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The Apple/File menu is not visible in macOS Monterey

This is a most peculiar problem which I have seen a few times in past and each time a reboot fixed the issue. The Apple/File menu is not visible in macOS Monterey. I have a MacBook Pro Retina 15” mid 2015 and I am running the most recent version of Monterey 12.6.1. I have now restarted the mac several times, shut down and booted into Recovery mode and completed a repair which appeared to finish “normally”. I have reinstalled Monterey via Recovery mode and this appeared to fix the issue but on rebooting the mac, the issue returned. The option in system preferences to hide/show the menu bar is unchecked as it should be. Interestingly, I am unable to easily check/uncheck the boxes - the trackpad does not appear to be enabled for certain functions. In certain situations, I need to option click in order to select a control. I have the latest versions of Launchbar and Bartender installed which I have managed to disable in case these are in someway involved/causing the problem.


I am completely baffled as to what to try next, so any help or suggestions as to troubleshoot this would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 13, 2022 2:01 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 13, 2022 10:59 AM

Liz S wrote:
I have the latest versions of Launchbar and Bartender installed which I have managed to disable in case these are in someway involved/causing the problem.

Launcher and Bartender (especially Bartender) are prime suspects here, in my view. They could be conflicting with each other, or with something else you have installed. They both claim to be compatible with Monterey, but the totality of everything you have installed determines how apps may conflict with one another (or with the MacOS itself). I would start by completely UNINSTALLING those two. See if the problem goes away. I think there is a decent chance it will go away.


Booting into Safe Mode is also a harmless and useful diagnostic, as that disables most extensions. But they remain installed, so the problem could reoccur even in Safe Mode.


Disabling those apps is not enough, they remain installed with hooks in place. You could also download and run Etrecheck which may reveal other issues, it is a diagnostic only app, which can be run in free mode (paid version adds extra features). Export the Etrecheck report and post it here using the Additional text button below.


There is another brute force approach (I would try the above suggestions first) that will resolve your problem: you have already reinstalled Monterey via Recovery, which is the right thing to do, but you then kept or migrated in all your old stuff, no doubt bringing over the problem again. A better test would be to restore your Mac to factory settings; this means erase the disk, so you must have at least one, preferably two good verified backups, and reinstall the MacOS from scratch: follow Apple's instructions


Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support


reinstall Monterey from Recovery, then on first boot up create only a new administrator user, call it ADMIN, and then continue. You now have a vanilla plain Mac system, see if the issue is gone (it will be). Then migrate over from your backup only user files and accounts, no applications or settings. This will restore your original user account(s) but no software, apps, tools aside from the ones Apple provides with new Macs. I expect the problem will be gone. Then install your applications one or two at a time to see when the problem resurfaces, and that will be your answer. You need to of course have a good, reliable backups for this, so you don't lose anything in the process.


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5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 13, 2022 10:59 AM in response to Liz S

Liz S wrote:
I have the latest versions of Launchbar and Bartender installed which I have managed to disable in case these are in someway involved/causing the problem.

Launcher and Bartender (especially Bartender) are prime suspects here, in my view. They could be conflicting with each other, or with something else you have installed. They both claim to be compatible with Monterey, but the totality of everything you have installed determines how apps may conflict with one another (or with the MacOS itself). I would start by completely UNINSTALLING those two. See if the problem goes away. I think there is a decent chance it will go away.


Booting into Safe Mode is also a harmless and useful diagnostic, as that disables most extensions. But they remain installed, so the problem could reoccur even in Safe Mode.


Disabling those apps is not enough, they remain installed with hooks in place. You could also download and run Etrecheck which may reveal other issues, it is a diagnostic only app, which can be run in free mode (paid version adds extra features). Export the Etrecheck report and post it here using the Additional text button below.


There is another brute force approach (I would try the above suggestions first) that will resolve your problem: you have already reinstalled Monterey via Recovery, which is the right thing to do, but you then kept or migrated in all your old stuff, no doubt bringing over the problem again. A better test would be to restore your Mac to factory settings; this means erase the disk, so you must have at least one, preferably two good verified backups, and reinstall the MacOS from scratch: follow Apple's instructions


Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support


reinstall Monterey from Recovery, then on first boot up create only a new administrator user, call it ADMIN, and then continue. You now have a vanilla plain Mac system, see if the issue is gone (it will be). Then migrate over from your backup only user files and accounts, no applications or settings. This will restore your original user account(s) but no software, apps, tools aside from the ones Apple provides with new Macs. I expect the problem will be gone. Then install your applications one or two at a time to see when the problem resurfaces, and that will be your answer. You need to of course have a good, reliable backups for this, so you don't lose anything in the process.


Nov 13, 2022 10:15 AM in response to CT

Great question, I confess I can't say one way or the other as I have reinstalled Monterey again and since this has fixed the issue, I'm too scared to reboot until I have to. Slightly annoyed with myself for not checking obviously. I have a suspicion that it's a bug with a 3rd party application but wondered if anyone else had seen the problem. Thanks for answering. 😃

The Apple/File menu is not visible in macOS Monterey

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