After installing iOS 26 noticing glaring issue on iPhone Home Screen

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Level 1

8 points

After installing iOS 26 noticing glaring issue on iPhone Home Screen

Just installed ios 26 and noticed a glaring issue on the home screen..

I use dark mode for my home screen (press and hold home screen, "edit" in upper left, "customize", select "dark" and "always")

The home screen goes into dark mode, icons, etc.. The dock on the bottom goes into dark mode as well, background turns black.

Now open any app, shouldn't matter which one. The dock background now turns grey and sticks out like an ugly sore thumb. I go back through the settings, blah blah, it never stays black...

THIS IS ALSO an issue with all the folders, the background is the same grey color instead of remaining black.

Any ideas, or a bug?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Dark mode- home screen dock and folders turning grey

iPhone 15 Pro

Posted on Sep 15, 2025 01:04 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 15, 2025 01:42 PM in response to robjw33

Go to Settings>Accessibility>Display & Text Size and make sure Reduced Transparency is off. Mine had gotten turned on. Did Apple do it as part of the update? Had I turned it on and forgotten? We may never know.

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Answer 2

robjw33 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 15, 2025 07:22 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

I already had most of the relevant setting in the right mode, including reduced transparency... I also have increase contranst selected as well. i've toggle these both on and off in all combinatination with the same result.

Here are pics of what I mean.. After I select "dark" & "always", the dock has the black background. After opening any app, it goes back to the grey color and remains that way.

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 3

robjw33 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 15, 2025 07:21 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

No, i dont want the entire interface/apps in dark mode, just the home

screen like I had my phone setup prior to the update, it was never an

issue in ios 18.x. After selecting dark mode, the dock and folder

backgrounds revert to light mode after opening any application.

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Answer 4

Sep 16, 2025 10:51 AM in response to Smilin-Brian

Smilin-Brian wrote:

All iPhone apps run in full screen.

The Dock should never be visible when running an App.

I believe they meant that, after switching to an app, the next time they switched back to the Home Screen, it looked weird. I did observe this behavior myself once or twice. However, I can't remember which configuration of setting it was that did that.

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