M1 MBA: Lowest keyboard backlight setting too bright

[max6166]

The lowest increment for keyboard brightness still seems very bright on my M1 MBA.

I used to be able to set it much lower on my previous Macbooks. This may seem trivial, but it is a significant issue for my specific needs.

I tried restoring the keyboard backlight function keys and used <SHIFT>-<OPTION> to get smaller increments, but the first step is still quite bright.

Has anyone else noticed this? Any suggestions or workarounds would be very appreciated.

 

[usagora]

Do you have System Preferences > Keyboard > Adjust keyboard brightness in low light disabled? If you don't, the system will automatically adjust the brightness on its own.

 

[max6166]

Do you have System Preferences > Keyboard > Adjust keyboard brightness in low light disabled? If you don't, the system will automatically adjust the brightness on its own.

Yes, I have it disabled.

 

[tylerlovesapple]

I know that lower voltages can be applied to the keyboard lighting because the keyboard fades away smoothly when it times out.
I have the same issue as you.
I like to program in bed while my wife sleeps but I need to look at the keys sometimes because I'm using a lot of shortcuts and whatnot but the backlighting is significantly brighter than the screen.

If anyone makes a tweak to fix this issue it would probably have to come from MacForge because Apple thinks tinkering is bad. If anyone figures something out besides physically putting something under the keys, I would love to know it.

 

[whiteashsaturday]

Is this something accessible with granular keyboard backlight control? Is there a GitHub project similar? I see some old projects regarding "ambient" lighting for old intel machines, but the current LED is TOO BRIGHT at its lowest setting to comfortably use in a dark room. It glows on my face. Why is the new generation of LEDs so bright, with focus on 2000nits and so forth. Great for the sun.. but a keyboard backlight is to be used in near pitch black environments.

We need a setting like "backlight.brightness = 0.3" instead of 1, 2, 3, 4.

 

[Basic75]

Has anyone else noticed this?

I never use the keyboard backlight, just chiming in to emphasise the importance of "going low". I've had displays where the darkest setting was still too much for the situation I used it in. The apparent obsession with eye-searing brightness should not come at the cost of losing the low end of the scale.

 

[QuickSilverLining]

I guess I'll bump this to say I share similar gripes. The lowest setting is also too bright for me, especially in the dark on my MBP 16".

I will add that one day, I experienced a "bug" where the keyboard backlighting was just barely lit, but in the OS it registered as me turning the backlight off. I didn't touch that slider all day and only noticed the backlighting was slightly glowing it as it got darker (much below the minimum setting that the OS allows). My programming experience is still limited, otherwise I would have found a way to manually adjust it myself 😂