Help Menu/Home/Back/Search button backlights have a mind of their own

edstewbob · Nov 20, 2011

The light for these soft buttons turn off and on at will it seems for me with both of our RAZR's. I turned off Automatic brightness which someone in another post said was causing this problem but that didn't change anything. It is quite annoying when the light turns off and I have to guess where the soft keys are located because they are not very easy for me to see when not lit up. Anyone else experiencing this? With the real buttons on my DX it was not a problem at all of course but with these soft touch buttons that are not clearly visible and I think they should stay lit whenever the screen is turned on. Anyone else having this issue or found a solution?

edstewbob · Nov 20, 2011

I discovered that these lights are controlled by the ambient light sensor located near the earpiece. There is a setting to control screen brightness based upon ambient light but no setting to control the backlight of these buttons. I placed a piece of paper across the top of the screen above the display area and the button lights came on. Whenever the phone believes there is enough ambient light to see the buttons the light turns off. When viewing the phone in a darkened room the lights always remain on.

I called VZW and they were not aware of this issue and said they would open an issue with Motorola. There should be a way to allow control of the sensitivity of these lights when the ambient light is not bright enough to see these soft buttons.

Arshads · Dec 23, 2011

I am having the same issue in my motorola droid razr. Did you have any luck in this issue please?

foganime · Mar 1, 2012

This annoyed me so much I ended up scotch-taping a black piece of paper over the light sensor. It's a pretty lame fix to have to perform on my new RAZR MAXX phone.

This should have been fixed in software with the last Verizon OTA update. Either leave the button backlight always ON or OFF. Forget having it being fed by the light sensor, which generates a stupid strobe light show out of the capactive buttons all day long. :mad:

tyuan · Mar 8, 2012

this too was driving me crazy.
i was poking around with the display brightness and turned it to automatic, found i didn't like it, then tuned it back off and then adjusted the brightness up a notch. wahoo the menu lights stay on as long as the display regardless of the ambient light

bulldog69 · Mar 8, 2012

tyuan said:
this too was driving me crazy.
i was poking around with the display brightness and turned it to automatic, found i didn't like it, then tuned it back off and then adjusted the brightness up a notch. wahoo the menu lights stay on as long as the display regardless of the ambient light

Cant believe that works because from the get go I turned up my brightness and the menu lights still go off. Was at a workshop at VZW yesterday and the two instructors which are salesmen had Razr's too and said nothing you can do about it and that when menu lights are out you can still see icons, well BS it depends on how much light in room. Just not right, Motorola should fix this and I dont want to hear it saves battery, come on it's not like the whole screen is lit up

edstewbob · Apr 19, 2012

I hope they fix this with the upcoming OTA. Other than the lousy battery life this is the most annoying thing about my RAZR because I can't see the soft buttons well unless the ambient light is very bright. The brighter the screen the more difficult it is to see them. Give me an option.

ivanne · May 4, 2012

tyuan said:
this too was driving me crazy.
i was poking around with the display brightness and turned it to automatic, found i didn't like it, then tuned it back off and then adjusted the brightness up a notch. wahoo the menu lights stay on as long as the display regardless of the ambient light

so in order for my soft keys to stay lit up when i am using my razr maxx i should turn my brightness up all the way up minus a notch or all the way down plus a notch. i cant figure it out and this is bothering me so bad. very close to returning the phone. :mad:

cbreze · May 4, 2012

No question about this being annoying. I have since learned to touch the right spot for my keypresses tho. Not much of an issue anymore for me.

wxman2003 · May 4, 2012

I actually like it. When in a dark room the soft keys light up. When in brighter room they do not and I can see the soft keys. Seems to be working the way it is designed.

TheManWithAPlan · May 7, 2012

ivanne said:
so in order for my soft keys to stay lit up when i am using my razr maxx i should turn my brightness up all the way up minus a notch or all the way down plus a notch. i cant figure it out and this is bothering me so bad. very close to returning the phone.

im pretty sure theres a setting that can be placed in the build.prop file which would allow the lights to remain on..

Help Menu/Home/Back/Search button backlights have a mind of their own

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