Your external monitors have a brightness control. macOS never uses it.
A Mac's brightness keys change only the built‑in display. Macdials changes your other monitors' own brightness, contrast and volume over the display cable (a standard called DDC/CI), from the menu bar and your keyboard's keys.
Each screen has its own sliders Drag or click a slider · scroll · arrow keys · ⇧ for fine steps
A built‑in screen has brightness only. The Mac's sound has its own slider.
The ultrawide is responding. Brightness, contrast and volume change the monitor itself.
The box that appears is Macdials' own on-screen display, on the screen you're changing.
Switch a monitor's DDC/CI to Off to see what Macdials does when a monitor stops responding.
When a monitor won't respond, Macdials tells you
If a monitor ignores brightness commands, Macdials says which one and what to check on that brand.
It doesn't quietly darken the picture in software instead. That leaves the backlight as bright as before and turns shadows murky, so brightness control just looks broken. Software dimming is there if you want it, switched on per screen.
What usually fixes it
Macdials names the settings for your brand of monitor.
- In the monitor's own menu, turn DDC/CI on, if it has that setting.
- Turn off modes that take over the backlight, such as Energy Saving, Auto Brightness or Uniformity.
- Connect with USB‑C, Thunderbolt or DisplayPort. The HDMI port on some Apple Silicon Macs doesn't carry these commands, and many docks and DisplayLink adapters don't pass them through.
What it does
Brightness, contrast and volume
Changes the monitor's own backlight, contrast and speakers, not a filter over the picture. The built‑in screen, Apple displays and the Mac's own sound are in the same menu, and in Settings.
Your keyboard's keys
The brightness keys change the screen under the pointer and show the level on it. The volume keys change a monitor's own speakers when the Mac is playing through them, and otherwise stay the Mac's. Hold ⇧⌥ for smaller steps. ⌃⌥⌘D switches the whole Mac between light and dark.
Every screen in step
Switch on Keep displays at the same brightness and one change moves them all, including a change to the built‑in from Control Center or the Touch Bar.
Presets and schedules
Save every screen's levels and the Mac's volume as Day, Evening, Night or your own, edit them any time, and switch in one click, at a set time, or at sunrise and sunset. No location permission: you type your latitude and longitude once.
Each monitor keeps its settings
Settings belong to the monitor, not the port, so a replug or another dock port keeps them, and two identical monitors are kept apart. After sleep or a replug, Macdials puts back any monitor that reset itself.
Private and quiet
No analytics and no account, and the license works offline. Nothing polls your monitors: Macdials talks to one when you change something, a schedule runs, or it wakes or is plugged in.
Price
One payment, not a subscription. A direct download, notarized by Apple, that updates itself.
One time
Covers every Mac signed in to your Apple Account, and every monitor you plug into them.
When the 14-day trial ends, the controls pause until you buy, and your monitors stay as they are.
Get Macdials
Try it free for 14 days, then buy it once.
No account and nothing to cancel. Sold by High5 Labs LLC through Paddle; your license key arrives by email.
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