I tried turning keyboard backlight which would seem the obvious choice, but as of this morning, and the update to 10.12.2 I can barely see the touch bar.
Help!!!
This was my problem. I had a cover for my mac's camera ...once I removed the cover the brightness corrected itself.
Use the Touch Bar on your MacBook Pro - Apple Support
System controls: Tap 
in the Control Strip and it expands, showing system controls like brightness, Exposé, Launchpad, and media playback:
Sometimes the TouchBar is very 'dim' on wake (i.e.: when you lift the lid).
It normally gets back after a few minutes (2-3) but, if it does so while you are working, you may consider resetting the TouchBar (which I do when the smiley feature gets stuck).
Go to:
Utilities > Activity Monitor
Look for:
TouchBar Agent
> ForceQuit it
It will relaunch at full brightness.
Hope this helps.
The Touch Bar doesn't have a brightness control. It is automatically set by the OS, so you can't change it.
Carolyn,
Thanks, but I can't find a way to brighten the touch bar. I can access the system controls as you suggest, adjust screen and keyboard backlight etc, but there seems no way to adjust the brightness of the touch bar itself.
OK, so I walk away from my desk, and return. Now it's up to normal brightness!
Presumably it's linked to a separate ambient light sensor from the screen?
My understanding is there are two brightness levels, automatically set by the OS. There must be a light sensor somewhere, but where, I don't know.
Cover your camera, chances are you have a bright light source behind you...
I REALLY wish there were some manual control over the touch bar brightness. I feel like mine is always too dim. I don't even use it since I barely even see there are options -- if it were brighter I'd notice it more.
Totally agree. I can't believe Apple did not catch this in beta. Touch bar looks great in daylight or under fluorescent lights, but under normal home lighting conditions it fades away to nothing. And worse -- there's nothing we can do about it.
its right next to the front camera ... if you have one of those camera blockers it blocks the sensor and as a result will dim the brightness on the touch-strip. I agree the inability to override this is absolutely infantile.
touch bar really dim- How do I brighten it?
