# Dozer Published January 1, 2026 · Updated August 10, 2026 Free open-source menu bar manager that hides menu bar icons to keep your Mac tidy. Category: System Utilities · Free · Replaces Bartender ($25) · [Official website](https://github.com/Mortennn/Dozer) ## Install from the official site Dozer is no longer maintained. Ice is the actively developed replacement. [Download from the official site](https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice) ## Quick take Dozer was the go-to free menu bar declutter tool and it still works for many setups, but by August 2026 it is a stable leftover rather than a new install to recommend. Keep it if you already have it dialed in and you like that it is open source and light. If you are starting fresh, install Ice first or pick a maintained paid tool. This page stays up because people still search for Dozer, and you deserve a clear warning about maintenance instead of fake 2026 momentum. Best for: People who already have a working Dozer configuration, Privacy-focused users avoiding commercial menu bar apps, Anyone comparing free options before buying Bartender ## What is Dozer? Dozer is a free, open-source menu bar manager for macOS that hides icons you do not need to see all the time. Mortennn built it and hosts it on GitHub under the MPL-2.0 license. It became popular because it does one job without a subscription or a cluttered preferences window, and anyone can read the source. **Important for August 2026: Dozer is effectively unmaintained.** The reference release is still **4.0.0** from 2019, with no real feature work since. You can still download it from GitHub Releases or with `brew install --cask dozer`, and many people say it still hides icons on current macOS, including **macOS Tahoe 26.x**, but there is no active maintainer, no Tahoe-specific patch notes, and no promise that the next macOS change will get a fix. Treat it as abandonware that happens to still work, not a product with a roadmap. The rest of the category moved on. **Ice** (icemenubar.app, jordanbaird/Ice) is the free open-source tool most communities now suggest for new setups. **Bartender** is still the paid power option, though ownership changes keep coming up in privacy discussions. **Barbee** is a cheaper lifetime buy in the Mac App Store. Developer betas for **macOS 27** have already broken several menu bar managers at once, which is when unmaintained tools hurt most. Dozer's reasons to stay installed are simple: it costs nothing, uses very little, and has historically asked for fewer permissions than richer managers. That is why privacy-minded people keep it while it still works. ## Features - **Two-Dot Divider System.** Two dots sit in your menu bar. The rightmost dot is the anchor, everything to its left stays visible. The second dot to its left marks the other edge of a hidden zone. Click the rightmost dot and icons between the dots disappear. Click again and they come back. You can show the dots as circles or as pills, and they match the system look well enough to blend in. - **Drag-and-Drop Organization.** Hold Command and drag menu bar icons to where you want them. Put always-visible items to the left of both dots, and collapsible items between the dots. You see the result right away, no settings panel to dig through. - **Notch-Aware Layout.** On MacBooks with a camera notch, icons can vanish behind the cutout. Dozer lets you keep the essentials, like WiFi, battery, and clock, on the visible side and tuck secondary utilities between the dots so the usable menu bar space is not wasted. - **Minimal Resource Footprint.** Dozer is a small native Swift and AppKit app. It does almost nothing until you click a dot. When the menu bar is stable there is no polling loop running. In practice it sits well under 20 MB of RAM with no noticeable CPU, so you do not feel it on battery or on older hardware. - **Launch at Login.** Turn on Launch at Login in Dozer's preferences and your layout is back after every reboot. macOS login items handle the rest, so you do not have to reopen it by hand. - **Open Source Transparency.** The code is on GitHub. You can check that it does not collect data or phone home, which matters for a tool that touches system-level menu bar items. If the original author never ships another build, anyone can fork it. ## How to Install Dozer on Mac Dozer: Dozer is no longer maintained. Ice is the actively developed replacement. Download: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice 1. **Install Dozer.** Dozer: Dozer is no longer maintained. Ice is the actively developed replacement. Download: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice 2. **Install Dozer.** Dozer: Dozer is no longer maintained. Ice is the actively developed replacement. Download: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice 3. **Launch and Configure.** Open Dozer from Applications. You'll see two dots appear in your menu bar. Click the left dot and drag it near the icons you want to hide. Hold Command and drag menu bar icons to position them either left of both dots (always visible) or between the dots (hidden). ## Pros - Completely free and open source with auditable code and no subscription. - Extremely lightweight idle footprint compared with feature-heavy managers. - Simple two-zone (or three-zone) divider model anyone can learn in minutes. - Still installable via Homebrew for quick trials on a secondary Mac. - Historically low permission demands appeal to privacy-conscious users. ## Cons - Unmaintained: no active feature development or guaranteed fixes for new macOS releases after the 4.0.0 era. - Fewer modern niceties than Ice (hover reveal, richer rules) or Bartender's deep controls. - Future OS menu bar API changes may break Dozer with no vendor response path. - Notch-era MacBooks still need careful icon ordering, Dozer cannot rewrite system layout rules. ## Deep Dive: Dozer's Design Philosophy and Technical Implementation Dozer follows the old Unix idea of doing one thing and doing it cleanly. The code is small, which is why it stays light and predictable. By August 2026 the practical advice is straightforward: if Dozer still hides icons on your Mac after the latest point release, keep using it, if you are setting up a new MacBook, start with Ice, and if you need deeper rules and do not mind paying, get Bartender and accept its tradeoffs. Menu bars are crowded, with Docker, VPN, Stats, AI agents, and cloud sync all competing for space, so a broken hider now hurts more than it did in 2019. Set aside 30 minutes to migrate before you install a major OS update, not after your status icons vanish on a Monday morning. ## FAQ ### Is Dozer still maintained in 2026? No meaningful feature releases have shipped for years; version 4.0.0 remains the reference build. The app may still run on your Mac, but you should not expect Tahoe- or macOS 27-specific fixes from the original author. For a maintained free tool, evaluate Ice. ### How does Dozer compare to Bartender? Bartender is a commercial app with extensive features including triggers, custom styling, and per-app configurations. Dozer is a free, open-source alternative focused on simple hide/show functionality. Bartender costs $16 (one-time) and is actively maintained; Dozer is free but hasn't been updated since 2022. Choose Bartender if you need advanced automation and are willing to pay; choose Dozer if you want simple, free menu bar management without complexity. ### Does Dozer work with the MacBook Pro notch? Yes, Dozer works with notched MacBook Pro models running macOS Sonoma or later. You can position the Dozer divider dots to ensure critical icons stay visible on the left side of the notch while secondary icons can be tucked away. However, some users report that newer alternatives like Ice handle notch-specific edge cases better. ### Is Dozer safe to use? Dozer is open-source software hosted on GitHub, meaning its entire codebase is publicly auditable. It requires accessibility permissions to manipulate menu bar items, which is standard for this app category. No data is collected, no network calls are made, and the app has been used by thousands of Mac users since 2018 without security incidents. Privacy-conscious users can review the source code themselves before installing. ### Can I use Dozer with multiple monitors? Yes, Dozer works across multiple displays. The menu bar configuration applies to all connected monitors. When you toggle Dozer's visibility on one screen, it affects the menu bar on all connected displays. The app properly handles different display resolutions and notch configurations across your monitor setup. ### How do I uninstall Dozer? To uninstall Dozer, first quit the app (click its dots and select Quit). Then drag the Dozer app from Applications to Trash. For a complete removal, you may also want to delete its preferences by running 'defaults delete com.mortennn.Dozer' in Terminal. If you installed via Homebrew, simply run 'brew uninstall --cask dozer' instead. ### Why can't I move some menu bar icons? Some system icons (like the clock, WiFi, and Control Center on newer macOS versions) cannot be repositioned due to macOS restrictions. Third-party apps with poorly implemented menu bar components may also resist dragging. Try quitting the problematic app, rearranging, then relaunching. If issues persist, Dozer may not be compatible with that specific app's menu bar implementation. ### Does Dozer work on Apple Silicon Macs? Yes, Dozer is a universal binary that runs natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) Macs. The app was updated for Apple Silicon compatibility before development paused, so it runs efficiently without Rosetta translation on modern Macs. ### Can I customize the appearance of Dozer's dots? Dozer offers minimal customization. You can choose between dot or pill shapes in the preferences, but colors and sizes are fixed to match macOS system aesthetics. If you need extensive visual customization, commercial alternatives like Bartender offer more styling options. ### Does Dozer have keyboard shortcuts? No, Dozer is designed to be purely mouse/touch-driven. You toggle visibility by clicking the divider dots. There are no built-in keyboard shortcuts for showing or hiding icons. Users requiring keyboard control should consider alternatives like Ice or Bartender that support hotkeys. ## Sources - [Mortennn/Dozer GitHub](https://github.com/Mortennn/Dozer) - [Homebrew cask dozer](https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/dozer) - [Dozer on MacUpdate](https://dozer.macupdate.com/) - [Ice menu bar manager](https://icemenubar.app/) - [jordanbaird/Ice GitHub](https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice) - [Menu bar managers on new macOS betas](https://community.folivora.ai/t/macos-27-golden-gate-menu-bar-management-broken-solutions-ice-thaw-bartender-barbee-etc/47232) ## Related - [Maccy](https://bundl.run/apps/maccy) - [Stats](https://bundl.run/apps/stats) - [SuperWhisper](https://bundl.run/apps/superwhisper) - [MacWhisper](https://bundl.run/apps/macwhisper) - [HyperWhisper](https://bundl.run/apps/hyperwhisper) - [Aqua Voice](https://bundl.run/apps/aqua-voice) - [Dozer vs Bartender](https://bundl.run/compare/dozer-vs-bartender) - [Dozer vs Hidden Bar](https://bundl.run/compare/hiddenbar-vs-dozer) - [Free alternative to Bartender](https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://bundl.run/#organization", "name": "Bundl.run", "url": "https://bundl.run", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://bundl.run/og-image.png", "width": 1200, "height": 630 }, "description": "The Ninite for Mac. 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