Why do Sublime Text 3 Themes not affect the sidebar?

Question

I generally only use dark themes for coding, so it\'s really annoying that Sublime Text 3\'s sidebar stays light themed whatever theme you apply.

Does anyone know ho

Answer 1

You need to restart Sublime completely in order for a theme to fully take effect. Just changing and saving Preferences.sublime-settings or using a theme-changing plugin won't do it. You need to use ⌘Q or Sublime Text -> Quit, not just close the window by clicking the red dot.

Answer 2

I thought I would put a note here that explains a basic misconception for a lot of people who are using these Text Editors... Sublime Text in particular (or at least that's the one I use, so I don't know how it works for other editors):

There are "Themes" and there are "Color Schemes". They are similar but affect different things. "Themes" actively change the entire UI, and can include a Color Scheme if you set it up that way. This typically includes the sidebar, and can also include options for the file tabs, and some even include icons for the sidebar as well. And then we have "Color Schemes" which only change the coding windows and nothing else... not the Sidebar, nor the File tabs, etc.

The confusion happens because some people call Color Schemes "Themes" which makes folks think that their "Theme" is going to change everything.... when technically, it's just a color scheme.

And an additional note: Themes don't automatically install for all users. When I install a Theme, I have to open my User preferences (under "preferences > Settings - User"), and then you have to add the line which says something like:

"theme": "Theme-Name.sublime-theme" 

(where "Theme-Name" is the name of your theme).

This is different than just activating a color scheme. If you've chosen a color scheme via the dropdown menus in Sublime Text, you will see a line in there like this:

"color_scheme": "Packages/Color-Scheme-Name.tmTheme"

(where "Color-Scheme-Name" is the name of your color scheme).

Answer 3

Just install package Synced​Sidebar​Bg:it will change the sidebar theme based on current color scheme.But it seems that every time you change the color scheme,sidebar will be changed after you open file Preferences.sublime-settings

Answer 4

To Sidebar ceased to be white:

1. Download default theme because it is not in the folder sublime link here by default.sublime-Theme
2. In sublime 3 preferences -- > > Browse package
3. create a folder called "default theme" and put the downloaded file

if you installed the theme setUI, setUI file.sublime-the theme is looking for the line with comment:

"// sidebar || BG of selected files"

and under it a string

"layer0. opacity: { "target": 0.0, "speed": 50.0, "interpolation": "smoothstep" }
replaceable target": 0.0 --> target": 1.0

Answer 5

One simple way to do this is :
Go to Preferences -> Package Settings -> Your Theme Name -> Activation

In my case I installed Boxy Theme so the path will be
Preferences -> Package Settings -> Boxy Theme -> Activation

Then there will be a pop-up menu that will let you choose which type of the theme package you want to activate.
Use up and down arrow so choose then press enter or simply click the one you want to choose.

This is steps only applicable if the theme installed also customized the sublime text 3 sidebar.

Hope it help anyone!

Answer 6

I first thought I was using SBT 3, then realized I was using version 2 still....

---

I finally got the sidebar to be dark on Windows!

I noticed that when I had my user settings theme set to "Soda Dark 3.sublime-theme" it would half-way work but you could not see the folder structure. So I decided to try the other option in the Theme - Soda folder without the "3" and it worked right away. This should work below in your Preferences > Settings - User file.

{   
    "theme": "Soda Dark.sublime-theme",
    "color_scheme": "Packages/Color Scheme - Default/Monokai.tmTheme"
}