How to Use Light Theme with Dark Menu Bar and Dock in macOS Mojave

Apple’s macOS Mojave brought the much awaited “Dark Mode” to Apple’s desktop operating system and it looks gorgeous. However, not everyone is a fan of dark mode.

Many users still prefer the limited dark mode which used to only darken the Menu bar and the Dock while leaving everything else in light mode. However, if you have upgraded to macOS Mojave, you know that there is no native toggle to turn that on. Well, if you want that functionality back then this is the tutorial for you. As in this article, we are going to show you how you can use the light theme on macOS with a dark Menu bar and Dock:

Get Dark Menu Bar and Dock with Light Mode on macOS Mojave

To get the dark menu bar and dock back, we will be taking the help of Terminal on your Mac. Don’t worry if you have never used the Terminal before; you won’t find this tutorial hard. So, if you are ready, let’s get started:

1. First, click on the Apple Menu and the Select System Preferences.

2. Here, under the General Settings, select the “Light Mode”.

3. Now open the Terminal by either going to your Applications folder or just searching for it in Spotlight.

4. Now, just copy and paste the following command and hit enter/return:

defaults write -g NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool Yes

5. Now quit Terminal and log out of your computer by clicking on the Apple Menu and then log back in.

6. Once you are logged back in, just like in the second step, open the General Settings in System Preferences panel. However, instead of selecting “Light” select “Dark”.

That’s all you need to do. Now whenever you choose Dark Mode on macOS Mojave, it will only apply the setting to your Dock and Menu bar, just like before. If you ever want to return to the original dark mode setting of macOS Mojave just reuse the entire process. The only thing that needs to change is the code used in the Terminal. You will have to replace “Yes” with “No” or just copy and paste the command below:

defaults write -g NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool No

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Enjoy the Old Dark Mode on macOS Mojave

As you can see, with just a couple of steps, you can get the old dark mode working on the macOS Mojave. I hope that you found the steps easy to follow. However, if you still have some confusion, drop your question in the comments section below and we will be sure to answer them as soon as possible.