Macbook Pro Backlit Keyboard

I've been having this problem lately where when I click the backlit keyboard button it gives me a circle with a / through it. All my settings regarding ambient light detection is turned off so I am not to sure why it is doing this...

 

What settings are you talking about specifically? I don't have one so I could be wrong, but I'm not sure that there's a way to force the keyboard backlight on in bright conditions. Try covering the speaker grilles up with your hands (that's where the light sensor are) and see of you can activate the backlight then. Or just move to a dark room.

 

He means he can't turn on the backlight in a lit room. They used to let you, but there was a firmware or OS change that made the keyboard permanently off until you enter a darker room, regardless of your settings. Look for third party software though, I remember there was some that would allow you to turn on the backlight regardless of lighting conditions.

 

there is no setting to turn on the backlit keyboard in a bright room.

what they said.

if you want to do that, find a third party software to control the backlight.

im sure its out there.

 

The weird thing is that it used to work like a week ago. This just happened recently.

 

Out of curiosity are you talking about the backlit buttons f5 and f6? I can turn on my backlighting wherever I am without any issues regardless of how bright it is. I may be misunderstanding what you are trying to do however...

 

whoa, just realized this on my Unibody Macbook, kinda weird I get the same thing "circle with / in it" when pressing F5/F6 in a brightly lit room. I don't think this was the case with my older Santa Rosa MBP but oh well, guess I really don't need backlit keys in a bright room.

 

my old MBP (original) and my newer MBP (Unibody) both will not let me turn on the keyboard backlight if its too bright in the room... not sure why some people can. The newer ones have the light sensor up by the camera, not down by the keyboard like the older ones.

EDIT: and they never have let me the total time I've had them... on any OS or update...

 

Could it be due to the latest os x update? because i haven't updated yet

 

Or it could be that your light sensors don't work well.

 

nope it works fine both manually and automatically.

 

lol just use a little piece of tape or sticker to cover the little dot beside the camera on the unibody macbooks, if you want the backlight so badly

 

use it as designed, don't try to go against the designers of this mac. btw, leaving the baklighting on constantly will surely reduce its lifetime.

 

I think it is a firmware/OS X update issue, my mac does the same thing. I suppose Apple wants to save on battery life, but it's a little heavy handed in my opinion.

 

What firmware? I haven't downloaded anything in the past week that would affect it :/

 

Same here. I have no idea how some are claiming that they could in brightly lit room; this has always been the case for me using both SR-based MBP and the new ones.

 

ok I just brought mine outside and tried to turn it on and i got the o with the \ through it. I guess the room I was in yesterday wasn't bright enough...even though it was plenty bright. As far as I am concerned, this is really a non issue. I would never want or need to have the backlighting on in a room which is above the light threshold of this feature.

 

I find this problem extremely irritating and frustrating. What's wrong with letting people control the backlight? On my macbook air, the ambient light sensor is next to the camera on the screen. So if I'm sitting in a dark room with a source of light behind me, the macbook thinks there's tons of light because the screen is illuminated but the keyboard is not.

 

i dont have this sort of problem with my umbp