Solution for double menu bar icons w Mavericks dual display

[soulbarn]

Don't know if anyone is getting this—nearly every menu bar icon repeats twice on the primary display (rather than menu bar items being distributed, one for each display.) When this happens, clicking on the "ghost" item doesn't work—instead, it causes the item to jump to the second display.

A pain in the neck that's bugged me since I installed the beta. Just figured out a simple solution: once your system has booted up, disconnect the secondary display then reconnect it. The menu bar icons will distribute themselves properly.

(My system: 2012 Imac 27" with 27" Cinema Display as secondary monitor.)

 

[3282868]

I have a similar setup, a current gen Mac Pro 5,1 with 2 27" LED LCD's. I experienced the same issue when I first installed 10.9.

I tried your suggestion first, unplugged both displays), didn't work. So for those in a similar situation to mine, the only fix I found was to remove then reinstall certain app's that made use of the Menubar. Examples: iStat, Meteorologist, Boom. Mostly non-Apple applications. I suggest removing the app's (make certain it is removed from:

- Macintosh HD/Library/ (Launch Agents, Launch Daemons and StartupItems folders)

- /User/Home/Library/LaunchAgents/

Reboot, then reinstall.

Hope this helps.

 

[DavidMarks]

Haven't tested your fix. However, you can go to Settings and on Date and Time uncheck and check again display in menu bar. Same for Wifi, Battery, and everything on your menu bar. 3rd party apps get fixed when you quit and open again, unless they have an option to hide and show the menubar icon.

I like a simple menubar with just the time, battery and wifi. However, when I need more stuff there I just use Bartender, which is awesome. Check it out on the App Store. It lets you create a 'second' menubar triggered by a keyboard shortcut or a menubar icon where it shows everything you hid from the main menubar. I love it. You can even hide the annoying notification center icon.

Jeez, I wrote menubar a lot. It sounds strange when you say it repeatedly, doesn't it? Menubar, menubar, menubar, menubar, menubar, menubar, menubar, menubar, menubar, menubar, menubar.

 

[SirithX]

It seems like Bartender is the culprit for me, I quit all my 3rd party menubar items and it looks perfectly fine. I add them all back in, Dropbox, flux, etc. and still work fine, after restarting Bartender though, that's when it goes haywire and doubles all the icons again. I suppose just quitting Bartender, and stopping it from starting automatically on boot until a fix comes out may be the best way to avoid it, if you use it. Too bad because I love Bartender too.

 

[MrGimper]

For anyone still stuck with this, if you change the settings in bartender for updates to include beta versions, there's a beta that works with Mav.

 

[nudoru]

I Bartender installed when I upgraded to the release and then it started after the upgrade. Removed Bartender and the issue still persists. Reinstalled and it's still there. Ideas?

 

[tonyfirshman]

Tunnelbick

My Mavericks menu bar issue is only with TunnelBlick (VPN). This normally sits between Spotllght and Messages. With second screen connected, I get two main screen icons. LH one is dummy, and clicking on RH one causes both to disappear, leaving only the second screen icon (working and in the correct place). Disconnecting second screen then positions a single (working) Tunnelblick icon on top of my date display, partially obscuring it.
See screen dump attached
None of the suggestions here seem to work (8-(#

I suppose the only real solution is the next version of Mavericks.

Macbook Pro 10.9, 15" Retina (late 2013).