Help with Default Colour Settings on 535

[Rita Lincolnshire]

Hi - I hope someone can help. My father recently bought a Lumia 535 and he has changed something in Accents and Themes and now most of the tiles on the screen are in black and white. Can anybody advise me how I can get his phone back to the normal colour settings. Will I have to do a factory reset on the phone or is there a way of getting the colours back to "normal" so that I don't have to put back all of his settings etc. Any help much appreciated. Thanks

 

[gpobernardo]

No need for factory reset. Go to the phone Settings > ease of access > turn of "High contrast".

Welcome to Windows Central, by the way.:smile:

 

[Rita Lincolnshire]

Thanks gpobernardo - that sounds a much easier fix. My father didn't mention that he had altered the contrast - so I would not have thought about looking at that. Thanks so much again. I will come back and let you know whether this resolves the issue. Thanks also for the "Welcome" :smile:

 

[Sarcastic Bastard]

It might also happen if you set a picture for the background, as I have done.

I can't post a link to the thread, but it's title is "Share Your Lumia 535 Start and Lock Screens"

 

[gpobernardo]

It might also happen if you set a picture for the background, as I have done.

I can't post a link to the thread, but it's title is "Share Your Lumia 535 Start and Lock Screens"

Here's the link to that thread - this is normal, but it's possible that a black picture was set as a background hence "most of the tiles were in black and white". She may check the link and look at your post (post# 11 in that thread) to find out if that's what happened.

 

[Rita Lincolnshire]

Thanks SB - Having looked at his phone today and now seen your post, I think that is exactly what has caused the problem. The only thing is I still can't get his phone right for him again.

 

[Rita Lincolnshire]

Thanks GP - Thanks for putting a link to the thread on. When I went to see my dad, he had in fact, got it on high contrast, I turned that off and then I could see a background photograph through the tiles. I then took the photograph off as I wondered if this was causing the problem, but then the majority of the tiles were all blue. When the phone was new out of the box each tile seemed to have its own colouration. I tried the accent colours and themes, all without success. Eventually I decided to do the full reset of the phone - only to find that when it had finished, the colouration was the same. I was surprised because I thought that the reset would take it back to the state the phone was in when it was taken out of the box.

I then went on to the Online Chat support and the guy I got was next to useless. He kept saying to try every colour under the Accent colours, of course all this did was to change all the tiles to the new colour. He did, however, suggest as you had done about the High Contrast, but when I said this was Off, (thanks to your suggestion) he said that he couldn't help any further.

So my dad has got his phone with the majority of the tiles the same colour and I reckon he is going to have to learn to live with it that way, because I don't know how to remedy it for him. He thinks he can send it back to the supplier as faulty. I have tried to explain to him that the phone is not faulty, but my dad is in his 80's and doesn't think it is due to anything he has done:amaze:

Thanks again though for your input. It is a shame he changed some of the settings, because it was great before doing so xx

 

[gpobernardo]

You're welcome.

Hmm, some apps tiles follow the phone theme color, while some apps still don't. There are apps, however, which allows the user the choose between the phone theme color or the app's custom color (or a background photo from the app, if the app is a photo-related app, for example).

I'm guessing that what you're recalling is that some of the tiles that were pinned to start screen were those that had their own unique color. Some of these apps include, Office (red), OneNote (faded purple), Lumia Camera (purple), Skype (light blue) and Games (green). If these were pinned to the start screen, you should see them in their own color regardless of phone accent color - they would even remain in their color even if a background photo was set for the start screen.

I just find it strange that the full reset didn't return the "out-of-the-box" coloration scheme - the full reset usually brings the phone back to its factory default state. But I don't remember seeing any of my Lumia phones (or my HTC Windows phone) having a more-than-one color phone accent... so I really think it was just a matter of having the tiles with their own color pinned to the start screen.:smile:

At any rate, you could try re-arranging those tiles for him such that it appears colorful... or you could set a colorful background image that would break the monotony of the tiles.

 

[Rita Lincolnshire]

Hi - thanks again for your reply. I guess you are right - I have shuffled them around so that the ones that have a different colour appear between the tiles of the same colour, as this makes it easier for him to spot them. (He is 87 and this is his first smartphone, so I think he is doing quite well with it really). He has set up his email accounts etc. and even got to grips with Cortana! (He is very polite to her!!!!!!):wink:

I just need to persuade him not to try and send it back as a faulty phone!!

I did go back on to the Online chat this morning and they suggested running the Windows Phone Recovery Tool - it failed on the download twice, so I gave up. I wasn't happy at using the recovery tool anyway, as I envisaged the phone not working at all afterwards.

I reckon after a couple of weeks, he will forget what the original format looked like:smile:

Like you, I am surprised that the hard reset did not put it back to its original condition - seems most odd. It did remove the email accounts and contacts etc.

Anyway, many thanks for all your advice - it is much appreciated. This seems like a really nice forum :smile:

 

[gpobernardo]

No problem, Rita, you're welcome.

I'm glad your Dad is still "in-tune" with technology given his age. But I can relate to your scenario since my grandparents, though 16 younger than your Dad, are also a bit "techy" - my grandmother has an iPhone and an iPad while my grandfather has an iPhone and two Windows (7, 8.1) desktops... and I had a great grandfather who I couldn't beat at chess even if he was already 88 at the time we played.:wink:

The Lumia Software Recovery Tool is a sort-of last-resort thing when other debugging methods won't work, so I have never really done it (I've tried, but the process failed).

Anyway, we're glad you're liking the forum. We've got a lot of discussions going on so have a look around when time permits. Hope to see you around, and wishing your Dad more strength and health.:smile:

 

[Rita Lincolnshire]

Hi - It's great isn't it when no matter the age they still want to "learn". When he first got a computer he didn't know how to even use the mouse, he ended up getting himself a City and Guilds in computing and excel and word - he was so chuffed. On his desktop he put two hard drives in and is forever switching from one to the other, at least it helps to keep his brain active.

Anyway I digress, I am still very greatful for your help and will keep popping into the forum. Take care xx

 

[gpobernardo]

Age is just a number.:smile:

 

[Rita Lincolnshire]

:grin: