bother at all.

      • I’d guess it has more to do with the geolocation part. The time the sun sets will be determined by your location, not just the time displayed on the clock.

      • moo083 - 8 years ago

        I think you are thinking of Flux. Night Shift is much more basic. Its either on or off. At sunset it turns on, and at sunrise it turns off. No changing the color gradually over time.

      • Jeff Benjamin - 8 years ago

        That’s not entirely true. Night Shift does change gradually when scheduled, albeit over like a 2 minute span.

      • srgmac - 8 years ago

        “Has to be constantly aware of the time of day?” I have a feeling you pressed “post comment” before actually reading what you wrote, heh.
        You realize that the OS already has a clock…and that *has* to be running, no matter what, since everything on the phone depends on that working…
        I can’t really think of any major reason why Night Shift would use more power. All it’s doing is changing the color profile on the display, right?

    • srgmac - 8 years ago

      I don’t think Night Shift uses geolocation at all. It’s either on, off, or scheduled to be on during a time frame.
      AFAICT there is no “Automatic” mode where it turns itself on based on the sun setting or rising.

  3. When can I get rid of the stupid button for this stupid feature in Control Center so it only contains the things I actually use?

  4. Beryn Hammil (@Beryn) - 8 years ago

    Thanks for finding this great work-around. It was my first criticism of iOS 9.3, and you’ve shown us a quick solution.

  5. I wish they had the same feature for the Apple TV.

    • srgmac - 8 years ago

      I think they did release a new night-based theme for ATV, but only gen 4, and it’s not exactly limiting blue light, it’s more of a dark theme IIRC.
      I think they should put this into OS X…although it would look bad since they’re basically stealing f.lux’s idea, they pretty much already have crossed that line on iOS and no one really seems to care, heh.

  6. Avieshek (@avieshek) - 8 years ago

    Wh’t is this, Urine?

  7. You can’t use night shif in LPM not because it use more energy but because the LPM disable the background updates and NS use the background updates to enable it using the location/sunset time. Quite simply. But I think is “”a bug”” that you can’t enable NS manually when in LPM. It doesn’t make sense 🤔

  8. konradas7 - 8 years ago

    Thanks for this cool trick!

  9. busboywithasilencer - 8 years ago

    No longer works. Now Siri just tells me that she’ll have to turn off low-power mode in order to turn on night shift.

Author

Avatar for Jeff Benjamin Jeff Benjamin

Jeff is the head of video content production for 9to5. He initially joined 9to5Mac in 2016, producing videos, walkthroughs, how-tos, written tutorials, and reviews. He takes pride in explaining things simply, clearly, and concisely. Jeff’s videos have been watched hundreds of millions of times by people seeking to learn more about today’s tech. Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube to catch Jeff’s latest videos.