Welcome to the topic “How to Fix no Backlight on MacBook Keyboard.”
Almost all MacBooks come with beautiful backlit keyboards that make typing easier in dim light conditions and look appealing as well. The best is the backlight consumes less power, especially when you set the brightness to a moderate level. Hence the battery life is not affected. Plus, the backlit comes in handy in dark conditions, but it is visible in an adequate lighting situation.
But sometimes, the MacBook backlit keyboard stops working suddenly for no clear reason. This is frustrating; even if you try to control the light using hotkeys, the features remain off or do not work at all.
There can be several reasons why the MacBook’s keyboard backlight is not working, but don’t worry, as often the fix is quick and straightforward. If the keyboard backlight on your MacBook is not working, follow these troubleshooting steps to resolve the issue.
Tips to Fix keyboard backlight on Mac
First of all, ensure that the light is turned on. This might sound obvious, but still, we will recommend checking the same. You can easily do this by adjusting the backlighting. Press the F6 key to adjust Mac’s keyboard backlight.
If all sounds good, you can use these hacks to fix the backlight on MacBook Keyboard.
Hack # 1: Adjust the Light Sensor and Mac’s Position
Do you know direct exposure to sunlight, bright lights, and glares on the MacBook’s light sensor can get locked the indicators and illumination controls? This is applicable to all models of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
The fix is quick and simple. Just adjust the Mac position so that the lightning does not hit Mac’s screen near the camera. Remember that it is not a bug; the point here is to turn off the backlight automatically when not in need. By doing so, the light will not be visible.
If you want to experience it by yourself, you can do that even in any dark room. Just put a flashlight near the front camera (at the screen’s topside), and you will see that your Mac’s backlit keyboard becomes dark. To conclude, prevent the bright illumination from hitting the camera area, and the backlight will light up again.
Hack # 2: Adjust the illumination manually
Sometimes changing Mac’s position will not do the job work. In such cases, you will have to use this fix. The fix is to stop the auto lighting adjustments. Instead, you need to use manual backlight adjustments.
You can easily control the keyboard backlight manually through System Preferences, and to adjust the light’s settings, you can use the F5 and F6 keys. Here is the complete process:
First, go the System Preferences through Apple’s main menu and navigate to the “Keyboard” panel.
Then uncheck the box near to ‘Automatically illuminate keyboard in low light.’
Now you need to press the F5 and F6 keys to adjust or control the lighting level manually.
Some of you might find it a bit different, but it helps. By turning off the auto lighting feature offers complete control over backlights, and you can quickly adjust or set the desired brightness you want to use.
Lighting will remain constant whether the external lighting conditions are affecting the lighting sensors or not. Remember that the backlit keys don’t have a self-adjusting feature; thus, you need to set the brightness if it adversely affects the battery’s life.
Hack # 3: Reset the SMC
When your Mac keyboard’s backlights are not working at all, ensure that your MacBook has this feature. In this regard, we will recommend these things:
Check whether the “Automatically Illuminate Keyboard in Low Light” is available or entirely missing from keyboard preferences settings? You will have to restart the System Management Controller (SMC) to set things back to default.
Furthermore, the SMC controls various system-level hardware functions, including power features. Similarly, this issue can also occur during OS X version upgrades without any apparent reason.
Above, we have covered all the common issues that cause this keyboard backlight issue in MacBook and how restarting SMC can help you. If you are still facing the issue, here are some other quick fixes:
This can also happen if you or someone have spilled any type of liquid on your keyboard. If that’s the case, your keyboard’s backlights will not work. If that’s the case, you will have to change the entire keyboard panel.
Restart the system
The simple hack that you can use to fix no backlight issue on the MacBook keyboard is to reset the machine. Sometimes the keyboard’s backlight can get stuck or become nonfunctional, and when you reboot the machine, the backlight will turn off and back on.
Additionally, you can also restart your Mac in the Safe Mode. This is because the MacBook keyboard’s backlights need a system driver to work, and restarting to Safe Mode will force a cache to reload that particular driver properly.
Additionally, you can try resetting the MacBook’s PRAM to fix the issue. You can do this by resetting the Mac with the Option-Command-P-R keys and holding them all at once. Keep holding these keys until the Mac resets again, and then release these keys and let the machine start normally.
Your MacBook’s keyboard backlight still not working?
If you have correctly applied all the hacks mentioned above, but the issue still persists, it means that the problem lies in Mac’s hardware.
In this regard, we will suggest you take your MacBook to Apple, or you can use official channels to reach out to Apple support. Contact AppleCare, and they will help you to resolve the problem and get the backlight working again.
Wondering any questions regarding How to Fix no Backlight on MacBook Keyboard? Feel Free to comment right now. We will answer you asap. Thank you!
Also Read: How to Reset MacBook to Factory Settings
