Toggle Light/Dark theme ignores user's specified themes

[chambliss]

Type: Bug

I have the following in my settings:

  "window.autoDetectColorScheme": true,
  "workbench.preferredLightColorTheme": "Bearded Theme Milkshake Mango",
  "workbench.preferredDarkColorTheme": "Bearded Theme Arc Blueberry",
  "workbench.preferredHighContrastColorTheme": "Bearded Theme Arc Blueberry",
  "workbench.preferredHighContrastLightColorTheme": "Bearded Theme Milkshake Mango",

However, when I use "Toggle Light/Dark theme" (without the HC theme settings), VS Code switches my theme to the default light/dark High Contrast color theme.

I tried to fix this by setting my preferred themes for the "preferred HC themes" settings, which I previously was not using. However, this causes the toggle command to stop working completely.

See video. I recorded what happens with each combination (first with all the settings enabled, which causes nothing to happen, and second with the HC settings disabled, which causes the HC themes to be toggled).

This feature used to work until about a month or two ago with the Bearded themes, so I'm not sure what has changed. I also used the Insider build until recently and it was not yet fixed there (in fact I first noticed this on Insider, and later switched back to Stable).

Let me know if I can produce any other logs/info that would be helpful.

VS Code version: Code 1.81.1 (6c3e3db, 2023-08-09T22:40:25.698Z)
OS version: Darwin arm64 22.6.0
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Apple M1 Pro (10 x 24)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: disabled_off direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled metal: disabled_off multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled
Load (avg)	7, 7, 6
Memory (System)	32.00GB (0.35GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 7cf80222-545f-41aa-a792-e9ef6f9755bc
Screen Reader	yes
VM	0%

Extensions (93)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
terraform	4op	0.2.5
Bookmarks	ale	13.4.1
beardedicons	Bea	1.13.2
turbo-console-log	Cha	2.9.6
ruff	cha	2023.34.0
visubezier	chr	1.6.1
npm-intellisense	chr	1.4.4
path-intellisense	chr	2.8.4
flask-snippets	cst	0.1.3
macros	ctf	0.1.2
vscode-markdownlint	Dav	0.51.0
macos-modern-theme	dav	2.3.19
vscode-eslint	dba	2.4.2
githistory	don	0.6.20
python-environment-manager	don	1.0.4
gitlens	eam	14.2.1
vscode-html-css	ecm	1.13.1
prettier-vscode	esb	10.1.0
vscode-open-multiple-files	fab	1.4.0
figma-vscode-extension	fig	0.2.7
shell-format	fox	7.2.5
copilot	Git	1.109.388
copilot-chat	Git	0.6.0
remotehub	Git	0.60.0
vscode-github-actions	git	0.26.2
vscode-pull-request-github	Git	0.70.0
vscode-graphql	Gra	0.8.17
vscode-graphql-syntax	Gra	1.2.2
todo-tree	Gru	0.0.226
output-colorizer	IBM	0.1.2
applescript	idl	0.24.3
vscode-react-typescript	inf	1.3.1
svg	joc	1.5.3
vscode-gutter-preview	kis	0.30.0
bash-ide-vscode	mad	1.39.0
rainbow-csv	mec	3.7.0
template-string-converter	meg	0.6.1
vscode-language-babel	mgm	0.0.39
git-graph	mhu	1.30.0
fluent-icons	mig	0.0.18
dotenv	mik	1.0.1
vscode-docker	ms-	1.26.0
vscode-dotnet-runtime	ms-	1.7.2
playwright	ms-	1.0.15
black-formatter	ms-	2023.4.1
debugpy	ms-	2023.3.12121004
isort	ms-	2023.11.12061012
mypy-type-checker	ms-	2023.2.0
python	ms-	2023.15.12301911
vscode-pylance	ms-	2023.8.51
datawrangler	ms-	0.17.1
jupyter	ms-	2023.7.1002162226
jupyter-keymap	ms-	1.1.2
jupyter-renderers	ms-	1.0.17
vscode-jupyter-cell-tags	ms-	0.1.8
remote-containers	ms-	0.308.0
remote-ssh	ms-	0.102.0
remote-ssh-edit	ms-	0.86.0
remote-explorer	ms-	0.4.1
remote-repositories	ms-	0.38.1
vsliveshare	ms-	1.0.5883
vsliveshare-pack	ms-	0.4.0
vscode-sanddance	msr	4.1.0
gremlins	nho	0.26.0
css-grid-snippets	oha	0.0.5
htmx-tags	oto	0.0.7
vscode-versionlens	pfl	1.6.0
postman-for-vscode	Pos	0.6.2
text-power-tools	qcz	1.41.0
reactree	Rea	1.0.8
vscode-commons	red	0.0.6
vscode-xml	red	0.26.1
vscode-yaml	red	1.14.0
LiveServer	rit	5.7.9
bash-debug	rog	0.3.9
partial-diff	ryu	1.4.3
markdown-preview-enhanced	shd	0.7.3
vscode-fileutils	sle	3.10.3
cody-ai	sou	0.10.0
sourcegraph	sou	2.2.16
sass-indented	syl	1.8.27
even-better-toml	tam	0.19.2
shellcheck	tim	0.34.0
vscode-counter	uct	3.2.1
intellicode-api-usage-examples	Vis	0.2.8
vscodeintellicode	Vis	1.2.30
vscodeintellicode-completions	Vis	1.0.22
vscodeintellicode-insiders	Vis	1.1.10
vscode-icons	vsc	12.5.0
vscode-postcss	vun	2.0.2
vscode-import-cost	wix	3.3.0
pretty-ts-errors	yoa	0.5.1
vscode-proto3	zxh	0.5.5

(2 theme extensions excluded)

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[chambliss]

Video:

Code-2023-09-06.at.02.16.48PM.mp4

[aeschli]

The command looks at the type of the currently configured theme and picks the opposite.
Bearded Theme Milkshake Mango is configured as dark high contrast. So when you are in Mango, we go to preferredHighContrastLightColorTheme which is Mango again.

btw Bearded Theme Arc Blueberry is marked as Dark

So I suggest to file an issue against Bearded Theme to correctly mark as light high constant theme.

Not sure how to improve this on our end.
We don't want to restrict the 'preferred' themes. This normally doesn't matter, except for the toggle command.

[chambliss]

Ah, you're right, the problem is actually specific to the Bearded themes. I tested this out with a light and dark non-Bearded theme and it works as expected. I'll close this and reopen with them. Thanks!