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jimmyswoosh
Advocate I
Advocate I

How to change Power BI Desktop UI back to dark mode?

Hi Power BI Community,

 

My Power BI Desktop UI's color switch to light/white recently and I can't seem to find the option to switch it back to dark mode. Does anyone know how to?

 

Thanks,

-James

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
v-lili6-msft
Community Support
Community Support

hi, @jimmyswoosh 

I would suggest you uninstall and reinstall the latest version power bi desktop.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45331

 

Best Regards,

Lin

Community Support Team _ Lin
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

View solution in original post

22 REPLIES 22
snyderdustin
Regular Visitor

I would really like to know if and when Microsoft is going to publish a pbix version or the RS version that will have this built in.

I catch myself squinting and tearing up from the brightness of Power BI after working in the application all day.

 

It will benifit all developers to release a feature of Dark Mode for all releases going forward for the application.

This shouldnt just be a feature for the desktop and mobile versions.

ganeshvenkat
Frequent Visitor

Dear Power Platform Community, 

 

Microsoft recently officially announced Dark Mode for Power Bi at the Microsoft Power Platform 2023 Conference. It is available for public preview and should be available for enterprise use later this year.

 

 Dark Mode for PowerBi DesktopDark Mode for PowerBi Desktop

Cannot find anything about it. How's the situation?

Anonym
Regular Visitor

I wanted to ask if it's possible now, because the latest response is 4 months old?

JESUS7744
Regular Visitor

STILL NO DARK MODE? ARE THEY CRAZY OR  WHAT?

gzigg
Advocate I
Advocate I

NO - NOT FIXED.   As of July 16, 2019, on PowerBI Version: 2.70.5494.761 64-bit (June 2019) THIS IS NOT FIXED. 

From everything im reading it seems to be a choice forced onto users by Microsoft developers.   

 

Im amazed such a basic but impactful thing like GUI color is changed without even providing an improvement over the prior color (ie: a way to chose).   This action reveals where the PowerBI Leadership's head is at, their actions reveal their thoughts:  "disregard the humans using our interface, we will dictate what they need, we know better than they do".     GRRRRRRRR.

 

I was just starting to like PowerBI.   Back to TABLEAU for me.

Anonymous
Not applicable

hi folks,

 

as of June 2021, this has not been resolved. The petition has 6000 votes and in Power BI roadmap, but I am getting skeptical we will ever see an actual release. The fastest work around is to activate the windows 10 dark mode: press left shift + alt shift + print screen and it will force every app to enter dark mode.

 

It looked like a DOS interface. Not really pleasant, but will reduce your brightness. here's a screenshot from my computer. 

 

Clipboard-2.jpg

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi Folks,

 

A quick get around  for the Powerbi Dark mode problem.

 

Use the windows 10 Magnifier.

In Options toggle the Invert colours Switch on and set the Magnifier view to full screen.

This will fake a dark mode. You will have to turn it off to view your visualizations in the correct colours, but it does help your eyes.

 

Hope this helps

 

jimmyswoosh
Advocate I
Advocate I

Hi All,

 

Just want to call out that even though I marked this issue as solved, which it was at the time. Today, I got a notice to update Power BI when I launced it on my desktop. So I went ahead and clicked on the notice and it took me to a page to download. Once installation was completed, I launce Power BI Desktop and guess what...... It's back to white theme again!

 

Does anyone actually like this theme? It burns my eyes.

Rian_II
Advocate III
Advocate III

Hi,

 

I'm not sure why the solution above was accepted. It is merely a link to download the latest version of Power BI, which is exactly where the Desktop UI version was changed to the light mode.

 

Can you please advise?

 

P.S. I think it was a big mistake introducing the light mode without the option of switching back to dark mode.

Yea I cannot dev in anything other than dark mode.  Just compleatly unmotivated to do so.  I hate the bright white and fight it tooth and nail.

I just opened Power BI up and it's all light. My EYES!!!!!!!

 

Is there no option? I tried uninstalling an re-installing. It's not back to black. I can't find an option, even searched documentation. Was this on purpose? 

Hi @Rian_II ,

 

I marked it as the solution because I reinstalled Power BI and my UI returned back to dark instead of light.

 

It didn't the first time I tried it so I went to "Add or Remove Programs" and uninstalled "Power BI". I saw I had two Power BI apps for some reason, so I uninstalled both of them. Reinstalled Power BI and checked to see if there was only 1 app installed, there is. Open Power BI Desktop, the UI was dark.

Hi @jimmyswoosh ,

 

That's very interesting. If this is true on my PC as well, they must have released a patch to revert to dark mode. I can't see how it can happen any other way (except by re-installing the May version). @v-lili6-msft , can you perhaps shed some light on this (which does not mean "make our Desktop UI light" 😉 )

 

I'll give it a try (i.e. uninstalling and re-installing the very same version) in the next few days and let you know if my dark mode has also returned.

hi, @Rian_II  @briandpeterson 

For Power BI Desktop June 2019 version on June 9, 2019, It is the default mode for power bi desktop.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-desktop-june-2019-feature-summary/

This is designed by power bi product team, we couldn't change it for now.

and we find many users are not comfortable with it these two days.

Please submit your feedback in here, and I think power bi product team will take this seriously.

As a workaround, you could re-installing the May version.

 

Best Regards,

Lin

Community Support Team _ Lin
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.
Anonymous
Not applicable

v-lili6-msft
Community Support
Community Support

hi, @jimmyswoosh 

I would suggest you uninstall and reinstall the latest version power bi desktop.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45331

 

Best Regards,

Lin

Community Support Team _ Lin
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

I just did that - TWICE - but there IS NO OPTION FOR DARK MODE that I can find

I uninstalled and reinstalled Power BI Desktop a couple of times and still could not see an option to switch to dark mode. This is unbelieavable, isn't PowerBI supposed to be this 'advanced' tool? Thousands of tools help developers with dark mode and yet MS decided to make it the hardest possible way to do this. This makes PowerBI look like 20 years old software...

I just started learning it and I am seriously considering other options now. This software is not reliable, outdated, slow to change...

I also had the hardest time setting basic authentication with API, using PowerBI. Very frustrating day with my eyes (very sensitive eyes I have) suffering because MS simply DOES NOT CARE about my eyes.

Anonymous
Not applicable

 I un-installed and re-installed the PBI but the UI remains as light /white mode ? 

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