16" MBP No keyboard backlight on startup

[PivPi]

So, turned the display to zero brightness on a long Shotput Pro process (showed 8hrs for copying 4.46TB from one Caldigit RAID to another - verification XXHash-64 Checksum). Came back to the MBP and on trying to log in the display remained dark and the keyboard backlight remained off. Tried fingerprint recognition etc, and apparently nothing, blank screen, no keyboard wake up. Multiple attempts later and finally shone a torch on the display to just make out the Password recovery Assistant screen. Finally managed a restart, which again had a dark display and no keyboard backlight UNTIL I managed to restart input my password via torch light. Any way to initiate the keyboard backlight prior to signing in? And lesson learned on turning the display to zero to try to avoid screen burn...

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Nope. I just left Apple a feedback earlier this week asking them to activate the backlight during the sign-in process. This happens on my 2017 MBP 15”. I think it started once I activated FileVault. Before that, the keyboard and touchbar were awake during the login process.

 

[OSXphoto]

I can confirm that enabling FileVault keeps the keyboard backlight off during initial sign-in from a cold boot. I was told by an Apple rep that this is as designed.

 

[chrfr]

I can confirm that enabling FileVault keeps the keyboard backlight off during initial sign-in from a cold boot. I was told by an Apple rep that this is as designed.

Yes, this happens because the FileVault unlock prompt happens before macOS boots, so there's no driver for the keyboard backlight at that point.