Reduce Transparency Does Not Work in macOS Tahoe 26.1?
Some Mac users have discovered that the “Reduce Transparency” and “Increase Contrast” accessibility toggles no longer work completely after installing the macOS Tahoe 26.1 update, as transparency remains prominent throughout the interface.
Toggling the Accessibility switch on for ‘Reduce Transparency’ in MacOS Tahoe 26.1 might reduce the transparency in the menu bar and Control Center only, but transparency remains overtly visible throughout some aspects of the Liquid Glass visual appearance, including in some window title bars, sidebars, search bars, and elsewhere in the macOS Tahoe interface. Similarly, the “Increase Contrast” toggle will place dramatic contrasting borders around windows and visual elements, but the Liquid Glass interface remains transparent in many areas, like Finder and System Settings.
Unfortunately this means that using Reduce Transparency to address the legibility issues in MacOS Tahoe like overlapping text and weird blurry colors and shapes floating under the window titlebars no longer works. These legibility issues were originally relieved by using ‘Reduce Transparency’ in prior versions of MacOS Tahoe, but those visual issues can no longer be mitigated with that settings adjustment, making legibility issues worse for some users in macOS Tahoe 26.1.
Even with “Reduce Transparency” enabled, the transparency visual effects persist in Finder windows, System Settings, sidebars, and elsewhere, in macOS Tahoe 26.1.
Some users have also complained of the Dock being blurry, pixelated, transparent, or otherwise looking unusual in macOS Tahoe 26.1 as well.
Having excessive transparency despite using Reduce Transparency is almost certainly a bug and not intended behavior, but if you find macOS Tahoe to be visually challenging and you have relied on the Accessibility “Reduce Transparency” setting to make it tolerable for you, you’ll likely want to be aware of this new issue.
In testing, I can reproduce the ineffective Reduce Transparency bug in both dark and light mode, after system restarts, and toggling the setting off and on (along with other settings), as you can see in the various screenshots in this article. This has been replicated directly on multiple Macs, as well as virtual machines running macOS Tahoe 26.1.
Hopefully a future macOS Tahoe system software update resolves this problem quickly, as visual complaints and accessibility difficulties with Liquid Glass have been one of the top concerns of Mac users who have either installed macOS Tahoe or are avoiding it for those particular reasons.
If anyone has found a workaround, solution, or related issue with macOS Tahoe 26.1, with Accessibility, transparency, and similar settings, share it with us in the comments below.
I’m skipping this version completely. Sequoia works great, and no new desirable features were added in Tahoe. This update is the epitome of the Silicon Valley term “enshittification”.
26.0.1 running perfectly well on my m1 with 16gb ram
The Tahoe 26.1 “update” was a regression. I noticed right away that the headers in Apple Mail had returned to being transparent. The ship has sailed, but this Liquid Glass gimmick is going to go down as one of Apple’s biggest user experience flops. And don’t get me started on the failure of my Apple Mail in OS to “remember” folders ā a bug that surfaced after an upgrade four years ago and for which Apple has not resolved despite severals calls to support.
Well Ya’ll FanBois wanted that Crap and now suddenly you don’t. Thank God I don’t have time to Dive into this… got work!
This is exactly my complaint with these silly redesign efforts from Apple and constant new OS versions that take away features, move things around, break things, redesign the interface, it’s all GETTING IN THE WAY of getting things done! The opposite of what Mac used to be! Apple, for the love of productivity, STOP! Let us roll back to Sequoia interface and stop promoting the updates to Tahoe while it is so broken!
Most of the applications in Tahoe doesnāt work like a Mac should. In Photos you cannot scroll in the album or event folders. In the main library scrolling is not a problem. It worked ok before Tahoe come on the scene. The Ipad 12.9 runs up and down on how much memory you have. It to needs some attention.
More than ever I avoid yealy Mac OS update.
This Tahoo 26 is blurry unfinished beta
Sequoia is totaly fine. See you next year
I also noticed that at least some of those controls look the same in tinted and clear liquid glass appearance with reduced transparency turned off.
So glad I didn’t “upgrade” to Tahoe!
I wish I had not, I do NOT like Tahoe at all! I can’t even name a new feature but I can name things that don’t work any more!
Reduce Transparency works in Safari but not in Finder or System Settings
macOS Tahoe 26.1
Why can’t we have a setting for going back to the Sequoia interface?
In 26.1 he reduce transparency works, but icons look fuzzy to me.
Worst offender is Facebook Messenger. This is also true for me on iOS 26.1. It’s crazy. I thought I had a dirty screen or needed new glasses.
Are you not suppose to be using the Appearance>Liquid Glass rather than the mention thins in the article.