Microsoft Exchange, change to Dark Mode, changes for everyone.

Question

I work for a company that uses Microsoft Exchange, when I go into my outlook and change it to dark mode it changes it for everyone in my organization. I am making sure I am on my account, and go to Options, under General, I select "black" office theme, and it keeps changing my teams inbox on their outlook. When they change their back to white, it changes mine. Now we just keep going back and forth on this. CAN WE PLEASE GET THIS CRAP FIXED?

Answer 1

Dear @Justin Hill, 

Thanks for providing the details about the behavior you're seeing. I understand how inconvenient it must be when a simple personal preference like Dark Mode unexpectedly changes the experience for everyone in your organization. 

Here are some steps to verify the issue:  

Step 1: Confirm which account is signed into Office 

Outlook and the other Microsoft 365 desktop applications save theme preferences under the account currently signed in. If more than one person is using the same account identity, the theme setting will sync across all devices because the preference is roaming. 

Here is what you can verify: 

• Open Outlook and go to File > Office Account. 
• Check the User Information section to ensure your personal work account is signed in. 
• If a shared mailbox identity appears here, sign out of it completely on all devices. 

Step 2: Signing into Office with a shared mailbox can cause this behavior 

A shared mailbox is not designed to be used for signing into Microsoft 365 Apps. When it is used this way, settings such as themes unintentionally sync across all users. 

Here is how you can correct this: 

• Sign into Office using your individual work account only. 
• Add the shared mailbox correctly as a secondary mailbox by going to: 
  File > Info > Account Settings > Account Settings > Change > More Settings > Advanced > Add > Type the shared email address. 

Step 3: Contact Microsoft Support 

If the behavior still occurs after reviewing the items above, I sincerely recommend reaching out to your IT administrator to create a support ticket via Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Support > Help & Support for further investigation.  

A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.    

As community moderators, we kindly ask for your understanding that our access to internal development details is limited. Our primary role is to guide users toward the appropriate resources and support channels. While we may not have visibility into performing deeper backend analysis, we’ll continue doing our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.  

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any questions or need further support, please don’t hesitate to reach out at any time. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

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