U2725QE auto-brightness stuck to 3%

@misapisa​ Get in touch with support. You need to be persistent and dismiss any of their excuses. That usually leads to being offered a replacement. They only ship refurbished devices though. And it can happen that they claim you will receive the previous firmware installed (where the sensor still works), but they do actually ship the latest buggy firmware.

On Monday, contact Dell GHN (Get Help Now) chat technical support. Click the blue "Get Help Now" on the right to start a private live chat session. Share the private Service Tag with them so that they can verify the ownership and warranty. Also share the link to this Forum thread.

I thought if Auto Brightness was turned On, then the default Brightness and Contrast were not usable?



You would then use the Auto Brightness Range Level =



* Open the Menu--> Others
* Run Factory Reset
* Go back to Brightness/Contrast
* Go to Auto Brightness
* Make sure it is On
* Go to Auto Brightness Range Level
* Test all (Low/Medium/High)

@DELL-ChrisM2​ I did exactly that. Auto Brightness Range Level is not helping. On High, it boost the brightness very little. You can get it to 9% brightness max under bright room lighting conditions. BUT, I did indeed found a workaround: Take a very bright flashlight and directly point it towards the sensor. That usually gives higher brightness levels. There is just one downside: Auto brightness is still completely useless and you could just as well set the brightness manually and spare the flashlight batteries.

I also have contacted support multiple times. Usually they tried to just gaslight me, and claim that I am imagining the issue and everything works perfectly. If you are lucky one can get them to send a refurbished display - but one can only hope that it has the previous firmware version installed. In my case they shipped the same latest buggy firmware version, which does not help. But the best one, was the guy who sent me the same buggy firmware version to install, but told me it is a new one which has been fixed, but it still has the old version number. Bad luck, I compared both and they were identical bit by bit. 

What likely happened:

The previous firmware version had an issue where under low lighting conditions, the sensor would be too sensitive and would constantly change the brightness. The latest firmware tried to address that, but by doing so, they made the brightness sensor less sensitive and now it basically only works if you point a flashlight at it. 

What Actually would help:

1. Fix your support team. They are rude, provide misinformation and gaslight customers. 

2. Fix the QA process. A buggy firmware shouldn't have shipped in first place

3. Fix the firmware. The problem is known for 6 months, but you simply can't be bothered to care. This one is actually the worst. Bugs happen - but denying to address those bugs is unacceptable - especially given that the firmware is closed source. We likely would have a solution by now if people simply could check out the source and fix the issue themselves. For heavens sake, point a Claude Code instance at it. The result certainly won't be worse than what we currently have - and it likely takes less than an hour to find out what is wrong.  

Also, please take a look at this thread, which already has all the needed details: https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/monitors/u2725qe-m2t102-auto-brightness-dims-to-3/691ebc5d6d447d39bff092bb

@DELL-ChrisM2​ Hi Chris

When auto-brightness is turned on brightness and contrast can still be seen in percentage terms but not edited.

The moment I turn auto brightness on the brightness rolls own to 3% irrespective of time of day.

Also I tried factory reset and tested low/med/high and it did nothing.

@misapisa​ There is nothing you can do to resolve this, other than a new firmware upgrade (which currently is not available - and from what support has told me, this isn't currently being worked on and there is no ETA). The only thing you can do is open as many support requests as possible, so that this hopefully gets prioritised higher.

@William son​ The cause is a bug in the firmware that is known for at least 6 months. Yet, the people at dell simply can't be bothered to fix it. No amount of power cycling or menu adjustments will fix this. Once you are on the latest firmware, you only have two options: Disable auto brightness and live with it or contact support - if enough people are opening cases, they might finally address the issue (if we are lucky).

@s-h​ Thanks for the update. That definitely explains why the usual troubleshooting steps don't make any difference. It's disappointing that a firmware bug affecting a key feature like auto brightness has gone unresolved for so long. I agree that contacting Dell Support is still worth doing, even if there's no immediate fix. The more users who report the problem, the more likely it is that Dell will recognize how widespread the issue is and prioritize a firmware update.

That definitely doesn't sound like normal behavior. The ambient light sensor should adjust the brightness gradually based on the lighting in your room, not stay fixed at 3%.

A few things I'd recommend checking:

• Reset the monitor to Factory Settings from the OSD menu.

• Make sure Ambient Light Sensor/Auto Brightness is enabled in the monitor settings.

• Test in both a very bright room (or shine a flashlight near the sensor) and a dark room to see if the brightness changes at all.

• Disconnect Dell Display Manager or any third-party display control software temporarily to rule out a software conflict.

• If possible, test the monitor with another PC or another video cable (DisplayPort/HDMI/Thunderbolt) to see whether the behavior is the same.

If the brightness remains locked at 3% even after a factory reset and with the latest firmware (M2T102) installed, it could indicate a problem with the ambient light sensor or the monitor firmware itself.

Since the monitor is brand new, I'd recommend contacting Dell Support for a hardware evaluation or replacement if the issue persists. Mention that you've already updated to firmware M2T102 and that the auto-brightness never changes from 3%, regardless of ambient lighting, as that will help speed up the troubleshooting process.

@alexisethan​ Please read the other answers before posting. The cause is a bug in the firmware that is known for over 6 months. You are only making things more difficult for everyone by posting generic troubleshooting steps.