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It doesn't appear to have any effect whether it is checked or not, but the setting in Karabiner-Elements does matter. keys as standard function keys" option is checked here.
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You may notice in the screenshot that the "Use F1, F2, etc. Go to the macOS keyboard preferences menu (System Preferences > Keyboard), and uncheck it. To fix this, you need to disable the "Adjust keyboard brightness in low light" setting. Oddly enough, whether it works or not depends on the ambient lighting in the room. keys as standard function keys" if it's checked.į5 and F6 should now attempt to change the the keyboard brightness, but they don't always work, and sometimes you get an icon with a 🚫 flash on the screen (see this GitHub issue for details). To do so, please follow the steps below: Turn off the keyboard by removing the battery. With that, it will refresh the connection of your device. You can try to fix this by performing a power cycle. With Karabiner-Elements open, click on the "Function keys" tab, and set f5 to illumination_down and f6 to illumination_up. It seems that your keyboard is having a network issue with your computer due to unstable power or connection.
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I can't remember exactly which, but you should be prompted to enable them when you open the app. Since it needs to see your keystrokes and modify them, you'll need to enable some accessibility permissions. Install with Homebrew brew install karabiner-elements This worked for me on an M1 Macbook Air (2020), running macOS 11.2.1 Big Sur, and the version of Karabiner-Elements I have right now is 13.3.0. If you want to be able to adjust the keyboard backlight with F5 and F6 again, you can install Karabiner-Elements to remap the keys.
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