I’ve been working on doing that today, basically trying to summarize all the alternatives I’ve found so far. It boils down to Ice looking the best for people that mainly want Bartender’s decluttering features, and only iBar or Barbee working if you immediately need the “extra menu bar” functionality for smaller screens. Although in my case I’m leaning towards just downgrading to 5.0.48 and holding out for Ice’s planned extra-menu-bar option.
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Welcome! And thanks for sharing this. It should definitely be useful, especially if you can keep it updated.
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My post yesterday was a reply to you but I clicked the wrong reply button.
I liked your question about how we’re using menu bar, but have realised aside from explaining how I’ve stripped it as a result of this, I didn’t actually answer.
As a couple of others have said here, I’m an Alfred user. I don’t use the menu bar for navigation much, so what I’ve kept in it now is either stuff that I need to see at a glance (Toggl, calendar, NordVPN status) or stuff that I prefer to only have one click away regardless of what I’m doing (my menu bar is always visible) - Moom (to arrange windows), Lunar (to adjust screen brightness), Shortcuts (I’ve not figured out how to make Alfred run them, but honestly the Mac implementation of the menu bar here is very user friendly so I’m fine).
Reading through this thread, it feels clear (perhaps others disagree!) that some users are using the menu bar as “another dock”, for quick launching applications. If that’s the case, stripping the menu bar like a few of us have done is not a workable solution.
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Apologies if I missed this above somewhere, but is there a built-in way to do this? I was of the impression that this always required software of some sort (like Bartender).
How do you downgrade?
Most apps have a toggle to show the icon in the menu bar, been through each app in mine and probably reduced the number of icons by half.
Maker of better touch tool has also said bartender like bar will be coming in the next week which may well push me to get rid of bartender
I use the menubar mostly for quick access to app functionality without having to open a full window, and for seeing info and status at a glance. For example, I like being able to start Amphetamine from the menubar when my hand is on my mouse, but even when I start it from Raycast I want to see the remaining time.
I almost never use the dock and would probably uninstall it if I could.
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There’s a link somewhere in this thread (sorry, on my phone) to go to the Bartender releases page. Just download an older version and replace it on your Mac. Couldn’t be easier.
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Perfect, thank you both!
I use Bartender via Setapp where the current version is 5.0.48. As far as I know Setapp has been fantastically good at keeping malware/objectionable-ware off of their platform. As noted elsewhere on this thread, Bartender likely will disappear from Setapp soon, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
In regard to BTT, in the past I used it for snapping windows, but now I use Mosaic. (Both apps also are in Setapp.) I always thought that BTT was overly complex for the little usefulness that I might get from it. Maybe I should spend more time with it, but I like intuitive apps that I can learn quickly, and not have to take a course to learn to use. Also, I have a strong prejudice against the name BTT. I hated the Touch Bar on the MBP that I had. (Just had to get all of that off of my chest.)
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Setapp will not remove Bartender:
https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1d8z1z5/comment/l7b0ni4/
If you are uninstalling Bartender, don’t forget to check your /Library/Caches dir. You will see the Amplitude directory there. For some reason, Hazel clean sweep does not touch it.
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I’ll continue to use Bartender as long as it’s part of the SetApp subscription, but I don’t think I will purchase or subscribe outside of SetApp if it comes to that. However, I now have an excellent use case for the LittleSnitch purchase I made.
Thanks for the heads up. I uninstalled, then installed an older version — but I hadn’t checked this directory.
I have removed Bartender after being a paying customer since version 2. I agree that the dev. has the right to sell thier products to anyone they choose. They can also decide to end development at any time. My problem with this situation (and any other developer for that matter) is the way they handled this.
Just once, I would appreciate a company/developer giving us a heads up. I know there may be business contracts and competitive reasons, but I would like just once for a company to come clean about thier plans and let us decide to stick it out or not before the sale.
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Quote from Setapp’s post in reddit:
“The fears are understandable, but each new version of any application gets a thorough review in Setapp regardless. The applications published in Setapp also undergo the Apple notarization process for each version, therefore if downloaded from a trusted source, the app will remain safe.”
So, as long as Bartender passes these tests I’ll keep it.
Make sure to refer to my other comments about little snitch - blocklist
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Sometimes it gets strange. Three years after Weather Line was sold and two years after it was shut down, afaik no one other than the dev and the buyer knows who bought it or why, or what if anything they’ve done with it since to try to get their money’s worth out of it. The app just disappeared, but the website lives on.
My wild guess is that some of the code got built into another app that’s different enough that no one has noticed.