1504766 - Explicit Dark and Light themes (!= Default theme in OS dark mode) shouldn't honor Windows 10 setting for accent color in title bars

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Theme, defect, P1)

Description

[Caspy7]

Attachment: Correct color for background tabs on Beta

I had held off updating for a few days because of the logout issue, so I'm not sure when this issue might have begun.
I first saw it when updating the morning for build 65.0a1 (2018-11-04).

The focused color of background tabs is light rather than dark. The colors look correct when the window loses focus though.

I tested in a fresh profile in beta and nightly. I've attached screenshots of both.

Comment 1

[Caspy7]

Attachment: Wrong color for background tabs on Nightly

Comment 2

[Caspy7]

I forgot to mention that I'm on Windows 10 with the dark Windows theme set.

Comment 3

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Have you configured Windows to use a gray accent color in title bars?

Comment 4

[Caspy7]

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [::dao] from comment #3)
> Have you configured Windows to use a gray accent color in title bars?

Yes.

Comment 5

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

This is by design then.

Comment 9

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

Reopening this to please reconsider the decision, it seems in contrast with how any other app on the platform behaves.

Summary from bug 1513372 comment 4 and on:

 - It looks like only apps that don't respect dark mode use the accent color.
 - Not a single Windows app uses accent color in dark mode/theme, from Microsoft or anyone else.
 - Settings app did at some point (to some extent?), but in latest build 1809 doesn't (showing direction).
 - Microsoft VS Code recently went the opposite direction from Firefox [3].

 - The original bug was a complaint by a single person (for behavior that's been in Firefox for years),
 - While we've had multiple complains/duplicate bugs in just a few weeks this has been on Nightly/Beta.

Latest screenshots and links:

1) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=9030761
2) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=9030827
3) https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_27#_custom-title-bar-and-menus-on-windows-and-linux


(In reply to Dão Gottwald [::dao] from comment bug 1513372 #7)
> Settings -> Colors -> Show the accent color on the following surfaces ->
> Uncheck "Title bars". I believe it's unchecked by default and you explicitly
> enabled it. Just undo that.

I meant there is no workaround in Firefox.  I don't want to change across the platform, to fix the behavior in the one app (Firefox) which behaves in this exceptional manner.

Comment 10

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie from comment #9)
> Reopening this to please reconsider the decision, it seems in contrast with
> how any other app on the platform behaves.
> 
> Summary from bug 1513372 comment 4 and on:
> 
>  - It looks like only apps that don't respect dark mode use the accent color.
>  - Not a single Windows app uses accent color in dark mode/theme, from
> Microsoft or anyone else.

Explorer does apparently. I think there's a good chance that many apps with a custom title bar ignore this setting because it's off by default. Doesn't mean that that's the right thing to do. Nothing in the color settings suggests that the color the user explicitly chose should only be used in light mode.

>  - While we've had multiple complains/duplicate bugs in just a few weeks
> this has been on Nightly/Beta.

Yes, people will complain when we change something they've grown accustomed to.

We can leave this open for now, but I still think this is wontfix.

Comment 11

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [::dao] from comment #10)
> (In reply to Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie from comment #9)
> > Reopening this to please reconsider the decision, it seems in contrast with
> > how any other app on the platform behaves.
> > 
> > Summary from bug 1513372 comment 4 and on:
> > 
> >  - It looks like only apps that don't respect dark mode use the accent color.
> >  - Not a single Windows app uses accent color in dark mode/theme, from
> > Microsoft or anyone else.
> 
> Explorer does apparently. I think there's a good chance that many apps with
> a custom title bar ignore this setting because it's off by default. Doesn't
> mean that that's the right thing to do. Nothing in the color settings
> suggests that the color the user explicitly chose should only be used in
> light mode.

Also note that these apps don't seem to honor that setting in light mode. They just ignore it completely.

Comment 13

[kit]

Wouldn't it make everyone happy if there were an option to either honor or ignore the OS title bar color?

Comment 14

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to kit from comment #13)
> Wouldn't it make everyone happy if there were an option to either honor or
> ignore the OS title bar color?

Windows already provides that option, and the people complaining here explicitly enabled it...

I'm closing this again given that comment 9 missed some crucial facts.

Comment 15

[PimpUigi]

Explorer does? Really? That's what you're comparing Firefox to?
He's right. There is no workaround in Firefox. People who enable Dark Mode in Firefox expect a black tabs bar and a Winodws 10 honored title bar. When title bar is disabled, the tabs bar should still be black.
When you enable Dark Mode in Edge it sure doesn't honor the Windows 10 accent color.
Explorer though? Really? :S

(In reply to kit from comment #13)
> Wouldn't it make everyone happy if there were an option to either honor or
> ignore the OS title bar color?

Would this really be that hard to implement?

Comment 16

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [::dao] from comment #10)
> Explorer does apparently. 

Sorry I didn't mention Explorer, not because I was cherry-picking my examples, but I simply use a different file manager, and didn't think to check it.


> I think there's a good chance that many apps with
> a custom title bar ignore this setting because it's off by default. Doesn't
> mean that that's the right thing to do. Nothing in the color settings
> suggests that the color the user explicitly chose should only be used in
> light mode.

I think the actual implementation of Color Settings app suggests the accent color *shouldn't* be used in dark mode, as it just got changed from using it, to using it partially (which seemed broken), to not using it in the latest windows update.

IMO, that seems as a pretty strong indicator of intent from Microsoft (as compared to Explorer).


> Yes, people will complain when we change something they've grown accustomed
> to.
> 
> We can leave this open for now, but I still think this is wontfix.

This seems a little dismissive.  This was only changed in response to a single complaint, so I was only contrasting to the amount of feedback from the opposite side.  And as new duplicates seem to be getting filed on a daily basis, users obviously don't expect Firefox to behave this way.


(In reply to Dão Gottwald [::dao] from comment #14)
> I'm closing this again given that comment 9 missed some crucial facts.

I did miss Explorer, but I wouldn't call that "crucial".  Using it as the only example seems like a flimsy argument, since it appears to be simply using some default toolkit, and doesn't look as "intentionally designed" as all the other examples I have listed.

Are you suggesting Microsoft is using Explorer as the best forward-looking example of where it wants Windows design to go?

Comment 17

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [::dao] from comment #14)
> I'm closing this again given that comment 9 missed some crucial facts.

You didn't address actual crucial facts:

 - I listed two explicit design decisions *from Microsoft* in the last 6 months to change the looks of two different apps in dark mode/theme to stop using accent color.

 - Explorer seems like an app that looks that way because of neglect, like nobody bothered to update it yet, and certainly nobody has been designing it recently to align with the addition of dark mode.

Comment 18

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie from comment #16)
> > I think there's a good chance that many apps with
> > a custom title bar ignore this setting because it's off by default. Doesn't
> > mean that that's the right thing to do. Nothing in the color settings
> > suggests that the color the user explicitly chose should only be used in
> > light mode.
> 
> I think the actual implementation of Color Settings app suggests the accent
> color *shouldn't* be used in dark mode, as it just got changed from using
> it, to using it partially (which seemed broken), to not using it in the
> latest windows update.

The app ignores the setting in Light mode too. So no, this doesn't suggest that the accent color shouldn't be used in dark mode. If anything it suggests the accent color shouldn't be used in either mode, but that's at odds with this setting existing in the first place and with you explicitly enabling it.

> > Yes, people will complain when we change something they've grown accustomed
> > to.
> > 
> > We can leave this open for now, but I still think this is wontfix.
> 
> This seems a little dismissive.  This was only changed in response to a
> single complaint, so I was only contrasting to the amount of feedback from
> the opposite side.  And as new duplicates seem to be getting filed on a
> daily basis, users obviously don't expect Firefox to behave this way.

Bugzilla isn't a democracy. The volume is too low either way to draw a meaningful conclusion from that. We take feedback into account but it's not as simple as counting votes.

> (In reply to Dão Gottwald [::dao] from comment #14)
> > I'm closing this again given that comment 9 missed some crucial facts.
> 
> I did miss Explorer, but I wouldn't call that "crucial".  Using it as the
> only example seems like a flimsy argument, since it appears to be simply
> using some default toolkit, and doesn't look as "intentionally designed" as
> all the other examples I have listed.
> 
> Are you suggesting Microsoft is using Explorer as the best forward-looking
> example of where it wants Windows design to go?

I'm suggesting that MS didn't bother supporting this off-by-default setting in apps where it customized the title bar. This is distinctly different from MS deciding that the setting shouldn't be honored in dark mode.

Comment 19

[PimpUigi]

https://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/styles/xlarge_wm_brw/public/field/image/2018/04/fileexplorerdarkmode_0.jpg?itok=ecvqIQR1 

This is what Explorer is going to look like FYI...
You still have not addressed the tabs bar distinctly *not* being the title bar.

Comment 20

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to PimpUigi from comment #19)
> https://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/styles/
> xlarge_wm_brw/public/field/image/2018/04/fileexplorerdarkmode_0.
> jpg?itok=ecvqIQR1 
> 
> This is what Explorer is going to look like FYI...
> You still have not addressed the tabs bar distinctly *not* being the title
> bar.

This is debatable since the window controls are up there, along with page titles. If you look at attachment 9030761 [details], the reason why MS dropped support for the setting in its apps can hardly be that they don't have a title bar, because from the user's perspective they do have one. Whether it's drawn by the OS or the app itself is an implementation detail.

Comment 24

[Kestrel]

The titlebar accent color can be customized with hidden preferences (Bug 1514715), go to about:config, right-click anywhere, choose context menu item New -> String and enter the following name and value pairs according to your theme.

Default theme
ui.-moz-win-accentcolor = #202340
ui.-moz-win-accentcolortext = #f9f9fa

Light theme
ui.-moz-win-accentcolor = #e3e4e6
ui.-moz-win-accentcolortext = #18191a

Dark theme
ui.-moz-win-accentcolor = #0c0c0d
ui.-moz-win-accentcolortext = #f9f9fa

Comment 25

[Tom S [:evilpie]]

Can we please reconsider this? This like the #1 complaint I see about Firefox 65. People using a dark theme want a dark theme and not something else.

Comment 26

[Daan Schulpen]

It would be great if we could have a way to exempt at least the tabs themselves from the windows accent color.

I had windows set up with a rotating desktop background, and automatically matching accent color. And some accent colors make firefox's tabs noticeably harder to read. This isn't an issue for most apps, simply because they don't have anything worth reading in their title bar. And unfortunately, the hidden preferences mentioned by Kestrel above seem to get overwritten whenever the windows accent color changes.

Comment 27

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [::dao] from comment #14)

Windows already provides that option, and the people complaining here
explicitly enabled it...

Windows also has a Dark theme, and yet Firefox supports overriding the global Windows setting. In fact, most users complaining (me included) don't use the global Dark theme, but use the Firefox dark theme explicitly.

In that wain, seems it would make sense to honor the Windows default setting for accent color in the default Firefox theme, but make the explicit Light/Dark themes have light/dark titlebars?

Comment 28

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

Note that the above proposal matches our icons:

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/base/content/defaultthemes/dark.icon.svg
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/mozapps/extensions/content/default-theme-icon.svg

The default icon uses accent color (dark blue in case it's not clear) in the title bar, but Light and Dark don't.

Comment 30

[Tommy]

Another reason that I think it is important that Firefox 65.0 ignore the accent color setting when you set Firefox for something different than the "default" theme (which uses the accent color) is because the latest version of Windows 10 version 1809 has an issue with the accent color. The issue is that this color is now much darker than it was in previous versions of Windows 10, all things being equal.

So for example, if you choose the blue Windows 10 background in Windows 10 version 1803 and below, and then let windows pick an accent color from it, it chooses a moderately light blue for title bars. It will color the tab bar and menu bar on Firefox this nice light shade of blue. And this makes the menu bar text (file, edit, view etc) and the min max close buttons black. It has always done this. But starting with version 1809, it now colors it a very dark blue, and as a result, the menu bar text and min max close buttons are colored white. A completely different look - one that I do not like. If you try and manually change the accent color to a lighter blue, this upsets the color balance in other areas of the operating system. To get around it, I used a combination of the light theme (for the black text and min max buttons) and a userchrome file, and like this, I could duplicate the look. But now, with the light theme having no effect at all with FF 65.0, it no longer works.

I think if we want the accent color look we choose the default theme. If we want another look, say a very light theme look, and we choose the light theme.. it should look different than the default theme. Based on what I have seen, many people allow the accent color to be used for title bars, the start menu and the taskbar. I believe they are selected by default. If that is true, then having a default theme and light theme behave basically the same makes no sense.

I think the assumption should be that people will use the accent color to color windows.

Another issue that I have seen that I have not seen talked about much is that when you add a theme to FF 65.0, restart the browser, there is a slight delay/lag for the theme to take effect. It starts off with the default theme and then one second later it draws the new theme. This should be instant not delayed.

As it turns out, I've decided to stick with using Windows 10 version 1803 and I use the default theme and everything is fine. But not so in the latest version of windows 10.

Comment 31

[Tommy]

Here illustrates a little better what I mean.

So in this first image, with my Windows 10 version 1803 choosing an accent color off a background and applying it to the start menu, action center, task bar and title bar (which may be checked by default) and with Firefox version 65.0 set to "Default theme", with the menu bar enabled, we see this behavior:

https://imgur.com/a/Ypsyk1X

So far so good. This seems reasonable. It's always done this.

Now if we change default theme to light theme in Firefox 65.0, because we want a lighter look say, we see this:

https://imgur.com/a/TlnSMnG

Pretty much the same looking. Essentially there is no light theme. Why even have the option if the Windows 10 accent color, that many people have set to color title bars as well as others areas of the OS, can override it?

Before FF 65.0, if you did that, and changed to light theme, with all other settings the same, you would see this:

https://imgur.com/a/vgUufPD

Notice the light theme, with the menu bar and tabs light instead of the same color blue they are in default theme, like what happens in FF 65.0.

In Windows 10 version 1809, the accent color has changed to a much darker color. In versions 1803 and earlier, I would simply use the default theme since this worked for me. Now with this much darker color we see this:

https://imgur.com/a/Q4MMkaN

To deal with that, I used the light theme plus a userChrome.css file to make it look just like in 1803. But now with light theme not doing hardly anything, it doesn't work since the menu bar text and min max close buttons remain white.

With this new change in Windows accent color behavior, which may work fine in other areas of the operating system... it's only the title bar where the color has changed drastically, its likely many people will look to themes in FF to override this...since they want the rest of the OS colored using the accent color, and themes are no longer behaving in a helpful way.

Even more, like I mentioned, when you set FF 65.0 to use a theme that you can install from mozilla, and restart the browser.. it doesn't show the theme right away (at least for me on 1803/1809).. there is a lag... about one second as far as I can see...at first it shows the default theme then it shows the installed theme... this looks bad. I don't normally use themes (other than trying to deal with 1809 accent color issue) I just happened to notice it... it looks like it has a problem since as far as I can recall the theme should launch instantly not show two themes one after another.

This is not so much an issue for me at the moment since like I said I am using Windows 10 version 1803 and I am using the default theme. But doing anything else and I see the unexpected behaviors above - light theme not working, other themes not launching instantly with the browser etc.

Comment 32

[Tommy]

I should have said to be a little more clear:

"In Windows 10 version 1809, the accent color as it is applied to title bars (but not other areas like start menu, taskbar - these are the same as they have always been etc) has changed to a much darker color"

https://imgur.com/a/Q4MMkaN

I should also mention that if you attempt to customize the accent color to make it lighter like it was version 1803, you upset the other colors that have been applied to task bar, start menu.. you make everything lighter and you lose contrast. So one solution was changing how FF shows with themes.

But this is not really the main point since the main point is regardless of which version of Windows 10 you use, with FF 65.0 themes are not working like they used to whether its light/dark theme not working as normal or themes loading oddly. The accent color in windows 10 setting is used to give the OS a uniform look with a nice color balance. If an app has a setting that allows me to change a color or theme.. then it should work... this is only sensible, other issues aside.

Comment 33

[Kestrel]

• On Linux the light and dark theme override the native titlebar color.
• Win10 titlebar color is tied to border color which makes it easier to see which window is foreground so users may be reluctant to disable.
• Edge, Vivaldi, Opera and Brave do not use accent color for titlebar.
• Internet Explorer uses accent color but with a transparent overlay for tabs which improves readability, does not have built-in dark mode.
• Chrome uses accent color but does not have built-in dark mode, installing a dark theme overrides accent color.

Firefox is unique in having a built-in dark mode that is using the accent color for the titlebar region. Most of the complaints seem to be coming from dark theme users, "dark mode should be dark" seems to be an overwhelming sentiment in bug duplicates, comments and on reddit. The accent color is meant to be highly contrasting which inherently conflicts with the dark theme when not used sparingly.

Comment 34

[Reiner Hormann]

(In reply to Daan Schulpen from comment #26)

It would be great if we could have a way to exempt at least the tabs themselves from the windows accent color.

This exactly!

When I tell my OS to use an accent color for the title bar, then there is no reason to paint inactive tabs altogether.

As a workaround I set browser.tabs.drawInTitlebar to false.

Comment 35

[maksfrai]

Light theme doesn't work as supposed too. Basically both dark and light themes are now broken on some systems under certain circumstances (custom GUI settings, plugins for changing windows' GUI and such).

Comment 36

[loxia_01]

(In reply to Reiner Hormann from comment #34)

(In reply to Daan Schulpen from comment #26)

It would be great if we could have a way to exempt at least the tabs themselves from the windows accent color.

This exactly!

When I tell my OS to use an accent color for the title bar, then there is no reason to paint inactive tabs altogether.

As a workaround I set browser.tabs.drawInTitlebar to false.

Good workaround. Unfortunately this solution only works if you have set the title bar to be shown.

Comment 37

[Kestrel]

Attachment: Cannot easily identify foreground window without titlebar/border accent

Here is an example of how the OS titlebar accent color setting affects native app window borders in dark mode. Note that without the accent it is very difficult to tell which window is foreground active, it only has a slightly darker border and brighter window controls. Some apps such as "Films & TV" make it worse by not changing their window control brightness. Turning off the titlebar/border accent significantly harms accessibility and is clearly not a desirable solution.

Comment 38

[Kestrel]

• The original bug reporter pointed out that the Settings app has an accented titlebar (Bug 1503022 Comment 2) and Firefox should be the same for consistency however this is no longer the case in 1809 with this or other native apps. The reporter also did not express interest in Firefox having a dark theme and was happy to override it so they were not representative of most dark theme users.
• Lightweight persona themes do not allow the titlebar to contrast significantly with the toolbar which is just a transparent overlay so this kind of dark theme was previously impossible.
• Static themes that advertise themselves as being dark generally do not have bright contrasting titlebars.
  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?q=dark&sort=relevance&type=statictheme
• Dark extension themes all prefer dark titlebars (Arc Dark Theme, Zenfox, Night Owl, base16, Nord Theme and QuantumEdge Dark).
• Users have created dark themes that mimic the built-in one specifically to avoid the new titlebar accent (Default Dark Original, Default Dark Theme, Default Dark Fixed, Dark Theme2 with Win10).
• Installing a dark theme is an easy workaround but undermines the value of having one preinstalled and may not be updated with new theme properties as they become available (like the recent dark sidebar).

Dark theme complaints:
Bug 1504766, Bug 1513372, Bug 1514419, Bug 1523678, Bug 1523966, Bug 1524279
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/al0t91/firefox_65_and_tab_bar_color/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/alba41/tab_bar_color_in_firefox_650_is_awful/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/alfb45/new_update_has_ruined_dark_theme_with_the_tab/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/al9d11/dark_theme_issues_with_new_update/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/aloan9/slick_dark_interface_became_blue_overnight/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/amcaoi/why_is_there_my_accent_color_here_instead_of_my/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/ambd8k/disable_windows_colour_setting_on_the_firefox/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/am6k4t/firefox_version_650_built_in_dark_theme_is_not_as/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/an9iuq/firefox_title_bar_turned_blue/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/anbgli/new_dark_theme_titlebar_no_longer_dark/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/ancqei/top_of_my_firefox_is_red_since_yesterday/

Light theme complaints:
Bug 1506183, Bug 1523768
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/al0xpu/light_theme_does_nothing/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/amo6mu/what_happened_to_themes_and_address_bar_with_v65/

Light/dark theme complaints:
Bug 1523327
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/al2f2v/since_ff65_the_lightdark_theme_doesnt_change_the/
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/ang9sa/with_the_recent_update_the_light_and_dark_themes/

Comment 39

[Kestrel]

Reopening since the original UI consistency reason is no longer valid since 1809 and more importantly conflicts with what dark theme users want, as seen in other browsers, the dark themes available and user complaints. Disabling system-wide titlebar/border accents or using other dark themes as workarounds produce inferior results. While the emphasis is on the dark theme since it is most impacted, the light theme also has similar issues.

Comment 40

[Tom S [:evilpie]]

Tim, maybe you can take care of this?

Comment 41

[Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer]]

Any frontend engineer can take a look at this I think, but this pressing issue deserves attention from UX and product, instead.
I agree that Dão and Tim are the most obvious candidates for implementing this change, but let's get some proper, professional, direction here.

Please don't add more to the pile of me-too's, or I'll be forced to restrict comments on this bug - which is a last-resort type of measure.

Peter, Stephen, this seems like an issue that is fairly high-volume from our community. Could you please take a look at the attached screenshots and provide us with a direction to take? Thanks much!

Comment 42

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

The fix would be as simple as removing those lines: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/themes/windows/compacttheme.css#7-17

However, as Mike wisely says, this needs UX/product input :)

Comment 43

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Mike has contacted MS to see if they have plans for supporting the "use accent color in title bars" setting in their own apps or for removing it.

Comment 44

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

Tracking for 66 and following up in email. I'm interested to see if we can improve this for users in 66, though we don't have a lot of time left in 66 beta.

Comment 45

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

MS' design guidelines for color usage mention that the accent color should be used to convey "state information". It doesn't sound like we're following that very well atm.

Comment 46

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Tim Nguyen :ntim from comment #45)

MS' design guidelines for color usage mention that the accent color should be used to convey "state information". It doesn't sound like we're following that very well atm.

The accent color mockups on that page actually show it being used in the title bar. If you're suggesting we should use the accent color /more often/ to convey state information, that seems rather off-topic here.

Comment 47

[PimpUigi]

(In reply to Tim Nguyen :ntim from comment #45)

MS' design guidelines for color usage mention that the accent color should be used to convey "state information". It doesn't sound like we're following that very well atm.

Well certainly not the state of "Dark" or "Light" : (
On the other hand "Default" works just fine. ;p

Comment 48

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

(In reply to Liz Henry (:lizzard) (use needinfo) from comment #44)

Tracking for 66 and following up in email. I'm interested to see if we can improve this for users in 66, though we don't have a lot of time left in 66 beta.

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [::dao] from comment #43)

Mike has contacted MS to see if they have plans for supporting the "use accent color in title bars" setting in their own apps or for removing it.

Since this is on a short schedule, can we change only explicit Dark/Light themes for uplift, and leave the Default in the current state?

We can always align with Microsoft at a later release if we ever get a response, and until then users can choose the one they prefer?

Comment 49

[Aaron Benson]

We need to revert any changes that deviate from these two rules for themes:

• Default should respect the system-level theme settings
• Dark/Light (and any other theme) should override system level themes and apply the styles of that theme

Comment 50

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Aaron Benson from comment #49)

We need to revert any changes that deviate from these two rules for themes:

• Default should respect the system-level theme settings

Should it, though? Note that Default == Light as far as Windows as concerned, and MS ignores the title bar setting in its own apps there as well. So we'd still be inconsistent with MS apps which seems to be the main source of user confusion here.

Comment 51

[kit]

Windows 10 has a system level Light/Dark setting.
Choosing "default" in Firefox should select the Firefox light or dark theme based on the Windows setting.
(which I think is what Aaron was saying)

As opposed to making Firefox default always be the same as "light" on Windows, since that's what Firefox has historical looked like on the platform (which I think is what Dão is saying)

Comment 52

[Aaron Benson]

Yeah, I'm sure.

The intention for themes was always to follow those rules and to help clarify this we're changing the name of Default to Automatic and adding some description text which states the automatic/default theme inherits from the system. This will be handled in another bug.

The main issue here (I think) is that the light/dark themes should not inherit anything and are effectively overrides to the system theme.

Comment 53

[Aaron Benson]

(In reply to kit from comment #51)

Windows 10 has a system level Light/Dark setting.
Choosing "default" in Firefox should select the Firefox light or dark theme based on the Windows setting.
(which I think is what Aaron was saying)

Right. And just to be clear here that selecting light/dark theme in Windows does not mean that the theme setting in Firefox changes. Default inherits the system theme (light or dark) but still shows "Default" as the selected theme.

Comment 54

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Aaron Benson from comment #52)

The main issue here (I think) is that the light/dark themes should not inherit anything and are effectively overrides to the system theme.

That's one scenario, but Default/Automatic also silently enables the Dark theme when the OS is in Dark mode. Now, Windows doesn't care about whether it's in Dark or Light mode when it comes to the title bar setting -- it's always offered but never respected in most MS apps, but when it is respected it applies in both Light and Dark mode. So why should Default/Automatic respect the setting in Windows Light mode and not in Windows Dark mode?

Comment 55

[Aaron Benson]

Yeah there are some conflicts and we would like it to work this way. We have some thoughts on how to make it more clear to the user what's happening. Will file follow up bugs for those.

Comment 56

[Aaron Benson]

In the meantime, please revert any changes that don’t let the dark/light themes override the system theme settings (including the title bar accent color).

Comment 57

[PimpUigi]

What about just an option checkbox to inherit the accent color or not?

Comment 58

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: Bug 1504766 - Let explicit Dark and Light themes ignore the Windows 10 setting for accent color in title bars. r=ntim

Comment 59

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

kmag or aswan, review ping? We'd like to get this done asap as we want to uplift.

Comment 60

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/db927eedd355
Let explicit Dark and Light themes ignore the Windows 10 setting for accent color in title bars. r=ntim,Gijs

Comment 61

[Natalia Csoregi [:nataliaCs]]

Backed out for multiple failures e.g browser_ext_management_themes.js

backout: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/5bd82b961200389233b8579eed5713fc3cc649cd

push with failures: https://treeherder.mozilla.org/#/jobs?repo=autoland&revision=db927eedd3559216703d4978f8c6180cf2105733&group_state=expanded

failure log: https://treeherder.mozilla.org/logviewer.html#/jobs?job_id=229387411&repo=autoland&lineNumber=8195

22:10:26 INFO - TEST-PASS | toolkit/components/extensions/test/browser/browser_ext_management_themes.js | webextension theme installed -
22:10:26 INFO - Buffered messages finished
22:10:26 INFO - TEST-UNEXPECTED-FAIL | toolkit/components/extensions/test/browser/browser_ext_management_themes.js | LWT disabled - Got Default, expected Bling
22:10:26 INFO - Stack trace:
22:10:26 INFO - chrome://mochikit/content/browser-test.js:test_is:1315
22:10:26 INFO - chrome://mochitests/content/browser/toolkit/components/extensions/test/browser/browser_ext_management_themes.js:test_management_themes:131
22:10:26 INFO - chrome://mochikit/content/browser-test.js:Tester_execTest/<:1106
22:10:26 INFO - chrome://mochikit/content/browser-test.js:Tester_execTest:1134
22:10:26 INFO - chrome://mochikit/content/browser-test.js:nextTest/<:995
22:10:26 INFO - chrome://mochikit/content/tests/SimpleTest/SimpleTest.js:SimpleTest.waitForFocus/waitForFocusInner/focusedOrLoaded/<:803
22:10:26 INFO - Bling was disabled
22:10:26 INFO - TEST-PASS | toolkit/components/extensions/test/browser/browser_ext_management_themes.js | addon is theme - Expected: theme, Actual: theme -

Other permafailures:
https://treeherder.mozilla.org/logviewer.html#/jobs?job_id=229388473&repo=autoland&lineNumber=1637
https://treeherder.mozilla.org/logviewer.html#/jobs?job_id=229389925&repo=autoland&lineNumber=2696
https://treeherder.mozilla.org/logviewer.html#/jobs?job_id=229390882&repo=autoland&lineNumber=1883

Comment 62

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Natalia Csoregi [:nataliaCs] from comment #61)

Backed out for multiple failures e.g browser_ext_management_themes.js

Sigh. The getStringPref("selectedThemeID", DEFAULT_THEME_ID) calls are bogus, but since fixing them isn't required for this bug, I restored them now to get this landed. Doesn't matter much, I guess, since LightweightThemeManager.jsm is going away.

Comment 63

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/bcd9f3e73031
Let explicit Dark and Light themes ignore the Windows 10 setting for accent color in title bars. r=ntim,Gijs

Comment 64

[Cosmin Sabou [:CosminS]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/bcd9f3e73031

Comment 65

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

ni? for uplift

Comment 66

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Waiting for verification in Nightly.

Comment 67

[ovidiu boca[:Ovidiu]]

We tested it on Windows 10 x64(dark mode on) with a Nightly 67.0a1(2019-02-15) and with the latest Nightly 67.0a1(2019-02-22)but we didn't see any differences in the title bar section.

Comment 68

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to ovidiu boca[:Ovidiu] from comment #67)

We tested it on Windows 10 x64(dark mode on) with a Nightly 67.0a1(2019-02-15) and with the latest Nightly 67.0a1(2019-02-22)but we didn't see any differences in the title bar section.

What steps did you follow? Did you enable Windows' "Use accent color in title bar" option?

Comment 69

[ovidiu boca[:Ovidiu]]

We enabled it as you suggested and also Dark theme(the Windows) is selected, but we don't see any differences between the builds from Nightly 67.0a1(2019-02-15) and Nightly 67.0a1(2019-02-22)

Comment 70

[ovidiu boca[:Ovidiu]]

We did some exploratory and I think we figured out what are the steps here:

STR:

1. Enable Windows' "Use accent colour in title bar" option
2. Set the browser to the dark theme
3. When you focus the browser the title bar colour remains dark. (black)

With the Nightly 67.0a1(2019-02-15) build the title bar colour is the same as the accent colour from Windows when the browser window is in focus.
With the Nightly 67.0a1(2019-02-22) build the title bar colour remains dark when the browser window is in focus, as expected.

Dão, please confirm if the above is correct.

Comment 71

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

That's correct.

Comment 72

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Comment on attachment 9043834 [details]
Bug 1504766 - Let explicit Dark and Light themes ignore the Windows 10 setting for accent color in title bars. r=ntim

Beta/Release Uplift Approval Request

Feature/Bug causing the regression

bug 1503022

User impact if declined

it's complicated... (see this bug's history)

Is this code covered by automated tests?

No

Has the fix been verified in Nightly?

Yes

Needs manual test from QE?

Yes

If yes, steps to reproduce

see comment 70

List of other uplifts needed

none

Risk to taking this patch

Low

Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky)

It's not a super simple CSS-only fix but in the end it's still pretty straightforward

String changes made/needed

none

Comment 73

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

Comment on attachment 9043834 [details]
Bug 1504766 - Let explicit Dark and Light themes ignore the Windows 10 setting for accent color in title bars. r=ntim

Verified in nightly, OK for uplift for beta 11.
Looks great, thank you!

Comment 74

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

Maybe worth a release note - what do you think?

Comment 75

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Don't think so. That users need to enable this obscure Windows setting that is ignored by many apps, and then also enable the dark theme in Firefox, makes this an edge case. Though if SUMO folks can confirm that this is a high volume issue (AFAIK so far they haven't), we could reconsider.

Comment 76

[Cristian Brindusan [:cbrindusan]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/b9fe883c6c1e

Comment 77

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

It was reported at the channel meeting a few times that this was the top complaint for the 65 release and there are also seven duplicate bugs - that's fairly indicative of this being a big issue for at least those folks.

Comment 78

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

This still sounds rather vague. Yes, a bug being filed means it's an issue for the person filing it. Seven bugs being filed doesn't mean much except that seven people cared enough to file a bug. A bug reporter can represent millions of other users or nobody else or anything in between. What does top complaint mean in absolute numbers? Was 65 a relatively calm or rocky release?

Anyway, please feel free to add this to the release notes if you consider this noteworthy enough. I wasn't in the channel meeting so you know more about that than I do.

Comment 79

[ovidiu boca[:Ovidiu]]

I verified this on Beta 20190304101322 on Windows 10 x64 and I can confirm the fix.

Comment 80

[Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer]]

Discussed and agreed with Dão that he will contact MS about this issue.

Comment 81

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

Added a release note. Fixed: The Dark and Light Firefox themes now override the system setting for title bar accent color on Windows 10