How to switch dark mode on and off quickly on Mac

What dark mode changes, and what it doesn’t

Dark mode turns the Mac’s own interface dark — the menu bar, the Dock, windows, sidebars and menus — along with every app that follows the system setting, which includes Apple’s apps and most others. Websites follow it only if they were built to. Many are; many still show a white page in a dark browser.

It’s one setting for the whole Mac. macOS has no way to keep one app light while the rest go dark. Where you see that happen, the app has its own appearance or theme setting, usually with a choice that follows the system and choices that don’t.

It isn’t Night Shift, either. Night Shift, in System Settings → Displays, warms the colours of the whole screen in the evening: it changes the tint, not which parts are light or dark. The two are independent, and you can use either or both.

Every way to switch it with what macOS gives you

System Settings. Open System Settings → Appearance and choose Light, Dark or Auto. It has every option, and it’s the slowest route for a quick change.

Control Center. Click Control Center in the menu bar, open the Display controls and click Dark Mode. Two or three clicks, with the button tucked in among the brightness controls.

Auto. Choose Auto in Appearance and the Mac switches on its own as the day goes on. That suits you if you want it to follow the time of day. It’s no help when what changed is the room — a meeting under bright lights, a dark train in the afternoon.

Terminal. osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to tell appearance preferences to set dark mode to not dark mode' flips the appearance either way. The first time, macOS asks whether Terminal may control System Events.

Make your own dark mode keyboard shortcut

macOS doesn’t come with a shortcut, but the Shortcuts app can make one in a minute.

Build the shortcut. Open Shortcuts and make a new shortcut. Search the actions for Appearance and add Set Appearance. Set it to toggle where your version offers that, so the same shortcut switches both ways; otherwise make two shortcuts, one set to Dark and one to Light.

Give it a key. Open the shortcut’s details with the info button and choose Add Keyboard Shortcut, then press the keys you want. Pick a combination no app already uses — three modifiers and a letter is usually free — or put it on a Caps Lock Hyper key, whose ⌃⌥⇧⌘ combinations no app claims.

Or keep it a click away. In the same details, Pin in Menu Bar puts the shortcut in a Shortcuts menu at the top of the screen, and Spotlight runs any shortcut when you type its name.

A keyboard shortcut is something a mouse can press too. If your mouse has a spare button, give that button the shortcut and dark mode is one click without touching the keyboard.

Switching from the menu bar with MacFixes

MacFixes’ Quick toggles put dark mode in its menu bar panel, next to three other things macOS buries: hiding the desktop icons, ejecting disks and emptying the Trash. Open the panel and click. There’s nothing to build and no key to remember, which suits you if you switch a few times a day rather than dozens.

Some toggles ask for Automation permission the first time you use them; the section below says what that permission allows and where to take it back.

The same card helps before a screen share or a presentation: hide your desktop icons in one click and bring them back after. And if you’re about to unplug from a dock, eject every disk at once first.

When something doesn’t switch

One app stays light, or stays dark. Look in that app’s own settings for Appearance or Theme and choose the option that follows the system. An app with only a fixed light or dark theme won’t follow at all.

A website stays white. The site doesn’t offer a dark version, and the browser shows what it’s given. Browser extensions can darken sites that don’t, which is a browser choice rather than a macOS one.

It switches back on its own. Appearance is set to Auto, so the Mac follows the time of day. Choose Light or Dark in System Settings → Appearance to keep it where you put it.

The wallpaper doesn’t match. Some of Apple’s wallpapers have a light and a dark version and change with the appearance; others are a single picture. Pick one that changes in System Settings → Wallpaper if you want the desktop to follow.

Permissions, and turning it off

More fixes macOS doesn’t give you

One of 47 fixes and 10 apps in MacFixes. Every fix · Every app · Something else your Mac won’t do? Request it.