With the release of iOS 9.3 yesterday, Apple included a major new feature that may help you sleep better at night: Night Shift. Night Shift works by changing the color temperature of your screen gradually as the day changes. In Control Center, you can toggle this feature on and off manually. In Settings, you can setup iOS 9.3’s Night Shift so that it automatically shifts the blue light of your iPhone or iPad screen with a schedule. The schedule options are either preset times set by the user or an automatic schedule based on sunrise and sunset.
However, after updating to iOS 9.3, some users have complained that the automatic Sunrise/Sunset option is not available for their devices. It turns out this is not a bug, or limited to certain countries as people suggest. In fact there is a simple fix …
The Night Shift Sunrise and Sunset schedule uses Location Services to determine the timezone of the device, allowing it to calculate the right times to turn the feature on and off. Anything to do with Location Services is controlled by Privacy toggles in Settings. It turns out that some iOS users had turned off the ‘Setting Time Zone’ permission before updating to iOS 9.3, which means the Sunrise/Sunset feature is not possible and thus does not show in the settings pane. Luckily, it’s simple to re-enable it and gain access to full Night Shift functionality in iOS 9.3
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Privacy.
- Tap Location Services.
- Scroll down and tap System Services.
- Find the toggle for ‘Setting Time Zone’. Enable it if it is disabled.
- Return to Night Shift settings and the Sunrise/Sunset schedule will now be available!
It’s unfortunate that Night Shift settings do not explain the necessity for the Setting Time Zone option upfront. However, users will be glad to know that getting access to that feature is as simple as flicking a toggle. Here’s a walkthrough by screenshots … if the process needs to be made plainer.
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- Open Privacy in Settings.
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- Scroll down and tap System Services.
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- Find the Setting Time Zone toggle.
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- Flick it to On.
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- You can now select the Sunrise/Sunset Automatic Schedule for Night Shift.
Note that Night Shift will not appear at all for older iOS devices. The feature requires certain hardware — it does not work on every device that runs iOS 9.3. Night Shift is available on iPhone 5s and later, iPad Pro 9.7 or iPad Pro 12.9 inch, iPad Air and later, iPad mini 2 and later, as well as the sixth-generation iPod touch.
Update: We have received some reports that toggling the Setting Time Zone Privacy option does not immediately unlock the Sunrise/Sunset schedule. If this happens to you on a compatible iOS 9.3 device, toggle the Privacy option and then do a hard reboot of the iPhone or iPad. The Sunrise/Sunset schedule should be visible when the device boots back up.
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Didn’t initially show up on my iPad Air 2, but later did.
What I would like to know, and have filed several bug reports on, is the 3D Force Touch action on Settings to show wallpaper as an option. It did the first day I installed the first beta, disappeared, and hasn’t been back yet.
Set Wallpaper was removed from the 3D Touch Quick Actions for Settings in the beta period. It isn’t a bug that it isn’t showing — it’s just not a feature either.
I was wondering about this, thank you. Though I came to find out that right after installing it, the options wasn’t there but automatically appeared some hours later. The location service was already activated when I went to it. Is this tied to a service that automatically refreshes itself at certain intervals?
I should have know better, but wish I would have seen your note about 5S and above before the last paragraph. Mention above the fold maybe?
I agree with other posts here. This article is nice, but I think there is more to the story. I have always had those settings enable, but sunrise/sunset was not an option last night when I updated. It was there this morning, however. I made no changes in settings.
Dont know If it is a bug but as I could not remember where night shift option was in settings I tried to search it within settings and I realized that it does not appear in search results of the app settings
Look under Display and Brightness.
Yes, i ve found it anyways but the thing is that the feature seems not being indexed in the settings app search
With 7 betas you’d think someone would have noticed that.
Thing is, I turned off Setting Time Zone in Location Services because it was CONSTANTLY getting my location, sucking down battery. I don’t know why it keeps needing to check where I am for my time zone.
I know it’s probably down to location services, but it bugs me that Low Battery Mode turns off Night Shift and won’t let you use it.
Is there a way to disable this so-called feature entirely? I really don’t need another icon in Control Center that makes the ones I do use much smaller.
Sorry, you’re going to be overruled by many on your preference here – I’m glad it’s both a feature and on control center, and Apple doesn’t like infinitely customizable settings.
Are only specific models of iOS devices compatible with “Night Shift”?
I ask because I have an iPhone 5 that I use as a multimedia streaming device (TV, news, movies, radio) during the day while at work.
I have had all of the public beta builds of iOS 9.3 installed on this device and have never seen “Night Shift” in the “Control Center” or in “Settings -> Display & Brightness”.
I did this suggested trick to try and get it to appear and it has not made a difference. When I go to “Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> System Services”, “Setting Time Zone” had a grey compass icon and it was turned on. I turned the setting off and shut down the device for over an hour and then turned them both back on. When I turned them both back on compass icon was purple. I then waited 30 minutes to see if “Night Shift” would appear in the two locations and there still was no difference.
Any clues?
Read that last paragraph again before [Update].
I did not originally do a “Hard Reboot”. I have tried a “Hard Reboot” (or as Apple calls it, a “force restart” and there is still has not been a difference.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201559
I checked around for a list of “Night Shift” mode compatible devices and according to RedmondPie.com, my device is not on the list for “Night Shift” mode compatibility.
http://www.redmondpie.com/ios-9.3-night-shift-mode-compatible-iphone-ipad-ipod-touch-devices-list/
compatible devices:
— Sixth-generation iPod touch
— iPhone 5s
— iPhone 6
— iPhone 6 Plus
— iPhone 6s
— iPhone 6s Plus
— iPhone SE
— iPad Air
— iPad Air 2
— iPad mini 2
— iPad mini 3
— iPad mini 4
— 12.9-inch iPad Pro
— 9.7-inch iPad Pro
Thank you!
I don’t really care for the implementation. I don’t mind the idea but I think it should be dependent on background illumination instead of time of day. Or at least have that as an option.
I would like to see the “night shift” for my iMac.
http://9to5mac.com/2016/01/12/night-shift-flux-mac-os-x/ :)
I checked around for a list of “Night Shift” mode compatible devices and found this on RedmondPie.com
http://www.redmondpie.com/ios-9.3-night-shift-mode-compatible-iphone-ipad-ipod-touch-devices-list/
compatible devices:
— Sixth-generation iPod touch
— iPhone 5s
— iPhone 6
— iPhone 6 Plus
— iPhone 6s
— iPhone 6s Plus
— iPhone SE
— iPad Air
— iPad Air 2
— iPad mini 2
— iPad mini 3
— iPad mini 4
— 12.9-inch iPad Pro
— 9.7-inch iPad Pro
I tried toggling this plus doing several reboots and I’m still without the sunrise/sunset option. Can only manually schedule. Running a 6s Plus
Same here, also 6s Plus.
Thank U