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I set up some custom date formats, and while at first the date in the menu bar did honor them, now I've noticed it stopped and it's just using a standard one.

How do I switch it back?

Screenshot: screenshot

If I click on it, it shows it using my custom format, but that's infinitely pointless.

I'm running 10.10.3, IIRC I updated yesterday (from a 10.10.?, likely the one just before this one), but I'm not sure it's this update who broke it.

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4
  • Please show how you set it up
    – markhunte
    Commented Apr 19, 2015 at 11:22
  • does my answer here help? apple.stackexchange.com/a/181508/85275
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Apr 19, 2015 at 12:35
  • @Tetsujin no, thanks. That's exactly what I have done and do not work anymore. It works on other places, just not on the menu bar.
    – o0'.
    Commented Apr 19, 2015 at 12:42
  • For the record, now I'm using yyyy-MM-dd, HH:mm • e/'w' – qqq,w.
    – o0'.
    Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 9:33

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
10
+50

This is the new behaviour in Yosemite and it can't easily be changed. The menu bar format now doesn't read your custom format and instead displays a barely customizable format instead. The only available options for it can be found in System Preferences -> Date & Time -> Clock.

One thing you could do is use a third party utility like Day-O, which is free and does exactly what you seek -> https://shauninman.com/archive/2016/10/20/day_o_2_mac_menu_bar_clock.

If you want things more natively, you could try editing the corresponding plist file directly (com.apple.menuextra.clock). I haven't however had much luck with it.

Open Terminal and type the following:

Reading the current settings:

defaults read com.apple.menuextra.clock

Setting them:

defaults write com.apple.menuextra.clock "DateFormat" 'EEE hh:mm a'

Or 24 hours format with the (day of the) month and seconds:

defaults write com.apple.menuextra.clock "DateFormat" 'EEE d MMM HH:mm:ss'

Then refresh the menu bar using:

killall -KILL SystemUIServer

Using w you should be able to add week number, but I haven't had any luck with that and it keeps resetting the week number.

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4
  • Have you manage to get the year in there. y MMMM dd
    – markhunte
    Commented Apr 19, 2015 at 13:10
  • 2
    Day-0 is working, thanks! I'll wait a few days, just in case it breaks, but if it doesn't you'll get the bounty! I'm a bit perplexed by its author claiming he "won't update it for Yosemite", since it actually seem to work anyway…
    – o0'.
    Commented Apr 20, 2015 at 9:05
  • 2
    It is mainly support for dark mode that it is lacking. If you don't use dark mode or aren't bothered by a weird UI in dark mode you should be fine.
    – Tum
    Commented Apr 20, 2015 at 9:19
  • As dark mode is now supported in v2 of Day-0 I updated the link
    – Tum
    Commented Apr 24, 2019 at 9:48
1

Day-O 2 is the best app for this IMO. https://shauninman.com/archive/2016/10/20/day_o_2_mac_menu_bar_clock

If you uncheck "Show Icon," it's basically identical to the default widget.

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