You see your own Theme / Color Palette selection when viewing other users' preferences

Bug
1

I don’t believe this is a new bug, just one that hasn’t been problematic enough to get written up. Still, it’s a confusing UX for any admin attempting to make a theme change on behalf of another user.

The area of concern is this set of preferences:

Screenshot 2025-11-03 at 2.31.04 PM
Screenshot 2025-11-03 at 2.31.04 PM2248×786 60.5 KB

Two things are happening:

  • You only ever see the values you have set in your own interface preferences no matter which user’s interface preferences you are viewing.
  • If you attempt to make a theme / color palette change on behalf of another user, nothing changes (for either user).

Reproduction steps (as an admin user)

  1. Ensure you site is set up with selectable themes and color palettes
  2. Open up a browser tab to your own interface preferences at /my/preferences/interface
  3. Open up another tab and navigate to another user’s interface preferences.
  4. Note that the Theme and Color Palette values are the same for both users
  5. Change the theme for your user and save
  6. Refresh the tab of the other user and note how it has changed as well.
  7. Attempt to change the theme + save on behalf of the other user.
  8. Note how the change is not successful.
3 Likes
2

I noticed this area being odd, too, but hadn’t written it up yet. My notes were slightly different – Light & Dark pallette settings could be changed, though never seen from admin’s side:

  • When viewed by an admin account, a user’s Color Palette Light mode and Dark mode settings always appear as the admin’s own settings, regardless of the user’s settings.
  • Admin can successfully issue a change of Light mode and Dark mode settings for a user – but on refresh, the controls on the admin’s side always revert to show admin’s settings.
  • Admin cannot successfully issue a change to the user’s Theme.
  • Changes to Mode and Text Size from either end work fine, and the display of current settings sync as expected.
2 Likes
3

I also noticed this for “text size”. It depends on which browser I use to look at the user’s profile. I use a smaller text size only in Firefox, so I didn’t use “Make this the default text size on all my devices”. And when I check the profiles with Firefox, everyone seems to be using “smaller” just like me. In Chrome, I can see the real text size preferences, so I guess not using “Make this the default text size on all my devices” is the reason why I always see my own preference.
I wonder if that option also influences which theme preferences you see.

2 Likes