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macOS 14.4 complete broke automatic light / dark mode switching for me

chris4565

chris4565

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 22, 2018
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Hey guys, macOS 14.4 complete broke automatic light / dark mode switching for me, great... I have a custom Night Shift schedule set up. This means that light / dark mode should follow this schedule. This worked flawlessly for years. This update complete broke this... I updated at 9 pm. Night Shift kicks in at 11 pm. Guess what I was greeted with after the update at 9 pm? Dark mode 😫 Anyone else also having this issue? Thanks in advance!
 
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macuros

macrumors member
Jul 11, 2020
84
56
Bug reported...

1709888004333.png
 
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panta

macrumors newbie
Apr 13, 2022
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chris4565 said:
Hey guys, macOS 14.4 complete broke automatic light / dark mode switching for me, great... I have a custom Night Shift schedule set up. This means that light / dark mode should follow this schedule. This worked flawlessly for years. This update complete broke this... I updated at 9 pm. Night Shift kicks in at 11 pm. Guess what I was greeted with after the update at 9 pm? Dark mode 😫 Anyone else also having this issue? Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Same for me too.
 
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chris4565

chris4565

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Sep 22, 2018
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Thanks everyone for your answers! Glad to see that I'm at least not the only one experiencing this issue.
 
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transmaster

transmaster

Contributor
Feb 1, 2010
1,757
874
Cheyenne, Wyoming
It turns out My problem was not 14.4 but with my local ISP. Centurylink had a outage problem that just happened start right after I upgraded. It was a flickering screen as the internet connection dropped in and out.
 
Alí_N

Alí_N

macrumors newbie
Mar 13, 2024
3
4
chris4565 said:
Hey guys, macOS 14.4 complete broke automatic light / dark mode switching for me, great... I have a custom Night Shift schedule set up. This means that light / dark mode should follow this schedule. This worked flawlessly for years. This update complete broke this... I updated at 9 pm. Night Shift kicks in at 11 pm. Guess what I was greeted with after the update at 9 pm? Dark mode 😫 Anyone else also having this issue? Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
'hanx for the post. It's always good to know that I'm not alone with this. And, yes, same issue here.
 
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DataChris

DataChris

macrumors member
Nov 5, 2007
96
233
Yes same here. MacOS 14.4 killed auto dark mode, despite nightshift still working (still turning on automatically), dark mode simply doesn't activate ...and MacOS 14.4 is also doing weird things with text color (not inverting white on black) on input fields (safari url bar etc) if manually switching to dark mode.
 
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macuros

macrumors member
Jul 11, 2020
84
56
My main problem with Auto mode is that I have to turn on Night Shift for a warmer display. I can't stand the cold blue colour.

But in auto mode, when you enable night shift, it automatically enables dark mode. Then I will need to manually switch between light and dark mode if I want to use night shift.

UPDATE:
So I've made a shortcut in the Shortcuts app and set the keyboard shortcut. It's not automated, but still.
 
Last edited:
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Citizen45

macrumors member
Apr 9, 2022
49
48
I have this same problem after the update.

Custom Night shift settings that used to automatically switch light/dark mode for years.

Now the Night shift still works but the light/dark mode doesn't switch automatically. It just randomly switches at different times whenever it feels like it.

I will submit this as a bug and encourage everyone else who has this issue to do so as well.
 
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macuros

macrumors member
Jul 11, 2020
84
56
It does not work for me. I have Night shift enabled and on Auto. It shows Light mode.
 
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bikrrr

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2021
24
46
Unfortunately, this is still broken for me. 😔

I updated to 14.4.1 yesterday and was hoping it'd be fixed, but my Mac was still in "Dark" mode @ 6:30 AM this morning when my Night Shift schedule is set to end @ 5:00 AM. Oh well, maybe next update? 🤞
 
chris4565

chris4565

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 22, 2018
1,060
499
Yup, still broken for me, I can't believe it... On top of that, what schedule does it follow, it doesn't seem to make any sense? Sunrise was at 6:30 pm here and it switched to Dark Mode at around 7:15 pm. And it SHOULD switch to Dark Mode at 11 PM when Night Shift kicks in. A complete mess as it seems unfortunately.
 
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Citizen45

macrumors member
Apr 9, 2022
49
48
Citizen45 said:
I believe it has been fixed.

Just tested it and it seems to be changing to Dark mode in conjunction with Night Shift again.
Click to expand...
Upon further testing, it's only partially been fixed for me.

Before:

Night Shift is set to custom.
Night Shift changes as scheduled.
Dark Mode switches on at the same time as Night Shift.

After 14.4:

Night Shift is set to custom.
Night Shift changes as scheduled.
Dark Mode doesn't switch on at the same time as Night Shift. It turns on at some other (random) time.
Under Appearance, If I click "Auto" during Night Shift hours, it still stays on Light mode.
Manually turning on Dark mode is the only option.

After 14.4.1:

Night Shift is set to custom.
Night Shift changes as scheduled.
Dark Mode doesn't switch on at the same time as Night Shift. It turns on at some other (random) time.
Under Appearance, If I click "Auto" during Night Shift hours, it correctly recognizes that Dark Mode should be on.
Manually clicking "Light Mode" then "Auto" seems to correctly calibrate it, but I still have to manually do this.

So we're one step closer to fixing this, as at least the "Auto" seems to understand that Dark mode should be on.

It just doesn't do it by itself until I toggle it on/off.
 
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0

0xFFFF_FFFF

macrumors newbie
Apr 11, 2024
1
1
Same for me as described by others here, i.e.: automatic dark / light mode switching used to work flawlessly in lock step with Night Shift before the upgrade, and now it don't. Currently sitting on Sonoma 14.4.1.

Thanks to everyone who reported this as a bug. Hope Apple can get a fix out soon. 🙏
 
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chris4565

chris4565

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 22, 2018
1,060
499
I always find such issues particularly weird because Apple didn't even add / change any functionality regarding automatic light / dark mode switching in 14.4. and it worked flawlessly since day 1 and now it's suddenly completely broken... Guess some change they made somewhere else must have had unintended side effects.
 
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fakejobs

fakejobs

macrumors newbie
Jan 12, 2016
23
93
Same with me! I thought I was going crazy haha. But it's still broken with macOS 14.4.1 - I wonder when Apple will fix this issue :/
 
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