Question - Sidecar Colors different from MacBook

[proactivematter]

Hey Waydabber,

So I've recently noticed that my sidecar setup does not match the colors of my MacBook. Using BetterDisplay I can fix this by enabling Metal and setting the sidecar's temperature to 100%. This change makes both monitors match perfectly. This is however not optimal as you know, since this setting does not apply when using Mission Control / Expose / Screen Saver.

I'm wondering if you know why it happens in the first place and if there is perhaps another way to effectively make this correction without suffering these downsides?

Setup details:

MBP 16" M1 Max 2021
iPad Pro 12.9 M1 2021
Sidecar Connected via USB

True Tone and Night Shift are deactivated on both.

OSs are up do date (Sequoia 15.1 / iOS 18.1)

Thanks!

[waydabber]

Yes, the iPad should have it's own True Tone/Night Shift setting, using that you can change the iPad's tint separately. Did you try that route?

[proactivematter]

Ah, I see. Yes, so it seems the only way would be to leave Night Shift on permanently and set it such that it corrects the offset. However, I greatly appreciate having night shift on my iPad working as intended and on a schedule.

So I guess I'll just stick to BetterDisplay's metal adjustment. At the end of the day I am glad BetterDisplay provides a decent solution, but it's very unfortunate that Apple won't allow us to quite simply apply a color profile to a sidecar display.

[proactivematter]

I realized what was happening - I was super sure that F.Lux was working with sidecar, but it wasn't and simply can't (according to their forums). That's why the colors were off and needed to be warmer on the iPad.

As far as BetterDisplay is concerned, it doesn't seem to be able to help getting MacOS Native Night Shift to work on my external monitor (a Sony X900F 55"), which is already recognized as a "Computer Monitor", but night shift will not affect it.

So I guess it's just how it is, I can't have neither F.Lux nor Night Shift working across all my displays.

[waydabber]

Sometimes you need to still manually set the "Computer Monitor" setting even if it is already reported as "Computer Monitor".

You can get temperature control working on Sidecar with BetterDisplay by enabling Metal image adjustments in the app and using the temperature slider. However I think it is best to use the iPad's own controls for this.

[proactivematter]

Indeed, now it works! Would recommend adding that info to the relevant page.

I love love love f.lux's. more advanced a customizable way of enabling night shift. Particularly the fact that it slowly introduces the color shift instead of just being either "ON/OFF". I will miss it, but I believe I preffer to have color consistency across my displays. Thus I've disabled f.lux and enabled native night shift on MacOS and iPad with identical settings.

Thanks for the help!