Recovering from a bad theme

A theme or custom CSS can make the panel hard to read or use. There are five ways back, from gentlest to last resort.

1. Let the preview end

Try on this browser never changes anything for other people, and it goes back to the saved look by itself after 60 seconds. If you only previewed it, just wait or press Go back.

2. Safe mode

Add ?safe=1 to any panel address, for example https://panel.example.com/?safe=1. For that browser tab, the panel ignores the saved colours, fonts, shape and custom CSS and shows the built-in Fledge look. It works on the sign-in page too, and it is applied before anything else loads, so it works even if the appearance data cannot be fetched. Safe mode is remembered for the tab; ?safe=0 leaves it. The name and logo you chose still show.

Use safe mode to sign in and fix the problem under Settings → Appearance.

3. Restore an earlier version

Settings → Appearance → Advanced → Earlier versions lists the last 20 saved versions with who saved them and what changed. Restore makes an old version the newest. Images come back with it.

4. Reset to the Fledge look

Advanced → Start over → Reset to the Fledge look replaces the appearance with the defaults. The version you replaced stays in the history.

5. Switch the appearance off on the server

If nobody can sign in at all, set this in .env and restart the API:

BRANDING_DISABLED=true
docker compose up -d api

While it is set, everyone sees the built-in look whatever is stored, and changes are refused (the editor says so). Nothing is deleted. Remove the line and restart the API to use the saved appearance again.

As a last resort the saved appearance can be removed from the database; images and history stay in their tables:

docker compose exec postgres psql -U fledge -c "DELETE FROM settings WHERE key = 'branding'"

Things that look like a bad theme but are not

Symptom	Likely cause
The old name or colours show for a few seconds after saving	The panel's server caches the public document for a few seconds (and each API replica its settings for up to five); other open tabs refresh when you return to them
The logo is missing everywhere, the name is fine	The panel's server cannot reach the API at API_INTERNAL_URL (Compose sets http://api:4000). Images are fetched through the panel so that the content security policy can stay strict
The panel shows the Fledge look although you saved a theme	BRANDING_DISABLED=true is set, or the stored document failed its checks and the editor shows a warning at the top naming the section that was replaced by its default
Custom CSS has no effect	It is switched off, or it failed the checks: open the editor, the message under the CSS field says which rule
Emails still show the old name	Emails are written when they are sent. A queued or already delivered email keeps what it had
Light or dark does not follow the device	The person chose a mode in the account menu, which wins over Match the device

More: Troubleshooting.