Jul 26, 2017  Vanilla is a very simple app which allows you to hide menu bar icons on your Mac. When launched, the app places its own quick icon on the menu bar. When you click on its icon, it will show an arrow which will hide all the apps which are present on the left of the app’s icon. The only drawback of the app is that it can only hide the third. Feb 24, 2020 Switch Manager is a free Mac app that puts a few of these useful switches in the menu bar, one of which lets you hide and unhide the desktop icons. It also gives you quick access to the brightness slider, the volume slider, and the sleep, restart, and shut down function.

1. Remove App Icons From Mac Menu Bar Missing

Make your Mac invincible

Without a doubt, the menu bar is one of Mac’s great features. It’s condensed, easy to tap into on the fly, and displays much-needed information in real time.

But, with every new icon app added, things become a little more cluttered and usability takes another hit. Fortunately, it’s possible to edit the menu bar to rearrange and remove icons so that it’s able to suit your needs at any given moment. Read on for the best ways to make the menu bar on Mac truly yours.

A tool that perfects menu bar

Rethink the menu bar with this app. Bartender customizes one of the main parts of Mac's interface, efficiently.

How to rearrange items in menu bar

How much freedom you have to rearrange items in menu bar depends on which version of macOS you’re running. The users of macOS Sierra and later definitely have more creative license here than others. And if you are not there yet, it’s time to upgrade to the newest macOS anyway.

Rearranging menu items in macOS

To move an icon in the menu bar, hold Command (cmd), then click and hold the icon to drag it across the bar. Simple.

There are no restrictions here — feel free to move icons anywhere you see fit. Don’t like the clock all the way over there on the right-hand side? Drag it to somewhere more suitable. Want to place the Setapp icon over to the area of the bar once reserved for first-party apps? Do it!

The only icon that cannot be tampered with is the Notification Center. Apple has decided this must remain in the far right corner of the menu, which is fair enough — it looks good there.

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Rearranging menu items in OS X versions (El Capitan and older)

Movement of icons in old versions of macOS is reserved for selected apps only: Bluetooth, audio, Time Machine, WiFi, battery, clock, and user switching. Spotlight and Notification Center must stay put, as must all third-party apps.

To move icons around within the designated area, once again hold Command, then click and hold the icon to drag it.

How to remove icons from the top bar on Mac

If there are items in the menu bar that you feel don’t belong there, hold Command, click on the icon, and drag it outside of the menu bar.

Note: this only works for first-party icons.

It is possible to remove third-party icons from the top bar on Mac by clicking on them and selecting “Quit” or “Close,” but this will stop the app from working until you reopen it.

Some apps give the option to remove icons from the top bar on Mac in their settings: [chosen app] > Preferences. However, a lot of apps won’t. To fully customize which icons appear in the menu bar, you should use a third-party app like Bartender.

If you’ve removed the first-party app and you’d like it back on the menu, it can be re-enabled in System Preferences.

How to add icons to the top bar on Mac

If you’re missing a specific system icon in the Mac’s menu bar, you can add it through System Preferences. For instance, to enable the Language icon, select Language & Region in the preference pane, click Input Sources, and check the box next to “Show Input menu in menu bar.”

Add menu bar extras

Because the menu options like Clock and Ink can’t be found in System Preferences, you might need to use the System folder as well:

1. Open Finder.
2. Select Go > Go to Folder from the menu bar.
3. Type a path: /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras.
4. Double-click an item and it will instantly appear in your menu bar.

You can easily remove any of the icons by holding Command and dragging it outside of the menu bar as described above.

How to customize and tidy Mac menu bar

It’s possible to change the look of the default menu bar items in System Preferences and third-party apps’ ones in their respective preferences. Most of the time, you’ll be able to at least switch the color to black and white.

Change how the date and time are displayed in the menu bar

In the right corner of your menu bar, click on date and time to Open Date & Time Preferences. Go to the Clock tab and unlock the preferences by entering your administrator password, so that you can make changes. To customize the look of the clock, choose between two different time display options: Digital or Analog. You can also tick the boxes for “Show date” and “Show the day of the week.”

To instantly toggle between different display options, click on date and time in the menu bar and choose “View as Analog” or “View as Digital.”

How to use your battery status on Mac

Keeping track of your battery life from the menu bar takes a few simple actions and yet is vital to Mac’s performance.

Click on the battery icon and tick Show percentage to see how much battery power you have left. In the same drop-down menu, you can check the programs that are using significant power in case your battery is draining too fast. To optimize battery usage, select “Open Energy Saver Preferences” and adjust sleep settings.

Toggle between fast user switching icons

There are three different options on how the Fast User Switching menu can be displayed in your Mac’s top bar – as a full name, account name or icon. Here’s how you do the customization:

1. Click on the icon and open Users & Groups Preferences.
2. Enter your password to unlock.
3. Select Login Options in the bottom left corner of the Users & Groups.
4. Go to “Show fast user switching menu” and pick one of the options.
5. Untick the box if you prefer to remove the icon from the menu bar.

Show Wi-Fi status in the menu bar

To enable the Wi-Fi icon in your Mac’s top bar, go to System Preferences and select Network. Tick the box next to “Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar.”

How to replace menu bar app icons

If you want to have custom icons in your Mac’s menu bar, there’s a way to replace the default ones. To change the icon of a third-party app, find it in Applications, right-click to open a context menu, and choose “Show Package Contents.” Go to Resources folder to find the defaults – these can be used as templates for the new icons. Once you have a custom icon ready, simply copy it into the same Resources folder.

The same works for system icons, except you won’t find all of them in Applications. Here’s the path for you to take: Hard Disk > System > Library > CoreServices > Menu Extras. Once you’ve found the item you need, click on “Show Package Contents” and navigate to the icon via [MENUITEM.menu] > Contents > Resources.

In both cases, it’s a good idea to create backups of the default icons before replacing them – just in case you’ll need them later.

Hide menu bar items

One low-key feature on Mac is the ability to auto-hide menu bar. To do this, open System Preferences > General. Check the option to “Automatically hide and show the menu bar” and the menu bar will immediately disappear.

To get the menu bar to show up again, simply move the cursor to the top of the screen and hold it there for a second. Now you can access the menu whenever you need it and enjoy an extra bit of screen real estate when you don’t.

Customizing the menu bar with Bartender

If you want more control over how the menu bar looks and what it does, you should consider using the Bartender app.

Bartender lets you hide icons without quitting and rearrange icons in a way that better suits how you use the menu bar — something particularly useful if you’re running an older version of macOS.

App icons can be displayed when updating, shown in the Bartender Bar only, or hidden completely and accessed easily using a built-in search function. It’s even possible to toggle through and activate items using keyboard navigation.

If you’re someone that prefers a minimalist look, the app gives you the option to remove the Bartender menu item, leaving you with a crisp, clean menu bar.

Overall, the Mac menu bar is there to help you improve your productivity by giving you quick access to the apps and tools you need. Using the tips above, you can customize the menu bar in a way that works for you. Best of all, you can get full access to Bartender and over 150 more high-quality macOS apps on Setapp, with a 7-day free trial to get you started. So why not get your menu bar organized now?

Take a minute to look at the row of icons at the bottom of your display. That row is the Dock, and those individual pictures are known as icons.

Dock icons are a quick way to bring a hidden window or application to the front so that you can work with it again. Dock icons are odd ducks — they’re activated with a single-click. Most icons are selected (highlighted) when you single click and opened when you double-click. So Dock icons are kind of like links on a Web page — you need only a single click to open them.

You can customize your Dock with favorite applications, a document you update daily, or maybe a folder containing your favorite recipes — use the Dock for anything you need quick access to. Here’s how you can add an icon to the Dock or remove a Dock icon you no longer desire.

Adding an icon to the Dock

Adding an application, file, or folder to the Dock is as easy as 1-2-3. First, open a Finder window that contains an application, file, folder, URL, or disk icon that you use frequently. Then follow these steps to add it to the Dock:

1. Click the item you want to add to the Dock.

2. Drag the icon out of the Finder window and onto the Dock, as shown in Figure 1.

3. An icon for this item now appears on the Dock.

Folder, disk, and URL icons must be on the right of the divider line in the Dock; Application icons must be on the left of it.

Figure 1: Drag an icon onto the Dock to add it.

You can add several items at the same time to the Dock by selecting them all and dragging the group to the Dock. However, you can delete only one icon at a time from the Dock.

Remove App Icons From Mac Menu Bar Missing

Removing an icon from the Dock

To remove an item from the Dock, just drag its icon onto the Desktop. It disappears with a cool poof animation, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: To remove an icon, drag it off the Dock and POOF — it’s gone.

By moving an icon out of the Dock, you aren’t moving, deleting, or copying the item itself — you’re just removing its icon from the Dock. The item is unchanged. Think of it like a library catalog card: Just because you remove the card from the card catalog doesn’t mean that the book is gone from the library.

After you figure out which programs you use and don’t use, it’s a good idea to relieve overcrowding by removing the ones you never (or rarely) use.

Knowing what to put in your Dock

Put things on the Dock that you need quick access to and that you use often, or add items that aren’t quickly available from menus or the sidebar. If you like using the Dock better than the Finder window sidebar, for example, add your Documents, Movies, Pictures, Music, or even your hard disk to the Dock.

Consider adding these items to your Dock:

• A word-processing application: Most people use word-processing software more than any other application.

• A project folder: You know, the folder that contains all the documents for your thesis, or the biggest project you have at work, or your massive recipe collection . . . whatever. Add that folder to the Dock, and then you can access it much quicker than if you have to open several folders to find it.

Don’t forget — if you

press

(click but don’t let go) on a folder icon, a handy hierarchical menu of its contents appears.

• A special utility or application: You may want to add your favorite graphics application such as Photoshop, or the game you play every afternoon when you think the boss isn’t watching.

• Your favorite URLs: Save links to sites that you visit every day — ones that you use in your job, your favorite Mac news sites, or your personalized page from an Internet service provider (ISP). Sure, you can make one of these pages your browser’s start page or bookmark it, but the Dock lets you add one or more additional URLs.

Here’s how to quickly add a URL to the Dock. Open Safari and go to the page with a URL that you want to save on the Dock. Click and drag the small icon that you find at the left of the URL in the Address bar to the right side of the dividing line in the Dock (at the arrow’s head in Figure 3) and then release the mouse button. The icons in the Dock will slide over and make room for your URL. From now on, when you click the URL icon that you moved to your Dock, Safari opens to that page.

Figure 3: To save a URL to your Dock, drag its little icon from the Address bar to the right side of the Dock.

You can add several URL icons to the Dock, but bear in mind that the Dock and its icons shrink to accommodate added icons, thus making them harder to see. Perhaps the best idea — if you want easy access to several URLs — is to create a folder full of URLs and put that folder on the Dock. Then you can just press and hold your mouse pointer on the folder (or Control-click the folder) to pop up a menu with all your URLs.

Even though you can make the Dock smaller, you’re still limited to one row of icons. The smaller you make the Dock, the larger the crowd of icons you can amass. You have to determine for yourself what’s best for you: having lots of icons available on the Dock (even though they may be difficult to see because they’re so tiny) or having less clutter but fewer icons on your Dock.