Brightness setting with BTT for an external monitor is broken

Bugs or Unexpected Behavior
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1

Describe the bug
I wanted to adjust the brightness for an external monitor. Therefore I installed MonitorControl.

When I found out that BTT can also set the brightness of an external monitor,
I uninstalled MonitorControl, unfortunately I can't set the brightness of the external monitor with BTT alone now.

I can only adjust the brightness with BTT if MonitorControl is also installed.

Another bug: with MonitorControl, the buttons on the Touch Bar are swapped for the internal and external monitor with BTT.

What steps do I need to take to set the brightness for the external monitor with BTT only?

Affected input device (e.g. MacBook Trackpad, Magic Mouse/Trackpad, Touch Bar, etc.):
Touch Bar

Screenshots

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Device information:

  • Type of Mac: MacBook Pro (15, 2019, 555X)
  • macOS version: 11.2.3
  • Monitor: 34WK95U-W
  • BetterTouchTool version: 3.560 (1700)
  • MonitorControl: 2.1.0 (Build 721)
2

BTT can only work with monitors that support the standard macOS brightness control. Many do not.

MonitorControl works on a lower level and talks directly to the display, thus this will still be needed for display that do not support the macOS brightness control.

3

That was really very fast.
Thank you for this information!

4

Hi,
Can we put / consider this thread as Feature Request then? :upside_down_face:

Volume and brightness are very frequently used features,
not just on-the go, but depending on content, weather and mood.

Would be nice to have a working solution for all monitors. SourceCode is there and licensed for CommercialUse, it seems

Plus / bonus - ability to adjust it via scroll action, not a rotation workaround (feature-requested for Sound Volume).

5

A better alternative to Monitor Contol is Lunar
That's what I use, And it works great for me!
Supports DCC [Changing the screen's brightness, not just adding a dark overlay]

1 Like
6

Thanks for sharing, MonitorControl is using dimming overlay, hence could not increase brightness when needed.
And other DCC cmd tools were not working for me for some reason.
Lunar Pro got so much more, that I am going to get it by end of trial (completely turning built-in monitor alone is long time dream).

But for the sake of BTT, MIT licensed source-code is also there GitHub - alin23/Lunar: Intelligent adaptive brightness for your external monitors
Little sharing and referring would be beneficial for both?

PS looking forward to automate PRO features and brightness control via CLI tools of Lunar.
PPS there is another brightness control app (from same guys?) that does it via Gamma change, could that be even better ? Gamma Dimmer - Dim any screen brightness

7

Lunar Got some interesting Shortcuts actions that you can use.

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You can Create shortcuts and add them as actions on BTT!

8

Personally I have been using BetterDisplay and I'm so happy with it. It has some great features, but currently it is missing scriptability. So maybe the lunar shortcuts are the best option for now, they should work just fine with BTT.

I'm not so much interested in implementing this myself, it is a very complex topic and I don't have any expertise with DCC

1 Like
9

One problem I have is when using the monitor via USB-C Hub, DCC doesn't work and I'm left with the sub-zero overlay on Lunar.
It only works when connected directly via HDMI.

10

Weird, is that maybe a problem with the USB-C hub? I don't have such a problem with my docking station.

11

I think that's the problem!

Tested BetterDisplay, it's a great piece of software.
Lunar still lets you sync the brightness of the 2 displays, and change them all at once.
Apparently, BetterDisplay Does too! So the only difference is The Shortcuts Actions.