After months of fiddling with bugs caused by Apple’s changes to the basic structure of the menu bar in macOS Tahoe, the developers behind Bartender seem to have finally got things under control.
Last JanuaryI wrote that after experiencing recurring compatibility issues between macOS Tahoe 26 and Bartender, I decided to abandon the program:
From random cursor hijacking and ghost clicks across the interface, to reliability issues with rearranging and hiding menu icons, from performance and memory issues to the constant re-indexing of hidden and visible icons, which occasionally completely and intrusively breaks the Mac’s menu bar, having Bartender 6 open often means working on an unmanaged machine.
To be clear, Applause ran as fast as it could and is still working as hard as it can to keep the app running properly given the changes implemented in macOS Tahoe 26.
But this week, I finally gave up after realizing that the cursor issues I’ve been having for weeks (where swipes would just stop registering or start clicking and dragging system items when I moved the cursor over the trackpad) were due to Bartender being open.
After publishing the piece, Bartender developer Applause approached me and explained that they had it just finally I tracked down what was causing the cursor issues that made me jump on board.
They were released after a few days bartender Version 6.4.1 with a new setting called Layout Mode.
With this, users can choose between Live, which “adjusts your bar at will – no interruption” or “automatically adjusts when a change is detected, but can pause your mouse for a short time”.
As they explain, the On-Demand option will solve the problem, ghost clicks, cursor hijacking, etc. from the system.
To be honest, I felt the urge to try it right away, but I meant it when I said that I was bored with the prospect of either running into old problems or running into new ones that would stop my workflow. So I decided to sit down.
I just didn’t. About two weeks ago I caved. I installed the latest version of Bartender (6.4.2) and it worked!
I’ve been using Bartender full-time ever since (with On Demand selected as my preferred Layout Mode setting) and haven’t had any problems since.
That is, if you refused bartender Any time since the release of macOS Tahoe 26, it may be safe to give it another shot. I am certainly glad.
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