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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.
For me this green dot indicated that I had a update available. I looked under 'System Setting.... General...' and yep there was an update available. Installed the update and the green dot went away.
I understand and do agree it could be a driver issue that could be fixed with a software update. With the fact that it does not show up in a screenshot, I think you could eliminate software such as Zoom or even the OS displaying the dot. You are still able to screen shot the dots that appear when using the Microphone, Location, or Camera, so this dot is not being written to the screen buffer by any software.
It is odd that it would disappear for a while after restart and I assume starting in Safe Mode does not eliminate it completely either. This dot issue has been reported by others using different versions of the OS, so don't think it is specific to Sonoma. The problem is that there has never been a specific solution provided in any of these reports, so we do not know if it went away on its own or if a solution was simply not given.
It's going away after a macOS update is only temporary. I installed Sonoma 14.4 last week and the dot went away. But it is now back and there are no available updates. I think the root cause is something else that the macOS update masks temporarily.
For me it was Quicktime Player related: I had used QTP to stream an iPad screen from my MBP, ever since I had the green dot. It became evident when clicking on the control center icon in the menu bar, which mentioned QTP, when I quit the QTP app, gone was the green dot :)
migo33 wrote:
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.
https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/ef4cbed4-08ed-48e6-894f-84c42c9f96fb
Sounds Zoom related....
if in doubt search the developers website or contact their: Support/Help/FAQ/Known issues/compatibility/updates…
ref
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360032554051-Setting-your-presence-status
maxwhyam wrote:
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.
To trouble shoot further you can:
—A SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies
Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled.
Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.
This test will tell you if third party interference; most* extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.
—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support
This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account.
unplug all third party peripherals when testing
Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus
all known to cause issues on the macOS
verify your software is up to date…
The current stable release of Sonoma including bug fixes, security updates is macOS 14.2
Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support
Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support
robw_ wrote:
I am currently experiencing this issue and it's driving me crazy
I thought this was addressed above...
Green dot—
It's related to the use of applications that use the camera (one ex. Zoom). When you exit "these "programs, sometimes the green dot is left behind.
One fix is to open the PhotoBooth.app full screen and then exit and then quit the app.
You can file a bug report /submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple
Sonoma 14.2 update seems to fix this issue for me
I also have this issue. See the green dot near the "Inigo" in the photo from my camera. I cannot take a screenshot of it either.
It's definitely some software causing the issue, but at the moment hard to narrow down.
Advice appreciated. I tried rebooting and running Zoom but so far cannot reproduce today.
I don't think its fair to say 'ignore it'. Some people fear that the camera is on. The fact that very few post about it doesn't make it an anomaly.
most definitely not a stuck pixel. It's a perfect circle approximately 20px wide and moves to various spots across the menu bar.
That would eliminate any system provided notification, such as camera in use, and suggests more of a hardware problem. As stated already, it does not rule out a driver issue with the screen or Graphics Card.
Possible stuck pixel on the screen that gets refreshed for a short time when restarted. Since I do not believe that there is a software solution to this, a trip to the Apple Store may be needed for hardware diagnosis if you are unable to ignore it.
Got the issue as well after starting zoom today. So many other bugs with Sonoma as well. Bluetooth connectivity is a MESS (already in monterey present, not resolved yet), computer randomly freezes when using third party apps to view films on two monitors, etc. etc.
I really enjoy the apple experience a lot but with these bugs mounting up seemingly every other OS update and not being resolved I'm thinking of buying the next computer with windows again. sad
I was having the same problem but I restarted and now it's gone. I don't think it's fixed...
However, I found this post
They use this command to restart the menu bar, so it might help:
killall -KILL SystemUIServer
I'll try it if it happens again...
A side note: I don't think it's a hardware problem because I could pass the cursor on top of the dot and it would cover it. So I guess it's a software issue.
[Edited by Moderator]
I have a similar green dot issue. I feel like someone is spying on me. In my case, the green dot is present on the left side of the menu bar (near the 'Go' option). However, when I move my cursor to other extended screens the green dot disappears and reappears when I bring back the cursor. Also, sometimes it randomly disappears while using the MacBook screen. I did notice this green dot after updating the software a few weeks back until today. What should we do?
A constant green dot on menu bar after installing Sonoma