You Can Customize or Turn Off Keyboard Backlighting on MacBook
Most MacBooks have a backlit keyboard – a white light at the bottom that lets you see keys in the dark. By default, the keyboard backlight turns on automatically when your MacBook detects low-light conditions, and the brightness level adjusts automatically.
If you find that the brightness of your keyboard is too high or low, you can adjust it or even turn off the keyboard backlighting entirely if you wish. Here are five ways to adjust the brightness levels of your MacBook keyboard.
How to prevent MacBook from automatically changing keyboard brightness
To adjust the brightness levels of your MacBook’s keyboard, you need to start by turning off automatic keyboard brightness. You can press Option + F5 or Option + F6 on your keyboard to quickly jump to the Keyboard Settings page.
Alternatively, you can click the Apple logo in the upper-left corner of your screen, go to System Preferences> Keyboard, and select the Keyboard tab.
On this Keyboard Settings page, turn off Adjust keyboard brightness in low light .
How to adjust brightness of MacBook keyboard using keyboard
The fastest way to adjust the keyboard brightness on your Mac is to use the function keys on your keyboard. If you press F5 (small sunrise icon) the keyboard brightness will decrease, and if you press F6 (large sunrise icon) it will increase. The display has a useful indicator that shows how bright the keyboard backlight is. When you press the F5 or F6 keys, you can use this indicator to measure the brightness levels.
Note that if you changed your keyboard settings to use F1, F2, etc. as standard function keys, you can press fn + F5 to decrease the keyboard brightness and fn + F6 to increase it.
How to adjust the brightness of your MacBook keyboard using Control Center
If you’re using macOS Big Sur (version 11) or newer, you can use Control Center to quickly adjust the keyboard brightness on your Mac. To check which version you have, click the Apple logo in the upper left corner of your screen and select About This Mac . If it’s version 11 or newer, you’re done.
Click the Control Center icon next to the clock in the upper right corner of your screen and select Keyboard Brightness . You can click and drag the slider to the right to make the keyboard brighter, and to the left to dim it.
You can quickly add a keyboard brightness button to the menu bar to save time. Click the Apple logo again and choose System Preferences> Dock & Menu Bar . In the left pane, select Keyboard Brightness, and in the right pane, select Show from the menu bar . The keyboard brightness icon (looks like a sunrise) appears in the menu bar at the top.
How to turn off MacBook keyboard backlighting automatically
You can also ask your MacBook to turn off the keyboard backlight when you are not using your keyboard by going to System Preferences> Keyboard or by pressing Option + F5 or Option + F6 on your keyboard.
On the Keyboard Preferences page, select the Turn on keyboard backlight after check box. There is a dropdown menu that defaults to five seconds, which means the keyboard backlight will turn off after five seconds of inactivity, but you can click the dropdown and choose a different interval.
How to turn off keyboard backlighting on MacBook
While most people don’t need this, some people use their MacBooks with external keyboards and accidentally turning on the keyboard backlight can be annoying.
After you have disabled automatic keyboard brightness, simply press the F5 key on your keyboard until the keyboard backlight turns off. Alternatively, you can go to Control Center> Keyboard Brightness and move the slider all the way to the left. After turning off the keyboard backlight, it will no longer be turned on unless you manually turn it back on.