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I use Clipy.app and it's an "agent app", which means it runs in the background and doesn't appear in the Dock.

By default, it shows the app icon on the top right of the menu bar of Mac. However, I remove the icon by mouse dragging with holding command. Then I can't find the icon anymore, even if I re-install the app.

How can I get back menu bar icon of Clipy.app?

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  • Presumably the app file will still be on your disk -- in Applications? Try launching it from there.
    – benwiggy
    Dec 20, 2022 at 13:42
  • @benwiggy yes, in /Applications. I force quit the app and try to re-launch from there, but nothing happens.
    – Ye Shiqing
    Dec 20, 2022 at 14:04
  • I'd suggest asking the developers.
    – benwiggy
    Dec 20, 2022 at 16:19
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    @Redarm wow! defaults delete com.clipy-app.Clipy kCPYPrefShowStatusItemKey works and the icon comes back. But what's mean of kCPYPrefShowStatusItemKey? and how do you know the specific name com.clipy-app.Clipy?
    – Ye Shiqing
    Dec 21, 2022 at 1:47
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    "kCPYPrefShowStatusItemKey" is the preference key for the menu bar item, since you can choose one, or "none". I've long been using "ClipMenu" (as mentioned at the bottom of this page: clipy-app.com ), so I went ahead and installed Clipy to check it out. That's how I now know the name of its preference file.
    – Redarm
    Dec 21, 2022 at 7:25

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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On the whole and especially if the application is not self-contained in the app sandbox one should also delete its preference file, which usually can be found in ~/Library/Preferences/. Searching for the application's name in that folder in many cases yields a result.

Had it been self contained, the application would have had a container in...

~/Library/Containers/

or

~/Library/Group Containers/

...which would include its Preference file within. In this case the whole container could be removed.

Delete the .plist file and either reboot, or see also here: Reload modified system plist

Another way to find the plist's name:

a=$(defaults domains | sed 's/,/\\n/g'); printf "$a" | grep "Clipy"

In your specific case, deleting the menu bar item key from the preference file did the trick:

defaults delete com.clipy-app.Clipy kCPYPrefShowStatusItemKey

"kCPYPrefShowStatusItemKey" by default is not present, unless one changes the menu bar icon, or it has been set to 'none'.

PS.Setting the menu bar item to 'none' implies that one wants to solely use the shortcut keys to launch windows like the "history" window, which includes a link to "Preferences" and therefore a way to change the menu bar item. So it would be good to remember them and to make sure the shortcut keys are functional.

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