Qbittorrent new theme reverses colors ?

[alexdns1]

qBittorrent & operating system versions

qBittorrent: 4.5.0 x64 Operating system: Windows 10 latest Qt: 5.15.7 libtorrent-rasterbar: 1.2.18.0

What is the problem?

Colors are reversed in latest 4.5.0 theme where completed torrents are bright blue instead of black making it completely unusable for anyone that has used qbittorrent for the past X years ( where X can be since day 1 )

Also reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/qBittorrent/comments/z6a0ql/go_back_to_old_ui_on_v450/

Please provide a simple fallback theme to the old one ?

Steps to reproduce

No response

Additional context

No response

Log(s) & preferences file(s)

No response

[Pentaphon]

@xavier2k6 is this dealt with for 4.5.1?

[Pentaphon]

What do you mean by "this"?

Has the issue been resolved, obviously.

[bottleblue]

Completed torrents text color was changed many weeks ago to be more readable, already in year 2022, both in master branch and v4_5_x branch builds. Merged and closed pull request was written here long time ago.

How do you download and use it?

[bottleblue]

wow that's a lot of work just to change some colors lol. I might give it a try but I'll probably just wait for official release. I also use portable qbittorrent so I don't want any files in the Appdata folder. Thanks for the thorough instructions.

[xavier2k6]

is this dealt with for 4.5.1?

Not everything....No.

I'm currently focused on CTD - Crash To Desktop issues (Windows).

[mozomoid]

@bottleblue

wow that's a lot of work just to change some colors lol. I might give it a try but I'll probably just wait for official release.

In the meantime, you can simply load this qbtheme provided by a user on reddit: https://www.upload.ee/files/14743699/s98-2-bw.qbtheme.html

Black text and less phosphorescent icons:

[thiendt2k1]

@bottleblue

wow that's a lot of work just to change some colors lol. I might give it a try but I'll probably just wait for official release.

In the meantime, you can simply load this qbtheme provided by a user on reddit: https://www.upload.ee/files/14743699/s98-2-bw.qbtheme.html

Black text and less phosphorescent icons:

Many thanks, this save my day, and i can confirm they still working as of today(12/02/2023) P/s: anyone import and not work, plz restart qbittorrent

[bottleblue]

In the meantime, you can simply load this qbtheme provided by a user on reddit: https://www.upload.ee/files/14743699/s98-2-bw.qbtheme.html

great thx!

[larinius]

Sometimes buttons of stopped torrent are SAME as active (PAUSE), it is impossible to understand - if stopped or not. This "design" is a perfect example of pure trash.

[oniietzschan]

Just upgraded from 4.0.3 to 4.5.5. I think it's a pretty big downgrade now that nearly 100% of my list is blue text. "Seeding" is surely the default torrent state for most torrent power users, shouldn't it be black? I'm not inherently against the idea of "special" statuses being colored, but this seems like not the right call for a fairly common use case.

[luzpaz]

Whats left to do in this ticket ?

[alexdns1]

Dunno allowing people to easily revert to the old colors ?

[glassez]

In v4.6 you are able to adjust color/icon theme as wish.

[alexdns1]

Will it allow me to easily revert to the old colors or do i have to make it myself ?

[alexdns1]

Then why not use custom theme or install qBit v4.6.0 and use the new built-in theme changer?

Will the new theme changer allow me to easily revert to 4.4.5 colors without me doing anything but clicking on it ?

[alexdns1]

@PriitUring as i wrote initally "Please provide a simple fallback theme to the old one ?"

[Mazino-Urek]

@PriitUring as i wrote initally "Please provide a simple fallback theme to the old one ?"

Sorry, the whole redesign made some breaking changes to clean up some issues, and that made the fallback really hard for the developers. It is easier just to use a custom icon theme that resembles the old UI.

[alexdns1]

@PriitUring and you should've said that 1 year minus 20 days ago

[stalkerok]

Close this issue. In the current version, you can customize icons, icon color and text color using the built-in function. Icons can be found here https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/tree/master/src/icons or here https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/tree/v4_4_x/src/icons for version 4.4.x. How to change the color of .svg icons and what color codes to use you can see on the Internet.

[Pentaphon]

So this needs to be closed if maintainers don't want to revert default theme or if no plans to include built-in old theme choice button.

Not really. They can still fix the default list colors according to our feedback so there's no reason to close it until they do it, which they probably will, based on the feedback.

[stalkerok]

@stalkerok seems as if @alexdns1 dislikes to use any workarounds.

It's not even a workaround, it's a qBittorrent feature.

So this needs to be closed

The current feature set is sufficient to close this issue.

[alexdns1]

@PriitUring @stalkerok this issue is open for almost a year with no resolution to clarify the request is to have an easy way to revert to the old design , not figure out what the old colors are and then apply them on the new one ( 4.6 ) one by one

[TheYMI]

Having the old colors as the default would be even better

[Pentaphon]

The current feature set is sufficient to close this issue.

Not really since it is not the default, which everybody seems to want. We just need a contributor to merge a color change on a point release and then it can be closed.

All this complaining gets us nowhere.

Somebody needs to step up and make a PR based on the feedback ITT so that it can be merged.

to clarify the request is to have an easy way to revert to the old design , not figure out what the old colors are and then apply them on the new one ( 4.6 ) one by one

The request is not to be able to change to the old theme. You can do that yourself with a .qbtheme file like https://github.com/Bluewave2/legacy-4.3.8-qBittorrent

The request is to improve the new theme with color changes that fit the feedback ITT.

[glassez]

Not really since it is not the default, which everybody seems to want.

Who are these "everybody" you refer to? And where were they all the time while the changes being discussed were in the Pull Request stage? (it lasted not a month, not two, but much longer)

All this complaining gets us nowhere.

:+1:

Somebody needs to step up and make a PR based on the feedback ITT so that it can be merged.

At least then there will be something concrete to discuss.

[bottleblue]

Have the devs tried enlisting the community to come up with themes to use?

[Pentaphon]

Have the devs tried enlisting the community to come up with themes to use?

Yes and it resulted in the current theme that a lot of people hate because 1 person created it without getting feedback from the larger community. I think the current theme is ok but it needs 3 things:

1) A separate dark mode set of icons. 2) Instead of having so many blue icons, change them to different color icons to add more color variation. 3) Tweak the torrent list colors and make them the colors that people want.

Again, somebody needs to step up and:

a) submit a draft PR that fixes all the issues that people brought up ITT. b) get even more feedback on that draft to make sure people like it. c) finalize the PR.

Then I'm sure the devs will merge it in time for 5.0

[glassez]

1 person created it without getting feedback from the larger community

As I mentioned, it took a very long time. Anyone who wanted to participate could do it. Blaming someone is like "shut the stable door after the horse has run away" now.

[stalkerok]

@Pentaphon, it's impossible to please 100% of the users, even now that they have a feature where they can change the interface beyond recognition, they don't want to lift a finger. So, I doubt there will be a brave person who can withstand all their bombardment. Or on the contrary, everyone will just keep silent and not take any part, as it happened.

I can only suggest that the developers make an official built-in theme based on 4.4.x. But that won't satisfy everyone either.

[bottleblue]

@stalkerok if a lot people are complaining about the default theme then that's a design issue. Putting in a theme customizer and saying "do it yourself" is not a solution. You can't expect the average user to do that.

[stalkerok]

@bottleblue, do you even understand why the redesign was needed? The current theme is adapted for the light and dark theme of the system. As I said, you can’t please everyone, that’s why they made a feature for you with which you could do as your heart desires, but you still don’t like it...

[glassez]

if a lot people are complaining about the default theme then that's a design issue.

How "a lot people" is that? 10, 20? Even if the qBittorrent user base is only 1000 people, there are incomparably few of them who "complaining about the default theme".

In any case, this is a useless discussion, as has been repeatedly noted in this topic. Let someone suggest something to replace/improve the current theme in the form of PR, and let's discuss it.

And, by the way, it makes no sense to blame some "mythical" devs for everything and oppose them to the community. There are no such people here. We are all members of this community. Everyone makes their own contribution, someone in the form of code, someone tests, someone handles error reports, etc. ... and someone just passively uses this product. It is quite logical that decision-making is more influenced by those who are actively involved.

[alexdns1]

How "a lot people" is that? 10, 20? havent checked since opening the issue but on the week i opened it 10-20 here 200+ on reddit

im sure there are people who got used to the new design changes - i simply cant be one of them

In any case, this is a useless discussion, as has been repeatedly noted in this topic.

If you find it useless close it with WONTFIX - my request is simple - some people agree with it and if you are against it or saying you cant do it just close it with WONTFIX

[bottleblue]

@stalkerok

do you even understand why the redesign was needed?

I just know all that blue is uncomfortable to look at. And blue is my favorite color.

[alexdns1]

I just know all that blue is uncomfortable to look at. And blue is my favorite color.

To me it looks like 140% SRGB oversaturated colors

[stalkerok]

I just know all that blue is uncomfortable to look at. And blue is my favorite color.

Change it https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/18078#issuecomment-1801932627

[Pentaphon]

As I mentioned, it took a very long time. Anyone who wanted to participate could do it. Blaming someone is like "shut the stable door after the horse has run away" now.

Sorry, but this is not an excuse. All the work was being done on a PR on github and didn't reach a wider audience until the release came out to all users after 1 beta release (which very few people install) and once the users saw it, countless numbers of them complained here, reddit, the forums, forums outside of the homepage, etc. The majority of users did NOT like the new theme when it came out and that's a fact, because almost all of those people didn't get any news about a new theme being developed for a client they use on an almost daily basis.

I'm not blaming the guy who did it. He did a good job all by himself, even if most people didn't like the theme. I'm blaming how the whole process of creating a new theme came about. There should have been an announcement about a new upcoming theme on the homepage that linked to the WIP PR and you would have seen hundreds of people react to it and offer their advice to the PR author, who would have made more changes that would have resulted in a theme that most people liked. The new theme was basically developed with very little publicity and that's a mistake that should never be repeated.

If somebody does another major default theme change, an announcement and link to the 1st draft WIP should posted on the homepage/forums so that everybody can be invited to help offer their feedback before a release is pushed out.

it's impossible to please 100% of the users, even now that they have a feature where they can change the interface beyond recognition, they don't want to lift a finger.

Only because there was never an announcement about the new theme coming to their favorite client. If the PR author got feedback from the entire community before the new theme came out, I guarantee most people would have liked his theme. That's the only goal you can have; for most people to like your theme, and he couldn't reach that goal, simply because very few people knew his work was even taking place.

[glassez]

@Pentaphon Unfortunately, at that time there was no one like you to focus on the issue of public coverage of the development of a new theme. So now we have what we have. It is impossible to simply return the old theme for certain reasons (I mean, in some trivial way, because the current codebase has deeper changes than just the appearance). You can try to change the appearance so that it suits a larger number of users by default, but for this you need someone who will contribute to it.

[glassez]

As for my personal opinion, I would just use the standard text color by default.

[Pentaphon]

It is impossible to simply return the old theme for certain reasons (I mean, in some trivial way, because the current codebase has deeper changes than just the appearance). You can try to change the appearance so that it suits a larger number of users by default, but for this you need someone who will contribute to it.

And that is exactly what I'm saying needs to take place. If @Mazino-Urek is not available to tweak the original work he did in https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/pull/15769 then somebody else needs to step up and take over with a new PR that uses this thread as a starting point. Once that WIP PR is made, then whoever is in charge of the homepage should make an announcement that a new theme is in the works so that people can offer their feedback. That is basically all that is needed to fix this issue once and for all, but again, somebody needs to take on that responsibility and be prepared for countless numbers of people to give them feedback.

To be clear, it doesn't have to be a completely NEW theme. I think the current theme can be tweaked into something that most people will approve of and that will be enough. It's up to whoever makes the PR if they want to start from scratch.

[xavier2k6]

1.8+ million downloads of qBittorrent 4.5.0

---

~800k downloads of qBittorrent 4.6.0

---

Yet we aren't really inundated with backlash tickets to revert etc. qBittorrent 4.5.0+ Look & feel tickets

There's been some constructive reports like https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/18078#issuecomment-1329086219 & https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/18078#issuecomment-1329331777

For those who are repeatedly calling for "someone to step up", please lead by example & take the first step.

Note that any changes that are made from here on out won't benefit certain users like those now left with qBittorrent 4.5.5 as their last official version (Windows 7 - 8.1) & may need to be changed again because of Qt 6.5.x accent color change (on Windows anyway).

I'm not going to dwell on this ticket too much as I've already "stepped up" for those calling to reduce the open tickets which coincidentally then stops me & possibly others too from contributing actual fixes or indeed researching possible fixes/scenarios etc.

WE ARE VOLUNTEERS & HAVE LIMITED TIME!!!!

Feel free to look around in the code.....it's not going to bite....one might actually learn/have a better grasp/understanding of how qBittorrent works then etc.

BTW - Completed torrents were not BLACK in the "pre-4.5" versions...."stalled uploading/stalled downloading" were actually BLACK on Lite mode/white background & GRAY on Dark mode/black background.

The black arrow icons would still actually be black on darkmode, so one couldn't really see them.

The theme changes in 4.5.x were a way to try fix that misconception as well as to try further differentiate the torrent states, there have also been feature requests for changing the progress bar colors to match the actual torrent states too (this may happen in the future) & a user had spent over 2 years trying to make changes to the default theme.

[TheYMI]

The theme changes in 4.5.x were a way to try fix that misconception as well as to try further differentiate the torrent states

This failed miserably, as the changes made differentiating between finished and uploading torrents much harder. That was my original complaint. I didn't care which colors are used, but how hard it is to know which torrents are uploading and which are stalled. What I really don't understand is why light mode had to change if the issues were in dark mode.

And on a much more general note, I'm active on torrenting sites' forums. The big majority of users barely understand how torrenting clients work, the meaning of most options or even basic functionality. These users don't know what's GitHub, how a development cycle works or that they even have a say in an open-source project. Claiming that people didn't say anything beforehand is shoving your head in the sand. Most users didn't even know they have a voice, let alone where to sound it. These claims are BS.

[xavier2k6]

One option that's available - is to rename the torrent status displayed text to reflect actual state & possibly move icons from Name Column to Status Column while possibly also making the Status Column the 1st column displayed...

This could also, (with some work) allow a user to sort torrents by torrent state so it would look something like https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/18078#issuecomment-1328851772

As it stands currently: Seeding & Stalled Uploading display as Seeding in Status Column Stalled Downloading displays as just Stalled in Status Column

[glassez]

Most users didn't even know they have a voice, let alone where to sound it.

However, they easily find out about it when they want to say "the developers-bastards have ruined everything, bring back the old theme."

[Mazino-Urek]

As the redesign lead along with @xavier2k6, I want to provide my final two cents here.

1. I just wanted to redesign the icons, as I have zero coding skills,
2. Because I had no coding skills, I couldn't implement two icon themes that would have solved many issues. But, we had to make a comprise and design icons that worked well in both light and dark themes, which led us to colors that were a bit high in contrast. If anyone really wants to fix this issue, the icons are modern enough to make two themes for light and dark.
3. This PR was a multi-year effort I proposed in 2018; by the end, I had to entertain requests from dozens of people, and everyone wanted something different. It took me countless hours to make the changes, and I really was at the end of the rope.

@glassez Can we just make the torrent list colors black for a light theme and white for a dark theme? These would reduce a lot of colors for the people to see. Just make them red when there is an error. This would reduce a lot of complaints.

[glassez]

possibly move icons from Name Column to Status Column while possibly also making the Status Column the 1st column displayed...

OFFTOPIC: IMO, it makes sense to show the status icon either in the status column or in the first column (regardless of which column it is at the moment). But this is a separate topic.

[alexdns1]

For those who are repeatedly calling for "someone to step up", please lead by example & take the first step.

ok im willing to pay for someone to make an easy switch in 4.6x to the old 4.4.5 theme ( edit 4.4.5 ) do a bounty source or whatever

[glassez]

@glassez Can we just make the torrent list colors black for a light theme and white for a dark theme? These would reduce a lot of colors for the people to see.

As I said above:

As for my personal opinion, I would just use the standard text color by default.

So I think it fits with your suggestion.

If anyone really wants to fix this issue, the icons are modern enough to make two themes for light and dark.

And qBittorrent currently has an implemented mechanism for supporting different sets of icons for light and dark modes. It remains only for someone to provide these icons.

[glassez]

do a bounty source or whatever

IMO, Bountysource is a way to loss your money.

ok im willing to pay for someone to make an easy switch in 4.6x to the old 4.4.5 theme

If you haven't realized yet that you won't be able to get exactly the same theme as 4.4.5 (except as an external theme file, but doesn't that exist yet?). All that is possible at the moment is to adjust the colors of the text and icons in the existing theme.

[woj-tek]

Can we just make the torrent list colors black for a light theme and white for a dark theme? These would reduce a lot of colors for the people to see. Just make them red when there is an error. This would reduce a lot of complaints.

my 5c - that above would be awesome IMHO. And it would actually make it easier to handle light/dark modes - with b/w contour icons it would be just a case of flipping the colour of the icon.