How to Make Time Machine Icon Show in Menubar ONLY when it's Connected

You can either turn it on or off. The only icon that disappears when you have your external HD plugged in is the icon that shows on the actual desktop.

I've never known the menu bar Time Machine icon to disappear when the external is unplugged.

tomatohorse wrote:

I'd like the Time Machine icon to only show in the top menubar when I have my external hdd (that stores my time machine backups) connected.

I used to have a 2013 macbook with Catalina, and it behaved this way by default. It was great. The icon was there automatically when I plugged my external backup hdd in, and then disappeared when I disconnected the hdd and I didn't need it anymore.

Is there any way to get back the old, smarter, behavior?

I don't remember it ever working that way. If yours did, I can't explain how.

FWIW, that has never been the default behavior with macOS. It may happen if one had a third-party app such as Bartender to organize the icons.

You're welcome.