How to Programmatically Change "Automatically Hide and Show the Menu Bar" Setting?

Question

How to Programmatically Change "Automatically Hide and Show the Menu Bar" Setting?

I have encountered an issue with programmatically changing the "Automatically hide and show the menu bar" setting on my Mac. Ideally, I would like to toggle this setting using a shortcut. I found the relevant settings in defaults, but modifying them does not seem to change the menu bar behavior. Here's what I found and how I'm trying to change this setting:

Always
- AppleMenuBarVisibleInFullscreen = 0
- _HIHideMenuBar = 1
On Desktop Only
- AppleMenuBarVisibleInFullscreen = 1
- _HIHideMenuBar = 1
In Full Screen Only
- AppleMenuBarVisibleInFullscreen = 0
- _HIHideMenuBar = 0
Never
- AppleMenuBarVisibleInFullscreen = 1
- _HIHideMenuBar = 0

Set Always

defaults write 'Apple Global Domain' AppleMenuBarVisibleInFullscreen -bool false && defaults write 'Apple Global Domain' _HIHideMenuBar -bool true

Set Never

defaults write 'Apple Global Domain' AppleMenuBarVisibleInFullscreen -bool true && defaults write 'Apple Global Domain' _HIHideMenuBar -bool false

Additionally, I tried using killall SystemUIServer to restart the UI server, but this did not help either. Despite these commands, the menu bar behavior does not change. Has anyone successfully managed to change this setting programmatically? Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.4

Posted on Jun 5, 2024 7:57 AM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

125,594 points

Jun 5, 2024 1:29 PM in response to MaksymAntsyfierov

You can use the unquoted -g switch in place of 'Apple Global Domain'. If that still doesn't work, then those global defaults preferences may not be configurable from the command line. Apple may have restricted their setting to exclusively Settings > Control Center > Automatically hide and show the menu bar with the following options:

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

125,594 points

Jun 5, 2024 8:53 AM in response to MaksymAntsyfierov

Did you see these defaults settings on the Internet and were they specifically for macOS Sonoma or a years-old version of macOS? If from an Internet source, what was the date of the posted content?

The default commands may be syntactically correct, but the operating system may now be ignoring those settings.

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Answer 3

Jun 5, 2024 12:45 PM in response to VikingOSX

I found these parameters myself using a simple method. First, I recorded all the settings into a file:

defaults read > defaults.never

Then I went into the settings, selected the "Always" option, and recorded the settings again into another file:

defaults read > defaults.always

After that, I compared the changes using git:

git diff --no-index ./defaults.never ./defaults.always

After running

defaults write 'Apple Global Domain' AppleMenuBarVisibleInFullscreen -bool false && defaults write 'Apple Global Domain' _HIHideMenuBar -bool true

the value in System Settings changes if I close and reopen the window, but the Menu Bar does not respond to the changes even after

killall SystemUIServer

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