The new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with the Apple M1 chip have been around for a while, and everyone seems to love Apple’s new processor and its capabilities. While Apple has kept more or less the same design for the new MacBooks, there is one significant change. The Cupertino giant has removed hotkeys for adjusting keyboard brightness and replaced them with Spotlight, DND and Dictation shortcuts. So, if you are wondering how to change keyboard backlight brightness, here is how to adjust keyboard brightness on M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.
Change Keyboard Brightness on M1 MacBook Air and Pro
Although Apple has removed the hotkeys, there are many ways to adjust the keyboard brightness on your new M1 MacBook. In this post, we will discuss all the methods to toggle keyboard lighting and turn keyboard light on and off on MacBook Air M1. We will also tell you how you can get these hotkeys back on your new Mac.
As always, you can use the table of contents below to jump to any part of this article.
Adjust Keyboard Brightness with Control Center
The easiest way to change the backlight on your Mac keyboard is through the Control Center in macOS Big Sur. Here’s what you need to do.
- Click the Control Center icon in the menu bar.
- Click on ‘Keyboard Brightness’
- Drag the slider to adjust the keyboard brightness on your M1 MacBook Air/Pro.
Add Keyboard Brightness Adjustment to Menu Bar
If you need to adjust the keyboard brightness on your Apple laptop very often, doing so via the Control Center can be a lot of work. In that case, you can add the brightness menu to your Mac’s menu bar.
- Click the Control Center icon in the menu bar.
- Drag and drop the ‘Keyboard Brightness’ option into your menu bar.
As an alternaive, ‘System Preferences -> Dock and Menu Bar -> Keyboard Brightness‘ and enable the checkbox next to ‘Show in Menu Bar’.
You can now click this icon in the menu bar to change the keyboard brightness without going to the Control Center every time.
Undo Keyboard Brightness Hotkeys on M1 MacBook
If you want to use keyboard hotkeys to adjust brightness on your Mac, you can do that too. However, this takes some work. Here’s what you need to do.
- Install Carabiner Elements (Free) on your MacBook and run.
- Your Mac may show you an error saying ‘System Extension Blocked’. Click on ‘Open Security Preferences’.
- Click the lock icon and enter your passcode or use Touch ID to unlock.
- Now, click ‘Allow’.
- Launch the Karabiner Elements application and click the ‘Open Security & Privacy System Preferences’ button in the popup that appears on the screen.
- Enable both ‘karabiner_observer’ and ‘karabiner_grabber’.
- Quit and restart Karabiner Elements. Click on ‘Function Keys’ in the top navigation bar. You will find that it toggles F5 and F6 to decrease and increase the illumination of your Mac keyboard.
You can now use F5 and F6 to adjust keyboard brightness on your M1 MacBook. Meanwhile, Karabiner automatically changes the F4 key to ‘Launchpad’. If you prefer to keep it for Spotlight only, you can easily change it from the Karabiner Elements app.
Note: You can use Karabiner Elements to remap your Mac keyboard pretty much the way you want.
Disable Auto-Brightness for Keyboard Backlight
By default, your Mac automatically adjusts the keyboard brightness in low-light conditions. This is actually good for improving battery life, but if you don’t want this to happen on its own, here’s how you can disable the feature.
- Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard.
- Uncheck the box that says ‘Adjust keyboard brightness in low light’.
This much. Your Mac will no longer automatically adjust the keyboard brightness for you.
Easily Adjust Keyboard Brightness on Your Mac
These were the methods you can use to change the keyboard brightness on your new M1 MacBook. Personally, I feel it’s a bit too much to use Karabiner Elements, but that’s usually because I don’t adjust the keyboard brightness very often. Going into Control Center and adjusting keyboard brightness works fine for me.
What about you? Are you satisfied with the new way of adjusting the keyboard brightness on your laptop? Or do you prefer custom hotkeys instead? Let us know in the comments.
