How to Use True Tone and Night Shift Together on Mac

What is True Tone and how does it work on Mac?

True Tone is Apple's ambient light sensing technology, introduced on Mac with the 2018 MacBook Pro. It uses multi-channel sensors to measure the colour temperature and intensity of the light in your room, then continuously adjusts the display's white point to match. The result is that white looks like white whether you are sitting under warm incandescent lighting, cool office fluorescents, or natural daylight.

The adjustment is real-time and automatic. When you move from a bright window to a dim corner of a room, True Tone recalibrates your display within seconds. According to Apple's display specifications, True Tone can compensate for colour temperature variance of up to 500K under changing lighting conditions, keeping perceived white balance consistent throughout a typical day.

True Tone is available on the following Mac models:

• MacBook Pro - 2018 and later
• MacBook Air - 2018 and later
• iMac - 2021 and later (24-inch M1 and later)
• Mac mini - 2023 and later, when connected to an Apple Studio Display
• Mac Pro - when connected to an Apple Pro Display XDR or Apple Studio Display

Older Mac models, external non-Apple displays, and Macs connected to third-party monitors do not support True Tone regardless of macOS version.

What is Night Shift and how does it differ from True Tone?

Night Shift is a scheduled display feature introduced in macOS Sierra 10.12.4. It shifts your display's colour output towards the warmer end of the spectrum after sunset, reducing blue light output. The maximum warmth Night Shift can achieve is approximately 3200K, compared to a typical daylight display temperature of 6500K. That is a reduction of over 3000K in correlated colour temperature.

Research from Harvard Medical School found that blue light at 6500K suppresses melatonin production for approximately twice as long as light in the green spectrum, and can shift circadian rhythms by up to three hours. Night Shift is Apple's built-in response to this problem.

The key difference between True Tone and Night Shift is the axis of adjustment:

• True Tone adapts to your environment in real time - it responds to what the room looks like and adjusts the display to match, ensuring perceptual consistency
• Night Shift applies a fixed warm shift on a time-based schedule - it does not respond to the environment, only to the clock

Because they operate on completely different axes - one environmental and continuous, one temporal and fixed - there is no conflict between them. True Tone is active all day. Night Shift activates at sunset and deactivates at sunrise. Both affect how your display renders colour, but through separate mechanisms that layer cleanly on top of each other.

Can True Tone and Night Shift be on at the same time?

Yes. True Tone and Night Shift are fully compatible and can be active simultaneously. Apple designed them to be complementary, not exclusive. When both are enabled, True Tone handles ambient colour matching throughout the day while Night Shift adds its warm shift in the evening on top of whatever True Tone is doing.

The combined effect provides better visual comfort than either feature alone:

• During the day, True Tone ensures your display looks accurate under changing office or home lighting
• In the evening, Night Shift reduces blue light while True Tone continues adapting to your room's warmer artificial lighting
• The combined warm bias in the evening - from both Night Shift and warm room lighting being picked up by True Tone - creates a noticeably comfortable display environment for reading or relaxing

Here is how to enable both features together:

1. Open the Apple menu and select System Settings, then click Displays in the sidebar
2. Check the True Tone checkbox to enable ambient colour adaptation (this only appears on supported Mac models)
3. Click the Night Shift button at the bottom of the Displays panel
4. In the Schedule dropdown, select Sunset to Sunrise for automatic daily scheduling, or Custom to set your own hours
5. Drag the Colour Temperature slider towards More Warm to set your preferred blue light reduction level
6. Both features are now active simultaneously - no further configuration is required

When should you turn off True Tone?

True Tone is excellent for everyday computing, but it is not appropriate for every task. The same property that makes it comfortable - shifting the display's white point to match the room - is exactly what makes it problematic for professional colour work.

Turn True Tone off when:

• Photo editing - True Tone changes how colours appear on screen relative to a neutral reference. When editing photos, you need the display to show a standardised, predictable output so that your adjustments translate correctly to prints or other screens
• Video colour grading - the same logic applies. Colour grades are calibrated against a neutral reference white. True Tone shifts that reference dynamically
• Print proofing - matching display output to expected print output requires a calibrated, stable display white point, not one that adjusts to room light
• Display calibration - always disable True Tone before running a display calibration profile. Calibrating with True Tone active produces a profile that only reflects one lighting condition

To disable True Tone temporarily, go to System Settings › Displays and uncheck the True Tone checkbox. You can re-enable it when returning to non-colour-critical work. Night Shift continues operating independently whether True Tone is on or off.

How does Solace work alongside True Tone?

Solace is a macOS menu bar app that replaces Night Shift with a more capable colour temperature and display management tool. Like Night Shift, Solace manages colour temperature as a separate layer from True Tone, meaning the two features are fully compatible and do not conflict.

Solace offers several advantages over Night Shift as a True Tone companion:

• Wider temperature range - Night Shift's maximum warmth is approximately 3200K. Solace provides a broader range for users who want deeper evening warmth
• More flexible scheduling - beyond Sunset to Sunrise, Solace supports custom time windows and weather-aware switching that adapts based on real local conditions
• Dark mode integration - Solace handles dark mode scheduling alongside colour temperature, so one app manages your entire display appearance workflow
• Wallpaper syncing - set different wallpapers for light and dark mode that switch automatically with your schedule
• Zero data collection - all location processing is on-device with no analytics, telemetry, or server communication

Because Solace operates through native macOS display APIs - the same pathway Night Shift uses - it interacts with True Tone in exactly the same way Night Shift does. True Tone continues adapting to ambient lighting, and Solace adds its scheduled warm shift on top. The combination is identical in behaviour to using True Tone and Night Shift together, with the additional features Solace provides.

Frequently asked questions