topic Re: Light sensor not working in ZenFone 8

Light sensor not working

andreaemonti — Sat, 13 Aug 2022 18:28:59 GMT

Hi everybody,
the light sensor of my Zenfone 8 is not working.
I noticed it because when I have adaptive brigthness ON, as soon as I lock and unlock the device, the screen gets very dim (the slider is still up, and as soon as I move it, the brightness kicks up again).
Later I tried some apps that let you read your sensors measurements. I saw that every app can read every sensor, but the light sensor, which does not give any value at all (some app shows 0 or -1, because I guess that's how the variable is initialized in the app).
Is it a hardware problem? Is it common for just the light sensor to break?
Can it be a kernel/driver/firmware/software problem? I noticed this issue after a few weeks I updated to Android 12 in July (waited long because I was not sure about the big android 12 UI...) and subsequently did all the following updates. Is there any way to detect if the problem is software with something lower level than app, like adb, and maybe solve it without sending the phone to warranty?
Thank you!

Re: Light sensor not working

Ronzky321 — Sun, 14 Aug 2022 01:10:32 GMT

AFAIK this phone can be buggy if you don't do a factory reset after updating from A11 to A12.

Re: Light sensor not working

keren_ASUS — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 16:26:35 GMT

Hi @andreaemonti
We're so sorry to hear of the issues you're facing with your ZenFone. Please try Ronzky321's suggestion, and reset your device.
Thank you!

Re: Light sensor not working

Alex_s — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 04:50:03 GMT

@andreaemonti I've noticed the exact same issue. Only a restart does fix the issue.

Re: Light sensor not working

cicagorio — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 05:46:21 GMT

Had the same issue here, it is gone now but I am not sure what fixed it though. It was super annoying. Brightness would drop to where I can't see at all then I manually set it to bright. Next time it would be the same issue. I have not reset my phone when I upgraded to Android 12 (and I don't plan to). Android 13 is coming soonish so I will hold out for that as I hate having to set up all of my banking and other security apps again (given that I need to get physical letters with codes to activate them)

Re: Light sensor not working

andreaemonti — Sun, 21 Aug 2022 15:06:46 GMT

Thank you everyone. I was already preparing for the factory reset, but then tried to restart the phone, and the sensor is now working again.
I'm sorry, I feel so dumb. I thought I've already tried shutting off and on, but apparently not. Let's see if the issue comes back or not.
Thank you for the support!

Re: Light sensor not working

DiegoMr — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 13:26:05 GMT

I have the same problem, but i can't make a factory reset bc of all the the 2FA i have installed

Re: Light sensor not working

atanasuzunov — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 07:03:13 GMT

For me this issue triggers when watching full-screen video (EON TV) in landscape position and answer a call. Only restart fixes it.
ASUS told me that they cannot reproduce it.

Re: Light sensor not working

Timo_Vos — Fri, 25 Nov 2022 12:19:47 GMT

I'm having similar issues. First time reboot did not solve. Second time reboot did. Annoying.
Unfortunately, after a while, the light sensor stops working.

Re: Light sensor not working

ASUS_Bot — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 17:55:23 GMT

Thread automatically closed due to inactivity. If the reported issue has not been resolved or you require further assistance from one of our moderators, please create a new thread and we will be with you shortly.