Unable to reset Google Chrome theme

Question

tldr; When I reset my Google Chrome theme to default, and restart my browser, the title/tab bars take on a dark theme and I can't figure out why. I think there is some kind of hidden settings/profile location I can't find

I'm on macOS Mojave 10.14.5, using Google Chrome latest (currently Version 74.0.3729.169 (Official Build) (64-bit)) and I'm having an issue where, for my main user profile, no matter what I do I can't seem to reset Chrome to it's default theme/styling. It always appears as a dark titlebar & tabs

I'm not running macOS dark mode at all (for Chrome, or by default). I'm looking for some other suggestions on what I can do to get the titlebar to display "normal" again (light mode), because I've tried everything I can think of.

My title bar shows up as below:

The default, however, is supposed to show up as below:

I can can get my titlebar to show up like it's supposed to, by doing:

• Going to the theme store & installing a theme
• Going into Chrome settings, and choosing "Reset theme"

However, this only persists until the next time I restart Google Chrome.

This only occurs on my personal laptop, it doesn't occur on other computers I'm using that I've synced my Google Preferences to.

Other things I've tried:

• Signing out of my Google Chrome sync
• Completely deleting & reinstalling Google Chrome and attempting to delete all of the related preferences & settings files
  • And everything chrome-related in ~/Library/Preferences
• Toggling macOS dark mode off & on again
• Using defaults write com.google.Chrome NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool Yes (and trying it w/ No & resetting to default)
• Deleting the folder with all the Google Apps
• Using the "reset settings to their original defaults" setting in Chrome
• Deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.google.Chrome.plist
• Deleting ~/Library/WebKit/com.google.Chrome
• Deleting Chrome with AppCleaner (which found some referenced folders in /var/ and other locations)
• Disabling GPU acceleration
• Deleting everything Google related from all locations in all the directories noted here
• Creating a new Chrome profile
• Resetting all chrome://flags to default
• Trying Google Chrome Canary (it also inherits this dark theme/style)
• Disabling dark mode on mobile Chrome (even though this shouldn't matter, because I've tried disabling sync previously, and deleting & reinstalling chrome and all associated folders I can find while disconnected from the internet)
• Running the cleaning & optimization scripts via Onyx
• Running the cleaning & optimization scripts from Clean My Mac. Deleting using the Clean My Mac uninstaller
• Resetting settings under advanced option in Google Chrome
• Restarting Chrome & rebooting my computer after trying all of the above

I created another profile on this computer, logged in, and started Google Chrome and it worked as expected/desired (light tabs). For the life of me, I can't figure out what I may have missed on my profile that could be interfering with the title bar/tab color.

I've also tried toggling dark mode while Chrome is open; the theme changes between modes but it still has a dark looking theme when in light mode (per the screenshot above). It's like there's a theme persisted that I can't rid of

I'v found a workaround (using a theme that mirrors the default) but at this point I'm interested in determining the root cause, without completely nuking my profile.

I'm at a loss of what the cause could be so any other suggestions on how I can troubleshoot or triage are appreciated.

Answer 1

How about a reinstall of the chrome app? Backup/Sync your logins and bookmarks before you do that.

Should be a piece of cake.

Answer 2

This seems to be a problem introduces by a recent Chrome update. It will hopefully be fixed in some future version, but until then your options are limited to using a theme that has the color you like (not counting the non-recommended option of downgrading Chrome).

You may construct such a theme yourself or use one of the following:

• Classic Blue (gray navbar)

• Classic Blue Theme for Google Chrome

In response to the poster asking for links, here are some links for this same problem, all dating from February 2019 or later, although without any real solution except theme change:

• Title bar color problem
• My Chrome is stuck with the Incognito color scheme in normal mode
• Title bar not changing with new theme
  (I hope that this one does not happen to you)

Answer 3

First, try changing your theme to another one available in the chrome web store. And then reset that them to default(this hard worked for me.

If this does not help navigate to "Restore Settings to Their Original Defaults" which should be under advanced.