If you use a lot of apps running in the background on a Mac, you probably have a lot of icons in the macOS menu bar. These can take up quite a bit of space and on a MacBook some symbols may even overlap with the notch. But how can you manage these symbols in the macOS menu bar?
With the macOS Terminal ‘defaults’ command you can adjust the space between the different symbols in the menu bar. This allows you to place more symbols in the menu bar and take up less space.
Adjust the spacing between symbols in macOS menu bar
In macOS you cannot adjust the distance between the symbols in the menu bar via the settings. However, this can be done with a command in the macOS Terminal. This command allows you to change the extra space between the symbols.
If you use the value 0, the symbols are displayed without extra space. The space won depends on the symbols present. In most cases there is room for additional symbols. Something that can be useful on a MacBook with a notch. Of course, you can also experiment with different values, but usually a value of 0 is best to keep the menu bar clear.
Run the following command in the macOS Terminal, found in the folder: Applications â–¸ Utilities. Use the copy button below to copy the command to your clipboard. Then click on the Terminal and paste the command with the key combination cmd + v.
The command sets the gap to 0 and then restarts the ControlCenter process with ‘killall’. This is responsible for displaying the macOS menu bar.
$defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int 0; killall ControlCenter
Restore menu bar symbol size to default
To restore the default setting after running the above command, run the following command in Terminal. The command removes the adjustment and restarts the ControlCenter process.
$defaults -currentHost delete -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing; killall ControlCenter
After executing the command, the default setting is restored and the symbols have the standard spacing again.