Known and common issues

Fan control on M3 and M4 Macs #

On M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max, M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max Macs, fan control may not work correctly in situations where macOS has turned the fans off. We are looking into solutions.

Fixing permission issues #

In some situations, iStat Menus may not be able to install correctly, due to incorrect permissions. Please see our fixing permission issues help page for more information.

If you’ve moved your home folder to an external drive, launch agents may not load properly, because of permission issues. Please see our fixing home permission issues help page for more information.

Location access #

If iStat Menus has location access in System Settings, but you are still seeing the “Request Location Access” button in the menu dropdown, turning location services off then back on again should resolve the issue.

Do do this, open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services, then turn the switch off, then back on again.

Login items #

If you’ve upgraded macOS and iStat Menus is no longer working, please open System Settings › General › Login Items and turn the iStat Menus item off, then back on again. There might be multiple login items, with iStat Menus or Bjango in their names.

Resetting login items #

If toggling the login items didn’t help, resetting the login items database may. Running the Terminal command below will reset the login items database. To run the command below, open the Terminal app from your /Applications/Utilities/ folder, copy the command below, and press return.

Please note doing this will affect the login items settings for other apps. After running the command, restart your Mac.

sudo sfltool resetbtm

If further investigation is needed, we may ask you to send us the login items database. The Terminal command below will save the database to your desktop as “btm.txt”.

sudo sfltool dumpbtm > ~/Desktop/btm.txt

Hidden items #

On smaller screens, and in situations where there’s a lot of menu bar items, macOS may hide some items. This is because the menu bar is full, and can not fit other items. In this situation, iStat Menus is running perfectly, but hidden from view.

Please read our menu bar items not showing page for more information.

Missing menu bar items #

The sensors shown in the menubar are determined by the “items in menu bar” area in the Sensors tab. If this is blank, nothing will show. To add a sensor click the + button.

Disks and power work the same way — what’s shown in the menubar is determined by the “items in menu bar” areas. To add a sensor click the + button.