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Menu Bar Icons Move After Restart: What to Check

If icons land in the wrong section after a restart, record the affected app and display before changing settings. Several causes can look alike.

Updated

Short answer. macOS places new status items at the far left, which Tuck treats as the Hidden section. Apps that do not save their position look new every time. Record which icons move, set the New Items badge where you want them, and keep a screenshot.

Steps

  1. Write down the before. Screenshot Settings, Layout with all three sections visible.
  2. Set the New Items badge. Drag the New Items badge in Layout to the section where you want new or forgotten items to land.
  3. Restart and compare. Restart your Mac, open Layout and list which icons changed section. Do the same after waking from sleep.
  4. Look for a pattern. If the same one or two apps always move, check whether those apps save their position. If the shift follows docking, record that display change.
  5. Back up your layout. Keep a screenshot of Layout as your current backup. Profile export is planned for Tuck Pro.
  6. Collect details for a report. Turn on diagnostic logging in Settings, Tools, reproduce the move, then use Reveal Logs in Finder. Include your versions and displays.

The usual causes

  • A host app does not persist its position. Tuck then sees it as new after each relaunch.
  • A display change. Plugging in a monitor, waking from sleep, using Sidecar or a KVM switch can shuffle items.
  • A spacing change that needed apps to relaunch.
  • Corrupted system state. Tuck’s documentation notes a case where a particular version of another menu bar app wrote bad state into macOS Control Center preferences, which made other items drift until it was fixed.

A documented Little Snitch workaround

Little Snitch’s agent can appear to Tuck without a stable identity, which makes its icon hard to pin. Tuck’s documentation describes a workaround: quit Tuck, Command-drag the icon to the far right of the menu bar, then relaunch Tuck.

What we cannot promise

No manager can guarantee your layout survives every macOS or app update. Save a backup before you update.

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.

Sources

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