I can no longer adjust the brightness of the keyboard backlight. It has disappeared from the control center area and the auto adjust feature in the system preferences also does not work. For now, they're "stuck" off.
Any guess on how to correct this would be great. I use the backlight all the time.
MacBook Air
Have you tried shutting down your M1 MacBook Air completely and then closing the lid for 30+ seconds? After that you can start up again and see if that resolves the keyboard backlight issue.
If that has not resolved the issue then your M1 MacBook Air is less than 1 YR old and therefore should still be under Apple's Limited Warranty. Take advantage of it and contact ➔ Apple Support
Axel F.
How to reset the SMC of your Mac Perform this action three times. Applies only to Intel CPU
If M1 - Shutdown computer. Hold Power / Touch ID Button for ten seconds and keep holding until it repeats three times. Then Test.
Before I read this, I disabled "adjust keyboard brightness in low light" and that seems to have fixed it. Or it was coincidental and I can't say why fixed it. it's been fine for a while now.
The trouble is that the issue is intermittent and therefore hard to pinpoint. Your M1 MacBook Air is still covered by Apple's 1YR Limited Warranty (US). I recommend that you contact ➔ Apple Support and see if it can be resolved that way. This may save you some time troubleshooting to pinpoint the issue.
Axel F.
It hasn't :(
I'm fairly certain it only happens after waking from sleep. I have added the keyboard brightness by itself to the control center. That button and the one in the control center disappear. I fiddle with the settings and they popped back up. Normally I have to restart. Almost certainly software issue only.
If you can isolate a pattern then it will be somewhat easy to determine the cause. As. you know, random behavior will be hard to pinpoint upon. Are you able to determine whether there is a certain time value whereby the keyboard backlight goes out? After 10 minutes, 15 minutes....... ?
Of course, the other surefire option is to take advantage of the warranty that is still active and available on your M1 MacBook Air.
Axel F.
That's did/does fix it. But the issue continues to return. I can't tell yet if there's a pattern or if it's random.
Keep an eye on it to ensure that it has been resolved. Thanks for the follow up.
Axel F.
Big Sur 11.2.3 Keyboard backlight stopped working, M1 MacBook Air
