Dark sidebar in version 2026.2.1 is illegible. I have had to revert to 2025.12, and there I will stay until/unless this is fixed. I cannot upgrade.
Agree. I don’t use Dark Mode anywhere, I have old eyes and it’s difficult to see.
Offer an option, at least.
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@orc4hire I made the title of your request more concrete than before. I hope you agree. (the original title was: “Restore legible sidebar”)
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Heard back from Bitwarden support and Ryan said that dark mode is the intended interface for light mode.
I expect this comment to be hidden too.
Hi there, just to confirm, you’re looking for the sidebar to have a light grey background vs the dark blue?
I would like the sidebar to be in light mode when the selected theme is light mode, as was the case until just recently. The specific color isn’t that important. A light grey background with white text would still be dark mode, and in the worst possible way.
If marketing says the sidebar has to be blue for branding purposes—along with wasting 1/4 of the sidebar with otherwise purposeless branding—then a lighter blue with darker text would qualify as light mode. ‘Light mode’ is darker text on a lighter background.
Now I see where my confusion lies. “Light Mode” and “Dark Mode” are the names of display settings, whereas you are using them to refer to Light text vs Dark text in a specific region of the window.
Seems to me that Default and light mode appear identical, and that you are recommending light mode always display black text on a contrasting background.
Along similar lines, dark mode should always display white text on a contrasting background, and default may remain the choice of the UI designer.
Do I correctly understand your request?
Yes, dark mode should be dark mode, and light mode should be light mode.
I’m not sure why this is a source of confusion. Has Bitwarden lost all of its institutional knowledge of how the app looked just a few weeks ago?
Hey Robert, this is primarily a community supported space, with light Bitwarden staff engagement, so any time we can get concrete feedback together to pass to the rest of the team, it helps, thanks for your patience!
The changes in the desktop app are also relatively new for everyone.
Because “Dark Mode” and “Light Mode” do not have a rigorous industry definition, resulting in your interpretation not matching mine. This is why I restated what I thought you were asking using different words and asking for your confirmation.
Another way of looking at it is the current “light mode” contains lots of “daylight” in its display, with most things being bright and colorful, whereas “dark mode” is somewhat monochromatic with strong black tinting, resulting in a night-time appearance.
FWIW, Neither @Nail1684 nor @DenBesten are Bitwarden Employees. And as I personally rarely use the desktop app, it really does not matter much to me if it is light, dark or mixed.
Another way of looking at it is the current “light mode” contains lots of “daylight” in its display, with most things being bright and colorful, whereas “dark mode” is somewhat monochromatic with strong black tinting, resulting in a night-time appearance.
Dark mode and light mode mean specific things in a software UI, and it’s not that.
Some of the people I’ve interacted with certainly HAVE been Bitwarden employees.
Hm, but @dwbit, the web vault has looked like the desktop app looks now for about a year now… (I just looked it up: Release Notes 2024.12.0 mentioned a “web app UI refresh” – I think that was the last major UI refresh for the web vault)
And although the changes to the desktop app are relatively new now – it looks like aligning the desktop app design to the previous web app design changes (and probably further adjusting details for both)… Or did I understand the general rationale wrong here?
Light mode typically features darker text on a lighter background—and it tends to be the default option with most digital interfaces. Dark mode, on the other hand, uses lighter coloured text and UI elements on a darker background colour.
I understand that you are volunteer moderator and not a Bitwarden employee, and that you don’t care about the desktop app, but I would respectfully request that you not spread disinformation. There is no call for it.
Seems like @DenBesten was trying to clarify what you’re asking for in your feature request, which generally is something that helps the feature request succeed. Thus, I don’t see the need for such a strong reaction.
In fact, the source you cited (and the quote that you’ve highlighted) specifically state that light mode “typically” features dark text on lighter background, implying that there are exceptions (in which a “light mode” UI may occasionally render light text on a darker background, and vice versa for “dark mode”). Even the first example shown in your linked article features a “light mode” UI with some white text (“Limited Time Offer”) on a black background, as a well as a corresponding “dark mode” UI in which the word tiles (“Pan”, etc.) are rendered with black font on a lighter background.
Perhaps there is some threshold beyond which the excessive use of light-on-dark text would disqualify a UI from being described as “light mode”, and I think that the point that @DenBesten was trying to clarify is where that threshold lies for you (as there is evidently no industry standard for such a limit). It is now very evident that your personal threshold is 0.000% light-on-dark text anywhere in a light-mode UI. But many apps will fail to meet this threshold for “light mode”.
For the record, I happen to agree with the feature request — there should be some user-settable option to render the UI using a “completely light mode”, in which no text appears on a background that is darker than the font color. However, to improve the chances of getting positive attention and traction for the feature request, I would heed the adage about catching flies with honey instead of vinegar… 
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After a few days of ‘what even is a ‘dark mode?’’ I’ve had about enough of the gaslighting and tired of the vinegar being poured all over me.
If Bitwarden wants to take the position that the sidebar is an ad, and not an essential part of the ui–which is very consistent with how it is being treated now–I will accept that, withdraw my request, and change password managers.
Hey Robert, just to avoid any confusion, I previously passed your feedback directly to the team right after I reached out to you above.
I’ll comment since I have the same issue: Make the sidebar background have a lighter color. A DARK color is difficult for many people to see light text against.