Date & time in macOS menu bar completely lose contrast.

[lgarron]

I've been running into this bug recently, where the menu bar date & time show as gray text against a very similar background:

When I click on the date & time, the text temporarily turns to white.

However, the text reverts when the click is released.

Obviously, this makes it hard to use the time display as it was designed — to actually read the time without having to take a separate action.

This occurs for me on an M1 Max 16" MacBook Pro running macOS 12.4.

It seems to be common for others as well:

• https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253675968
• https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252626438
• https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252041633
• https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252037381

[lgarron]

Aha!

This happens specifically when macOS enters the "Sleep" focus mode!

It's possible to toggle the text back to normal contrast by toggling the focus mode. 🤷

[lgarron]

Significantly improved in macOS 13 Ventura: