I have a headless Mac Mini controlled by Remote Desktop. Since I installed Yosemite (may or may not be responsible) I now have a black menu bar! As a result everything on the menu bar is invisible and I have to go by memory to find anything. Please, does anyone know how I can get rid of this black menu bar and return it to normal?
iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9), printer, scanner, ATVs, external hard drives, USB DAC
Back up all data before proceeding.
Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
defaults delete -g NSFullScreenDarkMenu
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered. Log out or restart the computer.
I'm afraid I now have a disaster. I entered the code you sent via Remote Desktop, rebooted, and now I have no display. Have connected a TV monitor and still no display! Help!
Oops! Don't know what happened there but rebooted again and everything now works, including a white menu bar. Sorry about the hiccup.
MANY THANKS!!
We had a power cut last night and when I rebooted my systems the black menu bar has reappeared on the Mac Mini.
Applied the fix and this is what I got -
Last login: Sun Oct 26 09:26:37 on console
Rons-Mac-mini:~ satchmo$
Rons-Mac-mini:~ satchmo$ defaults delete -g NSFullScreenDarkMenu
2014-10-26 09:28:53.960 defaults[375:4060]
Domain (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication) not found.
Defaults have not been changed.
Rons-Mac-mini:~ satchmo$
Still got the black menu bar!
I've never had this problem before yosemite. Rebooting the remote mac mini resolves it, but the issue returns.
Open the General pane of System Preferences and uncheck the box marked Use dark menu bar and Dock.
Dark menu bar was unchecked, the trouble was a black menu bar not dark. Meanwhile it has changed to white!!
Use a dummy video adapter as described here.
My Mac mini is connected to my TV. When I connect via remote desktop, the menubar is black solid towards the left but transitions to a dull white as it progresses to the right icons. When I went to the TV, it was dark and the dark mode was selected under general. It shows unchecked if I look at the preferences from the remote session on another PC.
If I select the Use dark menu bar and dock, the white on the right becomes brighter
deselecting the option makes the white icons on the right less bright.
Seems like a remote desktop bug since yosemite was released.
This morning I turned the TV/AVR on and the remote desktop session has a normal gray menu bar. I've turned the TV/AVR off and so far it is normal. There is something to do with headless or monitor powered off that is causing the black menu bar problem. I did not have this issue in Mavericks.
So the menubar is back in black once the TV/AVR are powered off.
I used the solution suggested by Linc Davis which cured the problem. A power cut meant I had to reboot and the problem re-appeared, tried the fix again but it didn't work this time, however when I plugged in a Fit-Headless 4K I was able to get the screen resolution I required and a white menu bar appeared.
How can I get rid of a black menu bar?
