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I have a new MacBook Pro 13-inch (mid 2012). I have never liked the backlit keyboard. I am completely a touch-typist and I never look down at the keys. I just find the light going on and off to be annoying.

I have heard about Lab Tick, which provides a slider to control the level of the backlight, but what I really want is a command-line defaults write to simply turn the lights off.

Does anyone know of a means to do this?

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1 Answer

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Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard and, in the Keyboard tab, turn off (uncheck) "Automatically illuminate keyboard in low light". Then, if you turn the brightness down all the way, it should never turn on. If you then want it on (say, a friend who is not a touch-typist), just use the brightness keys on the top row.

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Good enough. The lights still come on whenever I log out, and until I log back in again, and when I boot up. I suppose that's the best I can do. – Wheat Williams Jun 13 '12 at 20:31
@WheatWilliams That's odd. I keep my backlight off nearly all the time, and I've never seen that happen. – CajunLuke Jun 13 '12 at 20:40

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