Make the Menu Bar never show while in Full Screen

Question

Pretty much every application I use in full-screen (including Firefox, MacVim and the Terminal) have tabs on the top of the screen.

The problem is that when I move my mouse to reach the tabs I'll often accidentally touch the top of the screen, bringing in the OS menu OVER the tabs:

Is there any way to change this behavior? I'd prefer it if the menu bar would stay hidden when I'm using a full-screen app, even if my mouse does touch the top of the screen.

Answer 1

• Save the following AppleScript to a file named fullscreen.scpt:

  use framework "AppKit"
  use scripting additions
  
  repeat with runningApp in current application's NSWorkspace's sharedWorkspace's runningApplications()
      if runningApp's isActive()
          set frontApp to (localizedName of runningApp) as text
          exit repeat
      end if
  end repeat
  
  tell application "System Events"
      tell process frontApp to set isFullScreen to value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of first window
      if frontApp = "Finder"
          tell process frontApp to set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of first window to not isFullScreen
      else if isFullScreen
          do shell script "lsappinfo setinfo -app " & quoted form of frontApp & " ApplicationType=Foreground"
          tell process frontApp to set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of first window to false
  
          (*fix to make sure the menu bar is not stuck*)
          delay 0.42
          tell application "Finder" to activate
          tell process frontApp to set frontmost to true
      else
          do shell script "lsappinfo setinfo -app " & quoted form of frontApp & " ApplicationType=UIElement"
          tell process frontApp to set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of first window to true
      end if
  end tell
  

• From terminal, compile it to an application with the following command:

  osacompile -o "/Applications/Full Screen.app" fullscreen.scpt
  

• Open the Full Screen.app's Info.plist (e.g. vim '/Applications/Full Screen.app/Contents/Info.plist') and add the following to the dict:

      <key>NSUIElement</key>
      <true/>
  

• Add Full Screen.app as an exception in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility.

• Launch Automator and create a new Service.

• Change "Service receives" to "no input in any application".
• Add a Library > Utilities > Launch Application action.
• Configure the action to launch the previously created Full Screen application.
• Save the service as Full Screen and close Automator.
• On System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services, scroll down to the bottom of the list and the just created Full Screen service should be listed there. Associate an unique Command shortcut for it, like Shift+Command+\ or Command+F11 for example.

This creates a shortcut to cause an application to enter full screen while removing the menu bar, or to exit full screen bringing the menu bar back. It provides an alternative full screen shortcut!

For application-specific full screen launchers, check my other answer.

Caveats

There may be some disadvantages and/or misbehavior using this approach:

• It works by setting ApplicationType=UIElement, which causes the application icon not be added/highlighted in the Dock and make the application inaccessible via Command+Tab. The Command+Tab issue was reported in comments, I didn't notice it since I mostly use the Mission Control overview to change between full screen applications.
• It may not behave as expected for some specific applications, I've noticed issues with the Activity Monitor application (which is generally not used full screen anyway) and there's a report on Chrome, which I didn't try since I use Firefox and it works great.

Answer 2

The menu bar can NOT be hidden on command whenever you like to due to limitations in Mac OS X. Apple can do this in their own programs but they have NOT made it possible for other developers in Mac OS X. One of the reasons being that Apple Menu sits on the Menu bar and is helpful if the application becomes unresponsive or if the user needs to log off /shutdown the machine.

There is an application called Menu Eclipse which lets you change the Menu Bar behaviors(except for hide it).

Answer 3

The closest solution I've found is to do as mentioned earlier, disabling "Displays have separate spaces" in Mission Control. This only makes sense in a multi-monitor environment, as the menubar still shows on the primary monitor.

If you make the app "go fullscreen" (click green button), it fills the whole screen, but all other screens go black, and the menubar gets moved to the app's screen. So the solution there is to manually expand the app's edges as far or high as you want. Once upon a time, VMWare had some kind of full-screen workaround that didn't use Apple's full screen mechanism.

Unless/until Apple sees this as a problem that needs fixing, you're going to be hard pressed finding a non-hacky solution. It is so integral to how the operating system works (like the home-button on the iPhone/iPad/iPod).

Answer 4

My solution in Python:

import autopy.mouse as mouse
from time import sleep
while True:
    x, y = mouse.location()
    if y < 5:
        mouse.move(x, 5)
    sleep(0.1)

Answer 5

Inspired by the answer of @Alpine with Hammerspoon, I extended the script so that the menu bar will not be completely hidden and will drop if you place your mouse at the top of the screen for a while. I also make sure this only applys to the fullscreen window.

block = true
mouseEventTap = hs.eventtap.new({hs.eventtap.event.types.mouseMoved}, function(event)
    local rel = hs.mouse.getRelativePosition()
    -- the 5 pixel menu bar threshold, adjust it for different screens
    local th = 5
    if(hs.window.focusedWindow():isFullScreen()) then
        if(rel.y < th and block) then
            hs.mouse.setRelativePosition(hs.geometry.point(rel.x, th + 1))
            -- set a timer to check mouse position after 0.5 seconds; if it's still at the top, set block to false
            -- I found th + 10 works more smoothly for me; adjust it for yourself
            blockTimer = hs.timer.doAfter(0.5, function()
                block = hs.mouse.getRelativePosition().y > th + 10
            end)
            return true
        end
    end
end)
mouseEventTap:start()
mouseEventTap2 = hs.eventtap.new({hs.eventtap.event.types.mouseMoved}, function(event)
    local rel = hs.mouse.getRelativePosition()
    local th = 5
    if(hs.window.focusedWindow():isFullScreen()) then
        -- set block back to true when the mouse returns from the menu bar
        -- use th + 20 so that the mouse will not be easily blocked when moving around in the menu, adjust it for yourself
        if(rel.y > th + 20 and block == false) then
            block = true
            return true
        end
    end
end)
mouseEventTap2:start()

This script allows the menu bar to drop with 0.5s delay. You can adjust the number yourself. Put the code in ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua, and load the configuration.

There are some disadvantages. For example，when moving your mouse on a long drop down menu from the menu bar (like the one in the image), you'll also experience the 0.5 second blocking.

Answer 6

One possible solution is not to get rid of the menu completely, but actually keep the menu always on (it's not that big), and just get rid of the Dock instead, by doing the following trick.

Go to terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -int 1
killall Dock

This will make your Dock small. The press ⌘ ⌥ D to hide dock.

Idea stolen from here.

Answer 7

I use Firefox and solved it by editing the browser chrome (userChrome.css).

I just reversed the vertical order of the main browser elements (tabs, toolbar, main content). On the screenshow below, notice my tabs are at the bottom.

This layout looks strange at first but I don't care - I just want to avoid the constant problem I have with unintentionally revealing the macOS menu bar while in fullscreen mode.

Here's my userChrome.css (I kept it simple). You can find instructions on how to edit your Firefox UI here.

body {
  display: flex !important;
  flex-direction: column-reverse !important;
}
#browser {
  flex: 1 1 auto !important;
}
#navigator-toolbox {
  display: flex !important;
  flex-direction: column-reverse !important;
}

Answer 8

I know this is a little old, but I was a little unsatisfied with most of the answers, so I thought I'd leave what I did for anyone who goes looking.

Similar to the python solution, I used a script in hammerspoon. Hammerspoon is an app that you can give scripts to, and then it will run them in the background. It will handle launching on startup, it has a menu item so you can quit it if you want, its more like a background app/extension. So I personally find it a little more friendly than a python script.

Unlike the python script, my hammerspoon script uses the eventTap. That way it gets notified of mouse move events, and can respond to them instead of running a timer to check to see where the mouse is. That way if you're not moving your mouse it doesn't keep running

mouseEventTap = hs.eventtap.new({hs.eventtap.event.types.mouseMoved}, function(event)
    --todo: you could filter with hs.application.frontmostApplication() if you want to only block the menu for certain apps. I don't
    local rel = hs.mouse.getRelativePosition()
    if(rel.y < 5) then
        local frame = hs.mouse.getCurrentScreen():fullFrame()
        local abs = event:location()
        abs.y = frame.y + 5
        local newEvent = event:copy():location(abs)
        newEvent:post()
        return true
    end
end)
mouseEventTap:start()

You can also have additional functions in your script. For example, I made a binding of Ctrl+Alt+Cmd+Space to enable/disable the event tap. That way if I do want to get to the menu bar, I can.

hs.hotkey.bind({"ctrl", "cmd", "alt"}, "space", function()
    if(mouseEventTap:isEnabled()) then
        mouseEventTap:stop()
    else
        mouseEventTap:start()
    end
end)

you could alternatively do something like, if the mouse moved within the top 8 pixels of the screen for more than 3 seconds, allow it to move past the 5 pixel barrier at the top of the screen. Or any number of similar methods to temporarily get through and show the menu bar

Answer 9

Try to use hotkeys for switch tabs in browser/ide so you'll never move your mouse into the top to menubar appear