Bartender 6: Oh look, Applause finally dropped the other shoe

Have tried the SetApp beta version of Bartender6 on Tahoe and chaos! Breaks the whole machine - curser freezing, windows jumping around, etc. All goes back to normal when I Force Quit BT6. :crossed_fingers: things improve with future versions.

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Bartender has been a part of Setapp. Not sure about the future, but it is still working for me 15.6.1

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Same goes for me. Very buggy and annoying.

I stopped using Bartender after the first furore when it changed hands and I haven’t really missed it.

Probably because though I used it to get rid of a few superfluous items on the bar, I manly used it to reduce the ridiculously wide default spacing between the items in the default Menu Bar.

Tahoe allows you to do something about the former, and I found out how to do the latter from the Terminal (works on at least Sequoia and probably earlier versions too…) First, find out what the current settings are:

defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing
defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding

Then set them to something better. I use

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int 4
defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding -int 4

You have to log out afterwards, I think, but then you get:

instead of the default

which is a huge improvement.

Unless you’re an advanced user, this seems to cover the main things Bartender does.

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And, of course, if you are not comfortable tinkering with the Terminal, Sindre Sorhus also has a free app for adjusting spacing in the menu bar:

You can see your adjustments on the fly.

Is this a replacement for Bartender or Ice?

It depends on your needs. If you primarily use those apps to fit more items in the menu bar, this app is a good alternative.

And, very nice:

The app only needs to be run once to set the spacing and can then be uninstalled. The settings persist.

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Thanks ! Knew I had seen an app that did this

Has anyone actually been able to move a third-party app from the menu bar to Control Center? It hasn’t worked for the 10+ apps I’ve tried.

Do the apps have Control Center integration?

Same here. :worried: It took me a while to figure out that Bartender 6 was the culprit.

There’s a beta version of Ice here. No issues for me so far with Tahoe.

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Forget the license, Bartender 6 is destroying the battery on my Macbook Pro 14 inch M1 Pro.

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https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/10/06/bartender-6/

$20, no subscription?

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add me to the list too!

Still on 15.6.1 on my recent MacBook Air M4 (which came in April with Sequoia installed by default, so I have yet to do a major version upgrade), and Bartender 6.1 beta makes the machine crazy after a few minutes, with the cursor jumping around the screen and the menu bar redrawing continuously.

Worse of it all, I cannot find a way to quit Bartender and I thus have to resort to the good old Unix CLI issue a “ps” followed by a “kill” to kill the darn process… :man_facepalming:t2:

Since I am on SetApp I wouldn’t be bothered by the new subscription-based model for Bartender 6, but since the app seems very much broken at this stage, I am definitely in need of something similar to Bartender to manage the very crowded menu bar I have…

Looking forward to tying Ice and Barbee, maybe even BetterTouchTool which also comes with SetApp.

Any suggestions or comments and experiences on these three alternatives to Bartender?

Many thanks, Luca

I have stopped using Bartender and have started to use Ice (GitHub - jordanbaird/Ice: Powerful menu bar manager for macOS) instead. I think Ice does everything that Bartender does. At least everything that I used Bartender for.

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I stopped using Bartender a while back and just took the opportunity to clear out stuff from my menu bar that didn’t really need to be there.

With Tahoe, I’m evicting even more as I can now tell apps like Dropbox to pound sand. Yes, I want it running, no I don’t need constant access to it.

I now have only the time, Control Centre, 3 apps (VPN, screen capture, 1Password), plus two iStat meters. All that is only 254 points wide — a little over a third of available space on my 14" MacBook Pro.

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I keep coming back to this thread and trying to figure out why I’m not having any issues with Bartender whatsoever.

Then I remember I didn’t update to Tahoe.

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me neither! And yet I am having huge issues on the latest build of Sequoia on a MacBook Air M4 which came with Sequoia just a few months ago, so there is not even the excuse of some old cruft left “under the carpet” due to a major release upgrade…

I am baffled, really…

I have spent some time configuring BTT yesterday after I wrote my rant, following these instructions:

I like what I see, it’s just way too overcomplicated for my need. I might try Ice instead, when I have some time to tinker with my machine, maybe over the weekend.

L

Best feature in Tahoe by far

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What does “pound sand” mean here? Is it possible to stop apps from being shown in the menu bar?