Chosen Solution

Hello, My macbook pro retina 15’’ is having a keyboard backlight issue. When I boot my macbook, the backlight lights up but for about 2 seconds then shuts off right away… Then nothing happens, tried SMC and PRAM Reset, went into the system preferences, My F5 and F6 keys are working well because I can see I am changing the backlight illumination on my screen. I have manage to make it work recently by closing the lid and when I open it back up, I can make the backlight work for the first 3 bars of adjustment on the screen with the F keys. If I go above those 3 bars, the keyboard backlight stop working again and I cant make it work by lowering the power again under the 3 bars I was talking about. Macbook has never been water damage and is fully functional. Every thing has been replugged on the motherboard. Let me know if you guys have seen this problem before, any help will be greatly appreciated. Not the biggest issue but would be nice to have this thing working back again. Cheers! Note: I have restored the OS to the factory settings as well, started from scratch. Doesn’t seem to be a software issue. Tomorrow I will try again to de-plug and re-plug the backlight flex + try another one as well to see if its stabilizing.

Please go here, enter your serial number from the back of the machine and check to see if your machine is the early or late 2013 15" MacBook Pro. https://checkcoverage.apple.com If it is the Early 2013 it may be eligible for this repair extension program: https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro

Keyboard backlight switches off when daylight is above a certain level. This daylight is measured by the webcam. Is there a chance that, when you make your tests, some keyboard backlight hit the webcam and make the motherboard think the ambiant light is enough? Can you try covering the webcam with black tape and test again?

Resetting SMC helped me to restore backlight on MacBook Pro 2016: http://osxdaily.com/2010/03/24/when-and-