Macbook Pro - Lion Keyboard Illumination

13" 2009 macbook pro and my keyboard doesn't light up at all.... f5 and f6 keys and the like won't work either.

i don't even have the option to turn on keyboard illumination in low light!!!

what gives??????

F5 will dim F6 will brighten.

I am having issues since the Lion update but mine are revolving around the keyboard backlight being uneven. It was okay until I did the update. 😟 Hopefully it is not electrical and just an issue with the update.

I had the same problem on my mid 2010 MBP. Surprisingly, and after a good degree of frustration, I found a suggestion requirering the reset of the SMC. Needless to say, its worked and I thought I'd add it to the suggestions here. Best of luck, I know how frustrating this can be.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

i have the same problem on my MBP15 early 2011,it happend after i install bootcamp on my osx 10.7 the illumination level not change regading of ambient light level.

then i install the new 10.7.1 and still the same.

Thanks! Did the trick.

The F5 F6 trick that is.

If it turns out to be a problem with the Macs ambient light sensor the Lab tick app might help.

http://labtick.proculo.de/

My keyboard light controls weren't working after upgrading my 2007 MBP 15" to Lion. Resetting SMC fixed it.

Also note that the keyboard lights are off when in a lighted room. I have to go to a dark area (or cover the light sensor) to make the keyboard backlight turn on and to make the F8 F9 F10 keys work.

I have the same problem here with 15" MacBook Pro (Mid 2010). In my case, SMC reset did not solve the problem. The F5/F6 keys did not work neither, because after upgrading to Lion, these keys do not respond any more...

I used KeyRemap4MacBook http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/index.html in order to assign another key to F5. It worked fine for me.

If your F5/F6 keys do not work, please try KeyRemap4MacBook.

I've had the same issue since upgrading to OS X Lion. I own a late 2008 Macbook Pro. I've noticed that if I try to turn the keyboard lights off by pressing F5, the on screen display shows that they are completely off even if they are not. If I press F6 once then F5 again, then the lights go out. It is definitely a nusance. There seems to be mixed results with resetting the SMC so I guess I will go ahead and attemp it.

The keys - F5 and F6 - will be enabled only within a dark ambience, where the user will be able to increase/decrease the back-light. If there is enough light in the surroundings, the keys will be disabled, thus saves the battery power. Seems to be a convenient and optimized implementation.

Not convenient or optimized at all since it is happening when I am still plugged into AC power and cannot illuminate the keyboard when I (the user) want to.

Labtick gives you the option to put the keyboard backlight on when you want to.

It works in Snow Leopard have not tried it in Lion.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22151/lab-tick

This worked for me. So simple, thanks!