How to turn on Dark Mode on a Mac (and schedule it)

Updated 2026 · 4 min read

Dark Mode flips macOS to a dark color scheme across the entire system — menus, windows, sidebars, and most built-in apps. It's easier on the eyes at night and reduces glare on glossy screens. Here's how to switch, schedule, and undo it.

Turn it on in System Settings

This is the straightforward path. Open System Settings → Appearance and choose one of three options:

Light — the default. White backgrounds, dark text.
Dark — inverted. Dark backgrounds throughout the system UI.
Auto — switches between Light and Dark automatically based on your location's sunrise and sunset times.

The change takes effect immediately — no restart, no log-out needed. Third-party apps that support the system appearance will follow along; older apps that hardcode their own colors may not.

Keyboard shortcut (quick toggle)

macOS doesn't ship with a single dedicated keyboard shortcut for Dark Mode, but you have two good options:

Control Center — open it from the menu bar (the two-toggle icon on macOS 13+), then click Display to expand it. A Dark Mode toggle appears there.
Custom shortcut — go to System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts, click +, leave Application as "All Applications," set the Menu Title to Use Dark Appearance (exact wording), and assign a key combo. macOS will route that shortcut to the menu item in any app that exposes it.

Schedule Dark Mode automatically

The built-in schedule uses sunrise and sunset for your location. Go to System Settings → Appearance → Auto and that's it — macOS checks your location (or time zone if location is off) and switches accordingly.

If you want a custom schedule — say, always dark from 8 PM to 8 AM regardless of sunset — the built-in option doesn't support exact times. A small free utility like NightOwl or an Automator workflow triggered by a Calendar event can handle custom times if you need them.

The Terminal way

To switch Dark Mode from the command line, run:

# switch to Dark Mode
defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleInterfaceStyle -string "Dark"
killall Finder

Killing Finder is necessary to force the appearance change to propagate immediately. Some apps may still need a restart to pick it up. To revert to Light Mode:

# revert to Light Mode
defaults delete NSGlobalDomain AppleInterfaceStyle
killall Finder

Note that deleting the key (rather than setting it to "Light") is the correct undo — the absence of the key is what tells macOS to use Light mode.

Do it in one click

Mainspring adds a dedicated Dark Mode toggle right in its main window — one click to switch, one click to switch back. No hunting through System Settings, no Terminal commands to remember. It lives alongside other toggles like silencing UI sounds and waking on power, so you can tune several things in one place.

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Does Dark Mode save battery?

On iPhones with OLED displays, Dark Mode makes a real difference — OLED pixels are physically off when showing black, so battery savings are meaningful. On most Macs the story is different:

MacBook Pro with Liquid Retina XDR (mini-LED) — some saving is possible because the local dimming zones reduce backlight output in dark areas, but it's less dramatic than OLED.
MacBook Air and standard MacBook Pro LCD panels — the backlight doesn't know what's being displayed, so Dark Mode saves virtually nothing on battery.
Eye strain — regardless of battery, many people find Dark Mode more comfortable in dim environments. That's a real benefit even if the watt-hours don't shift much.

In short: switch to Dark Mode if you prefer it visually or for comfort — don't rely on it for meaningful battery gains on most Mac displays.