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mac3687

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 22, 2006
51
0
I tried out this new widget called Menu Butler, not really thinking about what I was doing, and now I have three icons (eject, inkwell, and .mac sync) stuck on my menu bar. Does anyone know how to get them off? I'm new to OS X so I'm a bit stuck. Thanks in advance.
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,375
2,801
Hold down the command key and drag them off of the menu bar. This works only for OS X menu bar items, not third-party ones.
 

Aniej

macrumors 68000
Oct 17, 2006
1,743
0
Hold down the command key and drag them off of the menu bar. This works only for OS X menu bar items, not third-party ones.

A irony that has not been lost. You can remove the default items, but not the ones you chose to add, weird!
 

emptyCup

macrumors 65816
Jan 5, 2005
1,482
1
A irony that has not been lost. You can remove the default items, but not the ones you chose to add, weird!

You only can't remove the ones from 3rd party developers who do not bother to implement the feature. Some do, some give you a Quit if you Control(right)-Click. All of mine have some way to stop them.
 

reubs

macrumors 68000
Jun 22, 2006
1,866
175
I've got the opposite problem as the OP. When I first got my MB I took most of the default items off the menu to prevent overcrowding and went w/ widgets instead.

Now, 10.4.9 broke my favorite battery widget and I need that monitor back in the menu...

Any help?
 

afinley

macrumors newbie
Feb 6, 2011
1
0
If a menu bar item is still being installed after restart, then there must be an application still running to activate it.

I had a residual menu item from a trial of Go To My PC, in spite of cancelling and removing the application. Looking in the Activity Monitor window showed two processes underway that were obviously linked to G2MPC. Killing the processes removed the menu item until I restarted, but then it reappeared. Selecting each, clicking "Inspect", and then clicking "Open Files and Ports" gave me a terminal window that showed, among other things, that there was a relevant folder and files at the Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support level, although they didn't show up in Spotlight or Find FIle. Trashing those solved the problem.

I am sure you can do the same thing with Terminal, but this seems less likely to cause more problems.

P.S. For those who are new to Mac, Activity Monitor is an application in the Applications/Utilities folder. It shows the CPU use and various other processes in real time.
 

MacTech68

macrumors 68020
Mar 16, 2008
2,393
209
Australia, Perth
I've got the opposite problem as the OP. When I first got my MB I took most of the default items off the menu to prevent overcrowding and went w/ widgets instead.

Now, 10.4.9 broke my favorite battery widget and I need that monitor back in the menu...

Any help?

For 10.4.x, open 'System Preferences', select 'Energy Saver' then click the 'Options' tab. Place a tick in the box marked:

"Show battery status in the menu bar"

Note that you should select "Settings For" --> "Battery" AND "Power Adapter" to ensure the tick is there in both.

Note too that 'Menu Extras' located in /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/ can be double clicked to activate. This was the only way (AFAIK) to get the Eject menu extra to activate on early dual optical drive Mirror Drive Doors G4 Towers to selectively eject optical drives - though there is a keyboard shortcut of 'Option-Eject' for the lower drive.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,539
941
Great revival of a 4-year-old thread.
I had a residual menu item from a trial of Go To My PC, in spite of cancelling and removing the application.
That's because you didn't fully remove the app. The only effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:

Best way to FULLY DELETE a program
... there was a relevant folder and files at the Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support level, although they didn't show up in Spotlight or Find FIle.
That's because you can't use Spotlight to search the Library folder. You have to use Finder to search the Library folder and include system files in your search.
 

Yukon Jack

macrumors member
May 14, 2010
85
2
Can anyone ID this MBI?

I've got an unknown icon in my system's menubar and I'm looking for the location of menubar items so I can trash it. I've looked high and low in both the System/Library and the ~/Library folders trying to find where 3rd party MBIs are stored, but I simply can't locate that folder. I'm aware of the Menu items in Core Services but that's not for 3rd party items. I've looked in my login items list and can't find anything unknown there. Here's a screen grab of the icon in case anyone can identify it. When I click on the icon none of the submenu items do anything. The second screen grab shows the dropped down menu. Many thanks!
 

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MacTech68

macrumors 68020
Mar 16, 2008
2,393
209
Australia, Perth
I've got an unknown icon in my system's menubar...

I don't recognize it, but you might want to look in /Library/Receipts/ for an installer receipt that is unique. It might point you to the name of the App that was installed that (seemingly) has been removed, leaving the menu bar item behind.

Or, check if there is a third party Preference Panel that looks the same.

Alternatively, open Console (/Application/Utilities/), and then access the menubar options that don't work to see if an error is recorded in system.log or console.log

:confused:
 

Yukon Jack

macrumors member
May 14, 2010
85
2
@MacTech68,

Thanks for the suggestions.

Actually I shut down then restarted my Mac and it was gone. Who knows what it was. I should have done that first.
 

guzzi

macrumors newbie
Mar 4, 2011
2
0
If a menu bar item is still being installed after restart, then there must be an application still running to activate it.

I had a residual menu item from a trial of Go To My PC, in spite of cancelling and removing the application. Looking in the Activity Monitor window showed two processes underway that were obviously linked to G2MPC. Killing the processes removed the menu item until I restarted, but then it reappeared. Selecting each, clicking "Inspect", and then clicking "Open Files and Ports" gave me a terminal window that showed, among other things, that there was a relevant folder and files at the Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support level, although they didn't show up in Spotlight or Find FIle. Trashing those solved the problem.

I am sure you can do the same thing with Terminal, but this seems less likely to cause more problems.

P.S. For those who are new to Mac, Activity Monitor is an application in the Applications/Utilities folder. It shows the CPU use and various other processes in real time.


This worked perfectly for me thank you. Although I had to tell the program to stop running first. I clicked on the program in the Activity Monitor window and then pressed "Quit Process." Then I was able to trash it, and the icon was removed from the menu bar.
 

posionarrow

macrumors newbie
Nov 27, 2011
3
0
3rd party solution

This is more of a workaround than an actual solution for the third party apps in the menubar, but here's a method to visually remove them:

Go to the app you'd like to remove in your applications folder, right click and show package contents. Then delete the icon files for the menubar item (usually stored in a "Resources" folder)

The icon won't appear in the menubar but if you click the spot where it should be the dialog drop down will still appear. Now these icons appear in the order they load which could potentially just lead to an equally ugly hole in your icons. The solution to this being to use the program delayedlauncher (http://www.taoeffect.com/blog/2011/01/delayedlauncher-2-2/) and set the order in which you'd like to load the programs on startup.

Then annoyingly this has a dock icon on startup when it loads, which I removed by going to its package contents and editing the info.plist and adding the string "Application is agent (UIElement)" with a boolean of YES to the .plist. This tells your computer it's a menubar item even though it's not and removes it from the dock.

long solution but it works.
 

MacTech68

macrumors 68020
Mar 16, 2008
2,393
209
Australia, Perth
This is not a solution to the topic of this thread. Another thread resurrection by a first-time poster with useless information. :rolleyes:

As the poster stated:

This is more of a workaround than an actual solution...

:rolleyes:

A lot of people come here from a google search and the forum becomes a resource for information pertaining to certain keywords. Adding to that resource just makes it more valuable.

:rolleyes:
 

posionarrow

macrumors newbie
Nov 27, 2011
3
0
It's not even a workaround. It has nothing to do with the thread topic. Adding unrelated information doesn't make the thread more valuable.

Title: Remove items from menu bar
Effect: Visually removes them from the menu bar. Care to tell me how they're unrelated?

I'm sorry if you're too slow to follow. Let me know if I need to break it down further.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,539
941
Title: Remove items from menu bar
Effect: Visually removes them from the menu bar. Care to tell me how they're unrelated?
The OP asked how to remove icons that are already on the menu bar, not how to modify apps so they don't put them there in the first place. In most cases, the apps aren't even installed anymore. The menu bar icons are leftover from incomplete app removal.
 

posionarrow

macrumors newbie
Nov 27, 2011
3
0
The OP asked how to remove icons that are already on the menu bar, not how to modify apps so they don't put them there in the first place. In most cases, the apps aren't even installed anymore. The menu bar icons are leftover from incomplete app removal.

And as the OP's question was solved by the first response, I added some input on the following posters who made reference to the fact that third party icons can not be removed in such a way, etc, etc.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

kainjow

Moderator emeritus
Jun 15, 2000
7,958
7
^ ok guys let's not escalate this further. I think we all the get the point.


On topic: if you see an app in the menu bar and you don't know what it belongs to, you can try opening Activity Monitor, showing My Processes and going through that list and looking for unfamiliar process names. One of those should correspond to your menu bar app.

Also, if there is no quit or option to turn it off and you do know the app name, contact the developer and request that feature.
 
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