Update "Manage Menubar Status Items" for 2026

Configuration Help & General Discussion
1

I loved the “Manage Menubar Status Items using BTT” feature when it worked, but it hasn’t for a few months (latest MacOS, BTT). As an experiment I deleted my old “Floating Menus” config completely, and opened Manage Menubar Status Items · BetterTouchTool Documentation - then installed it directly to BTT, and restarted BTT - and the hover menu doesn’t open. I tried clicking the “eye” icons which in the past would force the menu to open, but I don’t see it.

Can we have an update of that demo & setup which is confirmed working for today?

2

Which version of BTT are you running? The example preset posted here Bartender controversy, tutorial on how to manage menubar status items via BTT seems to work fine here on macOS 26

3

This is often a **BTT + macOS 26 permissions** problem rather than the preset.

Update to the most recent BetterTouchTool build first. Previous versions of macOS won't connect properly since menubar behavior changed in macOS 26.

thereafter reset the following permissions: system settings → security & privacy → accessibility
Take BTT out, put it back in, and then resume BTT.
You may also need to turn screen recording on and off at times.

Bind the hover menu to a keyboard shortcut if it still doesn't open.
Your trigger area is misplaced if it opens via a shortcut but does not hover (macOS 26 modified the menubar's height and scale).

Additionally, confirm that Bartender or similar menubar manager is not running. The "Manage Menubar Status Items" feature of BTT is severely in conflict with them.

Permissions or version mismatches are the cause 99 percent of the time.

4

Bartender isn’t installed, no conflicts there! Let’s start over, with BTT 6.1894 & macOS Tahoe 26.3

Interesting! As I turned off & on that Security allowance, BTT restarted and asked me to restore it, and then it restarted itself again.

I completely removed the prior menubar, quit BTT, removed & re-added the accessibility + screen recording security settings.

Then installed sequoia_status_item_bar2.bttpreset from https://community.folivora.ai/uploads/short-url/fXmWyJLOnUYjnSYewtbSnwcImV0.bttpreset

And now it is working here! I will follow the permission reset steps on my other laptop if it needs it. Thanks for the advice.

5

There's an oddity with the configuration display. My “Clipboard Manager”-”Uppercase” trigger shows action “Hide Floating Menu: StatusltemBar” (screenshot), while “Move Mouse To Top Edge Of Screen” shows “Transform & Replace: Selection With Java Script” on the right side.

As I was taking a 2nd screenshot, the window corrected itself. And the menubar has been behaving correctly. It is a transient display issue.

image
image1998×694 160 KB

6

Ugh. Now I can’t use the regular app menu on the left. It highlights when I click but I can’t get any menu to open. After quitting BTT, I can use the menu again. See screen recording.

I have now started BTT again. Detailed behavior:

  1. On starting BTT, I can access left menu
  2. When I move mouse to top-right, MacOS asks ““BetterTouchTool” would like to access data from other apps.” which is odd, I granted that already… I click “Allow”
  3. I move mouse back to top-right, floating menu items appear as they should.
  4. Move mouse away, floating menu disappears.
  5. Menus still work.
  6. move mouse back to top-right, floating menu items appear. I click on a formerly hidden menu icon, and it moves to right of menu temporarily with its submenu open.
  7. Left menu bar still works.
  8. Move mouse to top-right, show the floating menu bar
  9. Click the little “<“ all the way at the left side of floating menu bar
  10. the issue surfaces! Left main menu stops working.

Adding a new screen recording showing the steps.