Apple documents how to turn off the glowing MacBook Pro logo
Support doc 149248 says the PROLED MacBook Pro lid logo auto-dims, and Terminal can turn it off.
Workspace · Macfolio · 6 November 2026
Apple published support document 149248 on November 5, 2026, explaining how the illuminated Apple logo works on MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, and how to turn it off. The glowing lid mark returned on these OLED models after years of dark logos. There is still no switch in System Settings. The only official off switch is a Terminal command.
How the logo behaves by default
According to Apple, the logo lights whenever the Mac is awake. Brightness follows the built-in display brightness and the ambient light sensor, so the mark is dimmer in a dark room and brighter in a bright one. That auto behavior is the intended daily setting for most owners.
How to turn illumination off or back on
Apple's steps, for MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display only:
- Open Terminal from Applications, Utilities, or Spotlight
- To turn the logo off, run: "sudo defaults write com.apple.CoreBrightness LEBacklightMode -int 0"
- Enter your administrator password when prompted. Terminal will not echo the password. The logo turns off immediately
- To restore illumination, run: "sudo defaults delete com.apple.CoreBrightness LEBacklightMode"
- Reinstalling macOS also turns illumination back on
Apple notes that the change applies to every macOS user account on that Mac, including macOS Recovery, and that the setting transfers if you migrate to a new Mac. That last point matters if you use Migration Assistant: a dark-logo preference can follow you onto another PROLED MacBook Pro even when you did not mean to keep it.
This does not mean older MacBook Pro models with non-illuminated lids suddenly gain a software light, and it does not add a battery-saver toggle in System Settings. Apple has not published power-draw figures for the logo, so do not treat the Terminal command as a proven way to stretch battery life. It is a visibility control for meetings, theaters, and shared desks.
Our take: if you present in dark rooms or share a desk where a glowing lid is distracting, the Terminal command is a reasonable one-time fix. Prefer leaving auto-dimming alone unless you have a concrete reason, because Apple clearly designed the ambient response as the default. Keep the two commands somewhere you can find them later, since there is still no checkbox in System Settings.
Caveats: we did not run these commands on hardware. Only PROLED XDR MacBook Pro models are covered by document 149248. Treat any third-party "logo tweaks" outside Apple's two commands as unverified.