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How to Add, Remove, and Rearrange Menu Bar Icons in macOS Mojave

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Apr 12, 2001
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The macOS menu bar is a great place for quickly accessing system and application functions using menu extras or "menulets", but it can get cluttered pretty quickly as more and more icons vie for a space there.

If the corner of your Mac's screen is fast becoming an eyesore, here are some quick and simple actions you can perform to bring order to the chaos, plus a few additional tips for making the most of Apple's menu bar extras.

How to Rearrange Icons in the Menu Bar

Plenty of menu bar icons offer useful shortcuts to app and system functions, and may take up permanent residence on your screen. But left to their own devices, the arrangement of said icons is likely to become haphazard. Fortunately, re-organizing them is simple, once you know how to do it.

  1. Hold down the Command (?) key.
    Hover your mouse cursor over the icon you want to move.
    Holding down the left mouse button, drag the icon into your preferred position on the menu bar. Other icons will step aside to make space for it.
    Let go of the left mouse button.
move-menu-bar-icon-800x202.jpg

Note that the Notifications icon in macOS is designed to sit in the far right corner of the menu bar and cannot be moved elsewhere.


Click here to read more...

Article Link: How to Add, Remove, and Rearrange Menu Bar Icons in macOS Mojave
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/rearrange-macos-menu-bar-icons/
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maflynn said:
Nice article, but I'm not sure people are wanting to move them as much as maybe remove them - I'm looking at you Creative Cloud
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imran5720 said:
Why anyone would want to move them
Click to expand...

I want to do both... move them and remove some of them (and hide others on a separate bar)
I just like things organized the way I want them and not the way the system organizes them

I use Bartender 3 now to have better control and accomplish what I want
 
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that's a freaking overcrowded menu bar. reminds me of the windows taskbar...
 
Great write up. I love how Mac OS has so many hidden gems for power users.
swm said:
that's a freaking overcrowded menu bar. reminds me of the windows taskbar...
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You wouldn't want to see my Android phone. I love my notification and settings icons spanning across the top bar.
 
maflynn said:
Nice article, but I'm not sure people are wanting to move them as much as maybe remove them - I'm looking at you Creative Cloud
Click to expand...

Open Creative Cloud.
Click on those vertical dots (3 of them) on the icon in the Menu Bar - Prefferences
De-Select Launch at Login.

Do you mean this? If so - I hope it helps.
 
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So, I already knew this - but... I wanted to say "Thank you!" to the author for writing a succinct, informative tutorial rather than an recording an eight-minute-long YouTube video!

Seriously, I get so tired of searching for information on some subject where the answer could be presented in 50 words of prose, but instead the search results page is littered with ridiculously long YouTube videos. The most ludicrous one I ever came across was a several-minute-long video that consisted of a live screen capture of some dude typing at the bash prompt! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
 
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Hah. I opened that folder and found a menu item for IrDA. Anybody remember when that was a thing, using light pulses to transmit data pre-bluetooth? Man, I'm old.
 
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For reasons unknown, MR tend to miss this major point for many users, in their articles these days when talking about an app.
So in case anyone didn't know...

PSA:

The latest version of Bartender is always available, as a member of Setapp too.
(so it's a 'yay' for users of that! ;-)
https://setapp.com/apps/bartender
Click to expand...

Enjoy.
 
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BasicGreatGuy said:
Articles like this is one of the things I like about MacRumors.
Click to expand...
9to5mac are doing good stuff too, to be fair.

Jeff Benjamin and Ben Lovejoy being two writers that come to mind over there. The former doing good reviews on interesting sw/hw (new advances in eGPU stuff, storage, docks, et al.) with negatives importantly made clear rather than endless positive superlatives many other writers seem to go in for. The latter on home(kit) automation, and interesting editorials on WHY certain decisions Apple (or whoever) may have taken.

MR is great too, I agree. And is all about the really great and detailed forum abilities with its integrated user experience, which 9to5's platform doesn't really allow much of.

Both sites are firmly must have reads in the Apple/tech realm, IMO!


So keep up the good work guys and gals. :)

(iMore = best at "how to's" these days.)
 
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jimthing said:
9to5mac are doing good stuff too, to be fair.

Jeff Benjamin and Ben Lovejoy being two writers that come to mind over there. The former doing good reviews on interesting hw (new advances in eGPU stuff, storage, docks, et al.) with negatives importantly made clear rather than endless positive superlatives many other writers seem to go in for. The latter on home(kit) automation, and interesting editorials on WHY certain decisions Apple (or whoever) may have taken.

Both sites are firmly must have reads in the Apple/tech realm, IMO!

So keep up the good work guys and gals. :)
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Thanks for the post. I will give the site a good going over.
 
Thank you very much for the tip I have my macBookAir and I did not know that I could do those things in the menu bar.

Regards
 
Karitomua said:
Thank you very much for the tip I have my macBookAir and I did not know that I could do those things in the menu bar.

Regards
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[doublepost=1530412326][/doublepost]Unfortunately, none of this worked for me (MacBook Pro 15 2017, High Sierra LG K5 Apple monitor). Yes, the icons can be moved, but they quickly move on their own wherever they want, so nothing is permanent. None of the icons I want to get rid of can be removed. These are mostly useless icons put there by apps with no option to prevent them by the app itself. If the moved icons would only stay where they are placed, the useless ones could be arranged to stay together at one end. But, no this does not work. Windows has this solved, but not Mac.
 
JGPP said:
None of the icons I want to get rid of can be removed.
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Many times these icons are placed there as as result of SysPrefs-Users&Groups-Login Items.

Sometimes other issues result from items listed here, including old/obsolete "helper" files.
 
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