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Time Machine icon in menu bar turns white when I click on it.

I saw that someone else had this problem. I have a Western Digital Passport for Mac which worked fine on my previous Mac, so I don't think it's the drive. I bought a second Western Digital Passport for Mac and the same thing is happening. As far as I can tell, the backups are working. The little wheel spins and I see the backups listed when it's done.

MacBook Air Apple Silicon

Posted on Oct 24, 2022 9:55 AM

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Posted on Oct 24, 2022 10:20 AM

Just saw another thread that recommended using "Command" to drag the Time Machine icon out of the menu bar and restore it from System Preferences. Dragged it out and checked "Show Time Machine in menu bar" but now it's gone completely! Tried shutting down and restarting but still gone.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 24, 2022 10:20 AM in response to Kluunsi

Just saw another thread that recommended using "Command" to drag the Time Machine icon out of the menu bar and restore it from System Preferences. Dragged it out and checked "Show Time Machine in menu bar" but now it's gone completely! Tried shutting down and restarting but still gone.

Oct 24, 2022 12:30 PM in response to Kluunsi

Start with this of M1 or M2 Mac...


Start up a Mac with Apple silicon in safe mode

On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.

After your Mac shuts down, wait 10 seconds.

Press and hold the power button on your Mac until the startup options window appears showing available startup disks and Options.

Select a startup disk.

Press and hold the Shift key, click Continue in Safe Mode, then release the Shift key.

To leave safe mode, restart your Mac normally, without pressing and holding any keys during startup.

Oct 24, 2022 12:48 PM in response to BDAqua

Already tried that, thanks. That didn’t work. What finally got the Time Machine icon back in the menu bar was to go to Displays in System Preferences and change it to Default. Don’t know why it didn’t work as before in the higher resolution that I usually use. The icon still turns white when I click on it, but otherwise it seems to be working OK. Upgrading to Ventura today. We’ll see where that takes us.

Oct 24, 2022 2:05 PM in response to Kluunsi

Thanks... is it still under warranty?


Does it display the same in Safe Mode?


Start with this of M1 or M2 Mac...


Start up a Mac with Apple silicon in safe mode

On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.

After your Mac shuts down, wait 10 seconds.

Press and hold the power button on your Mac until the startup options window appears showing available startup disks and Options.

Select a startup disk.

Press and hold the Shift key, click Continue in Safe Mode, then release the Shift key.

To leave safe mode, restart your Mac normally, without pressing and holding any keys during startup.

Oct 24, 2022 6:31 PM in response to BDAqua

Time Machine icon in the menu bar still turns white in Safe Mode. 3 Apple techs couldn't explain or resolve it. I removed the icon from the menu bar and am just going to access Time Machine from System Preferences which seems to work fine.


In Ventura System Preferences is now System Settings. To access Time Machine, I go to System Settings>General>Time Machine and then Control-click on my backup drive. It starts backing up right away and shows a progress bar. I can view the spinning arrow at the same time if I want by clicking on the Time Machine icon on the desktop.

Time Machine icon in menu bar turns white when I click on it.

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