Hide OneDrive from the Mac OS Menu Bar: Quick Methods

Is your Mac’s menu bar feeling too crowded lately? Perhaps you have installed a bunch of new apps, all of which want a place in your quick access bar. OneDrive is one such application. However, it can quickly clutter the space and make it unusable, especially in new MacBooks that have a notch. So, you start your search for how to hide OneDrive from the Mac OS menu bar? The problem is that a majority of the results are outdated forum posts and suggestions to buy third-party apps. Don’t worry, I completely understand your problem. I too was facing the same issue a few days back and went through a lot of hits and trials, and have come up with a set of solutions that work. Unfortunately, there is no built-in, official way to do it, so let’s study what’s possible and gradually make our way to the special cases.

Want to Hide OneDrive from the Mac OS Menu Bar? Quit the App

The simplest way to clean up your overfilled menubar is to quit/close the apps responsible for the icons.

• Quit using the menubar icon: Click the OneDrive icon > Help & Settings ( gear icon ) > Quit OneDrive.
• Quit using the keyboard: Press Command (⌘) + Tab > Use the arrow keys to select OneDrive > Press Command (⌘) + Q
• Force Quit: Click on the Apple icon in the top right corner > Select Force Quit > Select OneDrive > Force Quit.
• Use the Dock: Hover on the OneDrive app > Right-click (tap with two fingers if you are using the trackpad) > Close.
• Use the Activity Monitor: Open Activity Monitor > select OneDrive > click the “Stop” button (or the X icon) in the top-left corner of the window.
• Terminate via Terminal: Open a terminal instance and type “killall OneDrive”

Do this ASAP if your screen has so many icons that some of them end up behind the notch.

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Even older notch-less MacBooks or Mac devices that have a different form of monitor can benefit from a clutter-free menu bar. However, this also stops any background syncs. So if you rely on OneDrive for such a use case, you may consider something else.

Move (Not Remove) the OneDrive Icon in the Mac OS Menu Bar

You may shift the position of the OneDrive app to a place where it is less prominent. Hold the Command (⌘) key and use your cursor to drag and rearrange the position of the OneDrive icon. Note: You may even use your notch as a possible hiding place. You may already know this, but you can drag certain menubar icons outside while holding the  Command (⌘) key, effectively removing them. Note, this is not a direct answer for how to hide OneDrive from the Mac OS menu bar. However, this only applies to the system icons (Bluetooth, Wifi, etc). If you try to do this with an app icon like OneDrive, it won’t work. 

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Instead of the usual cross symbol, it just shows you a Skip/Not allowed (circle with a line cutting it in half) symbol. Seeing all this, you may think it’s just not possible to hide the app icon, right? Wrong, there is a way.

To Hide OneDrive from the Mac OS Menu Bar, Collapse the Menubar

This is a strategy worth considering if you prefer a clean slate. Don’t worry, your menu bar is still there and will appear again as soon as you take your cursor to the upper boundary of your screen.

• Step 1. Click on the Apple icon > System Preferences 
• Step 2. Select Dock and Menubar
• Step 3. In the Doc and Menubar section, mark the checkbox on the last two options.

Now the menubar collapses and hides all the icons (including OneDrive) along with it. However, implementing this means you lose at-a-glance information like the time, date, and battery status.

How to Hide OneDrive from the Mac OS Menu Bar Forever?

You may think that does OneDrive for Mac app has any settings that can help us out. Not really. You can stop the app’s launch on the startup function and permanently hide it from the Dock, but we didn’t find any setting that does what we are after. Regardless, here are the steps :

• Step 1. Click the OneDrive cloud icon in your menu bar at the top of the screen.
• Step 2. In the window that opens, click the Help & Settings gear icon.
• Step 3. From the menu, choose Preferences…
• Step 4. Make sure you are on the “General” tab.
• Step 5. Uncheck the Open at Login and check the box that says “Hide in Dock.”

A more powerful and permanent solution for those still confused about how to hide OneDrive from the Mac OS menu bar is to uninstall the app.

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This is preferable for people who want a pure Apple ecosystem or rarely use the OneDrive application. (On the Free tier, both applications offer 5 GB space.)

• Transfer all files/folders in your OneDrive folder to the local hard drive or iCloud.
• Log out/unlink your OneDrive
• Open the App menu and hold the OneDrive icon till it starts to wiggle.
• Then, click on the little cross.

There are other means to uninstall apps on Mac; you can check it out by yourself.

Conclusion

Here we saw that Apple computer users want to keep their systems clean and minimalistic, just like their hardware. In order to do this correctly, they must also know how to hide OneDrive from the Mac OS menu bar. We explained that it’s not a difficult task by any means. However, if you want to hide the icon but still keep the app open in the background, it’s just not possible. Some third-party apps claim to enhance menubar usability by making some parts invisible. If you put your icon there, it stays invisible. You can try them. The most real and permanent solution remains to remove the app altogether.

Frequently Asked Questions