Phone dark mode and CarPlay
Quote from Atticuscat on 20.09.2025, 14:02I no longer do a great deal of riding at night and typically when I do I approach it from already riding in daylight. I find I need to switch the phone to dark mode before it automatically triggers with sunset, especially when using a high mounted CarPlay unit otherwise it’s like trying to see along a dark corridor from a brightly lit room, so I do this manually. (I have a dark mode toggle on the Control Centre accessible from swiping down the top right of the phone screen.) I vaguely recall the phone screen needs to be turned off and on again for any dark/light mode change to take effect and that is my experience with Scenic (and Google Maps) on the phone if it’s running over the sunset period or a manual change. I have Scenic Navigation Appearance set to “Sunset <-> Sunrise” and General Appearance set to Light, and this all works fine when just using the phone.
On CarPlay (mine’s a Carpuride W702) a change to dark mode on my phone doesn’t trigger the change on the CarPlay immediately, or even for several minutes. It does do it eventually but I haven’t figured out what combination of fiddling (turning CarPlay off and on, turning phone off and on, both, killing Scenic and restarting, or just that sufficient time has passed that sunset has actually occurred ) makes it happen. I’ve just tried it now (it’s well past sunset) and when selecting Scenic on CarPlay it comes up straight away in dark mode.
Is there a secret to getting this to work at my command? I note that Scenic doesn’t take notice if I set the Control Centre toggle to light mode and start a ride after sunset. Do I need to go to Scenic settings and change Navigation Appearance to Dark. (Which then needs resetting for my next daylight ride.)
V4.24, iPhone X iOS 16.7.1, Carpuride W702
I no longer do a great deal of riding at night and typically when I do I approach it from already riding in daylight. I find I need to switch the phone to dark mode before it automatically triggers with sunset, especially when using a high mounted CarPlay unit otherwise it’s like trying to see along a dark corridor from a brightly lit room, so I do this manually. (I have a dark mode toggle on the Control Centre accessible from swiping down the top right of the phone screen.) I vaguely recall the phone screen needs to be turned off and on again for any dark/light mode change to take effect and that is my experience with Scenic (and Google Maps) on the phone if it’s running over the sunset period or a manual change. I have Scenic Navigation Appearance set to “Sunset <-> Sunrise” and General Appearance set to Light, and this all works fine when just using the phone.
On CarPlay (mine’s a Carpuride W702) a change to dark mode on my phone doesn’t trigger the change on the CarPlay immediately, or even for several minutes. It does do it eventually but I haven’t figured out what combination of fiddling (turning CarPlay off and on, turning phone off and on, both, killing Scenic and restarting, or just that sufficient time has passed that sunset has actually occurred ) makes it happen. I’ve just tried it now (it’s well past sunset) and when selecting Scenic on CarPlay it comes up straight away in dark mode.
Is there a secret to getting this to work at my command? I note that Scenic doesn’t take notice if I set the Control Centre toggle to light mode and start a ride after sunset. Do I need to go to Scenic settings and change Navigation Appearance to Dark. (Which then needs resetting for my next daylight ride.)
V4.24, iPhone X iOS 16.7.1, Carpuride W702
Quote from Atticuscat on 21.09.2025, 01:21Some observations now the sun is up… Scenic doesn’t pay any attention to the phone light/dark mode setting, so if I put my phone in dark mode and have Scenic Navigation Appearance set to “Sunset <-> Sunrise” Scenic will remain ‘light’ until the sun goes down. It would be nice if Scenic took notice of the global phone instruction to enter dark mode, a simple swipe and tap in the control centre is easier than moving through Scenic’s menus to set dark, which will then need settings back to ‘lights, and I don’t see how to access the settings menu while tracking is in progress. Also, as I note in my original post, waiting until the sun goes down is too late (for me at least, and I imagine many others with aging eyes).
None of this addresses why my Carpuride CarPlay doesn’t react to Scenic going to ‘dark’ for many minutes. If I switch to the Apple Music app, for instance, that shows in dark mode on the CarPlay and opening Scenic on my phone at that moment shows Scenic in ‘dark’. Going back to Scenic on CarPlay and it’s ‘light’. I ride on and a few minutes later Scenic on CarPlay spontaneous changes to ‘dark’.
Any ideas folks?
Some observations now the sun is up… Scenic doesn’t pay any attention to the phone light/dark mode setting, so if I put my phone in dark mode and have Scenic Navigation Appearance set to “Sunset <-> Sunrise” Scenic will remain ‘light’ until the sun goes down. It would be nice if Scenic took notice of the global phone instruction to enter dark mode, a simple swipe and tap in the control centre is easier than moving through Scenic’s menus to set dark, which will then need settings back to ‘lights, and I don’t see how to access the settings menu while tracking is in progress. Also, as I note in my original post, waiting until the sun goes down is too late (for me at least, and I imagine many others with aging eyes).
None of this addresses why my Carpuride CarPlay doesn’t react to Scenic going to ‘dark’ for many minutes. If I switch to the Apple Music app, for instance, that shows in dark mode on the CarPlay and opening Scenic on my phone at that moment shows Scenic in ‘dark’. Going back to Scenic on CarPlay and it’s ‘light’. I ride on and a few minutes later Scenic on CarPlay spontaneous changes to ‘dark’.
Any ideas folks?
Quote from Atticuscat on 21.09.2025, 02:13Appearance and Colours - General Appearance - ‘System’ and Scenic responds to the Control Centre toggle. But the Navigation setting Sunset <-> Sunrise overrides it and therefore doesn’t respond to the Control Centre toggle when navigating/tracking. And the CarPlay still doesn’t respond 🙁
I love how configurable Scenic is and at the same time hate how configurable it is!
Appearance and Colours - General Appearance - ‘System’ and Scenic responds to the Control Centre toggle. But the Navigation setting Sunset <-> Sunrise overrides it and therefore doesn’t respond to the Control Centre toggle when navigating/tracking. And the CarPlay still doesn’t respond 🙁
I love how configurable Scenic is and at the same time hate how configurable it is!
Quote from Guido on 21.09.2025, 07:53None of these settings apply when connected to CarPlay. Scenic will take the appearance that the CarPlay system is in. Some CarPlay systems switch between dark and light mode automatically based on ambient light, or based on if the vehicle lights are turned on, etc.
There are quite some other forum posts about this same topic.
Ive noticed that iOS26 is still a bit buggy around this. Also with other navigation apps like Waze and Google Maps.
None of these settings apply when connected to CarPlay. Scenic will take the appearance that the CarPlay system is in. Some CarPlay systems switch between dark and light mode automatically based on ambient light, or based on if the vehicle lights are turned on, etc.
There are quite some other forum posts about this same topic.
Ive noticed that iOS26 is still a bit buggy around this. Also with other navigation apps like Waze and Google Maps.
Quote from Atticuscat on 21.09.2025, 13:11Quote from Guido on 21.09.2025, 07:53None of these settings apply when connected to CarPlay. Scenic will take the appearance that the CarPlay system is in. Some CarPlay systems switch between dark and light mode automatically based on ambient light, or based on if the vehicle lights are turned on, etc
Thanks Guido. I’m not sure how my Carpuride works in this regard, it clearly can recognise darkness but seems very (very very) slow to respond. I’ll try a bit of tape over the light sensor and see what happens.
Quote from Guido on 21.09.2025, 07:53None of these settings apply when connected to CarPlay. Scenic will take the appearance that the CarPlay system is in. Some CarPlay systems switch between dark and light mode automatically based on ambient light, or based on if the vehicle lights are turned on, etc
Thanks Guido. I’m not sure how my Carpuride works in this regard, it clearly can recognise darkness but seems very (very very) slow to respond. I’ll try a bit of tape over the light sensor and see what happens.
