Change box color of a CheckBox

This color is defined by the theme you use, so a first output would be to change the theme in runtime - odd but possible.

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    // ...

    // chame setTheme antes de criar qualquer View

    setTheme(android.R.style.Theme_Dark);

    // ...

    setContentView(R.layout.main);
}

If you want to change the theme after the creation of Activity , you will have to recreate the activity and inform the new theme to be used.

If it seems very inefficient, you can also change the buttonTintList of CheckBox . To do this, just call CheckBox#setButtonTintList(ColorStateList) and you change how the CheckBox will be drawn in each state. There are two ways to create a ColorStateList :

Code

private static final int[][] CHECK_BOX_STATES = new int[][] {
    new int[] {-android.R.attr.state_enabled}, // desabilitado
    new int[] { android.R.attr.state_checked}, // marcado
    new int[] {-android.R.attr.state_checked}, // desmarcado
    new int[] {} // default
};

private static final int[] CHECK_BOX_COLORS = new int[] {
    Color.GRAY,
    Color.CYAN,
    Color.MAGENTA,
    Color.MAGENTA
};

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    // ...

    CheckBox checkBox = (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.cb_id);

    // limpa buttonTintList
    checkBox.setButtonTintList(null);
    checkBox.setButtonTintList(new ColorStateList(CHECK_BOX_STATES, CHECK_BOX_COLORS));

    // ...
}

XML

assets / checkbox_style.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <item android:color="#ffff00" />

    <item android:state_checked="true"
            android:color="#00ffff" /> 

    <item android:state_checked="false"
            android:color="#ff00ff" />
</selector>

Activity

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    // ...

    CheckBox checkBox = (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.cb_id);

    try {
        XmlPullParserFactory factory = XmlPullParserFactory.newInstance();
        factory.setNamespaceAware(true);

        XmlPullParser parser = factory.newPullParser();
        parser.setInput(getAssets().open("checkbox_style.xml"), "UTF-8");

        checkBox.setButtonTintList(ColorStateList.createFromXml(getResources(), parser));
    } catch (XmlPullParserException | IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    // ...
}

In neither case did I ever change the color of the CheckBox. Via code the color changes only once for each state (for example: it changes when it marks, but when it does not return it does not return the state color unchecked), already via XML the emulator throws a bizarre exception complaining that the item tag needs to have a attribute android:color .

For more information look at the documentation: CheckBox , CompoundButton # setButtonTintList (ColorStateList) , ColorStateList .

I hope I have helped.