Change your Mac's accent and highlight colour

Why it happens

Your Mac uses one accent colour for buttons, tickboxes, switches and selected items in sidebars. Selected text has its own highlight colour, which follows the accent colour unless you set it separately. Both live in Appearance settings.

How to fix it

1. Choose System Settings from the Apple menu and click Appearance in the sidebar.

2. Next to Color, click the colour you'd like. Buttons, switches and selections change straight away, so you can try a few. Multicolor lets each app use its own colour.

   Appearance›Color

3. To change the colour behind selected text, open the Text highlight color menu and pick one, or choose Other to mix your own.

   Appearance›Text highlight color

Still not fixed?

1. If one app keeps its own colours, that app sets them itself. Picking Multicolor in Appearance lets apps that do this show their colour.

2. Want coloured folder icons too? That's a separate Folder color choice in the same Appearance settings, near Icon & widget style.

   Appearance›Icon & widget style

3. If tickboxes and buttons are still hard to see in any colour, turn on Increase contrast in Accessibility settings under Display. It adds clear borders.

   Accessibility›Display›Increase contrast

4. If the colour is greyed out or resets after a restart, your Mac may be managed by a school or company. If it's your own Mac, contact Apple Support.