How to hide menu bar icons with macOS’s own settings, and when you need more

The short answer: on macOS 26 and 27, open System Settings › Menu Bar and turn off the apps whose icons you do not want, or hold ⌘ and drag an icon off the menu bar. That removes the icon until you turn the app back on. If you want the icons out of sight but still a click away, that is what a menu bar organizer such as Drop Down is for.

This guide covers what macOS does by itself, where the icons go, and when it is worth adding an app. The facts about macOS come from Apple’s own support pages, linked at the end.

Hide an app’s icon in System Settings

1. Open the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
2. Choose Menu Bar in the sidebar.
3. Under Allow in the Menu Bar, turn off each app whose icon you want gone. Apple’s own items, such as Wi-Fi, Sound or Focus, are in the Menu Bar Controls list above it.

The icon disappears at once. The app keeps running; only its menu bar item is removed. To use it again, come back to the same list and turn the app back on. macOS 26 has the same list.

On macOS 15 there is no such list. System Settings › Control Center chooses which of Apple’s own items show in the menu bar, and other apps’ icons can only be hidden from the apps’ own settings, if they offer it.

Drag an icon off the menu bar

Hold ⌘ and drag an icon out of the menu bar to remove it, or drag it sideways to change its place. This works for many icons, though some apps only let you hide theirs in their own settings.

Where icons go when the menu bar is full

A MacBook’s menu bar fills up fast: the menus of the app in front take the left side, and the icons share what is left. On macOS 27, icons that do not fit go behind a small overflow indicator in the menu bar; press it to see them. macOS 26 has the same settings without the indicator.

The catch is that the room decides which icons are hidden, not you. An icon you need every day can end up behind the indicator while one you never touch stays in view.

When macOS’s settings are enough

If you want fewer icons and rarely need the rest, macOS’s own settings may be all you need. They are already on your Mac, with nothing to install.

When you want hidden icons a click away

macOS removes icons rather than keeping them close. Apple documents no panel, no search and no keyboard shortcut for hidden icons, so getting one back means a trip to System Settings.

That gap is why Drop Down exists. You choose the apps; their icons leave the menu bar and wait in a small glass panel under one chevron.

• Open them. Click the chevron or press ⌃⌥⌘D. Click an icon in the panel and its own menu opens, as if you had clicked it in the menu bar.
• Choose them. In the setup, in Settings › Menu Bar Items, or with the panel’s + button.
• Get everything back. ⌃⌥⌘H shows every icon and pauses hiding. Quitting Drop Down, or a crash, brings the icons back too.
• Runs where you are. macOS 15, 26 and 27, on a Mac with Apple silicon, so on macOS 15 it hides the icons that System Settings cannot.

Basic is free and does the hiding and the panel; Pro adds the panel’s extra options. The pricing section has the details, and the comparison puts Drop Down beside macOS’s own settings and other menu bar apps, row by row.

Sources

• Apple: Change Menu Bar settings on Mac, macOS 27
• Apple: Change Menu Bar settings on Mac, macOS 26
• Apple: What’s in the menu bar on Mac
• Apple: Change Control Center settings on Mac, macOS 15
• Apple: What’s new for enterprise in macOS 27, which describes the overflow indicator