Translucent window broken in macOS in dark mode

Bug reports
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1

Steps to reproduce

Settings → Appearance → Translucent window

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y/N]

Yes!

Expected result

Side bar turns translucent

Actual result

Side bar turns opaque black instead of translucent.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: v1.8.9
Installer version: v1.8.9
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 24.4.0: Wed Mar 19 21:17:35 PDT 2025; root:xnu-11417.101.15~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T6041 24.4.0
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
none

Additional information

Tested in macOS 15.3.1 and 15.4, unable to test other machines or macOS versions.

1 Like
2

download and reinstall Obsidian, post a screen recording of this happening in the sandbox vault. Thanks

3

Steps to reproduce

On macOS (26.3 Beta (25D5112c)), ensure that the base color scheme is dark, the default theme is enabled, and the translucent window setting is toggled on.

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide?

Yes

Expected result

Side nav rail and window top bar are translucent

Actual result

Side nav rail and window top bar are light gray and fully opaque

Here’s an example of my obsidian on top of the input for this issue, showing that there is no transparency at all in the affected parts of the UI.

Screenshot 2026-02-11 at 14.13.36
Screenshot 2026-02-11 at 14.13.361036×1188 63.1 KB

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: v1.11.7
Installer version: v1.8.4
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 25.3.0: Thu Jan 22 21:54:44 PST 2026; root:xnu-12377.80.0.501.1~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 25.3.0
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: dark
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 10
Plugins enabled: 10
1: Git v2.36.1
2: Emoji Shortcodes v2.2.0
3: Natural Language Dates v0.6.2
4: Advanced Tables v0.22.1
5: Advanced Slides v1.20.0
6: Home tab v1.2.2
7: ProZen v0.3
8: Dataview v0.5.68
9: Table of Contents v0.2.0
10: Charts v3.9.0

Additional information

While I am using macOS beta versions, this seemed to change with the January update to Obsidian and did not coincide with a macOS beta update.

4

We managed to reproduce the problem.

Please, repost this and make sure you read and follow the troubleshooting guide and bug report template.

This also does not help.