what ive been trying to do:
get the “translucent window” setting to actually show the desktop blurred behind obsidian, like other native macos apps (works in terminal etc). i started working on it after wanting to have a transparent/blurred frame around note cards for my themes.
environment:
- macos 26
- obsidian v1.13.1 (installer v1.11.4)
- electron = 39.2.7 / chrome = 142.0.7444.235 / node = 22.21.1
- apple silicon, m4
- built-in display, default res/scaling (no external monitors)
the problem:
with settings → appearance → translucent window turned on, the window background is just flat grey and none of the desktop shows through, no blur. this also happens on the default theme, not only my own ones, so i dont think it is a theme/css issue.
stuff ive already ruled out/tried:
- macos → accessibility → display → reduce transparency is off.
- transparency works fine in other apps (terminal blurs the desktop correctly), so os-level functionality is available.
- fully quit (cmd+q) and relaunched obsidian after enabling the setting, no change.
- desktop wallpaper is colorful but nothing bleeds through.
console stuff:
using require('electron').remote.getCurrentWindow() (i know remote is hacky, i was just testing):
- getCurrentWindow() returns the window fine.
- win.setVibrancy(‘under-window’) runs without throwing, but produces no visual change.
- win.setBackgroundColor(‘#00000000’) also has no effect.
- after forcing document.body / documentElement backgrounds to transparent, behind the ui i see a flat grey/black/white → the window seems opaque-backed; transparency was never granted at creation but i could be wrong.
is obsidians translucent window known to be broken on macos? maybe the bundled electron versions window handling? is the window being created with transparent: true on macos, and is there any setting/workaround to restore it.. or is this just waiting on an obsidian/electron update?
also is this the right place to ask?