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How does the keyboard backlight control work?

zen

zen

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 26, 2003
1,713
472
My new MBA is the first computer I've had with a backlit keyboard, and I love it. But I don't quite understand the settings.

I have the keyboard system preference set to automatically illuminate the keyboard in low light.

With this on, the keyboard brightness buttons (F5 and F6) sometimes don't do a thing (the keyboard will stay dark and the on-screen indicate shows a circle with a line through it, clearly saying the function is not available). Other times they'll let me pump the brightness up and down.

Then, occasionally, I'll be working in a dark room and the keyboard won't light automatically, despite being set to automatic, and I need to manually control the light - when I press F6 to brighten it, the indicator tells me it was set to zero illumination.

Is the automatic control flaky? By pressing the manual buttons, have I overridden and messed up the automatic setting?

I was under the impression that if I had it on automatic, it would control the brightness by itself. Indeed it seemed to do that when I first got the computer this week - the keyboard would brighten and dim according to the ambient light.
 
Ubuntu

Ubuntu

macrumors 68020
Jul 3, 2005
2,140
474
UK/US
zen said:
My new MBA is the first computer I've had with a backlit keyboard, and I love it. But I don't quite understand the settings.

I have the keyboard system preference set to automatically illuminate the keyboard in low light.

With this on, the keyboard brightness buttons (F5 and F6) sometimes don't do a thing (the keyboard will stay dark and the on-screen indicate shows a circle with a line through it, clearly saying the function is not available). Other times they'll let me pump the brightness up and down.

Then, occasionally, I'll be working in a dark room and the keyboard won't light automatically, despite being set to automatic, and I need to manually control the light - when I press F6 to brighten it, the indicator tells me it was set to zero illumination.

Is the automatic control flaky? By pressing the manual buttons, have I overridden and messed up the automatic setting?

I was under the impression that if I had it on automatic, it would control the brightness by itself. Indeed it seemed to do that when I first got the computer this week - the keyboard would brighten and dim according to the ambient light.
Click to expand...

I don't really get it either. My sister's new MBP and my MBA are both the same in that respect - the automatic function doesn't really do anything. I've never seen it adjust the level of lighting, so this is a good question.

It has also been disabled for me sometimes but this was in good lighting, so perhaps the sensor realised it was not needed.
 
J

jomo25

macrumors regular
Jun 29, 2010
212
87
I just was playing with them. Basically, if you have the automatic setting checked, then it will automatically set the brightness level as it sees fit. You can manually adjust it using the keys, but they will still adjust as it reads any lighting changes and override your "manual" setting.

If you don't check automatic, then it will not change the setting no matter the amount of environment lighting. It will stay at the setting you manually set it to no matter what.

At least that's what it seems to be doing for me.
 
Ubuntu

Ubuntu

macrumors 68020
Jul 3, 2005
2,140
474
UK/US
jomo25 said:
I just was playing with them. Basically, if you have the automatic setting checked, then it will automatically set the brightness level as it sees fit. You can manually adjust it using the keys, but they will still adjust as it reads any lighting changes and override your "manual" setting.

If you don't check automatic, then it will not change the setting no matter the amount of environment lighting. It will stay at the setting you manually set it to no matter what.

At least that's what it seems to be doing for me.
Click to expand...

Odd, doesn't do that for me. Both the MBP and MBA always have the light on if set to automatic.
 
P

Portaluk

Guest
Oct 10, 2009
112
0
England
If yours is like my MBP then the backlight has a mind of its own and never does what you want it to, which can be very frustrating.

My understanding is it is connected to the camera, when the camera detects low ambient light levels it switches on the keyboard light. The amount of keyboard brightness depends on how much light the camera thinks there is.
In my experience it is a bit random and even when its dark I still have to manually turn up the brightness.

I believe there is an app available that overrides the macs settings allowing you to manually set the keyboard light whether its dark or not.
 
zen

zen

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 26, 2003
1,713
472
It is definitely linked to the camera - I'm typing now in a bright room, but if I put my thumb over the camera, the keyboard lights up. I presume this is the same for the automatic display brightness control.

Right now, in a bright room, with the setting on automatic, the manual key controls for keyboard brightness are completely disabled. If I block the camera, the keyboard lights and the brightness control keys become active. If I put the brightness to maximum, then unblock the camera, the keyboard goes dark. If I then block the camera again, the keys come on to full brightness, which is where I set the manual control at.

Okay... so it seems to make sense. I'll leave it alone now :cool:
 
S

sahiljoshi

macrumors newbie
Dec 12, 2012
1
0
Question about the backlight 2012 macbook pro 13 inch

i have a new macbook pro and the backlight works manually and the auto button is checked in settings but the light won't work in the dark unless i press the button automatically i heard u have to config it or smtg but idunno help please thanks :)
 
M

micrors4racer

macrumors 6502
Apr 19, 2012
354
0
The ambient light sensor is located to the left of the camera. The laptop does not use the camera for any measurements.

If the ALS detects bright conditions it will not let you turn the keyboard light on. When it gets a bit darker but still pretty bright i.e. in a lit room it will make the keyboard pretty bright and the monitor also but if the room is totally dark it will dim the monitor and keyboard light to minimal levels. I am pretty sure that setting the keyboard light manually gets overridden when the ambient light changes or the computer goes to sleep.

This is unlike the iPhone on iOS6 which seems to remember how bright you set it at in certain lighting conditions.
 
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