MacOS Sonoma menubar size on MBP 14"

Hi!

After upgrade to MacOs Sonoma my menu bar became larger like about 1.5x. Tried to change font size (add more space button), tried different resolutions and found out that for some resolutions the menubar size is ok, but the screen size changes from fullscreen to some additional black lines on the upper and lower screen sizes, so menubar moves under the webcam island.

According to the reddit threads, looks like not only me got this issue, but here is not solution for it there.

Maybe someone here can help me with that?

MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023)

Posted on Oct 1, 2023 10:35 AM

Best reply

Stanislav_Kot Author

Level 1

21 points

Posted on Oct 1, 2023 10:59 AM

I tried all the things mentioned in that thread before, unfortunately it doesn't helped. All the things mentioned there for me only change font size in menu bar, but not the size of the bar itself. Not sure if it is normally seen here, but ill try to add screenshots:

Default value:

More Space value:

Desired state:

View in context

51 replies

Mar 10, 2024 4:18 PM in response to Stanislav_Kot

My menubar become smaller time to time. Mac OS 14.4 (23E214) still has the problem. Need to restart to become normal.

Dec 3, 2023 8:01 PM in response to Stanislav_Kot

Changing wallpaper to solid black color:

... helps a little:

Now menu bar is blending with the laptop case and with the notch (camera area). Also it removes the separator and background of apps. Visually menu bar is flying above the opened app and enlarged height is less annoying:

But yes the problem is still here and it is really annoying. After update to Sonoma menu bar has become too big. It is 38px to be precise:

Changing menu bar size to default only changes fonts size. It doesn't affect icons, hovering rectangles or any other geometry in the menu. So I don't think it will ever change the menu bar height.

I used to hide menu bar completely off the screen. Then I had to start living with it when notch appeared. Now it is getting bigger.

Dec 10, 2023 1:06 PM in response to Stanislav_Kot

I have just updated to Sonoma 14.1.2 and got same issue. Why did apple change the height of menu bar. It is so annoying. Please fix this issue asap

Baxo7

Level 1

8 points

Dec 18, 2023 8:03 PM in response to Stanislav_Kot

I have a MacBook pro 16" 2023 and have the same problem. It's so ugly!

Kukurin

Level 1

8 points

Dec 23, 2023 11:18 AM in response to Stanislav_Kot

I have the same problem after updating my MacBook Air M2, the menu bar is huge!

Mar 9, 2024 10:37 PM in response to Stanislav_Kot

Just got a 14.2" MBP as an "upgrade" to my previous Touch Bar MBP. I assumed the notch would be well-managed in Sonoma but I was SO wrong. On my old MBP running Sonoma, the menu bar is super-compact, measuring about 48 pixels in height. on the new 14.2" I measure 76 pixels! It felt like I was suddenly using a preschool computer. The extra "buffer" below the notch is about 12 or 13 pixels and you can't move windows into that space... however I found one solution: enabling "hide menu bar always" lets you move windows up against the notch and get back that missing height, then when you mouse-up, the menu bar slides over the top of the window. If this works, then why isn't there an option in settings to control the menu bar height!?!?

So confused/disappointed; I'm taking my new MacBook back for a refund and will keep the old one with the nice, tight menu bar which doesn't steal space from my apps.

May 24, 2024 1:16 PM in response to Edward TLS

Well, it’s 8 month passed and there is no solution yet..

Oct 1, 2023 11:22 AM in response to Randall_2023

Nope, nothing specific

I'm trying to say that before upgrade to Sonoma it was totally fine

And I'm not the only one who have this issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOSBeta/comments/16kpyme/menu_bar_in_sonoma/

dialabrain

Level 10

122,897 points

Oct 26, 2023 1:53 AM in response to Stanislav_Kot

Stanislav_Kot wrote:

Never send reports to apple before, have no idea how conversation with them looks like )

From the feedback pages…

We read all feedback carefully, but we are unable to respond to each submission individually.

Dec 5, 2023 5:07 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks for the comments ) Avast appeared after Sonoma upgrade so it's definitely not related, in the other hand cleanmymac with my since 2019 and I didn't had any troubles with menubar size before. Use it to clean leftovers of the uninstalled applications. But anyway thanks once again.

Jan 10, 2024 12:39 AM in response to Stanislav_Kot

I am still having the same problem, on MBP 14" M2 PRO, sonoma 14.2.1. Interestingly, the top bar seems large on the internal screen, but external WQHD monitor has the normal small top bar as before I installed sonoma.

The only solution that makes it disappear is to set black wallpaper on the internal screen. Dissapointing...