How to Enable Dark Mode in macOS Mojave

macOS Mojave, the newest version of the software that runs on the Mac, includes a long-awaited Dark Mode option that works across the entire system, from the dock and menu bar to all of your apps.

Here's how to enable it:

Click on the Apple logo on the menu bar.

Choose System Preferences.

Select General.

In the "Appearance" section at the top of the window, click the "Dark" option.

Those are the only steps required to enable Dark Mode. If you want to turn it off again, follow the same steps but this time choose the "Light" option.

While in Dark mode, the dock, menu bar, and all of your Apple apps, including Safari, Mail, Calendar, Notes, the Mac App Store, Messages, and more will feature darker colors and themes. Dark Mode will need to be built into third-party Mac apps that don't already offer a dark option when macOS Mojave is released.

Related Roundup: macOS Mojave

Top Rated Comments

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Internet Enzyme

3 weeks ago

What I don’t understand is why there isnt a keyboard shortcut or a menu bar toggle or an automatic night-shift esque switching into dark mode. I feel like those are all very obvious features that shouldn’t require a year for macOS 10.15 to be in the OS

Rating: 8 Votes

Ragefury

3 weeks ago

I don‘t understand why everyone seems to like dark mode. It does look cool, but my eyes are irritated after less than a minute when reading white text on dark background.

Dark mode is not meant for casual users, it meant to be use by individuals that spend a lot of time in front of an screen, developers, frontend dudes, designers, etc...adobe For example has a dark mode, most code IDE’s have a dark mode and it’s welcomed by everyone that uses them.

Rating: 7 Votes

m0sher

3 weeks ago

I’d rather have Dark mode option for iOS please.

Rating: 6 Votes

TantalizedMind

3 weeks ago

WHY IS THERE NO DARK MODE FOR iOS?!!!!!!

Rating: 5 Votes

MacHiavelli

3 weeks ago

Lots of dark applications on top of each other are very difficult to distinguish between: there is no sense of depth or layering (as yet).

And in light mode, it would be nice to still have an option for a dark menu bar and dock.

Rating: 4 Votes

kriebe

3 weeks ago

I'm really excited about this for many reasons, but the first thing that popped in my head was that I finally get back the black background for all of my photos that was lost from the switch from iPhoto to Photos. It's so much easier to look at a ton of photos on a black background compared to a white one. There's a reason why almost all TVs and Monitors have a dark bezel.

Rating: 4 Votes

Jippe Joosten

3 weeks ago

Note: When Dark Mode is activated, the current Dynamic Desktop option that displays the Mojave desert does not work. It shows the desert at night full time when Dark Mode is turned on.

This is not actually true, the light fall will change over the day. I use this feature for some time now it's quite subtle but it does change dynamically.

Rating: 3 Votes

McG2k1

3 weeks ago

Cool. 2008 has arrived.

Rating: 3 Votes

BaggieBoy

3 weeks ago

Hopefully that’s coming in a future release. It would definitely be nice to change mode on the fly, and scheduling seems way too obvious to be an oversight. Seems to me that it would tie in nicely with Night Shift.

It can be done, i've set it up using alt-cmd-D to toggle dark/light mode, using the guide from here: https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/06/14/how-to-toggle-dark-mode-with-a-keyboard-shortcut-or-the-touch-bar

Rating: 3 Votes