Auto - Day - Night Mode

I prefer night mode all the time. After some upgrade in the last year, it now always defaults to auto mode when I start the car again and obviously goes to day mode when it’s daylight. IOW, it won’t stay in night mode like it used to. Is there a way to disable auto and/or day mode so that it always defaults to night mode like it used to?

I have searched everywhere for this particular problem and crawled through spreadsheets. I do automatic updates through wifi and I have the latest Sync 3 version and have done master resets.

Any help in solving this issue is greatly appreciated.


SYNC Region: NA

Navigation Variant: Nav

Manufacturer Year: MY20

Install Type: OEM

Old SYNC Version: 3.4

New SYNC Version: 3.4

Do you have a error message, if so what is it?

Update Method: Official Ford

Sync Settings > Display > Mode.
Set to “Night”

There is not a way to permanently set this to night mode as a master reset will place it back to auto.

Sync 3 night mode setting - Google Search

Thanks for the reply. Every time I start the car I manually change it to night mode. It’s just that the first year or so I owned the car it permanently stayed in night mode all the time. At some point, some automatic update messed it up. I’ve done the latest updates and then the master reset hoping that it would fix the problem. I know it’s tied to the light sensor on the dash but that also controls the headlights on/off and I don’t want to mess with those. It’s just annoying that it worked great for half the time I have owned the car and now it doesn’t.

You might try clearing the vehicle FOB presets and saving a new set with the night mode enabled. And your headlights are in “Auto” mode.

That sounds better than me screwing it up yesterday. Between another new update and messing with some codes, all I get now is the splash screen and then a blank screen. Radio, USB music, siriusxm all still work through the driving console. I did save the original factory profile and have tried resetting the APIM back but to no avail. I probably have to figure out how to get the latest Sync on a USB and reload it somehow. After that it’s to give the local Ford dealer some of my valuable lesson learning money. Thanks again for all your help.

Exactly what did you do for updates? Hopefully you did not use the reformat tool…on a 2020 vehicle.

OTA through automatic updates

Is this thru FORScan?

OK. The update may not have finished or was corrupted for some reason. Do you know what Sync version it was trying to update to? Or which version it was on previously…

After it updated, it said everything was up to date and listed yesterday’s date and time. In hindsight, I should have taken a picture of the screen. I know it takes forever to do it OTA and I waited it out.

Could you please answer the questions above…?

Yes. Forscan. If I need to purchase something from Cyanlabs to continue, let me know. I will be glad to pay for this info. To clarify the sync version - I should have taken a picture of the screen so I would have the latest sync version, but I didn’t.

To clarify what I did with Forscan before all this is changed the brand, splash screen and theme to Lincoln (to get a darker screen to help my original question.) I also killed
“left the keys in the car” double beep. That’s all I did before I wanted to try another sync update and master reset to deal with some Bluetooth issues I was having.

I should also mention that I did the as-built VIN thing at Motorcraft and changed all the APIM codes back to factory. The splash screen has changed from Lincoln Black back to the simple Ford Oval but again, then it goes blank after that.

Assuming that you can access the APIM with FORScan, check these asbuilt values. Use the AsBuilt Configuration not the “Easy” tab.

7D0-01-02 *xxx-xxxx-xxxx Set to ‘0’.
7D0-02-01 xxxx-**xx-xxxx Set to ‘00’
DE02/7D0-03-01 xxxx-**xx-xxxx Set to ‘00’

Perform a master reset after making these changes.

This morning I went through every line in the APIM with the VIN as-built from Motorcraft and made sure it was set to the as-built. Your second change above had 01 in the Motorcraft as-built for **. I don’t have the laptop at the moment so I will see if the 01 does anything later. Also, how do I do a Sync master reset with a totally blank screen if the 01 fix doesn’t work? I really appreciate your prompt and patient responses.

You should reload the entire OEM asbuilt at once using FORScan. There may be a corrupt setting you will not see just looking at it. This is not uncommon with Sync 3, especially after doing firmware upgrades (which you did not do, but just a point…).

To load the OEM asbuilt for the APIM, you will need the OEM Asbuilt file for your vehicle. This is the one you downloaded from the Motorcraft website, the VIN.ab file. You need to place this file in the ‘AsBuiltData’ folder for FORScan. (C:\Users<user>\Documents\AsBuiltData).
Now connect with FORScan to the vehicle and go to the APIM Asbuilt Configuration tab. Select the ‘Load All’ button at the bottom of the page, then navigate to the .ab file and select it. This will load the original OEM asbuilt to the APIM. Select ‘Write All’. Select ‘YES’ to force write the asbuilt. The APIM will reboot. If the APIM comes up properly, then there was an asbuilt setting corruption that is now cleared. If the APIM still has a blank screen, we will need to troubleshoot further.

Unfortunately, there is no master reset function outside of the Sync screen menu, which is odd, but there is a module reset within FORScan on the Tools tab.

So when I just connected Forscan and use the original factory profile I saved I get a bunch red X’s of “Unable to read DTC” for the PCM, APIM, DCDC, PAM, BCM, BECMB modules, and a “DTC’s in TCU: B156D:89-48” yellow error triangle in the Log menu. Should I still try the above for the APIM, and then all the other modules, or did I step knee deep in it? I stopped by the Ford dealer today and besides “bring it in” I learned they can reload everything through the obd2. Is this basically what you’re saying above?

You can do with FORScan most anything they can do at the dealership service shop.

Was the ignition turned on? What original factory profile are you referring to?

You should make a new FORScan profile and see if you still have the DTC’s after you clear them. This would most likely not be related to the APIM issue. Also, when you connect with FORScan, look at the battery voltage at the bottom of the screen.

The ignition was on. When I say “original factory profile” it’s what I saved/called when I first connected Forscan and before I did the Lincoln screen changes. I had seen two different YouTube videos that both said to do that first before you make any changes. I should call it “what the profile was before I changed anything”. On a side note, my wife and I are going away for a few days so I will be getting back to you by Friday or Saturday on any progress. Thanks again.

Hi. I downloaded the .ab for my VIN, did APIM module procedure above and now when I connect Forscan to the car I get green checkmarks on everything but that earlier TCU yellow triangle error - DTC’s in TCU: B156D:89-48. Still a blank screen though. Tried the 00 or 01 difference above and it didn’t matter. I saved a new profile so at least we are hopefully closer to the solution. Thanks again.