19

I prefer light windows with dark menu bar as in High Sierra. However, it seems I can only choose all-dark or all-light in Mojave now. Are there any way to hybrid or customize it?

3 Answers 3

15

Try this:

defaults write -g NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool Yes

Then logout or restart. Then go to the system preferences and select dark mode. It will make top bar and dock dark while everything else in light mode.

To revert it back:

defaults write -g NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool No

EDIT: Please also have a look on the answers bellow, they are needed in order to make other parts working, like notification center & spotlight. Run all of the commands, and then logout. Still missing the trash can color :)

6
  • 3
    Thanks! It works, but my spotlight is still in light mode and my trash bin is dark lol
    – Jay Wang
    Sep 25, 2018 at 14:55
  • 2
    If anyone knows a way to make only the menu bar dark (and not the dock), please post the solution
    – Mason Lee
    Sep 25, 2018 at 21:49
  • 1
    Unfortunately this breaks the sidebar colours and makes part of it unreadable
    – toryan
    Sep 27, 2018 at 23:19
  • 2
    To revert it back by deleting the setting instead of overwriting: defaults delete -g NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance
    – Blaise
    Oct 4, 2018 at 7:21
  • 2
    @ChrisLundie above: I can still join Zoom.us meetings and Firefox respects my theme (but I have custom colors installed). My main issue is that the volume up/down overlay has unreadable (black on black) volume blocks.
    – Blaise
    Nov 12, 2019 at 9:33
7

Apologies for making a separate answer but I didn't have enough reputation to comment.

The accepted answer works for getting the menu bar and dock to be dark but leaves the Notification Center sidebar really difficult to see. In order to make Notification Center readable again, do:

defaults write com.apple.notificationcenterui NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool No
2
  • I am using 'reduce transparency', some text of today widget is not readable anyway (img attached). Is there any method to use a light notification center like in 10.13? imgur.com/a/XwaDATz
    – amdyes
    Jan 24, 2019 at 9:59
  • Is there any way to make the trash bin not black..?
    – nkkollaw
    Jun 8, 2019 at 21:31
5

Try this:

defaults write com.apple.Spotlight NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool No

PS: Remember reboot or logout

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .