This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Dark mode on "Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site"

more options

so yeah I live with bad internet and so i see the "Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site." quite a lot and up an till today it was aways in a dark mode

But now its in a light mode a bunning my eyes help

I dont think  ive changed my theam or PC settings
so yeah I live with bad internet and so i see the "Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site." quite a lot and up an till today it was aways in a dark mode But now its in a light mode a bunning my eyes help I dont think ive changed my theam or PC settings
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

It's not you, it's Firefox 96.

Firefox 96 now harmonizes more parts of Firefox with your toolbar theme. When the text color on your background tabs is dark/black, it triggers Firefox to use a light background on menus, the sidebar, the Library window, and various built-in pages. Firefox also signals sites that you have a light theme preference.

What to do about this now

(1) For people willing to change their toolbar theme

The fastest workaround for now is to change your theme to one that uses light/white text. By light text I mean, for example, the built-in Dark theme, or an add-on theme with light or white text on the tabs.

(2) For people who can't part with their toolbar theme

This is only a partial workaround for the built-in pages, and for websites that have light/dark responsive themes.

Currently, the only way to decouple your page (content) theme preference from your toolbar theme is through the back door:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. The moderators would like us to remind you that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste layout.css.prefers-color-scheme.content-override and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to display an editing field, and change the value to whatever you prefer from the list below, then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change.

  • 0 => Force a Dark background
  • 1 => Force a Light background
  • 2 => Follow the System theme (default in Firefox 94)
  • 3 => Follow the Browser toolbar theme (default in Firefox 95+)

The about:config page should immediately reflect your saved change. Probably that carries over to error pages?

What about other aspects of the UI?

For the sidebar, menus, and toolbar drop-down panels, there is an unofficial, community-supported option, which is to override the built-in styles using your own style rules in a userChrome.css file. I think people are still pondering how to do that efficiently, and perhaps you aren't that into hacking your browser anyway.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (1)

more options

Chosen Solution

It's not you, it's Firefox 96.

Firefox 96 now harmonizes more parts of Firefox with your toolbar theme. When the text color on your background tabs is dark/black, it triggers Firefox to use a light background on menus, the sidebar, the Library window, and various built-in pages. Firefox also signals sites that you have a light theme preference.

What to do about this now

(1) For people willing to change their toolbar theme

The fastest workaround for now is to change your theme to one that uses light/white text. By light text I mean, for example, the built-in Dark theme, or an add-on theme with light or white text on the tabs.

(2) For people who can't part with their toolbar theme

This is only a partial workaround for the built-in pages, and for websites that have light/dark responsive themes.

Currently, the only way to decouple your page (content) theme preference from your toolbar theme is through the back door:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. The moderators would like us to remind you that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste layout.css.prefers-color-scheme.content-override and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to display an editing field, and change the value to whatever you prefer from the list below, then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change.

  • 0 => Force a Dark background
  • 1 => Force a Light background
  • 2 => Follow the System theme (default in Firefox 94)
  • 3 => Follow the Browser toolbar theme (default in Firefox 95+)

The about:config page should immediately reflect your saved change. Probably that carries over to error pages?

What about other aspects of the UI?

For the sidebar, menus, and toolbar drop-down panels, there is an unofficial, community-supported option, which is to override the built-in styles using your own style rules in a userChrome.css file. I think people are still pondering how to do that efficiently, and perhaps you aren't that into hacking your browser anyway.