Revit 2026 Canvas Dark/Light mode bug

[bart.koevoet]

Everytime I lock and unlock my PC, Revit 2026 switches the canvas to dark mode to match the system settings, while in the settings for Revit itself it's set to light mode (as I prefer).

Also, I was not able to find a preset setting in the Excel file about the Revit.ini file. Is this not a thing? If so, could it also be added to set a standard for office wide settings deployment etc.

[jay_colc]

There is a setting in the Revit.ini (1) This was set for Use system setting and switching to Dark picked (0)

Help | Colors Settings in Revit.ini | Autodesk

[bart.koevoet]

Thanks. That is indeed the setting I was missing in the "revit-ini-settings-for-revit-2026.xls" file. But with (0) being dark mode and (1) being light mode, it still switches from light do dark mode after I unlock my pc. The UI stays correct, but the canvas keeps switching. It seems that either takes over my UI settings or system settings, rather than the dedicated canvas settings.

[jay_colc]

Not 100% on this but the excel sheet looks out of date as I would have expected;

0 = Dark

1 = light

2 = UI System Settings

But it looks like the .ini gets saved on close on what is relevant at that time for the UI System Settings as either 0 or 1?

[bart.koevoet]

I'm not sure what you are asking. But none of the options work. I am sure this is just a bug that Autodesk will have to resolve.

[jbrr27]

I was having this issue in 2026 (I don't think it's happened in 2024, and I haven't used 2025 much).  I prefer to have most of my programs in dark mode, so I like the dark theme, and Revit wants to have the canvas dark if the dark theme is selected.  However, even with the dark theme I prefer the light canvas setting, as the dark canvas changes colors, to the point where they don't show correctly in an elevation for example.  In options, it was set to "Use System Settings."  Changing it to "Dark" seems to have worked.

[bart.koevoet]

@jbrr27 Thank you, this seems to be a good temporary fix. I still hope Autodesk will resolve this bug as the setting for "UI active theme" seems to also affect the canvas theme.

Setting this to dark seems to disconnect the association, but is obviously not how it should work as there is a dedicated setting for the canvas theme in the Revit.ini file which seems to be ignored when "UI active theme" is set to "Use System Settings".

[lauri_barnhart]

Hello, @bart.koevoet,

Just checking in—did the responses shared by @jay_colc or @jbrr27 help clarify your question?

If so, please consider clicking the "Accept Solution" button on the post(s) that solved your problem. Doing so helps others in the community easily find useful answers.

If your question still needs more attention, feel free to reply here with an update. This way, other members can jump in with further suggestions or guidance to help you move forward.

All the best,

Lauri | Community Manager

[bart.koevoet]

@lauri_barnhart A temporary solution has been found, but I am still waiting to see this bug escalated to the right development team at Autodesk to work on a fix.

[jbrr27]

My .ini file was correct, although I think I only checked after I changed the setting in Options > Colors.  It seems to have stuck, it hasn't happened again since changing the setting.

[nhuberdVVZAF]

I am having the same issue. I haven’t changed the UI Active Theme since I still want the standard interface, just a dark canvas. This didn’t happen in previous versions of Revit, only in 2026, so it seems like a bug.

When it happens, I’ve been using a shortcut to flip it back. Press C + Space.

[IAN~JAMES]

We are getting the same thing, I have even tried setting the Revit.ini file to 1 and then after my screen locks and I unlock it, the Revit canvas changes to black and actually changes the Revit.ini file back to 0 as well...
We are quite late to the game deploying Revit 2026 we are just starting our first 2026 project, but given that Revit 2027 has now been released, I'm surprised to see bugs like this still in the software 😞
Is this on the Dev's list at Autodesk to address this any time soon...?
We have to have a relatively short screen lock times to comply with external client security requirements, so this is going to be a pain point for our users.

[bart.koevoet]

Changing your UI theme to the preferred mode instead of "use system settings" is a temporary fix.

[IAN~JAMES]

Is this on a list of bugs to be fixed at all...?

I notice that this also exists in Revit 2027, I would hate to think that this is the new normal... we are encouraging our users to configure a Keyboard Shortcut to Toggle the Canvas, but this is a bit of a primitive solution to a problem that shouldn't exist, and I can't defend this to our users with a straight face when I hear some of their comments.

I have had the Revit.ini file open in Notepad++ and I can watch not only the canvas change, but the Revit.ini file gets edited and Notepad++ detects the change and prompts to reload the edit.

We operate in quite a strict environment, due to some of our clients requirements, so screenlocking happens many times per day for out users. Maybe more than most users out there...??

It would be good to know if this is at least on someone's radar... this doesn't happen in Revit 2025, so the difference should at least be determinable...?

Thanks