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Philpott

Q: Mac OS X 10.5: Icons are centered in the Menu Bar

When an app like Skype or Alarm Clock Pro is running on my system, its menubar icon is centered in the menu bar, instead of aligning right with all the rest. It looks odd and doesn't seem right to have it floating in the middle instead of to the right.

Is there any way to make it behave like the others? Delete a plist file or something?

Mac Pro, 2x2.8 Xeon 5400, Mac OS X (10.5.4), 8 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

Posted on Nov 15, 2008 9:26 AM

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Q: Mac OS X 10.5: Icons are centered in the Menu Bar

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  • by Barry Hemphill,

    Barry Hemphill Barry Hemphill Aug 6, 2008 10:16 PM in response to Philpott
    Level 8 (38,032 points)
    Peripherals
    Aug 6, 2008 10:16 PM in response to Philpott
    Hello Philpott:

    I do not run either of those applications. I assume the application decides where to put the icon. I do not think that trashing a preference file will change anything.

    Barry
  • by BugSquash,

    BugSquash BugSquash Aug 6, 2008 10:32 PM in response to Philpott
    Level 2 (285 points)
    Aug 6, 2008 10:32 PM in response to Philpott
    Try quitting and restarting the app. Sometimes if an app adds something to the menu bar and then the rest of the menu bar changes, the apps can "stick" in the wrong position.

    If that doesn't do anything, check the app's preferences to see if there's an option to change icon placement.
  • by Worm76,

    Worm76 Worm76 Aug 6, 2008 10:47 PM in response to BugSquash
    Level 2 (265 points)
    Aug 6, 2008 10:47 PM in response to BugSquash
    Removing the .plist might solve this (i repeat-it MIGHT), id restart the machine first and see if it pops back together with the other icons.
    Does it happen in a new user account?
  • by Philpott,

    Philpott Philpott Aug 8, 2008 9:30 AM in response to Worm76
    Level 2 (450 points)
    Aug 8, 2008 9:30 AM in response to Worm76
    this error is only happening in my current user account... google notifier is also affected...

    what plist should i delete? I don't want to screw up anything...
    thanks
  • by Worm76,

    Worm76 Worm76 Aug 9, 2008 9:05 AM in response to Philpott
    Level 2 (265 points)
    Aug 9, 2008 9:05 AM in response to Philpott
    pull all contence of your ~/Library/Prefrences to an empty folder, log out and in again. Move the
    .plist´s back to ~/Library/Prefrences, do NOT replace when asked.
  • by Francine Schwieder,

    Francine Schwieder Francine Schwieder Aug 9, 2008 12:01 PM in response to Philpott
    Level 6 (19,045 points)
    Aug 9, 2008 12:01 PM in response to Philpott
    The process that is in charge of menu bar items is called SystemUIServer. I once had a problem where it would sometimes seem to fail to read its own plist and arrange things incorrectly upon a restart. I would go to Activity Monitor, make sure all processes were showing, then Force Quit SystemUIServer. It automatically restarts. It would then arrange the items correctly.

    The plist for SystemUIServer is here:

    "/Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist"

    If you remove it and then either log out and back in, or force restart SystemUIServer, a new default plist will be created. You will then have to add back the items you want, and remove the ones you don't.
    Francine


    Francine
    Schwieder
  • by Philpott,

    Philpott Philpott Aug 9, 2008 12:06 PM in response to Francine Schwieder
    Level 2 (450 points)
    Aug 9, 2008 12:06 PM in response to Francine Schwieder
    Thanks so much for this. I managed to find and delete the plist, and now my menubar is behaving itself again. =)
  • by Barry Hemphill,

    Barry Hemphill Barry Hemphill Aug 9, 2008 1:56 PM in response to Francine Schwieder
    Level 8 (38,032 points)
    Peripherals
    Aug 9, 2008 1:56 PM in response to Francine Schwieder
    Thanks, Francine! I always learn something from you!

    Barry
  • by Francine Schwieder,

    Francine Schwieder Francine Schwieder Aug 9, 2008 2:30 PM in response to Barry Hemphill
    Level 6 (19,045 points)
    Aug 9, 2008 2:30 PM in response to Barry Hemphill
    Hi Barry! I learned far more about SystemUIServer than I ever wanted to know because way back when Tiger was new I was getting some very frustrating failures due to what seemed to be unhappy interactions between Spotlight and some of my own preferred menu bar extras. Turned out to be bugs in a process I had never heard of before: SystemUIServer. So I learned something about it in the process of dealing with my problems. And thanks to Leopard, I now know far more than I ever wished to learn about ownership and permissions and ACLs.....
    Francine


    Francine
    Schwieder