Thanks for your reports.
As I stated on an earlier comment, all this bla, bla, bla regarding Bartender's privacy concerns was absolutely ridiculous.
Last edited:
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Six Bartender Alternatives to Manage Your Mac's Menu Bar
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
As I stated on an earlier comment, all this bla, bla, bla regarding Bartender's privacy concerns was absolutely ridiculous.
Just a very general comment - I have a few ways of monitoring my entire network (even beyond my Mac) and some devices send telemetry data seemingly once a month or less. Monitoring for one day or even one week and not seeing activity doesn't mean that it isn't being collected and possibly sent.
This isn't to say that Bartender is or isn't collecting and sending anything - it's just a very general comment.
We live in a world where users have become products, and your personal information is sold for both legal and illegal activities. As the saying goes, "it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you" - and they are, indeed, out to get you. The concerns were and are not ridiculous in the slightest.
I'll just pre-empt the other response to that, which is "well I don't care if they have my information, I have nothing of importance/nothing to hide" - that's great, but doesn't invalidate anything. Some of us do have confidential information that we are responsible for maintaining secrecy over, while others care just purely on principle.
I have been using (or, more accurately, trying to use) Bartender 6.1.0 and am very frustrated in that:
1. The triggers which worked flawlessly up to Bartender Version 5.4.0 a) do not work and b) result in the keyboard and the mouse becoming unusable.
2. The support has gone from great (getting in responses in a matter of days) to non-existent. I wrote support about this problem over 6 weeks ago and have not gotten a single response.
I am looking for a new menu bar manager and would like recommendations for other menu manager managers that have Bartender like triggers which can be used to display hidden icons when the "menu bar icon changes" because the application becomes active (i.e., I have the Carbon Copy Cloner menu bar icon as a hidden icon in Bartender but used a trigger to display the icon when Carbon Copy Cloner was making a backup as its icon changed so that I would know a backup was being made).
I looked at ICE which looks good but does not have a trigger like capabilities (at least that I could see from looking at the website or looking at GitHub).
Would appreciate recommendations.
Thank you.
1. The triggers which worked flawlessly up to Bartender Version 5.4.0 a) do not work and b) result in the keyboard and the mouse becoming unusable.
2. The support has gone from great (getting in responses in a matter of days) to non-existent. I wrote support about this problem over 6 weeks ago and have not gotten a single response.
I am looking for a new menu bar manager and would like recommendations for other menu manager managers that have Bartender like triggers which can be used to display hidden icons when the "menu bar icon changes" because the application becomes active (i.e., I have the Carbon Copy Cloner menu bar icon as a hidden icon in Bartender but used a trigger to display the icon when Carbon Copy Cloner was making a backup as its icon changed so that I would know a backup was being made).
I looked at ICE which looks good but does not have a trigger like capabilities (at least that I could see from looking at the website or looking at GitHub).
Would appreciate recommendations.
Thank you.
JoelBC, you may want to take a look at Barbee. I am not using triggers so I am a little ignorant regarding those, but Barbee has Shortcuts and Automation that may be useful to you. And Barbee is totally stable here, as it seems they have resolved issues that appeared with Tahoe.
As you did, I also tried Bartender 6.1.0 a few days ago, and it is a little better than previous versions. But it is still not usable on a regular basis. Some items are still not properly indexed, like Adobe Creative Cloud which is named item-0. Several items are still moved around after every restart. I'll wait for the next version.
As you did, I also tried Bartender 6.1.0 a few days ago, and it is a little better than previous versions. But it is still not usable on a regular basis. Some items are still not properly indexed, like Adobe Creative Cloud which is named item-0. Several items are still moved around after every restart. I'll wait for the next version.
I'm no expert on this stuff, but here's my thinking on the Chinese dev thing:
1) Mac App Store obviously doesn't have a great track record of screening out all malware, so it is always a concern
2) There are incentives for developers to create malware no matter where they're located, so avoiding Chinese developers because of the behavior of their government could confer a very false sense of safety, not to mention unfairly excluding plenty of perfectly good Chinese developers
3) Since it's a Mac app in question, there's always the option of installing security apps, like Objective-See's many donationware tools (and consider donating. I do.) or others. I'm not a security person so I don't know just how safe or unsafe this leaves me.
For Barbee in particular with screen recording, someone could use Lulu or Little Snitch as they've done elsewhere in this thread with Bartender, and see when/if it phones home. If someone does that, I'd be interested in the results. I've been using Barbee for the past year or so and am happy with it.
I've been using Hidden Bar for over a year now, and find it to be all that I need.
I am curious to learn if anyone is using the macOS Tahoe version which sherlocked both Bartender and the plethora of wannabe replacements, and if so, how it fares in comparison.
I am curious to learn if anyone is using the macOS Tahoe version which sherlocked both Bartender and the plethora of wannabe replacements, and if so, how it fares in comparison.
I wouldn't say Tahoe sherlocked menu bar apps, at least not yet. In Tahoe you still can't minimize the number of menu bar items and then expand them to view and interact with when needed. Especially important when on a Macbook with a notch. Tahoe does allow for creating multiple control centers, but you can't drag menu bar items into them.
@paulrudy , appreciate the feedback. I have tried Little Snitch but as a non security expert I found it tough to properly configure.
@dwrufus53 , appreciated as well. I really want the Trigger capability that Bartender previously had.
@oric1 , I downloaded and tried Barbee. It does, as you noted, have Automations which are a replacement for Bartenders Triggers. The only problem is that they do not work, at all which means I am back to share one! Would really like to find a replacement which actually works!
Very unfortunate that Bartender was sold and/or the new owners have broken features that previously worked flawlessly!
@dwrufus53 , appreciated as well. I really want the Trigger capability that Bartender previously had.
@oric1 , I downloaded and tried Barbee. It does, as you noted, have Automations which are a replacement for Bartenders Triggers. The only problem is that they do not work, at all which means I am back to share one! Would really like to find a replacement which actually works!
Very unfortunate that Bartender was sold and/or the new owners have broken features that previously worked flawlessly!
Sorry Barbee does not work for you, LoelBC, especially considering it is very stable at the moment compared to Bartender 6.1. And yea, you are right there's always a little nervousness when using a software from China, but I haven't seen anything suspicious with Little Snitch yet. Unless they managed to bypass it, which much be really difficult to do.
Appreciate the response noting:
1. I should clarify that Barbee worked perfectly well other than the Automations, which is what I am interested in. With Bartender being stable other than its Triggers and Barbee being stable with its Automations (i.e., Bartender Trigger equivalents) not working there is no pint in changing.
2. I think that Bartender is rather safe to use (unless they have made subsequent changes). When I first installed Bartender I installed teh full blown version of Little Snitch. While running Little Snitch for +/- 1 month, I never saw Bartender "phone home".
Caveat, I have not tested it for Version 6!
3. Would love one of Barbee or Bartender to get their act together and get their software working!!
Thanks.
A quick follow up as I cannot find a technical support e-mail or page for Barbee.
Has anyone been able to get Barbee's automations to work?
If yes, please post or send a screenshot in the chance it will show what I am doing wrong!
The lack of response from Bartender has me going up on it! The new owners just don't seem to care. What a shame.
Has anyone been able to get Barbee's automations to work?
If yes, please post or send a screenshot in the chance it will show what I am doing wrong!
The lack of response from Bartender has me going up on it! The new owners just don't seem to care. What a shame.