Menu bar icons hidden behind the notch?

Why it happens

The menu bar is one row. An app’s menus fill it from the left, icons fill it from the right, and on a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air with a notch, the camera takes the middle. When the icons reach the notch, the ones that don’t fit are left out, without a word. They come back when an app with fewer menus is in front, which is why they seem to come and go.

1. Take off the icons you don’t need

Hold ⌘ and drag an icon down, off the menu bar, to remove it. For Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, Sound, Battery and the rest, open System Settings › Control Center and choose Don’t Show in Menu Bar: they stay one click away, in Control Center.

Many apps also have a setting of their own to hide their icon. On macOS Tahoe, System Settings › Menu Bar lists the apps that can put items there.

2. Close the gaps between them

macOS leaves generous space around each icon. An unofficial setting makes it smaller, so more fit beside the notch. Open Terminal and run:

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int 6
defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding -int 6

Log out and back in to see it. To put things back as they were:

defaults -currentHost delete -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing
defaults -currentHost delete -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding

3. Let an app tuck them away

A menu bar manager, such as Ice, which is free and open source, or Bartender, hides the icons you rarely use behind one of its own, and shows them when you click it.

4. Move what they show into the notch

If the icons you keep are for the battery, Wi‑Fi, sound, focus or what’s playing, the notch itself can show them. Tilora puts your Mac’s, your AirPods’ and your mouse’s batteries on one card, Wi‑Fi, sound, the mic and focus on another, and the music that’s playing beside the notch. Those menu bar icons can go, and the space beside the notch is free again.

Questions