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Get rid of the MobileMe sync icon in Leopard’s menu bar

Posted in osx, software, tips.
October 2, 2008 73 comments

Phew, the title took more to write than what the post really should contain, that is:
SystemUIServer
Keep Command key pressed while dragging the Sync icon out of the menu bar.

Now, why would you do this? Maybe, like me, you have a fresh Leopard install and you NEVER use MobileMe, and you want to declutter the menu bar. Easy, ain’t it?

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73 Responses

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  1. Giovanni said
    on October 10, 2008

    So easy, so cool :)
    Thank you

  2. Matt said
    on October 13, 2008

    Thanks!

  3. jonas said
    on October 15, 2008

    Awesome! easy peasy

  4. huski said
    on October 22, 2008

    Big big thanks

  5. plagasse said
    on October 25, 2008

    Thanks for this tip! A simple solution to an annoying problem!

  6. Liam said
    on November 1, 2008

    Nothing better than a clean menu bar. Much thanks.

  7. DanGTD said
    on November 4, 2008

    What a great come back to blogging. :)

  8. matt said
    on November 4, 2008

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  10. Peter said
    on November 24, 2008

    I’ve been trying for days! Thanks so much :-)

  11. Marty Russell said
    on November 26, 2008

    great, looks much more cleaner

  12. Olle said
    on December 1, 2008

    Thanks, I like my mac to be clean and tidy.

  13. Eddie said
    on December 4, 2008

    Thanks! Phew!
    You do have to wonder about all these non-wanted programs starting up…

  14. Ken said
    on December 4, 2008

    Awesome. Thank you so much.

  15. Harrison said
    on December 13, 2008

    Fantastic, thanks!

  16. Derek said
    on January 19, 2009

    Thank you so much!

  17. Lisa said
    on February 1, 2009

    I find when I reboot it comes back :(

  18. Mark said
    on February 3, 2009

    Start up iSync (in your Applications folder), go to Preferences, and you can permanently make it go away, even after you reboot.

  19. Ed Rocker said
    on February 25, 2009

    That was awesome dude! I love how it disappeared in a puff of smoke. LOL!!!

  20. parkmyungchul said
    on March 12, 2009

    It suddenly appeared this morning but you’ve blown my worry away. Thanks a lot.

  21. sap said
    on March 23, 2009

    I’ve been trying for weeks. amazingly simple solution . thanks a bunch

  22. keala said
    on April 15, 2009

    thank god…this was driving me nuts!

  23. vengeful Poet said
    on April 17, 2009

    Many thanks.

  24. NOne said
    on April 28, 2009

    thanks a lot, very helpfull!

  25. Joe said
    on May 10, 2009

    Ditto #20

  26. Aaron said
    on May 13, 2009

    Hurray!
    Ditto #20,25

  27. Lee said
    on June 6, 2009

    Yeah, being the cleanfreak I am, I thought I’d never be able to rid my menu bar of that unused, annoying little icon – http://blog.gingergeek.com/2009/06/how-to-remove-the-isync-mobileme-icon-from-menu-bar/

  28. Tina said
    on January 31, 2010

    Thanks a lot! Soooo easy but sooo good!
    Thanks a million!

  29. Poohbarr said
    on February 12, 2010

    THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH! like really i was super aggravated about that and knew on windows you just right click and unlock ur menu bar, this is something that should be spread around. I feel really dumb as to how easy it was and how much trouble i have had with it.

  30. Mayssam said
    on March 28, 2010

    LOL THAT SIT ?!? AWESOME !!!!

  31. Luke said
    on April 6, 2010

    Thanks!!!! That’s Awesome!

  32. matt grove said
    on April 13, 2010

    That easy!! Thanks for the info! :D

  33. mannie ll said
    on May 5, 2010

    Simple. Just like the way things should be for an Apple product. You don’t have any idea how annoying it was to have that on there. (or maybe you do…) Anyhow, thanks again!

  34. BigCheez said
    on May 9, 2010

    Simple Pimple.

  35. Michael Johnston said
    on May 28, 2010

    This made my day. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why Apple did this. Other menu bar items can usually be removed in System Preferences. This was the menu bar item from hell – but now it’s gone!

    Thanks!

  36. Thierry Montaudon said
    on June 20, 2010

    Thanks my God (the Flying Spaghetti Monster).

  37. eimboZ said
    on June 22, 2010

    It was that simple huh?

    Thank you so much.
    I hate that icon since I don’t use MobileMe….

    but anyways…. thanks…

  38. Jakub said
    on July 2, 2010

    Thanks

  39. Erwin said
    on July 4, 2010

    Thanks so much!

  40. Frank said
    on July 10, 2010

    Curious! I have Snow Leopard 10.6.3, and I can turn it on and off from my \SystemPreferences\MobileMe\Sync.

    Wonder why people have a lot of problems with this?

  41. Mark said
    on August 12, 2010

    Thanks!

  42. charlotte said
    on August 26, 2010

    LOL so easy! thanks! :D

  43. zot3000 said
    on September 11, 2010

    You, sir, are the man. Thanks!!

  44. kasuf said
    on September 24, 2010

    such a pretty solution
    thanks

  45. cashoob said
    on September 25, 2010

    Thnx,
    Do I need to finish Uni to be able to use bl….dy MAC? Why there is no menu with turn off option? Do I need to dig net for it? Hell with Apple, I like it less with every day, more I use it more I hate it, but I used to love it…

  46. Mike said
    on October 16, 2010

    Thanks! Looks much better now.

  47. Felipe Cerda said
    on October 22, 2010

    thanks man!

  48. svengo said
    on October 27, 2010

    thank you. I couldn’t stand seeing that thing up there when I NEVER use it. finally just googld’ it and found your post.

    thank you. thank you.

  49. boom said
    on November 3, 2010

    omg so i just spent ages turning the icons in the menubar on and off to get them into the right order like a 15 puzzle, and i find that holding down command while dragging also lets you rearrange the icons, not just ditch them. ten minutes of my life i won’t get back, but – thank you for next time!!

  50. Ray said
    on November 3, 2010

    Word! good on you for reminding me how absent minded I am about how to deal with these things.

  51. Benno said
    on November 22, 2010

    Cool. Thanks.

  52. Fabio said
    on November 25, 2010

    Very good – I’ve been wanting to do this for so long.
    A 0,3 seconds google search brought me here and 5 seconds latter, no more MobileMe sync icon.
    Funny how things on the ***X world are way easier then, hum, say regedit…

  53. Ken said
    on December 23, 2010

    I actually had forgotten this is possible. Thank you so much! It is rare when the solution is shorter than the title ;)

  54. Tony Stocco said
    on December 28, 2010

    Excellent – I didn’t know you could remove the default icons.

  55. Adam said
    on January 10, 2011

    Thanks! It pissed me off when the icon miraculously appeared in 10.6.6.

  56. Jeff Simon said
    on January 12, 2011

    Agreed!

    I hate when they presume. Similar with the App Store, although I might leave that for a bit.

  57. Matthew said
    on January 13, 2011

    You just made my day! Much appreciated!

  58. Skott said
    on February 13, 2011

    Awesome. Thank you so much!

  59. k said
    on March 9, 2011

    Thanks!!

  60. k said
    on March 9, 2011

    Do you know of any app that can declutter the menubar, while keeping everything I have up there? Maybe drop downs or something. I have a ton up there especially after running istat menus.

  61. k said
    on March 9, 2011

    Check my menu bar out: http://imm.io/4ewW

    ugh!

  62. Shinogen said
    on April 24, 2011

    Phenomenal tip. Oct 2008 till Apr 2011 and still useful.
    BTW, how do bring the icon back?

  63. Jacklyn said
    on May 19, 2011

    Cool! Thanks!

  64. Daniel Greene said
    on June 13, 2011

    Is that all? Thanks!

  65. Alex said
    on July 9, 2011

    wow thank you! that icon was bothering me quite a bit :P

  66. Gregory said
    on July 18, 2011

    I want my mobileme icon back ! I don’t have a mobileme account, but this icone is useless to synchronise your address book with Google Contacts, then my iPhone synchronise with Google Contacts.

  67. Gregory said
    on July 18, 2011

    i meant useful sorry…

  68. Artem said
    on October 5, 2011

    Thanks you very much!!!
    :-)

  69. Phil B said
    on October 7, 2011

    Thanks- that dam thing was driving me nuts.

  70. Steve said
    on November 7, 2011

    So easy, thanks… that was annoying.

  71. chablis said
    on November 16, 2011

    Thanks, easy fix.

Continuing the Discussion

  1. Get rid of the MobileMe sync icon in Leopard’s menu bar « Gentleman linked to this post on May 16, 2009

    [...] Source:Get rid of the MobileMe sync icon in Leopard’s menu bar [...]

  2. Eliminar el ícono MobileMe de la barra de menú de Leopard [Mac] en Il Maistro, blog de tecnologia linked to this post on February 22, 2011

    [...] Fuente: Hack of the day [...]