Jira- How to enable Dark theme in jira cloud? Without needing to purchase and add-on-

[Mitra Vahedi]

Hi--

On our Daily board, the white background is too white, can we change the board team or choose a dark theme?

[Andy Heinzer]

Hi Mitra,

I see that you are looking to view your Jira Cloud site with a dark theme.  At this time, Atlassian does not have a means for users to set a theme for the site.  There is an existing feature request for this for Jira Cloud over in JRACLOUD-63150.   I would recommend watching and voting on this issue to help our development  and product management teams better understand the most desired features to plan for.

There is also a corresponding feature request for this in Jira Server over in JRASERVER-63150.

Regards,

Andy

[daniel]

Those requests are from late 2016. Top #2 position. No response what's so ever.

The logical conclusion must be that atlassian don't give a damn, right?

Daniel

[David Allen]

Agreed.

[Mathieu Aubé]

It's a shame to not be able to set dark mode on such a wide used application...

[theVikingCoder]

Dark theme would be really nice & make me want to use the app more

[Dmitriy Isaev]

I'm very sad that Atlassian doesn't have plans to support most end-user needs. Until COVID all my entire team sitting home, so working night became more common. I'v turned dark everywhere. Almost everywhere..

Trying different surrogates as dark reader in Firefox only makes me more sad.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

>I'm very sad that Atlassian doesn't have plans to support most end-user needs

I'd agree if it were true in this context, but "most end-user needs" is not something you can currently claim that a dark theme is.

Given the other stuff in JaC that we clearly need more, a dark theme is, at best, a "nice to have" and has a load more important things above it on the list.

[Villskog_old]

In a period when even widely used apps like Messenger are integrating Dark Mode, you can't say that it's a "nice to have" on professional apps like Jira, used widely by devs, who often use Dark Mode everywhere.

[Andrew Faulkner]

I'm amazed this is still a thing, given the level of interest and the fact the tickets have been open since 2016.

[David Allen]

Yup. Sadly, I think Atlassian product development is driven by a handful of project managers who fail to weigh requested QOL features with the bug fixes, growth, and evolution of the product (per their vision and the way they use it).

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That's not true, they absolutely do weigh QOL features with everything else.  It just happens that there are far more important and useful things to be done than a dark theme.

[Sarah Wallis]

Dark theme / mode really improves my productivity. I wear blue light blocking glasses every day, and even then the bright white webpages are uncomfortable to stare at for hours, or even have open for reference on my secondary screen. Atlassian, please add a Dark theme!

[David Allen]

Yup. Still... nothing from Atlassian. Doesn't make sense TBH. It seems they are completely disconnected from the public and their use of online/web-based products -- especially with developers, many (if not the majority) who are now using dark themed solutions.

[Bolt.Ryan]

+1 please implement this!

[Connor DeVries]

It's been a year since this request was made and Atlassian still hasn't said anything? That's such a damn shame because dark mode would be so much more significant than all the "UI updates" they've done lately. 

[enrique]

You guys, come on… theming is a bit time-consuming, but not even that complicated. I really hope it's already in the works.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Please see the answer and comments above.

[enrique]

Aha. Priorities. Fair enough.

[Payam Moin Afshari]

There are lots of BASIC features that surprisingly don't exist in Jira.... :| 

To have a dark theme in Jira (and many other websites) I'm using Night Eye chrome extension... So far that's been the only solution I could find!

[Dave Mittner]

Adding my name to the list of disappointed users. I've been going through and enabling dark mode everywhere I can and was disappointed (and surprised) that there's no option for Atlassian products. I know it might be tough given the scale of the application, but I added Dark Mode support to one of my professional web applications in a single night. And well developed and maintained stylesheets should make it relatively easy -- that's largely their point.

In any case, +1.

[aschittko]

Yep, still not implemented...

[Benjamin Breimer]

Looks like it is in progress as of today!

[Gyula]

+1 for implementing it

[Marcos Nascimento]

Still waiting for the dark mode.

[Suliman Alsaeed]

Still waiting for the desktop version too!

[Foulques de M]

someone make a chrome extension ! 

[Michal]

+1 please implement this, Nowadays it's a must!

[Gab Pop]

In the meantime -- here is what I am using: 
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/night-mode-for-jira/nlgcogdbamhmdbpaabmpklojolokodaa/related?hl=en

[Prince Pathria]

No dark mode so far....that's a shame.

[Ashley Daniel]

Its in progress already. They posted a screenshot recently of what its looking like. So its coming!

[Dylan w]

Eyes burn at night, please implement darkmode

[Prasad Kamat]

+1 Please implement dark mode! 

[Laurent GIRARD]

Please implement dark mode!

[Michael Pollack]

Ever wonder why many developers don't like Jira?  This is a prime example.

The only reason many of use it is that it is forced on us.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

In my limited experience as a Jira admin, I see developers don't like Jira because either their leaders want to try to micromanage them (and hence force Jira admins to set up bad config) or their Jira admins don't quite get what it's for.

The reason it tends to be "forced on us" is because all the other tools are worse.

Much as I'm an Atlassian fan, I am pragmatic about it.  Jira is like democracy - "Jira is the worst form of issue-tracking except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time"

[Daniel Stefaniak]

Back to the dark theme topic and its priority - I strongly disagree with your mid 2020 statement @Nic Brough -Adaptavist-. I don't think addressing an issue that may literally impact your users' physical health should be a "nice to have" on any roadmap.

If someone thinks so called productivity or efficiency features are more important than something that would make your eyes not suffer and help to keep them healthy, they are not seeing it right.

So what if I can do the workload worth 5 workdays during 4 days thanks to great P1 improvements, if I won't be able to use Jira (despite I like it very much) say, 2 years from now, because of my eyes condition?
I work on multiple screens by the way and more often than not, have Jira on two of them.

[Manfred Ebeling]

Please create a Dark Theme!! As many person mentioned my eye´s are burning at night.

Thank you very much :) 

[Michal Brezovan]

We need dark mode !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG come on guys make it !!!!!!!

[Jean Wainer]

2021, and still nothing :(

[Adan Alvarado]

If you're already using Stylus, I created a Userstyle theme that automatically updates. I just added a couple of changes this month.

Please check it out:

https://github.com/aalvarado/JiraDarkTheme

[Carlos Eduardo Santos Teixeira]

Pessoal, quem não conseguir maneira melhor, recomendo essa extensão para o Google Chrome.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dark-reader/eimadpbcbfnmbkopoojfekhnkhdbieeh?hl=pt-BR

Deixa qualquer site em modo escuro, na maioria fica muito bom, quebra um galho.

[Kostiantyn Korniienko Trilogy]

it's 2022 and it's still not there! come on guys, you can do better than this!

[Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_]

+1

[npaulin]

you can of course use FORCE dark mode via Chrome, it does work for JIRA!

[Matt Richards]

How does one do this? 

[npaulin]

https://www.howtogeek.com/446198/how-to-force-dark-mode-on-every-website-in-google-chrome/

[Bill B.]

Fantastic.  Thank you.

[dbuyan]

Same with Microsoft Edge (Canary build)

[David Allen]

This is the way to do it folks; works great!

[theVikingCoder]

Dark theme would be nice to have

[BlairYak]

@npaulin Thank you sir!

[npaulin]

Miss - but you are very welcome 

[Balaji Chavan]

Thanks for the tip, works fine

[Michele]

At least, meanwhile you spend a few years considering to add a dark mode option, give an option to make this crazy white background gray.... Or whatever color but not one that kills your eyes!

[Phillip P]

I finally made it to the forums and I am glad to see that I am not going crazy. I haven't been using the Jira tools long but I feel like I am on the retro bus. I have a widescreen monitor (they have been around awhile now. hint Atlassian), and have had to keep eyedrops on my desk because of the burning my eyes feel after a few hours of work. I have as much whitespace as I do content.

I'm looking forward to the links provided to force a dark theme. 

[Michael Pollack]

Phillip I feel your pain, I am not a fan of Jira nor do I expect them to implement a dark theme.  If they did it would be for everyone and not just for you.  An example of this is the board layout.  If it is changed by anyone everyone get the change.

Since I develop for chrome I cannot customize it, it has to mimic the user experience.

I use Firefox to browse and use applications like jira.

Install the Dark reader plugin for Firefox.

You will be very happy.

[Phillip P]

The "Dark mode for Jira" chrome extension works great in my edge browser. Now I just need a hack to get the issues to take advantage of a widescreen monitor and not scrunch everything up like we are back in the 800x600 days. 
I feel like this tool was meant to support code development teams. Yet when I put a code snippet into a comment I have to read it in a tiny 4 inch wide box and scroll to read a line. So what kind of code development did they think they were supporting. 140 some character tweets.

[Michael Pollack]

I am glad you found a solution, I don't/won't use edge.  Try firefox it is a much better browser. 

I do not believe the tool was originally for developers, most of us use it because management said so.  Get use to doing more clicking than you had to in other software.

It would be nice if the popup could be expanded and moved.  The work around is to click on the item link.  It will open full sized in the tab.

[Michael McDermitt]

I forced it and it worked!

I had the theme but it expired...

[Rajesh Parejiya]

You can enable dark mode for all sites from Chrome settings

How to Force Dark Mode on All Websites

Want to try it out? This option is available as a hidden flag in Chrome 78. Like all flags, it’s an experimental option that may change or be removed at any time. It one day may graduate to a proper option on Chrome’s Settings screen, or it may vanish completely.

To find it, type “chrome://flags” into Chrome’s Omnibox and press Enter.

Search for “Dark Mode” in the search box at the top of the Experiments page that appears.

Click the box to the right of “Force Dark Mode for Web Contents” and select “Enabled” for the default setting.

Click “Relaunch” to relaunch Chrome. Chrome will close and relaunch all your open web pages. Be sure to save any content on those pages—for example, things you’ve typed in text boxes—before relaunching the browser.

Browse and see how it works. If you don’t like it, head back to Chrome’s Experiments screen, change this option back to “Default,” and relaunch the browser. Chrome will stop messing with website colors after you disable this option.

You can also try other Force Dark Mode options. The different modes will products different results on web pages. Some of them will even invert light images, turning those images dark. This will make images look different, of course, but it may be convenient if you want a consistently dark desktop.

[Christian Sprenger]

Nice (y)

[kkamyshanov]

Thanks a lot!!

[Taylor Turner]

After trying all of the settings, I stuck with "Enabled with selective inversion of non-image elements". Otherwise it tries to invert some images and they look weird.

[Max S (RiP)]

I've found that using an extension called 'Stylish' - https://userstyles.org/ works really well for Jira.

I've been using a theme called 'JIRA Dark 2020' and I've found it has been working much better than what using Force Dark mode on chrome was doing for me.

The reasons I found that  the changes aren't across every website. Force dark mode tends to break some and make them unusable. 
JIRA Dark 2020 doesn't contrast too heavily and maintains images and graphs so they're still readable too.

----------------

I'd like to add an amendment to my post.

Stylish is not the one due this article being brought to my attention:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/chrome-and-firefox-pull-stylish-add-on-after-report-it-logged-browser-history/

Although Stylish is back on App Stores; after the history of Stylish it seems like a corrupted entity now.

So after a second of research I found Stylus which is the open source equivalent of Stylish. All styles from userstyles.org are applicable here included the one mentioned in my prior post.

Stylus Homepage

https://add0n.com/stylus.html

Stylus Chrome extension

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylus/clngdbkpkpeebahjckkjfobafhncgmne

Working great until Atlassian decide to move into the 2020's :) 

[Deleted user]

I use new chrome extension for dark mode -- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/night-mode-for-jira/nlgcogdbamhmdbpaabmpklojolokodaa

Works great including Confluence and other Atlassian products

[Adan Alvarado]

Hey Max!

If you're already using Stylus, I created a Userstyle theme that automatically updates. I just added a couple of changes this month.

Please check it out:

https://github.com/aalvarado/JiraDarkTheme

[Dave_Liao]

If you're on Jira Cloud and have a Mac, use the Jira Cloud macOS app, which supports dark mode!

[kristian_walsh]

Missing a lot of features unfortunately so not worth downloading yet unless your workflow is just the basics

[Dave_Liao]

@kristian_walsh - Yeah, agreed. The macOS app does present a focused user experience (like the mobile app), which I didn't know until I tried it this month. :(

I still generally recommend it to folks who are using Jira very simply (not many folks, in my experience, but some).

My favorite part about having the macOS app open is getting toast notifications when people leave comments on my tickets. 😂

[Michal Brezovan]

We need dark mode !!!!!!!!!!OMG come on guys make it !!!

[Austin Hodges]

We cancelled our Jira account and all other Atlassian products and switched because;

THIS HAS BEEN THE HIGHEST VOTED FEATURE REQUEST FOR ATLASSIAN FOR 7 YEARS and hasn't moved an inch. So, we gave up and moved to software with dev teams that listen to their customers--at least after a few years.

My advice, cancel your service. Let jira know that their 100,000s of views on this issue and votes, and comments and requests that have gone unanswered matter and that you'll now vote with your wallet. 

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-63150?jql=text%20~%20%22Dark%20Mode%22%20ORDER%20BY%20votes%20DESC%2C%20updated%20DESC

[arpitparmar5739]

The whole operating systems have got the dark mode, what are you busy doing. Bring the dark mode!!!

[Damien Gallagher]

As someone who is legally blind dark mode is for me a vital user experience. I use JIRA with my team of Product Owners to run our business day in day out... Please get this feature prioritised... for some of us this is way more than a nice to have

Damien

[Adan Alvarado]

Damien, please take a look here:

I created a Userstyle theme that automatically updates. I just added a couple of changes this month.

Please check it out:

https://github.com/aalvarado/JiraDarkTheme

[Zak Steedman]

I've seen a car floating around Melbourne with the number plate JIRA, rumour has it that it belongs to one of the founders. If I ever see them I'll be sure to give them an ear full about dark mode not being in existence hahaha. 

[Jagadeesh Rangaswamy]

Why is there no response from Atlassian team on this?

[AFRINIC Admin]

Or you can simply use https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1221577/darktheme?tab=overview&hosting=datacenter

[Jill Lugar]

Random plug-ins can not be added to user's desktops in large corporations that are required to review them for safety.  Legal departments and Cyber Security Teams are required to authorize any and all plug-ins.  A Plug-in IS NOT THE ANSWER. Period. 

[Chad Ridings]

The silly part to all of this ... almost all of us are developers and we know how easy it would be to implement a dark mode feature.  It's really not that hard to toggle a CSS selector and take advantage of inheritance.  As another post noted... this has been the #2 requested feature and has been in pursuit since 2016 (5 years ago).

[paulus denys]

So... Going for the 5 year anniversary I guess...

[Adan Alvarado]

Please check my Stylus theme for Jira cloud

https://github.com/aalvarado/JiraDarkTheme

[Ashley Daniel]

So I just enabled this one but for some reason parts of it stay white- So on the Projects Board looks great but I open up other parts and they are white background do you know what part of the code is this screen? 

[Adan Alvarado]

I'll take a look

[Adan Alvarado]

Hi Ashley, please update, I updated some parts of the theme. Thanks for the report

[Dylan w]

Any alternatives to Jira that offer dark mode (scrum)?

[Jill Lugar]

This absolutely needs to be available for accessibility. My overly sensitive eyes are killing me. 

[Jill Lugar]

Additional information that I think is relevant:

As companies who are using Atlassian products are getting larger, the answer is not to download random plug-in since the larger companies have strict Third Party agreement rules.  This can not be left as a 'get a plug-in' answer or even a use the browser settings.  My company has both the browser's settings locked down and will not allow random plug-ins without a full EULA established with the plug-in's maker.  This MUST be native function.