Hey! Let’s troubleshoot your Motorola phone screen brightness not working in a safe, controlled way — no “nuke it with a factory reset” and no random toggles that make it harder to undo later.

When people say “brightness isn’t working,” it usually means one of these (and the checks are different):

1) Brightness slider doesn’t change anything: the screen stays dim or stays bright even when you drag the slider.
2) Auto brightness / Adaptive brightness is acting weird: it jumps around, keeps dimming by itself, or won’t brighten in sunlight.
3) A separate dimming feature is active: Extra dim, Bedtime mode, or an accessibility display toggle can override what you expect the slider to do.
4) Power limits: Battery Saver or a power mode can cap brightness, especially when the battery is low (similar to how charging behavior changes when power is limited — if you’ve also seen charging very slowly, it can be part of the same “power management” story).
5) App overlays: a “screen dimmer,” “night filter,” parental control, or any app that draws over the screen can make everything look dim and ignore your slider.
6) Hardware/sensor issue: the ambient light sensor is blocked (case/screen protector/dirt), or less commonly, failing.

Quick questions so we pick the right path (and don’t break your normal settings):
• What model is it (Moto G / Edge / Razr) and about what Android version?
• Which symptom matches best: slider not responding, auto brightness not working, or brightness keeps resetting?
• Did it start after an update, after adding a screen protector, or after installing an app (dimmer, launcher, parental controls)?
• Is the phone also getting hot, draining fast, or rebooting? (Sometimes related issues show up together like battery draining overnight.)

Give me those details and we’ll do the safest checks first.

That timing is a big clue. On a lot of Motorola phones, the ambient light sensor area is near the top front, and a screen protector (or even a case lip) can partially cover it. If the sensor “thinks” you’re in a dark room, the phone may keep the screen dim even when you drag the slider — especially if Adaptive brightness is still enabled behind the scenes.

Safe Step 1 — Confirm whether the phone is “fighting” your slider
Without changing a bunch of settings, do two quick observations and tell me what happens:
1) Go into a bright area (near a window or outside shade) and then cover the top of the phone with your hand for 5–10 seconds. Does the screen change brightness by itself?
2) Pull down Quick Settings and drag the brightness slider from low to high. Do you see any change, even tiny, or truly none?

If the display reacts when you cover/uncover the top, that strongly points to sensor/auto brightness behavior (not a broken screen). If it never changes at all, we consider power caps, overlays, or a display driver issue next.

Great test — that means the phone is reading the light sensor, so we’re likely dealing with a brightness control / sensor calibration / dimming feature situation, not “the screen is dead.” The “almost unreadable at night” part makes me think of a second layer too: Extra dim (an accessibility feature) or a bedtime routine can push brightness below the normal minimum, so the slider feels useless.

Safe Step 2 — Look for “Extra dim” or a dimming shortcut
Don’t hunt deep menus yet. Just check your Quick Settings panel for anything like:
• Extra dim
• Bedtime / Sleep mode affecting display
• Night display / color filter apps (sometimes bundled with launchers)

If you spot “Extra dim,” don’t toggle it yet — just tell me if it’s present and whether it looks enabled. (People often enable it once and forget; it’s meant for very dark rooms.) Google also treats it as an accessibility display feature, so it can show up in shortcuts.

That explains the “too dark at night” almost perfectly — Extra dim can make it feel like the brightness slider isn’t doing much because the system is intentionally reducing output beyond the usual minimum.

But you also said it started after a screen protector, and your sensor reacts to cover/uncover — so we may have two things happening:
1) Extra dim making nighttime unreadable, and
2) Adaptive brightness acting conservative because the sensor area is partially blocked or smudged.

Safe Step 3 — Physical checks first (no settings risk)
Before changing any toggles, do the simplest “no-regrets” checks:
• Wipe the top front area of the protector with a microfiber cloth (fingerprint film can scatter light and confuse sensors).
• If you can, temporarily lift/remove the protector just enough to test (or swap to a protector with correct cutouts).
• If you use a thick case, test once without it (some cases create a shadow right where sensors sit).

After that, tell me if the phone brightens more naturally in a bright room. This keeps your normal preferences intact while we confirm whether the protector is the trigger.

Yep — Battery Saver (and some “power saving” modes) can reduce or cap brightness. It doesn’t usually break the slider completely, but it can make your “max” feel like 60–70% of what you’re used to. If the phone is also limiting background activity, you might notice other odd behavior too (like confusing permission pop-ups — if that’s happening, this guide on consent screens can be related to system settings changes).

Safe Step 4 — Separate “power cap” from “sensor cap”
Here’s the logic test (again, no deep menu instructions needed):
• If the phone is dim even with Battery Saver off and in bright light, it points more to sensor/protector/overlay.
• If it’s only dim when battery is low or Battery Saver is on, that’s power management behavior.

Since you already found Extra dim, the clean diagnosis is: check one factor at a time and observe. The reason I’m careful: if you flip multiple toggles fast (Extra dim + Adaptive brightness + Battery Saver), it becomes impossible to tell which one mattered.

Absolutely possible. Many “night screen” or “dimmer” apps use an overlay (they draw a filter on top of everything). That can make the phone appear dim even when system brightness is high — and it can also make auto brightness feel broken because the overlay doesn’t follow the system slider in a normal way.

Safe Step 5 — Overlay/app influence test (without uninstalling yet)
The most reliable, low-drama test is Safe Mode on Motorola. In Safe Mode, downloaded apps are disabled, so you can see whether a third-party dimmer/filter is the cause. I’m not going to give a dozen button combos here because Moto models vary, but the idea is simple: boot into Safe Mode, then check whether brightness control behaves normally.

If Safe Mode fixes it, you don’t need to guess — you can remove recently installed or display-related apps one by one (the same “one change at a time” method we use for other weird symptoms like camera black screen issues). If Safe Mode does not change anything, we focus on system settings + sensor/protector next.

Not necessarily damaged. A sensor can be perfectly fine but still “see” the wrong thing because of:
• a protector without the right cutout / black border shading the sensor area,
• a smudge or micro-scratches diffusing light,
• a case lip casting a shadow,
• or a dimming feature (Extra dim / bedtime / overlay app) lowering output.

Safe Step 6 — “Sunlight reality check”
Motorola phones often boost brightness outdoors when auto/adaptive behavior is working correctly. If you’re not seeing that boost, we’re looking for what’s limiting it:
• Power limits (low battery / Battery Saver)
• Sensor confusion (protector/case/smudges)
• Overlays (night filter apps)
• Thermal limits (if the phone is hot, it may limit brightness to protect itself)

Hardware red flags would be different: flicker, sudden brightness pulsing with no setting changes, or the screen not responding to brightness even in Safe Mode with adaptive features off. If you’re not seeing those, it’s more likely a settings/interaction problem than a failing display.

The safest order is: document → isolate → test (so you can always return to your preferred setup). Here’s the low-risk sequence I’d use on a Moto G / Edge when the brightness slider isn’t working:

1) Note what’s enabled (just observe): Extra dim present/enabled, Battery Saver enabled, Adaptive brightness enabled, any night filter app running.
2) Do physical checks: clean the top sensor area, and test once without the case (and if possible, test the protector impact).
3) Run a Safe Mode test: if brightness behaves normally in Safe Mode, it’s almost certainly an app overlay/filter conflict.

If you tell me what you see after those observations (even a short list like “Extra dim on, Battery Saver off, protector new, Safe Mode improved/no change”), I can narrow it down without you toggling 10 things blindly — and without turning your phone into a different phone.