Hello. I use macbook pro m4 max, MacOS 26.2. I got interface problems in the common MacOS application when I change MacOS theme between Light and Dark. Some interface elements remain in the previous theme. Does anyone have similar problems? You can see it when MacOS automatically changes theme on sunset/sunrise or manually.
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 26.2
It's strange, because neither of the two seems right - particularly the grey stuff in the toolbar does not match either mode.
Does it only happen when the change is done automatically? What if you manually change to Dark, or to Light?
Here is what I see in Dark Mode:
and in Light Mode:
Do you have any 3rd party extension/utilities installed that alter appearance? I cannot replicate what you're seeing by playing with Appearance and Accessibility > Display options.
See if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode, which disables 3rd party extensions and performs some system cleanup.
Full screen does not seem to make a difference for me. Having said that, in playing around with the Appearance (theme and Liquid Glass) settings and the Accessibility > Display settings (contact and transparency), I did see something like what you describe in the settings window. I saw it twice, actually...the first time the settings name (title at the top of the pane) was gone entirely, the second time the title remained but the navigation buttons had an inappropriate background shading. In both cases, quitting and relaunching the System Settings app fixed the issue (the right side is 'normal').
I will note that this was not reproducible for me – it happened twice among a whole bunch of settings changes.
There have been lots of graphical bugs with light/dark theme and icon/widget style, e.g. for a while the Clock app in the Dock had white hands on a white face so they could not be seen. I suspect this is another example of this.
Bugs can be reported to Apple here:
It would be most helpful if you can list the steps to reproduce the issue in the report you file with Apple. I could not find a reproducible set of them on my Mac.
You can manually change theme in settings and immediately check some applications like safari, mail, finder. I got the problem every time.
Check your accessibility settings. I've seen many people report strange contrast problems in macOS26.
I've checked it in safe mode - the same. Note: I use the applications in fullscreen mode. For window mode works fine.
Interface problems on changing Light and Dark theme
