keyboard light auto brightness revert behavior

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keyboard light auto brightness revert behavior

I know that older versions of OS X has the behavior that the keyboard backlight is dimmer in brighter environments, but with Yosemite it is obviously the other way around (it gets brighter when environment gets brighter).

I know Apple must have had a very good reason to revert the behavior, but most usually this reverse behavior only causes me to manually hit F5 for many times to turn off the backlight when daylight comes, and hit F6 for one or two times to turn it back on when night falls. So now I can even be better off with this (reversed) auto backlight feature turned off.

So I desperately hope that Apple could give users an option to reverse the keyboard backlight behavior. I know there have been discussions on this yet I can't manage to find a solution.

In the mean time before Apple decides to give users the choice, a temporary solution for this (things like modifying some system configuration files) could really come in handy!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), null

Posted on Apr 21, 2015 9:54 AM

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Answer 1

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norm123

Community Specialist

Apr 24, 2015 8:39 PM in response to XavierXing

Hey XavierXing,

That is interesting that your backlit keyboard is getting brighter with the ambient light getting brighter. I would start with resetting the SMC as that should correct any irregular behavior. Let me know if this helps or need further assistance.

Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Take care,

-Norm G.

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Answer 2

XavierXing Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 24, 2015 8:39 PM in response to norm123

Thank you so much for your advice!

I've done according to the instructions. Namely control+option+shift+Power. And then Power. But it looks just like a normal start-up, no additional messages are displayed (I was expecting sth like "you've resetted the SMC"). Is this normal? How do I check whether I have succeeded? It is funny though that I need to do this for a macbook that is newly bought.

I find something interesting: the keyboard light behavior isn't exactly what I thought, it gets brighter as the ambient light goes from completely dark to ordinary indoor light, but if the ambient light gets extremely bright (I've achieved this by flaming my cellphone's flashlight at the ambientlightsensor). the keyboard light turns off completely and F5 F6 stops working. So I think this is by Apple design rather than being an abnormal behavior.

I've experimented a little, the threshold value of light sensor data is something at 140 lx, below it the keyboard light gets brighter with the data raising; And above it the keyboard light turns off completely.

This is more likely a heartful design by Apple, and it might be helpful indeed if the threshold can be accustomed, because with the default value (140 according to my experiment) I find my keyboard always on with very high level of brightness through the whole day (until I go out and use the mac under sunlight which is highly unlikely for us couch potatoes). As you must agree keyboard light is only needed when the room is completely dark or extremely dim.

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Answer 3

Apr 25, 2015 12:42 AM in response to XavierXing

no, nothing comes up actually i think it has no idea about it

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Answer 4

XavierXing Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 25, 2015 7:48 PM in response to SlenderMacGirl000

Sorry I didn't catch what you said?

Also, Is it possible to customize?

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