Mac Menu Bar Not Showing Icons, Why and How to Fix?

The notch on iOS is a great help to users who run multiple tasks at once. Unfortunately, in terms of the Mac notch, it’s a completely different situation. The Mac menu bar at the top right of your screen is supposed to provide quick access to system controls, app features, and notifications. In real-life experience, however, icons start missing or being hidden once there are too many apps on the menu bar.

Mac menu bar not showing icons is definitely not something you like, therefore, we have this post to help you troubleshoot this issue and make the disappearing icons show up again.

Why Is My Mac Menu Bar Not Showing Icons?

First things first, if there’s only one certain app icon that’s missing, you may forget to display the icon on your Mac menu bar in System Settings. But we believe that’s not for most cases. What happens here is that all or many running apps’ icons disappear on the Mac notch. For this situation, there’s only one reason truly: The core issue lies in how macOS handles the menu bar space around the notch. When too many icons accumulate, macOS doesn’t offer an overflow indicator or warning - instead, it silently hides the excess icons behind the notch or even behind menu titles, leaving you unaware that those icons are still active.

To make matters worse, there’s no API available for apps to detect when their icons are hidden, according to experts. The NSStatusItem.isVisible property only indicates whether the app or user intends the icon to be visible, not whether it’s actually visible on screen. This lack of feedback can be very confusing, as apps may appear to be running without any visible indication in the menu bar.

How to show all app icons on the Mac menu bar? Below are some solutions to try.

How to Make Missing Icons Show Up on Mac Menu Bar

Like any Mac glitch, there are always some quick fixes you can try to solve the Mac menu bar not showing icons, including:

• Restart your Mac
• Relaunch apps with the missing icons
• Make sure you have turned on the app icons in System Settings
• Toggle on/off to show or not show icons in the menu bar

To check if the display is turned on, navigate to System Settings > Control Center (or System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar on macOS Monterey and earlier). Here, you can see if the options to display certain icons in the menu bar are disabled. Some apps, like Time Machine or Bluetooth, allow you to choose whether their icon is shown in the menu bar.

Method 1. Restarting Control Center

It seems the issue might be related to a glitch in the Control Center. Restarting the Control Center process has worked for many users on the forum. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Press Command + Space to open Spotlight Search.
2. Type in Activity Monitor and open the app from the results.
3. In the search bar at the top right, type in Control Center to quickly find the process.
4. Locate the Control Center process in the list. On the top menu bar, click the Quit button with the X symbol to force quit the app.

The Control Center will restart automatically, and your missing menu bar icons may reappear.

Method 2. Resetting SMC/NVRAM

Resetting your Mac's NVRAM and SMC (System Management Controller) can fix a range of issues, including problems with display settings, power management, and possibly missing menu bar icons.

• To reset NVRAM:

  1. Shut down your Mac.
  2. Turn it on and immediately press and hold Option + Command + P + R.
  3. Keep holding the keys for about 20 seconds, then release them.
  4. Your Mac will restart with the NVRAM reset.

• To reset the SMC (for Intel-based Macs):

  1. Shut down your Mac.
  2. For MacBooks with a T2 chip: Press and hold Control + Option (Alt) + Shift on the left side of the keyboard, then press and hold the power button as well. Hold all four keys for 10 seconds.
  3. Release all keys, then turn on your Mac normally.

Method 3. Reduce Menu Bar Icon Spacing and Padding Using Terminal

This method is not an actual fix for the Mac menu bar not showing icons, not really. But it does offer a way to bypass the limitations that Mac notch poses. By narrowing down the spacing and padding between icons and icons, you stand a better chance of having an overview of all running apps on the menu bar.

macOS doesn't offer a built-in UI setting for this, but you can tweak it using Terminal commands.

Step 1: Check if the values are already set

Open Terminal and run the following commands to see if custom values have been applied:

defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing

defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding

If you get an error, that’s normal - it just means those values haven’t been set before.

Step 2: Set custom spacing and padding

To reduce the spacing and padding, run:

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int 12

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding -int 8

killall SystemUIServer

Experimented by macOS geeks, 12 for spacing and 8 for padding look just fine, but you can adjust these values. Some users find 6 or 8 to be more space-saving. After entering the commands, the SystemUIServer will restart and changes will take effect immediately. This tweak can help you fit more icons in the menu bar, especially useful on Macs with a notch or smaller displays.

Method 4. Using Third-Party Apps to Manage Mac Menu Bar

If you are open to third-party tools, there are several available that are specifically designed to help you manage the Mac menu bar more effectively. These apps allow you to organize, hide, or rearrange menu bar icons, and are especially useful if your menu bar is cluttered or affected by the notch.

Popular options include Bartender, Say No to Notch, Hidden Bar, etc. However, all of these menu bar managers have their own pros and cons.

Solved: Mac Menu Bar Not Showing Icons

In most cases, your Mac menu bar not showing icons stems from the default notch design. When there are too many app icons on the menu bar, macOS automatically hides some of them without saying. To make it clear what apps are currently running, follow the four wordarounds in this post. Hopefully, they will get your missing icons back in the menu bar.