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Manual

Everything Hidden Bar can do, including the parts with no UI.

Basics

  • Left-click the arrow (< / >): expand or collapse the hidden section.
  • Right-click the arrow or left-click the separator (|): context menu (Preferences, Toggle Auto Collapse, Quit).
  • ⌘-drag icons in the menu bar to move them across the separator: icons to the separator's left are hidden when collapsed.
  • Option-click the arrow: show/hide the separators and the always-hidden area without expanding.

Preferences window

Setting What it does
Start Hidden Bar when I log in Login item via System Settings (macOS 13+ SMAppService); revocable in System Settings > General > Login Items
Show preferences on launch Open this window at app start
Auto collapse Re-hide automatically after the chosen delay
Global shortcut System-wide expand/collapse hotkey (F-keys display as F18, not Fn18)
Enable always hidden section A second zone whose icons stay hidden even when expanded; revealed by option-clicking the arrow
Use full menu bar on expanding App becomes briefly "regular" while expanded (helps on tight menubars)

Always-hidden section, current behavior: items in the always-hidden zone are reliably pushed off-screen only when "hide separators" is also on (option-click the arrow). With the separators visible, always-hidden items can still appear after expanding. This coupling is a known limitation being reworked alongside the menu-bar redesign; for now, option-click to hide the separators if always-hidden items keep showing. Avoid placing critical icons in the always-hidden zone until the rework lands, since a stuck off-screen item has to be recovered by ⌘-dragging it back (macOS persists its position per app).

Behaviors you get for free

  • It won't collapse mid-use: while your pointer is anywhere in the menu bar, the auto-collapse countdown defers and restarts; it resumes when you leave.
  • Self-repair: if the arrow or separator was ⌘-dragged off the bar (which used to make the app unreachable forever), they come back on next launch.
  • Display changes: plugging in or removing monitors re-sizes the hidden zone for the widest attached screen automatically.

Hidden settings (Terminal)

All via defaults; quit and relaunch the app after changing them.

# expand by hovering the menu bar for ~0.5s (off by default)
defaults write com.dwarvesv.minimalbar hoverToExpand -bool true

# auto-collapse delay in seconds (the UI offers a fixed list; any value works)
defaults write com.dwarvesv.minimalbar numberOfSecondForAutoHide -float 5

# force the app language regardless of system order (issue #287)
defaults write com.dwarvesv.minimalbar AppleLanguages '(en)'

To undo any of them: defaults delete com.dwarvesv.minimalbar <key>.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Fix
Icons I want visible got hidden after an update ⌘-drag them to the right of the separator
Login item missing after denying it once System Settings > General > Login Items: re-enable Hidden Bar, then toggle the pref off/on
A ghost "LauncherApplication" login item from old versions Launch the current version once; it deauthorizes the legacy item automatically
App language stuck See the AppleLanguages command above, or System Settings > General > Language & Region > Applications
Nothing hides on a macOS 27 beta Known (issue #360); the menu bar re-architecture broke the hiding mechanism, fix under investigation
A new or just-updated app's icon shows up already hidden Expected, see "Why new icons start hidden" below; ⌘-drag it to the right of the separator once

Why new icons start hidden

Hidden Bar hides icons by widening its separator so everything to the left of it slides off-screen. macOS always inserts a brand-new menu-bar icon at the far-left slot, which is inside that hidden zone, so a freshly launched or updated app can appear "swallowed". This is macOS positioning behavior, not Hidden Bar moving your icon: there is no way for one app to reposition another app's menu-bar icon. The one-time fix is to ⌘-drag the icon to the right of the separator; macOS remembers that placement per app. A built-in way to keep chosen icons pinned is being explored as part of the larger menu-bar redesign.

Requirements

macOS 13 Ventura or later. Pre-Ventura (10.13 - 12.x): use v1.10, the last release on the old autostart mechanism.