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Menu Bar Icons Behind the MacBook Notch

On a notched MacBook, icons that do not fit beside the notch have nowhere to go. Here is how to find them and how the Tuck Bar helps.

Updated

Short answer. The menu bar is shorter on a notched MacBook because the notch takes the middle. Icons that overflow can end up out of reach. Free some space first; if items are still unreachable, the Tuck Bar shows hidden items in a separate bar below the menu bar.

Steps

  1. Confirm the app is running. A missing icon may belong to an app that quit. Check the Dock or Activity Monitor before you look for the icon.
  2. Free some space. Quit apps you do not need, or turn off their icons in System Settings, Menu Bar. More free width means fewer icons pushed under the notch.
  3. Turn on the Tuck Bar. In Tuck, open Settings, Displays, and turn on Use Tuck Bar. Hidden items then open in a separate bar below the menu bar.
  4. Reveal and click. Click the Tuck icon or use your reveal hotkey. Click an item in the bar to open its menu.
  5. Test on your display. Try a few items, including ones you use rarely. If a system item cannot be reached, note it and report it with your macOS version.

Why it happens

The notch takes space from the middle of the menu bar on recent MacBooks. The left side holds the app menus and the right side holds status icons. When there are more status icons than room, the extra ones can sit under the notch or off to the side, where you cannot click them. People have described this in public threads, and it is a macOS behaviour, not a bug in one app.

Three ways to get your icons back

  1. Make room. Fewer or narrower icons is the cheapest fix. Hide what you do not use.
  2. Use the Tuck Bar. It is a separate bar for hidden items. It can be set per display, so your notched screen can use it and an external monitor does not need to.
  3. Let Tuck move overflow items. Tuck has an option that moves items which do not fit beside the notch into the Hidden section, so they stay reachable.

What to expect

The Tuck Bar is meant for exactly this case, but no app can promise every item on every display. Some system items are left alone by macOS. In reports about macOS 27 betas, the system itself adds an overflow button, and a manager has to work with it. Tuck’s macOS 27 support is in development, so see the macOS 27 page before you rely on it there.

The macOS steps target macOS 26. Tuck instructions describe its documented settings and supplied UI renders; the public DMG is launching soon. Pro features remain planned.

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