How to clean up the Mac menu bar on macOS 27

To clean up the Mac menu bar on macOS 27, open System Settings › Menu Bar and turn off the icons you don't use: Apple's own under Menu Bar Controls, and other apps' under Allow in the Menu Bar. Then hold Command and drag the icons you keep into the order you want.

Those two steps are free and take five minutes, and they're all it takes to organize the menu bar on most Macs. After that, you can combine the icons you check most often, so fewer of them need a spot at all.

1. Remove menu bar icons you don't use

1. Choose Apple menu › System Settings.
2. Click Menu Bar in the sidebar.
3. Under Menu Bar Controls, turn off any of Apple's icons you never click, like Spotlight, Siri or Time Machine. You can still reach most of them from Control Center.
4. Under Allow in the Menu Bar, turn off the third-party apps you don't need up there.

Some apps also have their own "Show in menu bar" setting. If an icon keeps coming back, look in that app's settings.

2. Rearrange menu bar icons

To rearrange or move menu bar icons on a Mac, hold Command and drag an icon left or right. Keep the ones you use every day close to the clock. On a MacBook with a notch, the icons furthest from the clock are the first to run out of room.

3. When icons don't fit beside the notch

On a MacBook with a notch, there's only so much room beside the camera. When the menu bar fills up, macOS 27 tucks the icons that don't fit behind an arrow at the edge of the menu bar. Click the arrow and the hidden icons appear.

It's handy, but you can't choose which icons go behind it. The fewer icons you have, the less often it kicks in. Menu bar icons hidden behind the notch covers every fix.

4. Combine the icons you check most

Battery, Wi-Fi and memory are readings most people glance at all day. DuoBar shows all three in one icon, so you can turn off Apple's Battery and Wi-Fi icons in step 1 and get those spots back. A click opens a page for each reading, plus network, Bluetooth, sound, CPU and disk.

Before:

After, with DuoBar in place of Apple's battery and Wi-Fi icons and a few unused icons switched off:

With DuoBar Pro, point at the icon and it unfolds into separate icons, then folds back when you move away:

DuoBar doesn't move or hide other apps' icons. It's one standard menu bar item, so it works on macOS 27.

When you need a menu bar manager instead

If you have a dozen third-party icons you want to keep but rarely click, combining won't be enough. That's the job of a menu bar manager like Bartender, Ice, Hidden Bar or Thaw, which hides icons until you need them.

macOS 27 changed how the menu bar works, and several of these apps stopped working when it came out. What works on macOS 27 has the current state of each.

FAQ

How do I remove menu bar icons on a Mac?

Open System Settings › Menu Bar. Turn off Apple's icons under Menu Bar Controls, and other apps' icons under Allow in the Menu Bar. If an app isn't listed, look for a "Show in menu bar" option in its own settings.

How do I rearrange menu bar icons on a Mac?

Hold Command and drag an icon left or right. Keep the icons you use most close to the clock, so they stay visible when the menu bar fills up.

Why is my Mac menu bar not showing all icons?

On a MacBook with a notch, the icons that don't fit beside the notch move behind an arrow at the edge of the menu bar on macOS 27. Click the arrow to see them, or turn off icons you don't use so the rest fit.

Can I hide menu bar icons on macOS 27 without an app?

Partly. You can turn icons off in System Settings › Menu Bar, and macOS 27 hides the ones that don't fit behind an arrow. You can't choose which icons it hides, though. For that, you need a menu bar manager.