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TMO Quick Tip - Remove Unwanted Menu Bar Icons

by , 7:30 AM EST, February 29th, 2008

Your Mac's menu bar holds all kinds of useful tidbits, but that doesn't mean everything you see there is a welcome addition. Sometimes applications add their own menu bar items that take up space you would rather use for something else. Luckily, removing those extra icons is easy to do.


Find the item you don't want...

Just Command-click the item you want to remove and drag it out of the menu bar. When you release the item it will disappear in a puff of smoke.


...and Command-drag it out of your menu bar.

If you want to move were an item sits instead, you can Command-click it left or right. This is handy if you want your menu bar items organized in a specific order.

iSync's menu bar item automatically appears in my menu bar whenever there is a problem with synchronizing my iPhone. That's fine because it alerts me to the problem; unfortunately the icon doesn't go away once the issue is resolved. Since my menu bar is already loaded to the gills with other things I find more useful, I like to get rid of the iSync item right away.

Jeff Gamet is TMO's Morning Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.

if you have tips or tricks to share, or Mac-related questions you want answered.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:tcsdoc Posts: 2 Joined: 29 Feb 2008
Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:44 am Subject:

Nice tip but doesn't work on all icons. I couldn't remove the Pathfinder icon from the menu bar.


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Close Name:Guest
Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:26 pm Subject: Changing the order

As the previous comments say, not all can be puffed away (Intermapper in my case). For those that can, you may also move them to another position in the menu bar.


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Close Name:Guest
Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:03 pm Subject:

Slight tangent, but I noticed in those images that you run LittleSnitch. I don't know about you, but I found that having the meters enabled in the menu bar sometimes causes very bad things to happen to my computer. At times it eats a ton of CPU, causes freezes, and once caused a kernel panic. I like LittleSnitch's meters more than MenuMeters', but the instability made me switch back.


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Close Name:Guest
Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:36 pm Subject:

Timbuktu is another icon that can't be moved or removed.


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Close Name:Guest
Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:49 pm Subject: Apple is still screwing this up

Ever since 10.0, non-Apple developers have wanted to use the native API's that Apple uses to create these MenuBarItem's. But instead they created a whole new API for third-party developers, completely separate from the API Apple uses, but that also provides a substandard UI [cmd-drag down or drag sideways doesn't work, doesn't behave like a normal menu if you mouse-down, then drag sideways. Only those developers willing to use Apple's reverse-engineered API AND use a hack to prevent Apple from blocking the loading of non-Apple menubaritem's get the 'good' UI.


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Close Name:Brutno Posts: 198 Joined: 28 Aug 2002
Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:50 pm Subject: Repeatability

Also understand that removing/moving a menu bar item may only be temporary: it may return to its normal position upon restarting.


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Close Name:Guest
Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:11 pm Subject:

OMG! I've been searching for the cause of exactly the kind of instability issues you describe, which started vaguely about the time I bought the indispensible Little snitch. I've dumped the menu icon (via the pref pane rather than the method described above)and if the freezes stop I owe you a beer or 30!

What is the 'Menu Meters' you describe? (I'm only a very recent - and very happy - switcher)

As someone mentioned, some icons won't respond to the above method (eg. stuffit), and theres no option I can find to get rid of the blighter...is there an alterntive method? (and no, I'm not sticking black gaffer tape on my new iMac!)


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Close Name:jinkies -   Evil Girl of TMO Posts: 3846 Joined: 24 Sep 2001
Sat Mar 01, 2008 7:28 pm Subject:
Close Name:Guest
Wed Apr 02, 2008 3:27 pm Subject: MENU bar reversal

I want to reverse the menu bar so the file sits on the other side of the screen is there anyway to do that?


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