Dark mode search text too dark after app relaunch [MacOS] [FIXED-v37]

If I switch Drafts’ appearance on MacOS from light to dark the search field inverts to white on black as expected:

  • the search field shows a magnifier icon and “Search Drafts” in dark grey text;
  • text entered in the field appears as white-on-black, and clicking elsewhere slightly dims the text.

If I subsequently close Drafts (close, reboot, etc.) and re-open, the field changes:

  • the search field shows no icon, and “Search Drafts” appears in white-on-black with the same intensity that the search text would appear before restarting;
  • text entered in the box is the same colour as “Search Drafts” is before restarting (dark grey);
  • selecting a draft changes the search text to black and black and it becomes hidden, but clicking in the field shows it in the dark grey again.

Clearing the search field makes “Search Drafts” visible with light text on the dark background, but the icon remains hidden, and any text entered in the field immediately becomes unreadable again. The only indicator that there’s filtering happening is the apparently blank search field.

Toggling the appearance from dark to light and back to dark fixes the problem until the next time Drafts is restarted.

What version of macOS? I cannot reproduce this behavior on 13.2.

I’m on Monterey 12.6.3.

OK, figured this out. It’s specific to the side panel being closed when the app is launched. Will fix in next release.

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This is fixed in v37.

Unfortunately today’s update did not fix the problem I originally described. I never close the side panel, and toggling it has no effect, so switching to light mode and back to dark remains the only fix.

Obviously this is a low-priority edge case given no one else has commented here. I’ll macro the toggle in Keyboard Maestro for now.


Update: now minimizing the main window and restoring causes the problem, but exiting and restarting the application “fixes” it.