The Redundant Magnifying Glass
The macOS menu bar at the top of your screen provides quick access to system status and application menus. By default, Apple places a small magnifying glass icon on the far right side of this bar. Clicking it opens Spotlight, the incredibly powerful system-wide search tool used to find files, launch applications, and perform quick calculations.
However, almost every experienced Mac user accesses Spotlight via the default keyboard shortcut: Cmd + Space. Because this shortcut is so ingrained in macOS muscle memory and is significantly faster than moving your mouse to a tiny target in the corner of the screen, the menu bar icon is entirely redundant. If you are struggling with a cluttered menu bar on a smaller MacBook screen and want to free up space for other utilities, you can safely remove the Spotlight icon.
How to Remove Spotlight from the Menu Bar
You can hide the magnifying glass icon via the Control Center settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of the menu bar and select System Settings….
- In the left-hand sidebar, scroll down and click on Control Center.
- In the right-hand pane, scroll down to the section labelled Menu Bar Only.
- Locate the Spotlight option.
- Next to Spotlight, click the dropdown menu that currently says “Show in Menu Bar.”
- Select Don’t Show in Menu Bar.
The magnifying glass icon will instantly disappear, freeing up valuable pixels. You can continue to access the Spotlight search bar at any time, from any application, simply by pressing Cmd + Space.