r/MacOS icon

Go to MacOS

Anyone know what this Purple Icon is -and why Bartender can't get rid of it?

Help

Clickable image which will reveal the video player: We all know that "oh sh*t, it's behind me isn't it?" feeling. Feel the free on Pluto TV.

You can't. macOS is telling you that your screen is being shared through DisplayLink. In fact this icon appears as a privacy notice whenever you're sharing your screen, plus you can click on it to access convenient features. Privacy wise it's similar to the microphone usage icon and hence cannot be hidden.

Actually they can: stop using Bartender.

More replies More replies

I think it means an app is viewing your screen.

This is the “someone is observing/sharing your screen” icon. Look at your system settings under privacy for screen, recording, and turn off any applications that you don’t want to give the ability to record your screen.

Sometimes I feel like, somebody's watching you (can't get no privacy)

It means that you’re sharing your screen.

Here is how you get rid of it for DisplayLink:

https://niclake.me/mac-displaylink/

To get the instructions to work for myself however I had to substitute my own user-created directory like /Users/JohnLockeNJ/Documents/Scripts to store the script rather than /usr/local/bin/

I use the same technique to keep Bartender 4 itself from triggering the purple icon, except in the listed instructions I used the command I pasted at this URL instead of the DisplayLink one.

https://codefile.io/f/BmMzQdc3MX