How to Always Show the Menu Bar in Full-Screen Mode on Mac

By default, the Mac menu bar disappears in full-screen mode, but you can easily keep it there permanently.

The macOS menu bar houses handy tools and shortcuts which you might regularly access. Do you hate seeing the menu bar disappear when you use apps in full-screen mode or Split View on your Mac? It doesn't have to be that way.

Read on to learn how to always show the menu bar in full-screen mode or Split View on Mac.

How to Keep the Mac Menu Bar Visible in Full-Screen Mode

Your Mac hides the menu bar in full-screen mode and Split View by default. You can still access it by hovering the mouse pointer at the top of the screen, but it goes away again when you move the cursor away.

That helps keep things minimal and even frees up a tiny bit of screen real estate (especially on Macs with smaller screen sizes). But if you interact with menu items and Control Center a lot, or prefer to keep tabs on the battery level, you can have it stay at the top of the screen permanently.

To do that:

1. Open the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
2. Select the category labeled Dock & Menu Bar.
3. Uncheck the box next to Automatically hide and show the menu bar in full screen.

Quickly Access Your Menu Bar

The menu bar is a crucial component in macOS, and having it permanently on display can be beneficial if you rely on it a lot for your workflow. This is especially true if you've customized your Mac's menu bar to include useful third-party productivity tools.