How to Customize the Touch Bar on a Mac

For a brief period between 2016 and 2021, Apple made a highly controversial design decision. They completely removed the physical “Function Keys” (F1 through F12) from the top row of the MacBook Pro keyboard, replacing them with a long, thin, touch-sensitive OLED screen known as the “Touch Bar.”

While the Touch Bar was designed to dynamically change its buttons based on whatever application you were currently using (e.g., showing playback controls in Spotify, or formatting tools in Word), many professionals found the constantly shifting layout infuriating. If you own one of these specific MacBook models, you are not permanently stuck with Apple’s default layout. You can customize the digital buttons to suit your exact workflow.

How to Customize the Default Touch Bar

You can reorganize the permanent “Control Strip”—the core group of buttons (like Volume and Brightness) that usually sit on the right side of the Touch Bar.

1. Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of the screen.
2. Select System Settings from the drop-down menu (or System Preferences on older versions of macOS).
3. Scroll down the left-hand sidebar and click on Keyboard.
4. In the main panel, look for the section labelled “Touch Bar settings.”
5. Click the button labelled Customize Control Strip…

Your main laptop screen will suddenly darken, and a massive grid of available buttons (like “Sleep,” “Screenshot,” “Do Not Disturb,” and “Show Desktop”) will appear.

How to Drag and Drop New Buttons

The customization interface feels slightly like magic because it bridges the gap between your main screen and the keyboard.

1. Use your mouse to click and hold any button you want on the main screen (e.g., the Screenshot button).
2. Drag the button down past the bottom edge of your physical screen, directly toward the keyboard.
3. The button will seamlessly jump off the main screen and appear on the physical Touch Bar.
4. While still holding the mouse button, drag the icon left or right along the Touch Bar until it is in the exact position you want. Let go to lock it in place.

To remove a button you never use (like the Siri button), simply hover your mouse over it on the Touch Bar, click it, and drag it up onto the main screen to delete it.

When your layout is perfect, click the blue Done button on the main screen to save your changes.