Keyboard backlighting - manually turning it on

Is there a way (short of putting a piece of tape over the camera) to manually turn the keyboard backlighting on? I'm regularly finding that the machine's idea of how dim the ambient light needs to be is different from mine - increasingly so as my eyes get older
thanks...Bob

That did the trick! Too bad this kind of control is not built into the machine as it comes from Apple.
Thanks...Bob

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Macbook 13 Retina keyboard backlight not turning on

Hi all,
I've had my 13inch MPRr for about two weeks now and whenever it comes out of sleep from a LidOpen the keyboard backlight will seldom turn on. It is pretty inconsistent but I can usually get it activated again when I put it into sleep manually from the menu bar. Has anyone else experienced erratic behavior from the keyboard backlight?

I'm also experiencing this problem. my 2.6 macbook pro is less than 2 weeks old and the backlit keyboard stopped illuminating a few days ago. it DID work for a time, but suddenly decided to stop working. labtick and preference pane tweaks have done nothing to fix the problem.
Try resetting your SMC, PRAM and run your hardware tester.
Resetting the System Management Controller >>
Dave M.
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Macbook keyboard backlight auto turn-on when room is dark?

I have a late 2013 13" Retina Macbook Pro (running Mavericks) and am a relatively new OSX user. I know that I can modify keyboard backlight settings and have the brightness level adjust automatically (similar to how the screen brightness adjusts) however I don't actually want the keyboard's backlight on when the room is light. The fact that the auto-adjust setting makes the keyboard brighter in a light room is annoying to me.
Is there any way to have the backlight automatically turn on ONLY when the room is BELOW a certain brightness threshold. Perhaps there is a 3rd party app that can add this functionality? Manually pressing F5 and F6 works fine, but ideally I'd like to have this automated somehow.
Thanks!

Billy_budd, Unfortunately it's not even that things are finicky for me. I haven't experienced any auto-turnon functionality at all. Are you running Mavericks? I've seen some older posts referring to this being a possibility. Is there a specific way you've enabled this option? I don't see anything in my settings.
If I select the tickbox I've highlighted in the screenshot below, the brightness of the keyboard mimicks the auto-audjust behaviour of the screen's backlight. With it unchecked, I have to use F5 or F6 to see any keyboard brightness changes. I haven't experienced the keyboard automatically turning on when the lights turn off.

Macbook Pro (10.6.8) keyboard backlight wont turn on

I was reading some articles to try and fix it myself but I noticed a lot of people have problems with their keyboard backlight because they have the box located in
System Preferences > Keyboard > Automatic Illuminate either checked or unchecked. I checked my keyboard settings and I don't have that box at all!
I got my macbook in 2008, 2009 so it's a slightly older version. I need help fixiing my keyboard!
It hasnt worked for awhile now but I just never noticed it.
It never turns on when it's dark either.
When I cover the camera lens the display dims so it pretty much works
The only thing I noticed that no one talked about was that when I press FN + F5 or F6, I hear that sound that indicates you can't use that option. but when I try with the FN + f1 or f2, it works just fine.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM

Keyboard backlight auto turn on (T530)

I often use laptop top in low-light conditions and i`m tired of constantly pressing fn+space combination to turn light on.
Is there any way that turns backlight on automaticly when starting laptop?
Lenovo ThinkPad T530: i7-3520M/16GB RAM/128GB Vertex 4 SSD/1TB Seagate HDD + 8GB SSD Cache/NVS 5400M/FHD 1920x1080/9-cell BAT/ Backlit RU/Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64 ENG

The same question was asked in the W series board, I unfortunately don't think the answer is the one you are looking for; the systems use the same keyboards
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/Keyboard-backlight-settings-stay-on/m-p/113413...
Andy ______________________________________
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Keyboard Backlight Settings have no effect vaio Control Center

I have a Sony laptop, model SVE14A35CXH, and my backlit keyboard does work, it's just that the settings in Vaio Control Center, under Keyboard Backlight, the settings for that have no effect on the actual keyboard backlight. I make the setting to never turn on, for both on battery and plugged in, the keyboard still comes on when a key is pressed. I change the setting to turn on in low light, turn off after 60 seconds, it always turns off after 15. Any time I change the backlight settings, the actual keyboard backlight always turns on in low light conditions, and always turns off after 15 seconds if a key is not pressed. The settings have no effect on what the backlight does. Help would be appreciated.

Hi Derp-Derpinson,
Are you using a retail version of Windows? You mentioned before that you did a complete fresh install of Windows 8. Please follow the troubleshooting guidelines below:
Power Cycle - remove the battery and all peripherals -> press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. This will drain the electricity of the unit. Check again the backlight.
Reset BIOS.
Make sure that these drivers are installed or updated: (Sony® Firmware Extension Parser Device Driver, Sony® Shared Library, Hotkey Utilities). You may go to eSupport to download the drivers.
You may also reinstall Vaio Control Center.
Hope these work.
Regards,
Vincent
If my post answers your question, please mark it as "Accept as Solution"

HT1115 i cannot turn on my keyboard backlight

My keyboard backlight will not turn on, whenever i try to adjust it to brighten or dim the backglight setting i get the brighten symbol with a small circle with a line through it. I am not sure what to do. I have tried ever combination of settings regarding the keyboard settings and have yet to turn them on.

Thanks, Reed.
I realize that this is a VERY old topic, but had to comment, because others might stumble upon it.
You inadvertantly solved my problem. For some time, I have had no backlight on my MacBook Pro 2012 model. I spent time reading Help files and searching through forums, bu tnobody else that I found has mentioned the brighten symbol with the small circle and a line going through it.
When I read that, it caused me to notice the F5 and F6 keys alternate function symbol, whose purpose I had never spotted in more than 6 years of owning MBP's. I'd used them during daylight, and didn't see what they did. Apple probably mention them in their Help files somewhere, but I've never seen that.
If Apple could put a simple 'Use the F5 and F6 keys to adjust keyboard backlighting brightness manually' into the first Help file which is produced when people search for 'adjust keyboard backlight', tne it would save people like me hours of frustration.
Thanks again.

Manual Keyboard Backlight Adjustment

Hellooooo
How can I manually adjust the keyboard backlight on my Spectre 13t Ultrabook?
It seems like there's only a switch to turn it on and off, with no adjustments in between, other than the automatic adjustment from thr sensor.
Thank youu,
Jimmy

Hi,
You can use the FN key + (key with this symbol) on it to change the backlight settings.
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Please mark "Accept As Solution" if my help has solved your problem.

Keyboard backlight doesn't turn on auto in dark

hi i bought macbook pro retina 13(osx mavericks) few days back i observed that my keyboard backlight doesn't turn on auto in dark i have to manually turn it on every time so i want to know whether apple has removed this auto turn on in new mavericks or is i m having a issue with my keyboard

Auto keyboard backlight still exists: System Preferences -> Keyboard -> "Adjust keyboard brightness in low light". Is that option selected? If so, deselect and select it again. If that doesn't work: Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

My macbook pro keyboard backlight won't turn off, even after pressing F5

my macbook pro keyboard backlight won't turn off, even after pressing F5

Try resetting the SMC http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

After reset the SMC, my screen and the keyboard backlighting turn down at the same time when I cover the sensor.

The keyboard backlighting is still on under the lit. What can I do? Thanks! (MacBook Pro 2011 13' ; Mac OS X; 2.3 GHz Interl Core i5; 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3)

After reset the SMC, my screen and the keyboard backlighting turn down at the same time when I cover the sensor.
That's precisely what they're supposed to do.

T440p turn on keyboard backlight at startup automatically

Hi
Is there a way to do this at Windows 7 / 8???
I know that it's not possible from the BIOS but there must be an utility there which turns on the keyboard backlight at every windows startup and keep it on regardless of what.
Also I would like it to be turned back on when the computer comes out of sleep/hibernation.
Does anyone know a software for this?
Thanks

Maybe from lenovo software but there must be another windows utility for this.
In linux manipulating leds are possible through /sys/class/leds/tcapi
The person who I want to give this computer as a gift is completely computer analfabet and she would love to have the backlight to be turned on all the time.

How do you turn keyboard backlight off in silverlight?

HI,
My settings are for the backlight on my keyboard to go off after 30 seconds of non-use but when I watch films using silverlight, the light won't go off. I have contacted Lovefilm and they gave me instructions for uninstalling then reinstalling but it still won't switch off. Any ideas? It's getting on my nerves big time. Thanks

Hi esther40,
If your keyboard backlight isn't dimming on no activity when using Silverlight, you may want to try manually adjusting the backlight in those cases using the F5 and F6 keys. You may find the following article helpful:
Portables: Adjusting the keyboard backlight
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4882
Regards,
- Brenden

My backlight will not turn off automatically. I have to manually turn it off and forget to sometimes and that drains my battery. Does anyone know how to make it turn of automatically after a few seconds?

My backlight will not turn off automatically. I have to manually turn it off and forget to sometimes and that drains my battery. Does anyone know how to make it turn of automatically after a few seconds?

Use the Settings app.
Settings > General > Auto Lock
Is Auto Lock set to Never? Change it to less time.

New owner of MBP, why can't you turn off the keyboard backlight in Win 7?

I'm a new owner of MBP. I have Windows 7 64bits installed on bootcamp. The keyboard backlight is really bothering me. I thought Boot Camp was out for awhile, and I don't know why can't Apple fix this backlight control thing? I downloaded that power assistant software and I liked it; however, I was turned off that it wasn't a freeware. What can I do to turn this backlight off permanently?

Well... seems like pre-2010 MBPs all had 'non-disablable' keyboard backlights on Windows. Installing BC 3.1 won't help at all. You could temporary minimize backlight level, but not turn it off. And on just any ambient light change it jumps back to maximum. Extremely erratic
A friend of mine got a 2010 MBP and he's able to turn backlight off. I've got mid-2009 model with BC 3.1, and I can't. My another friend has late-2008 model, he can't turn the backlight off, either.
I agree, ideally powerplan7 should have been a freeware. However, although I did spend $10 on a key, I'm oh-so-happy right now. With backlight disabled And since there are no alternatives AT ALL, I'm glad they're not selling this software for, say, $25.

Keyboard backlighting - manually turning it on

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