Top menu bar has disappeared on my MacBook Pro

Typically, if things are working fine in safe mode, this indicates that you have a login item or a system extension that interferes with the system.

See if this article can help you: Remove login items to resolve startup problems on your Mac - Apple Support.

Thanks for your reply.

I’m still a bit confused. You can display the icon of a drive on the Desktop but this has no impact on the Mac operation. It’s just a shortcut to what you would find in Finder.

Do you have dual boot on your Mac, meaning a Mac partition and a Windows (or Linux) partition that you can choose a boot up?

Open the Terminal application (in the Applications > Utilities folder), execute the following command and post a screenshot:

diskutil list

This command will display the partitions of your drive(s) and may help us understand.

Thanks for giving a shot. Do you have the same issues using another user session on your Mac? Create one if needed.

Did it work when you connected as another user?

I'm confused about your 2nd reply: you mention "restarting with my hard drive selected". Could you provide more details?

Hello thomsonmags,

Thanks for you reply. I’m still a bit confused but I believe I have a better understanding.

1. You might have had issues seeing replies because of the sort order in the thread. At the very beginning of this thread, below your question, you’ll see a “Sort By” field. Choose “Older” to see the thread in chronological order.
2. The icon “Macintosh HD” on the Desktop is something that you define in the Finder settings: See the devices connected to your Mac - Apple Support. Because those settings are user-dependent, they wouldn’t be the same if you log in as another user. So, the fact that the icon “Macintosh HD” did not show on the Desktop when you logged in as another user is expected.
3. Thanks for the 1st screenshot. It shows that you are running a run-of-the-mill Mac with no special partitions. I see that your internal drive might start running out of free storage space. We’ll address this later.

The parts where I’m still confused are:

1. The 1st screenshot shows a purple background with the menu bar clearly visible at the top of the screen. The menu bar shows “ Terminal Shell Edit…”. Your 2nd screenshot shows a yellow background with different icons on the Desktop (My Passport for Mac…). Was the 1st screenshot taken when connected as another user?
2. The 2nd screenshot seems cut out. Do you see the Dock at the bottom of the screen?
3. I would like to clarify one thing: having created another user on your Mac is not going to fix issues with the original user. The idea was to test whether the issues you are seeing are related to a specific user session (instead of the whole Mac.) That being said, can you confirm that everything looks normal and run as expected when you log on as this other user?

Thanks for your reply. It does clarify things.

There is still one thing that puzzles me now : On Nov, 26 you mentioned that things were working great with the new user. Now you mention that the new user is not working well. Could you clarify?