Apple explains how to turn off the glowing logo on the new MacBook Pro

While the illuminated Apple logo on the new MacBook Pro garnered one of the biggest cheers during last week’s announcement, Apple knows not everyone will want to keep it. Here’s the company’s official guide to disabling it.

How to turn off the Apple logo light

The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display marks the return of the illuminated Apple logo on its lid after a decade.

As Chance Miller explained in his review of the new MacBook Pro, “unlike older MacBooks, which used light from the screen backlight to illuminate the logo, the new OLED MacBook Pro has no backlight, requiring a different approach.”

He added that, as with older Macs, logo brightness is tied to screen brightness, although it also takes into account overall ambient brightness. He also noted that “when the MacBook Pro is closed, the logo looks like polished metal, as it has since the 2016 redesign.”

The review echoes some of the findings shared by developer Gui Rambo on X a few days ago:

Now, Apple has released an official support document that also explains how the glowing logo works and how to turn it off completely.

Here is Apple:

The Apple logo behind the built-in display lights up whenever the Mac is woken up. It automatically dims or brightens based on the brightness level of the built-in display and lighting conditions detected by the computer’s ambient light sensor. For all screen brightness levels, the Apple logo will be dimmer in a dark room and brighter in a bright room.

For users who prefer to keep the logo disabled at all times, Apple explains that they can run the following command in Terminal, provided they have the administrator password:

sudo defaults write com.apple.CoreBrightness LEBacklightMode -int 0

To cancel the command and have the logo illuminated again, users will need to execute the following command:

sudo defaults delete com.apple.CoreBrightness LEBacklightMode

Apple notes that reinstalling macOS will also re-enable the logo lighting.

To read Apple’s full support article, follow this link. And be sure to read 9to5Mac’s review of the new MacBook Pro as well.

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