[Bug]: enforce_theme=default Disables Browser-Based Dark/Light Mode Detection

[bromiesTM]

⚠️ This issue respects the following points: ⚠️

• This is a bug, not a question or a configuration/webserver/proxy issue.
• This issue is not already reported on Github OR Nextcloud Community Forum (I've searched it).
• Nextcloud Server is up to date. See Maintenance and Release Schedule for supported versions.
• I agree to follow Nextcloud's Code of Conduct.

Bug description

When the enforce_theme parameter in config.php is set to default, Nextcloud does not automatically adjust the theme (dark mode or light mode) based on the browser's settings.

Steps to reproduce

1. Set the enforce_theme parameter in config.php to default:
2. Open Nextcloud in Browser and confirm default theme is enforced at settings/user/theming
3. Observe that Nextcloud does not change its theme based on the browser's theme settings. (Dev Tools ⇾ Rendering ⇾ Emulate CSS media feature prefers-color-scheme)

Expected behavior

Nextcloud should automatically switch between dark mode and light mode based on the browser's theme settings when the enforce_theme parameter is set to default.

Installation method

None

Nextcloud Server version

29

Operating system

None

PHP engine version

None

Web server

None

Database engine version

None

Is this bug present after an update or on a fresh install?

None

Are you using the Nextcloud Server Encryption module?

None

What user-backends are you using?

• Default user-backend (database)
• LDAP/ Active Directory
• SSO - SAML
• Other

Configuration report

No response

List of activated Apps

No response

Nextcloud Signing status

No response

Nextcloud Logs

No response

Additional info

No response

[kesselb]

cc @susnux @skjnldsv

[skjnldsv]

Ah, we should just remove default from the example in config.sample.php.
Default is not a valid theme, enforcing it makes zero sense :)

[pandusen]

Ah, we should just remove default from the example in config.sample.php. Default is not a valid theme, enforcing it makes zero sense :) <

Currently it does make sense. It is the only way to force browser based choice of theme. for me, that makes sense, as I am using a custom theme, that is designed to work in dark and light mode.

If I force either dark or light, it will overwrite the theme completely.
If I dont set any value, the users will be able to change the theme.

[skjnldsv]

custom theme as within the themes directory of your Nextcloud root?

[pandusen]

custom theme as within the themes directory of your Nextcloud root?
<

Correct. It used to be that you could just write your theme name "my_theme" directly in "enforce_theme" to apply the theme, and disable user theming. But as always with nextcloud, admin control is slowly getting deprecated.. Now you can only use the build-in themes: dark, dark-highcontrast, default, light, light-highcontrast, opendyslexic. Where default is the current theme.

[bromiesTM]

Exactly, that's why enforcing default should prevent the non-privileged user from switching themes manually while preserving the auto-adjusting functionality based on browser / OS settings.
At least that's what I expected.

[skjnldsv]

@pandusen yeah, the custom theming feature you're using is slowly getting deprecated for a few years now.
I would no rely on it on the long run, sorry :)