The Disappearing Applets
The macOS Menu Bar (the strip across the top of your screen) is prime real estate for quick-access tools like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and third-party utility icons (often called “menulets”). However, on modern MacBooks featuring a “notch” for the webcam, physical screen space is severely limited. To compensate, macOS employs a ruthless background process: if you launch a heavy application with dozens of its own menu options (like Final Cut Pro or Microsoft Word), macOS will automatically hide your system icons on the right side by pushing them underneath the notch, completely removing them from view to prioritize the application’s menus.
Revealing the Hidden Icons
To keep your essential tools visible and stop macOS from automatically hiding Menu Bar icons behind the notch, you must utilize a specific compatibility setting or third-party software.
If a specific application is causing the issue, you can force the OS to shrink the display. Close the problematic application. Open Finder and navigate to your Applications folder. Find the app (e.g., Microsoft Word), click it once to highlight it, and press Command+I to “Get Info.” In the information panel that appears, look for a checkbox labelled Scale to fit below built-in camera. Check this box. Now, when you launch the app, macOS will slightly shrink your entire screen, adding a black bezel at the top so the Menu Bar sits completely below the notch, ensuring no icons are ever hidden. Alternatively, power users often rely on third-party utilities like “Bartender” or “Hidden Bar” to manually manage and force icon visibility regardless of the active application.