How to Fix Dark Mode Not Working in All Apps

Published 2026-10-16 · Marion Phone Repair

You turned on dark mode in your phone's settings, and the home screen, settings, and some apps switched to a dark background — but other apps stayed bright white, completely ignoring the system setting. This is frustrating because the whole point of dark mode is a consistent dark experience, and one white app at night defeats the purpose. The reason is that dark mode depends on each app individually supporting it — the system setting is a request, not an override, and not every app honors it.

How system dark mode works

When you enable dark mode in Android or iOS settings, the operating system sends a signal to all running apps that the user prefers a dark color scheme. Each app then decides whether to respond to that signal. Apps built with modern frameworks (Android's Material You, Apple's SwiftUI or updated UIKit) typically respond automatically. Older apps, apps with custom UI frameworks, or apps where the developer chose not to implement dark mode will ignore the system signal entirely and display in whatever theme they were built with — usually light.

Check in-app dark mode settings

Many apps have their own dark mode toggle that is separate from the system setting. The app's setting may override the system preference, or the app may require you to explicitly set it to follow the system theme:

• Common apps with their own dark mode setting: Facebook (Settings, Dark mode), Instagram (Settings, Theme), YouTube (Settings, General, Appearance), Twitter/X (Settings, Display, Dark mode), WhatsApp (Settings, Chats, Theme), Google Chrome (Settings, Theme), Gmail (Settings, Theme), Snapchat (Settings, App Appearance)
• Look for a Theme, Appearance, or Display option in the app's settings. The options are usually Light, Dark, or System default. Select System default (or Follow system) to make the app respect your phone's dark mode toggle
• If the app is set to Light and you switch it to System default or Dark, it should switch immediately. Some apps require you to restart the app after changing the theme

Force dark mode on Android (apps that do not support it)

Android has a developer option that forces dark mode on apps that do not natively support it. This works by inverting the app's colors at the system level:

1. Go to Settings, About phone, and tap Build number 7 times to enable Developer options
2. Go back to Settings, System, Developer options
3. Scroll down to Override force-dark (or Force dark mode) and toggle it on

This forces a dark color scheme onto apps that have not implemented dark mode themselves. The results are imperfect — some apps will have unreadable text, inverted images, or odd-looking buttons — because the system is applying a blanket color inversion rather than a designed dark theme. But for apps that are simply white-on-white-background, it usually produces a usable dark result.

Per-app force dark (Samsung and some Android skins)

Samsung One UI and some other Android manufacturers allow force-dark on a per-app basis instead of globally:

1. Go to Settings, Display, Dark mode settings (or Dark mode)
2. Look for Apply to apps or an option listing individual apps
3. Toggle dark mode on for specific apps that are not respecting the system setting

iPhone dark mode fixes

iOS does not have a force-dark option like Android's developer setting. If an app does not support dark mode on iPhone, there is no system-level override. However, there are a few things to check:

• Scheduled dark mode: If you have dark mode on a schedule (Settings, Display and Brightness, Automatic), make sure the schedule is correct. If the phone is in the Light period of the schedule, apps will not receive the dark mode signal even if you expect it to be dark
• Smart Invert: As a workaround for apps that do not support dark mode, go to Settings, Accessibility, Display and Text Size, Smart Invert. This inverts the colors of the screen while trying to leave images, media, and some apps that already support dark mode unchanged. It is not true dark mode, but it turns white backgrounds dark in apps that have no dark mode support
• Reduce White Point: Another workaround in Settings, Accessibility, Display and Text Size, Reduce White Point. This dims the bright whites on screen, reducing the eye strain from apps stuck in light mode. Not dark mode, but helpful at night

Update your apps

Some apps did not support dark mode when they were originally installed but have added support in updates since then. An outdated version of an app may ignore the dark mode signal while the current version supports it:

• Android: Open the Play Store, tap your profile icon, Manage apps and device, Update all. Or search for the specific app and update it individually
• iPhone: Open the App Store, tap your profile icon at the top, scroll down to see available updates, and tap Update All

After updating, close and reopen the app to check if dark mode now applies.

Web apps and browsers

Some apps are actually web wrappers — they display a website inside an app shell. These apps may not respond to dark mode because the website itself does not support a dark color scheme. The app respects the system dark mode for its own interface (toolbar, navigation), but the content area stays white because it is rendered by a web engine that follows the website's CSS, not the system theme.

For web content viewed in a browser:

• Chrome: Type chrome://flags in the address bar, search for Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents, and set it to Enabled. This forces Chrome to apply a dark theme to websites that do not have one. Results vary — some sites look good, others have readability issues
• Samsung Internet: Go to the browser's Settings, Appearance, and enable Apply dark mode to web pages
• Safari (iPhone): No built-in option to force dark mode on websites. Safari relies on each website implementing its own dark mode via CSS media queries

Wallpaper and widgets

Dark mode does not change your wallpaper or the appearance of all widgets. A bright wallpaper can make the dark home screen feel inconsistent. Similarly, some widgets are built by apps that do not support dark mode, so the widget stays light even when the rest of the home screen is dark. To fix this:

• Choose a dark wallpaper when using dark mode. On Android 12 and later with Material You, the system can automatically adjust the color palette based on your wallpaper, but it will not darken a bright wallpaper
• Remove or replace widgets that do not support dark mode. Long-press the widget, select Remove, then check if the app has a dark-compatible widget version

Dark mode display help in Marion

If dark mode is not applying to apps on your phone and the steps above have not resolved it, Marion Phone Repair can check for system-level display issues, update configurations, and ensure your phone's theme settings are applied correctly across all apps.