iPhone 15 Pro screen brightness issue after iOS 26 update

Update: I have disabled the auto brightness and the problem is no longer happening, however, I still want a fix to turn the auto brightness back on.

Same here on my 15Pro.. Actually opening a picture that has HDR in the Photos app also fixes the issue. No need to open instagram at all. This problem seems to be HDR-related.

Toggling off and on Auto Brightness (Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Auto-Brightness) has fixed this for me.

I don't want to jinx it, but I updated my phone to iOS 26.1 today and so far I haven't had any brightness issues during unlock tonight.

yes, as already written in the thread, the problem is the widgets, just remove them from the lock screen and it's solved

Can confirm, if you disable the widgets on the lockscreen the issue does not appear.

If you reenable them, the issue is there again!

for me the fix was turning off the Liquid Glass setting on the wallpaper clock hope this helps.

Sanski30 wrote:

for me the fix was turning off the Liquid Glass setting on the wallpaper clock hope this helps.

This works for me too! Thanks! Glass effects seem to be glitchy all over the system

iPhone 15 Pro screen brightness issue after iOS 26 update

deleted widgets and it’s still doing it for me!