Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Lolu chungechunge lwabekwa kunqolobane. Uyacelwa ubuze umbuzo omusha uma udinga usizo.

Dark screen and menus

more options

My current Theme is Dark Fox. But, previously my backgrounds and menus were all white and easy to read. Now for some reason they're black and difficult for me to deal with.

How do I reset to white and sync them on all my devices?

My current Theme is Dark Fox. But, previously my backgrounds and menus were all white and easy to read. Now for some reason they're black and difficult for me to deal with. How do I reset to white and sync them on all my devices?

All Replies (11)

more options

You can fix that by selecting a theme that has dark text on the tabs instead of light text.

You can change this pref on the about:config page from 3 to 2 to revert to the Firefox 94 behavior.

  • layout.css.prefers-color-scheme.content-override [dark:0, light:1, system:2, browser:3]

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.

more options

Sorry, but none of this helped. Click here there click. Can't even find these places. Might by dumping Firefox if I can't tolerate the view after years of use and lots of donations.

more options

WARNING from the moderator team: Changing Firefox pref from the about:config page can sometimes break Firefox or cause strange behavior. You should only do this if you know what you're doing.

Please read Firefox Advanced Customization and Configuration Options to learn more.

Do you currently use a dark theme in Windows?

I think that Firefox might be theming pages based on that setting.

more options

My windows theme has always been personalized and I've never changed it. it has nothing to do with Firefox. Firefox loaded in an update and for whatever the reason it changed my background from light to dark. THAT is where the issue began.

All I'm getting here is a run around.

more options

Just to confirm, this is related to last weeks' update:

Firefox 96 now harmonizes more parts of Firefox with your toolbar theme:

  • Text on background tabs is light/white => Firefox uses a dark background on menus, the sidebar, the Library window, and various built-in pages
  • Text on background tabs is dark/black => Firefox uses a light background on menus, the sidebar, the Library window, and various built-in pages

Therefore, the fastest workaround for now (until there is a better option) is to change your theme to one that uses dark text. That doesn't need to be blinding, it can have a colored background. As examples:

Alternately, if you want to delve into unofficial, community-supported userChrome.css modifications, there are some options for lightening the menus that way. (https://www.userchrome.org/firefox-89-styling-proton-ui.html#menucolors)

more options

Reading this, I have to wonder if the kids who are designing Firefox updates (for surely they must be young, possess good eyesight, and unable to think outside the box) realize what a problem they have created for millions of people who have poor eyesight, including elderly. Yes, contrary to what many young kids (under 30) think, older people DO use computers. However, many older people also have eyesight problems, which generally start to kick in around 40+. One of these problems is the inability to read content when the background is dark and the text is either white, or even worse, grey.

I have been using the same theme for years. Why? Because I LIKE it. The newer themes offered are god-awful, butt-ugly and imo, devoid of aesthetic value, which is entirely subjective, I realize. For some reason younger people seem to really like this "dark mode" and when it started with just a few drop down menus, it was annoying, but now even POCKET is so dark I can't use it in Firefox anymore.

So here's the thing. I'm not going to switch my theme to something ugly as sin, because I won't use Firefox if I do. Simple as that. However, I also won't continue to use Firefox if I can't read the drop down menus or can't use anything on the toolbar, like bookmarks, history, pocket, etc. It's a matter of functionality and aestheticism. One should not exclude the other; it should be possible to have both. And of course, we know that Firefox used to be able to provide this more aesthetically pleasing browser with the ability for those with impaired eyesight to fully access the drop down menus and toolbar functionality.

It was the children who work at Firefox who took it away, so I suggest the parents give them a good spanking, send them to bed without their supper, and fix the problem so the rest of us don't have to simply abandon Firefox entirely.

I'm on the verge. Not because I want to, but because Firefox Kids are forcing me to.

Once that's sunk in, I hope the older folks with a more general knowledge of what it's like to experience the aging process, or those who may be visually challenged due to medical or other physical conditions, and realize that for those of us who fall into those categories, Firefox has become a logistical nightmare which we can no longer navigate with any semblance of former productivity.

Please fix this hatchet job that is now called Firefox 102.0.

more options

Hi kentuckywoman2, this thread is from the Firefox 96 release. In Firefox 100, a new set of controls was added to the Settings page. See whether this article helps you get the light theme you want for your web page area:

Change website appearance settings in Firefox

If you need color changes in the toolbar area, I don't think that will make any difference.

What theme are you using that you like so much? Maybe there is a way to add a few tweaks to resolve the menu coloration issue.

more options

I have no problem with the web pages, it's the toolbar drop-down menus, etc. Even Pocket is in dark mode now. But as I said, the problem is that I cannot read the white text on black background very well. And sometimes the text is grey on a black background, making it literally impossible to read at all.

I've been using a very old theme for probably 20 years or so; it's called Fantasy of Lights - Northern Lights Series 1. And yes, it does have white icons on the toolbar and tabs, but the background is kind of a light-med greenish color, but it's sky and trees, so I really don't have a problem recognizing the icons or words, maybe because there's not such a stark contrast between the colors, I don't know.

Firefox should just allow their customers/users to decide whether they want dark or light mode drop down menus. It seems to me that would be less complicated than allowing the theme to dictate it.

more options

Thanks, I see this theme was last updated in 2019. What it needs, if users prefer light menus, is a new properties section in its manifest. If the author is willing, that's an easy fix -- the bolded part here:

    "theme": {
        "images": {
            "theme_frame": "NorthernLightsFantasy.jpg"
        }, 
        "colors": {
            "frame": "#ffffff", 
            "tab_background_text": "#ffffff"
        },
        "properties": {
            "color_scheme": "light",
            "content_color_scheme": "auto"
        }
    }


I don't know whether it's possible to contact the author for that, or whether a new version needs to be submitted to the Add-ons site for download.

more options

I'm not sure if it's possible to contact the author, either, but I suppose I can take a look at what it says in the theme. Thanks. However, I still think it would be easier for Firefox/Mozilla to fix.

I have found that going to about:config and then to the browser.theme.toolbar-theme and changing the value from 0 to 1 will resolve the issue until the browser is closed. However, when the browser is reopened, it reverts to the default 0 and has to be reset. I've now tried to edit it from 0 to 2, so I'll see what happens. But if tweaking it at all has an effect, then I would think for sure that this would be an easy fix for Mozilla Firefox, IF they had the will to do so.

more options

The browser.theme.toolbar-theme preference is updated to match your toolbar colors every time you open a new window or change themes. It was not designed to be a preference we can use to tell Firefox what we want.