How do I fix the Night Light setting in Windows 11?

Question

I am running Windows 11, version 23H2 on the latest cumulative updates from 5/14/2024.

The Night Light setting is not working properly for me. It does not activate nor deactivate as scheduled. It will seemingly randomly turn itself on and off throughout the work day. When selecting "Turn on now" or "Turn off now," there is no change. When adjusting the "Strength," there is no change.

I have tried:

• Restarting the system
• Logging out / back in to my Windows account
• Logging out / back in to my Microsoft account
• Reinstalling the latest graphics drivers [NVIDIA 3070 Ti] (by "reinstall" I mean selecting "Clean Install" in GeForce Experience where old versions are uninstalled before new versions are installed)
• Deleting the appropriate registry files and restarting the system to reset them
• Turning on Location Services

None have seemed to do the trick.

Is this a known bug in Windows 11, or have people found a solution?

Thank you!

Answer 1

I have a solution that can help.

There are 3 Windows services necessary for night lighting to work properly:

• Connected Devices Platform User Service (CDPUserSvc)
• Connected Devices Platform Service (CDPSvc)
• Network Connection Broker (NcbService)

If the "Connected Devices Platform Service" and "Network Connection Broker" services have the "disabled" start type, the "night lighting" functionality in the "Settings" application does not work, if we click on the button for the activate, nothing happens. For the night lighting setting to work, these services can be configured with the "manual" or "automatic" start type with the service management console (services.msc).

The "Connected Devices Platform User Service" service must be configured with the "automatic" start type for night lighting to work. This service (called "template service") create a secondary service (called "Per-user service") with the same name followed by a random hexadecimal number (e.g.: Connected Devices Platform User Service_253cb) when a user log in (source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/application-management/per-user-services-in-windows).

This service cannot be configured with services.msc, so you must modify its configuration with the Windows registry by executing these commands in Administrator:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDPUserSvc" /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDPUserSvc" /v UserServiceFlags /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f

Setting the value "Start" to 2 configures the type of start to "Automatic".

Setting the value "UserServiceFlags" to 3 allows the creation of the service per user.

When a user log in, the created per-user service inherits the configuration parameters from the service template. So, if the value "Start" of the template service is 2, the service per user created will have the same value "Start" to 2.

After applying these settings, restart the computer and test the night lighting again.

Answer 2

Finally, a REAL fix. Thank you!

Answer 3

Hello, k_195.

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I have some ideas.

Has this issue recently occurred or has it been ongoing?

Have you tried uninstalling the latest updates to test?

Also, please try a clean boot, as it could also be caused by a third-party application.

Disclaimer: A “clean boot” starts Windows with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. It helps to determine whether a background program is interfering with your game or program and to isolate the cause of a problem.
These steps of "clean boot" might look complicated at first glance. However, to avoid any trouble for you, please follow them in order and step-by-step so that it will help you get you back on track.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows - Microsoft Support

Follow the document, directly disable all non-Microsoft services -> save and restart to test -> if the issue doesn't occur again, follow the document's binary search method to gradually troubleshoot until you find the application causing the problem.

If there are any updates, please feel free to reply.

Best regards.

Malygos - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist