Mac App starts in light mode before switching to dark

18 hours ago 1

ARTICLE AD BOX

Try setting the selected appearance in applicationWillFinishLaunching(_:) in your AppDelegate, before creating or showing the window:

func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ notification: Notification) { // Insert code here to initialize your application NSApp.appearance = NSAppearance(named: .darkAqua) }

The first frame may be rendered before applicationDidFinishLaunching(_:), which causes the light-mode flash

1 Comment

So, interesting. I did this, but it looks like this is called after viewDidLoad, not before. So... the calling order looks like this: viewDidLoad -> set up my preferences - > set NSApp.appearance appropriately -> applicationDidFinishLaunching -> set NSApp.appearance to .darkAqua. The end result is that I end up with no flash (good), but a dark app regardless of setting (not so good).

2026-04-29T18:21:11.48Z+00:00

As per the app lifecycle applicationWillFinishLaunching call first so try setting inside your applicationWillFinishLaunching. As it triggers before viewDidLoad and applicationDidFinish launching methods