Inside MenuFold: A Tidy Menu Bar in One Click

MenuFold is a small Mac utility from 1dot1 that tidies the menu bar. The icons that are rarely needed sit to the left of a thin line, and one click on a chevron folds them out of sight. Another click brings them back. This teardown walks through it screen by screen and explains the decisions behind each part.

The menu bar fills up quietly. Every sync tool, timer, audio switcher and utility adds an icon, and most of them are glanced at once a week. The clutter costs attention every time the eye crosses the top of the screen, and on a MacBook with a camera notch it can push icons out of sight altogether. MenuFold does not try to replace the menu bar or redraw it. It adds two small items, a line and a chevron, and lets macOS do the rest.

One click, and it is tidy

Clicking the chevron makes everything left of the thin line slide out of sight. The chevron turns to point left, as a reminder that there is more to the left than is showing. Clicking it again reverses the fold, and the chevron points right while the icons are visible. Control-Option-M does the same from any app, if that combination is free, and the settings panel has Fold Icons and Show Icons buttons for anyone who prefers to click a label.

The mechanism is deliberately simple. The thin line is an ordinary menu bar item. To fold, MenuFold stretches it wide enough to push every icon on its left off the edge of the screen. To unfold, it shrinks back to a sliver. Because the line is a normal item, it leaves with the app: quitting MenuFold always brings every icon back, and the app always starts with the icons showing. Nothing can be stranded out of view.

Every icon in its place

MenuFold does not keep its own list of which icons to hide. The arrangement is the list. Holding Command while dragging a menu bar icon moves it along the bar, which is a standard macOS gesture, and anything dropped left of the thin line folds away. The icons that should always be visible stay to the right of the chevron.

That choice has two benefits. macOS already remembers where each icon sits, including the line and chevron themselves, so the arrangement survives a restart without MenuFold storing anything. And there is no settings screen full of checkboxes to keep in sync with apps that come and go. The first time MenuFold opens, a short panel shows the three steps with a small illustration of an icon being dragged past the line. It can be opened again from the settings under How to Arrange Icons.

One guard matters here. If the thin line is dragged to the right of the chevron, folding would push the chevron itself off screen. MenuFold notices, stops folding and puts everything back within a moment, and the settings explain how to move the line back.

It folds itself again

Unfolding is usually for a moment: checking a sync status, changing an audio output, stopping a timer. Under Fold again automatically, the settings offer Off, 5 s, 10 s and 30 s. After an unfold, the icons fold away once that time is up.

A timer that fires in the middle of a click would be worse than no timer, so the fold waits while the pointer is in the menu bar or a menu is open. An icon that has just been revealed can be clicked and its menu read without it disappearing underneath the pointer.

Fold when clicking elsewhere is the other option. With it on, a click anywhere outside the menu bar folds the icons straight away. Clicks on the menu bar itself, such as opening one of the revealed icons, do not count. The two options work together, so the icons fold on whichever comes first.

A drawer for the rarely used

Some icons are needed now and then; others are needed almost never, but still have to run. The always-hidden section gives the second group a place of its own. Turning it on in the settings adds a dotted line, and icons dragged to the left of it stay away even when the rest unfold.

A normal unfold then shows only what sits between the dotted line and the thin line. Holding Option and clicking the chevron shows everything, including the always-hidden section, and another click folds it all. Turning the section off returns those icons to the normal fold. Option-click was chosen because it is the Mac convention for showing more, as it is in many system menus.

It checks each fold

Stretching a menu bar item is not something every version of macOS allows without limits. Rather than assume a fold worked, MenuFold checks where the icons ended up each time, and the settings panel says what it found. On a normal fold that is a line such as Working: the last fold moved 7 icons off screen. If macOS kept some icons in place, the panel says that plainly instead.

On macOS 26 Tahoe, where MenuFold has been tested, the system limits the stretch to about 5,000 points. That is still wider than any Mac screen, so folding works. If a future release is stricter, unfolding, the shortcut and everything else keep working, and the panel explains what macOS allowed.

The camera notch is a separate limit. On a MacBook with a notch, the menu bar is split around the camera, and when there are more icons than fit, macOS hides the extras behind the notch, folded or not. MenuFold cannot change that, but folding more icons away frees room so the ones that matter stay visible. The settings panel shows a reminder when a notched screen is in use.

Nothing to grant

Moving icons around the menu bar sounds like the kind of job that needs Accessibility or Screen Recording access. MenuFold asks for neither. It uses the menu bar space macOS gives every app, reads only where menu bar icons sit, and registers its shortcut the standard way. None of that needs a permission prompt.

There is no account and no network access. The app never connects to the internet.

Built in black and white

Like the other 1dot1 Mac apps, MenuFold is greyscale in light and dark mode. The icon is an arrow with three dots, a fold drawn as a single shape, and the chevron in the menu bar repeats it at a smaller size, flipping direction with each fold. The settings panel uses the same black pill for the selected option and a single line of plain text for the result of the last fold.

It is a universal app for Apple silicon and Intel Macs and runs on macOS 13 Ventura or later.

How to use it, feature by feature

The same instructions are in the short guide inside the download.

Installing it

1. Unzip the download and drag MenuFold.app into the Applications folder, then open it. A chevron with three dots appears in the menu bar, with a thin line just to its left.
2. MenuFold is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a normal double-click.
3. The first time it opens, a short panel shows how to arrange the icons.

Choosing what folds away

1. Hold Command and drag a menu bar icon along the bar.
2. Drop the icons you rarely need to the left of the thin line.
3. Leave the ones you want to see all the time to the right of the chevron.
4. Keep the thin line to the left of the chevron. macOS remembers every position, so the arrangement survives a restart.

Folding and unfolding

1. Click the chevron. Everything left of the thin line slides out of sight and the chevron points left.
2. Click it again to bring the icons back. The chevron points right while they show.
3. Press Control-Option-M to fold or unfold from any app, if that combination is free.
4. Or use the Fold Icons and Show Icons buttons in the settings panel.
5. Quit MenuFold at any time and every icon comes back.

Folding again by itself

1. Right-click the chevron to open the settings.
2. Under Fold again automatically, pick 5 s, 10 s or 30 s. Off keeps the icons showing until the next click.
3. While the pointer is in the menu bar or a menu is open, the fold waits.
4. Turn on Fold when clicking elsewhere to fold as soon as a click lands outside the menu bar.

The always-hidden section

1. In the settings, turn on Always-hidden section. A dotted line appears, and both lines show for now.
2. Hold Command and drag the icons you almost never use to the left of the dotted line.
3. A normal unfold now shows only the icons between the dotted line and the thin line.
4. Hold Option and click the chevron to show everything. Option-click again, or click, to fold.
5. Turn the section off to return those icons to the normal fold.

Settings

1. Open at Login keeps MenuFold in the menu bar from the moment the Mac starts.
2. How to Arrange Icons opens the first-run panel again.
3. About and Quit sit at the bottom of the panel. Right-click or Control-click the chevron to reach them.

Permissions

1. There is nothing to grant. MenuFold needs no Accessibility or Screen Recording access.
2. It reads only the positions of menu bar icons and registers its shortcut the standard way.
3. There is no account, and the app never connects to the internet.

Newer versions of macOS

1. Fold once, then right-click the chevron to open the settings.
2. Read the result line: it says how many icons moved off screen.
3. If macOS kept some icons in place, the panel says so. Unfolding, the shortcut and the rest keep working.

Screens with a camera notch

1. If icons are missing beside the notch even when unfolded, macOS is hiding them because there is not enough room.
2. Drag more icons left of the thin line and fold them away to free space for the ones you need.
3. The settings panel shows a reminder while a notched screen is in use.

If something does not happen

1. Clicking the chevron hides nothing: no icons are left of the thin line yet. Hold Command and drag some past it.
2. The chevron itself disappeared: the thin line was dragged to its right. MenuFold puts everything back within a moment; drag the line to the left of the chevron and press Try Again in the settings.
3. Control-Option-M does nothing: another app already owns that combination. Use the chevron instead.
4. Some icons still show when folded: the settings panel explains what macOS allowed on this Mac.
5. An icon cannot be dragged: some icons, such as the clock and Control Centre, are fixed by macOS and always sit on the right.

Get MenuFold

MenuFold is available on 1dot1 as a single download, with the guide, a README and the licence inside the zip.

Get It Now