Some icons on macOS Tahoe turning dark instead of following selected theme

Yesterday, I updated my 2021 Macbook Pro (M1 Pro, 16/512, 14") to macOS 26.0 (Tahoe). I was excited to try out the new icon theming, and it works just fine, for the most part. However, in applications such as Firefox and Chrome, any action that causes the icon to change such as downloading a file (progress bar appears below icon) or receiving a notification causes the icon to become monochrome and lose its transparency (see example below).


Icons immediately after selecting a theme in appearance settings:

Icons after Firefox is used to download a png from google images:


Things I have tried to fix the issue that do NOT work:

  • Choosing a different theme from appearance settings
  • Locking and unlocking the device
  • Quitting and reopening the app


Things I have tried to fix the issue that work, but only temporarily (until progress bar/notification dot appears again):

  • Restarting the dock app from activity monitor
  • Removing then adding the affected app back to the dock
  • Rebooting


Any help would me much appreciated. The new tinted icons look great, but this one thing is making me regret updating a little bit.


MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Sep 16, 2025 10:23 PM

Reply
2 replies

Sep 17, 2025 11:47 AM in response to readyplayer_2

readyplayer_2 wrote:

Yesterday, I updated my 2021 Macbook Pro (M1 Pro, 16/512, 14") to macOS 26.0 (Tahoe). I was excited to try out the new icon theming, and it works just fine, for the most part. However, in applications such as Firefox and Chrome, any action that causes the icon to change such as downloading a file (progress bar appears below icon) or receiving a notification causes the icon to become monochrome and lose its transparency (see example below).

Icons immediately after selecting a theme in appearance settings:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/5821adb2-83cb-481a-a6f3-815a4c42d9f2
Icons after Firefox is used to download a png from google images:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/197f1549-e9f8-4730-8886-ee270398ad66

Things I have tried to fix the issue that do NOT work:
Choosing a different theme from appearance settings
• Locking and unlocking the device
• Quitting and reopening the app
Things I have tried to fix the issue that work, but only temporarily (until progress bar/notification dot appears again):
Restarting the dock app from activity monitor
• Removing then adding the affected app back to the dock
• Rebooting

Any help would me much appreciated. The new tinted icons look great, but this one thing is making me regret updating a little bit.


Ok— not all third party apps may be compliant(?)


another example: here is SapmSieve:




—Have you shut down and restarted more than once since your upgrade?


—you can try updating the app and compare your results...


—you can try removing the icon form the Dock and drag a new one down from the applications folder...


good luck !


To be proactive you can file a bug report / submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple




Some icons on macOS Tahoe turning dark instead of following selected theme

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