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After installing Mac OS Sonoma there is a constant green dot on the menu bar. It disappears only after restarting the mac. The camera is not working (I hope). Seems to start when I start Zoom but it never goes away. The green dot placement can be anywhere on the menu bar. Sometimes it is in the middle and sometimes on the far right.
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 14.1
This topic lead me to a workaround: green dot at top right corner of screen - Apple Community
Basically, to get rid of the green dot, open "Photo Booth", fullscreen it, and exit full screen again.
This topic lead me to a workaround: green dot at top right corner of screen - Apple Community
Basically, to get rid of the green dot, open "Photo Booth", fullscreen it, and exit full screen again.
Its not Zoom related. I dont have zoom on my mac, and I still have this dot which drives me crazy since i think somebody has access to my camera. Its a nasty bug if you ask me, makes users feel they are being watched.
Here is how it looks with zoom opened
I have mac book pro m1 14".
Do you think 3 indicators enough? I believe we need 5-6 more
As stated by OP and others:
Since it was near the time values, I explored changing time settings to see if it forces a refresh of the menu bar. Came upon another interesting bug:
Very odd, and surprising that Apple testing didnt show a dot that's always present on screen!
I have done more experimentation.
The dot will disappear if you put the machine to sleep via the Finder menu and then revive it. (It remains if you close the lid and reopen.)
After reviving the machine, the green dot will instantly appear when you move the cursor with the trackpad.
(Both of these were conducted with the Zoom app shut down.)
It's not a pixel. It's a green dot icon the same as the orange for mic use. this only started happening with Sonoma. Many people are reporting this issue so I doubt all of us suffer from the same hardware issue all at once.
I believe it indicates "Software Updates" available. I installed the latest software updates and the dot is now gone.
just for the reference, here is how it looks:
Hi, I am the OP and the issue still remains the same even after all the latest OS updates. The green dot can show up in various locations on the top nav bar.
Click the Control Center icon 
to open Control Center, where you can access features you use often, such as AirDrop, Stage Manager, Screen Mirroring, Focus, and more. See Use Control Center.
Privacy indicators, which can be dots or arrows, are located to the right of Control Center. An orange dot 
next to the Control Center icon in the menu bar indicates the microphone on your Mac is in use; a green dot 
indicates a camera is in use; a purple dot 
indicates the system audio is being recorded; and an arrow 
indicates your location is in use. Only one privacy indicator dot is shown at a time. For example, if both the microphone and a camera are in use, you only see a green dot. When you open Control Center, the top of the window may contain a field that shows which apps are using your microphone, location, camera, or system audio. You can click that field to open the Privacy window, which may have additional information (macOS 13.3 or later).
I think this is a bug. On screens with LED indicators, the hardware LED is turned on when the camera is in use. For other screens, a dot is rendered on screen.
When an external monitor is connected/disconnected, the green activity indicator may get shifted to another screen at an incorrect location.
SupportCommunityUser wrote:
This topic lead me to a workaround: green dot at top right corner of screen - Apple Community
Basically, to get rid of the green dot, open "Photo Booth", fullscreen it, and exit full screen again.
Thank you!! I've had this issue for months and have been periodically returning to this thread (and many, many others) to try and find a solution. This is a solution that works 100% of the time.
For others:
Thank you for this solution!
Take a screen shot with Shift-Command-3. If it does not show up in a screen shot, that it is most likely hardware related with the Screen or Graphics Card being a likely candidate, although that still does not rule out a driver issue that could be fixed with a software update.
Take a screenshot - Apple Support
I recommend trying to ignore it, which I know is difficult. If any hardware is failing, you will likely see other symptoms. I think you can rule out the camera indicator as the green light next to camera is fixed and would not be that far away.
I have seen reports of a green dot in the menubar like from the OP on the top of this page, but not in the location of your screenshot. In all cases, there has not been a resolution provided as the original posters did not seem to update if they had ever resolved the problem and reports of this issue have not been reported by very many users.
No
Sonoma 14.2.1 the issue is still there, but it seems like this green dot is moving from top right corner to the middle or vice versa.
Actually I have a led indicator on a notch if camera is on, so I don't know why we need this one on the screen?
More over when you open youtube in full screen it remains, really annoying thing.
Screen with this dot
Screen with Zoom opened and camera used
A constant green dot on menu bar after installing Sonoma
