1971487 - Sidebar text has changed from white to black for some themes resulting in low contrast with dark background

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Theme, defect, P1)

Description

[Kestrel]

Attachment: Sidebar text contrast comparison with Colorful Abstract Neon theme

STR:

1. Install Colorful Abstract Neon theme (22,133 users).
2. Open the bookmarks sidebar (Ctrl+B).

Expected:
Sidebar text is light with good contrast against dark background.

Actual:
Sidebar text is black with low contrast against dark background.

Search textbox also changed from dark to white.

New sidebars not affected, history sidebar affected with sidebar.revamp = false.

Regression window:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=a3ce95c88b35238208165e94db12f6b0d970a8cc&tochange=b8fa32e6c490b9b978c64b704fd8ceeb5d1f987d

Regressed by Bug 1968040.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

:dao, since you are the author of the regressor, bug 1968040, could you take a look? Also, could you set the severity field?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 2

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

:hjones could this be triaged? We are already in RC for Fx140, do we need to keep this on the radar for a ride along.

Comment 3

[Hanna Jones [:hjones]]

:emilio I'm curious if this might have the same root cause and fix as bug 1971273?

Comment 4

[Kestrel]

Since Bug 1971273 landed the scope has expanded, now all sidebars are affected including the new ones.

Regression window:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=f50011f5fabdd20fcf236c2a64cfe2560ff96712&tochange=10864b035131b9085c25c652161998a443093108

Regressed by Bug 1971273.

Comment 5

[Kestrel]

Attachment: New customize sidebar settings with low contrast black text

Comment 6

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Hmm, with bug 1971273, the changes from bug 1968040 seem to have become irrelevant for things like the customize sidebar doc and the bookmarks sidebar? So I guess this isn't my regression anymore? :)

Comment 7

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

They are not irrelevant. That rule still applies and is the root cause of the issue afaict. But seems easy to write a quick fix for it pre-soft-freeze, at least.

Comment 8

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

Attachment: Bug 1971487 - Prevent unthemed sidebars with themed browsers from forcing a light color scheme. r=dao,#sidebar-reviewers

This is a targetted fix intended to land pre-soft-freeze.

The issue is that contentTheme sets lwtheme, so anything that imports
global.css and uses contentTheme.js now gets a light color scheme.

Comment 9

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

Attachment: Bug 1971487 - Stop setting lwtheme attribute in contentTheme.js, and revert the previous patch. r=#theme

This is to land after the soft freeze.

I added this for bug 1877298, and since then we stopped trying to do
what that bug was doing.

Now it's unused, and after the regressing bug it causes problems,
because the presence of a theme is not indicative of whether the page
should itself be themed (that's for [lwt-{sidebar,newtab}] attributes to
decide).

Comment 10

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/09ba48590299
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/42f3095b4fe8
Prevent unthemed sidebars with themed browsers from forcing a light color scheme. r=dao,desktop-theme-reviewers

Comment 11

[agoloman]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/42f3095b4fe8

Comment 12

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/4bc0dcd80faf
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b9cb5d3dd933
Stop setting lwtheme attribute in contentTheme.js, and revert the previous patch. r=desktop-theme-reviewers,dao

Comment 13

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/ba8589eefd26
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/290ce586663d
Fix tests.

Comment 14

[Sandor Molnar[:smolnar]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/b9cb5d3dd933
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/290ce586663d

Comment 15

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

Bug 1973767 is possibly a duplicate of this?
:emilio, could you add a release/esr140 uplift request on this?
Assuming only https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/42f3095b4fe8 is needed?

Comment 16

[Sarah Clements [:sclements] | PTO until March 30th]

Let's also please have QA verify this and if anything else needs uplift before doing so.

Comment 18

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

(In reply to Donal Meehan [:dmeehan] from comment #15)

Assuming only https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/42f3095b4fe8 is needed?

Correct.

Comment 19

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

Comment on attachment 9496024 [details]
Bug 1971487 - Prevent unthemed sidebars with themed browsers from forcing a light color scheme. r=dao,#sidebar-reviewers

Beta/Release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined/Reason for urgency: Theming regression (see dupe).
• Is this code covered by automated tests?: Yes
• Has the fix been verified in Nightly?: Yes
• Needs manual test from QE?: Yes
• If yes, steps to reproduce: comment 0, or see dupes.
• List of other uplifts needed: none
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): Targeted CSS fix.
• String changes made/needed: none
• Is Android affected?: No

Comment 21

[Monica Chiorean]

I was able to reproduce the issue on Win11x64 using Firefox build 141.0a1(20250611215745) and steps from description/duplicate bug.
Verified as fixed on Win11x64/Ubuntu22/Mac 12.6 using Firefox builds 141.0b1 and 142.0a1.
Waiting for next 140.0 release to check the uplift.

Comment 23

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

Setting Fx140 to fixed since the regressor was backed out of release
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1968040#c6

Comment 25

[Monica Chiorean]

Verified as fixed on Win11x64/Ubuntu22/Mac12.6 using Firefox build 140.0.1(20250625213854).

Comment 26

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

Comment on attachment 9496024 [details]
Bug 1971487 - Prevent unthemed sidebars with themed browsers from forcing a light color scheme. r=dao,#sidebar-reviewers

Rejecting release uplift request. The regressor was backed out of release for Fx140.

Comment 27

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

Setting ESR140 to fixed since the regressor was backed out of ESR140
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1968040#c8

Comment 28

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

Comment on attachment 9496024 [details]
Bug 1971487 - Prevent unthemed sidebars with themed browsers from forcing a light color scheme. r=dao,#sidebar-reviewers

Rejecting ESR140 uplift request. The regressor was backed out of ESR140 for 140.1esr