Hide system tray icons on OS X

Question

How can we hide the system tray icons, on the top menu, within OS X?

Those are not mine, but they're not too far off:

Something like Windows 7 has, to selective hide icons into a little window, would be perfect.

Solution 1

The system-related menubar items (Sync, BLuetooth, Wireless, Time Machine, Sound, Keyboard, Time, Battery, etc.) and very few others from 3rd party applications can be removed from the Menu Bar by Drag&Drop while pressing Cmd. Be aware that you e.g. have no way to start a Time Machine backup anywhere else but this menu.

Many applications allow you to configure whether they show menubar icons, for example (in the screenshot) Adium (Preferences, General, uncheck "Show Adium status in menu bar").

Some applications (e.g. Time Sink by Manytricks) leave you a choice between menubar icon or Dock icon: It's your choice which is better.

Yet others require menubar icons, e.g. f.lux, Dropbox (also in the screenshot), or Caffeine; primarily applications without Dock icon. You can only open the application bundle and try to find the icons in there, and replace them with an empty icon. For example, I don't need to see the "Caffeine is running" icon, so I can replace the icon of the coffee cup with coffee in it with an empty image. This will not "remove" the icon from the menu bar, merely make it invisible (you be the judge if this is for you).

You can remove the Spotlight menubar icon by following this hint. You can remove the icon and still have spotlight functionality via an application launcher such as LaunchBar, or any finder window's search box.

---

The shareware program Bartender can hide most notification area icons.

Solution 2

Some programs have the option within their preferences to 'Show Icon in menu bar'. I turn this off for some of my programs. Likewise, things like battery % has the option of whether or not to show the icon in the menu bar in their section of the system preferences.

I don't know if this will sort everything out, and it does completely remove the ability to get to the icons at all—they would then need to be accessed through the main preferences.

Solution 3

I think Dozer is a great solution that is free.

It also provides a setting to auto collapse after 10 seconds and you have complete control what icons to hide and what not.

Comments

[Admin]

If you want more specific information, tell us which applications or system icons bother you -- although my post should cover all options.

[Admin]

thing is I have a 13'' macbook and the icons get behind my app menu way too often. so, I still want somethings to always be there to be seem. but others could / should be moved to the dock while most I want to hide. the system-related menubar, for instance, could all just be grouped into 1 icon or even on the apple in the left side to save even more room. I could remove most of the icons to prevent the main issue, but that would bring me issues on using the apps.

[Admin]

@Daniel yeah, about specific apps, I got two that I can't remove: one called Choosy that does give the option but every time I lock the screen or boot it comes back even though it's marked to not to. and FastScripts, which just doesn't give the option.

[Admin]

Hiding, not removing. Makes sense, but I'm afraid there is no such solution. Well, since they can be re-enabled and only specialized "menubar applications" require them to run it's kind of hiding cough.

[Admin]

@Daniel haha yeah it is... and punching in the face is a kind of massage! ;)

[Admin]

If an application does not adhere to its preference, send a mail to the developer informing them about the issue. Most Mac shareware developers are nice folks and grateful for your help (or at least fake it well). Although I just checked and my Choosy copy adheres to the preference. Try toggling it the option once (maybe coupled with a restart) to reset any wonky state issues.

[Admin]

As an alternative to FastScripts, you can try launching scripts using an application Launcher such as LaunchBar, Alfred or Quicksilver. I have several custom scripts that e.g. toggle wireless power, so I could get rid of the icon, and can execute them from Launchbar easily.

[Admin]

@Daniel what you mean by "toggling the option once"? all I can get from that is "toggling many times, leaving at one state, rebooting OS, testing issue, repeat for the other state". as for fastscripts, I actually use it so I can press Cmd+8 and go to tab #8 on Safari - just like on chrome and firefox. I couldn't find any alternative to that and I'd love to remove that icon.

[Admin]

It seems like you only touch the menubar icon option for Choosy once. You could try toggling it (off/on/off) and see if it sticks. Another possibility would be to trash your Choosy preferences (~/Library/Preferences/com.choosyosx.ChoosyPrefPane.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/com.choosyosx.Choosy.plist) and start anew.

[cregox]

wow, very cool hint on the CMD drag n' drop! I wish every app would stick to this rule... anyway, you see, I want just to hide, not remove.

[HikeMike]

@Cawas Those apps that do (i.e. "very few others") are using an unsupported and unofficial API that could -- in theory -- break with every system upgrade to accomplish it.

[cregox]

that just tells me it's apple's fault rather than apps, but still... and it's not just removing, it's reordering, which is very nice as well. actually, if I could just reorder them it would solve my main issue!

[HikeMike]

@Cawas Glad to help, but unfortunately -- as you probably already know -- you can only reorder those from Apple or that use the unsupported API, e.g. iStat menus.

[cregox]

actually, my current solution is simply not using a mac. apple lost its touch with jobs rip. again. and it's been too long already. they can't keep it up any longer. 😘

[Martin Braun]

@cregox Understandable. I just got a mac to be able to build iOS apps without any unreliable hacking, cloud or virtualization stuff. Apple had a straight downfall when it comes to customer care (ripping off customers), customization of macOS, privacy protection (spying on users), right to repair (preventing third party repairs, like other companies, too), etc. At least they revolutionize the industry with ARM laptops, now. Whatsoever, if this answer is not for you, it's for others who seek a good solution. :)

[cregox]

i mean i'm sorry, but won't be able to judge if i should change the accepted answer. but back on the "apple sucks" topic, sorry if you feel obliged to develop to ios. you are not. this whole "no other option" mindset is basically what brought us global warming, covid19, and it'll eventually be the downfall of the global society if we continue to feed such fears. if you truly are apple sucks, then start to dismiss it responsibly. and cheers! 😏

[Martin Braun]

@cregox huh? Well I didn't ask to get the accepted answer, but thanks for considering. In fact, I just wanted to explain why I answered your 10 year old question nonetheless. Regarding your "don't develop to ios", well I have clients who want my help publishing/building their apps for iOS, so I enjoy these contracts. But be sure, I'm not part of the Apple bubble and I avoid that.