Xcode 26 on macOS 26 with a Dark theme in Light Mode

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Created Oct ’25

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Is anyone else using one of the "Dark" editor themes (such as "Default (Dark)" or "Classic (Dark)" in Xcode? And is anyone doing this with Xcode 26 on macOS 26?

Here's the result while using the "Default (Dark)" theme while my Mac is in "light" mode:

Note that the black background of the editor goes all the way to the far left edge of the Xcode window. The large gray area in the project tree is the black background bleeding through the sidebar.

This is really distracting. Is there a way to fix this (besides not using a dark theme - I've been using dark themes for over 30 years)? This appears to be a poor design decision in macOS 26 to have split views show the background of the secondary column behind the primary column. iPadOS 26 has the same issue (see https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/800073).

Answer 1

artecolote OP

2d

you can turn off transparency, or change the window tint option in system preferences.

I actually don't mind it but it gets really bad in xcode 27 beta. if you have a dark theme editor in light mode app, the whole window interface is fully transparent so it will display black except for the navigator, but also the interface text won't flip to white so it will be invisible.

essentially you will have to switch to fully dark mode, or use a light theme for light mode. i really really hate dark mode, it is so disorienting to me. i have a hard time distinguishing where windows start and end. but then i also don't like light themes for editors as colorful text doesn't pop out as well.

the future is dim