Icons in Menu Bar disappearing

I seem to be having this problem in Sierra 10.12.05.

I immediately looked into MacJack's suggestion of deleting the preferences file, but the directory structure seems to have changed since 10.12.

Does anyone know of an equivalent for the current OS?

Thanks for the post. I am having the same problem.

It only happens for me when I plug a device into USB port on right side.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014)

2.6 GHz Intel Core i5

Upgrade from Mavericks.

Hello, not sure my problem is the same but I have lost most of system icons like back history on Safari or +/- icons in many applications like Xcode.

This is really painful as now we have switched in flat design I just can't see some of those icons ;(

See my Safari screenshot ;(

O.

I wonder if one of your preference files got corrupted? Try doing what this post says at Menu Bar Icons Missing - look at the macjack suggestion about removing the com.apple.systemuiserver.plist (in both locations) he talks about

Good luck

Thanks for your suggestion dot.com. Unfortunately, this does not solve my problem. Tried several times in case of, but still no help 😟.

I'm desperate as I can't find any thread regarding this issue. Some have folder of dock icon disappearing but never see anybody with this problem, so far.

I have tried a lot already like repairing permissions, cleaning caches. The only part I admit haven't really went deep into is deleting some preferences, ... but I fear breaking stuff ...

Of course if you guys have any other suggestion I'll take it!

O.

Sorry Oho - I meant to reply to OP - those comments have nothing to do with your question (think you might want to make your own post as mixing issues in these discussions gets confusing sometimes). Safari missing icons and menu bar missing icons are two entirely different questions.

In your case have you tried to drag back the default toolbar - In Safari go to menu "View -> Customize Toolbar" and then drag the default set (or however you want to customize). Does that make any difference?

Have you tried to kill the SystemUIServer process (OS X will start another one right away) after deleting the com.apple.systemuiserver.plist file and then reboot (this file will be recreated when you reboot). From a Terminal command line:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

killall SystemUIServer

reboot

Does this bring the icons back temporarily or some of them or none of them or ???

On my Mac, all the icons disappear and then reappear. Also what is the date/time/size of your com.apple.systemuiserver.plist (in ~/Library/Preferences folder) - do a "ls -l ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist" (no quotes needed). If you have a plist editor app you might want to take a look at this file

By "Unix Executable File" do you mean the com.apple.systemuiserver.xxxxxx.lockfile (xxxxxx is a bunch of hex digits (0-9 or A-F)? I think that's fine.

But the fact that you don't have any SystemUIServer process at all is a real problem I think. It should always be running - one of the things that it is responsible for is managing the icons on the menu bar on the right side - which is exactly your problem, right?

Can you double check if it's running? If you do the following what do you get?

ps -axwwwww | grep -i uiserv

If it isn't running you can manually run it with

open /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app

Also does the problem happen on a newly created user? If you don't have another test user create one in the System Preferences "Users & Group" pane.

The fact that the problem doesn't happen to the other user but does to you really makes it clear that some preference file is corrupted or possibly some other app/utility is interfering with the Menu Bar internals.

Did you also remove the com.apple.systemuiserver.xxxxxxx.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost as well as the one in ~/Library/Preferences? The xxxxxxxx will be a bunch of hex digits that are either the MAC address or the UUID of the system (I think but not positive) and then kill and restart the SystemUIServer.app program? You might even want to do a safe boot to see if the problem goes away. And then reboot in normal mode.

Also read the post at Menu Bar Icons Missing - read it all as there are lots of comments about things that might cause problems with menu bar icons - perhaps one of those will give you an idea of what really is causing the problem.

Good luck...

Had this problem briefly today on circa 2010 macbook pro on Yosemite 10.10.1 - problem was only on OSX icons, not third party icons

Booted into recovery mode, then Disk Utility to repair disk permissions and for good measure disk repair as well, it found a couple of permission problems and on reboot all is fine, I have all my menu icons back. is at least an easy fix to try, good luck

Hi

I am new to this forum. I am experiencing the exact issue. I can't locate my com.apple.systemuiserver.xxxxxxx.plist in my library but it exists in my host library.

Each time I connect a USB to my 2009 macbook pro the menubar flashes and the USB port doesn't work. I am using aperture and it doesn't recognise the USB port. Finder also doesn't show its connected. I have used all 3 USB ports to no avail.

I have rebooted my macbook in safe mode ran disk utilities repair permissions and reset the pram. Nothing has worked 😟

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved, less people are likely to look at it. You can link to this one.

This problem is really solved this post:

LINK

Note: needed to kill it twice to fully take effect !