How to Hide the MacBook Notch (or Make It Useful Instead)

You cannot physically remove the notch on a MacBook, but you can make it disappear visually in under a minute: use a dark wallpaper or a notch-hiding wallpaper so the menu bar turns black and blends with the cutout. If an app is misbehaving in full screen, the Scale to fit below built-in camera checkbox fixes that too. And if you would rather stop fighting the notch, a Dynamic Island-style app turns the same space into something you actually use.

This guide walks through all four approaches, from zero-install tricks to a dedicated mac app to hide the notch, so you can pick what fits. Everything here applies to every notched Mac: MacBook Pro 14" and 16" (2021 and later) and MacBook Air M2, M3 and M4.

Why the MacBook notch feels annoying

The notch is a cutout around the 1080p camera. On a light wallpaper the menu bar is translucent, so the black notch sits in the middle of a bright strip and your eye lands on it constantly. Three things make it worse:

• Menu bar crowding. Apps with many menus (Xcode, Final Cut, Logic) can push items into the dead zone behind the camera, where the pointer passes through but nothing is drawn.
• Mismatched dark mode. Dark mode makes the menu bar dark grey, not pure black, so the notch still shows as a darker rectangle.
• Older full-screen apps. Games and some video players built before 2021 can assume a rectangular display and draw under the camera.

Together they explain why "macbook notch annoying" is such a common search. Here is how to fix each one.

Method 1: Hide the notch with a black menu bar

The menu bar takes its colour from the wallpaper behind it. Make the top of the wallpaper black and the notch vanishes into a solid black bar. Two ways to get there:

1. Open System Settings → Wallpaper and pick a dark or black image. The built-in Solid Colours set includes Black.
2. If you want to keep a colourful wallpaper, open it in Preview, add a black rectangle across the top (about 40 px tall at the screen's native resolution is plenty), export it and set that as your wallpaper.

Pair this with System Settings → Appearance → Dark and the menu bar becomes near-black everywhere. This is the most popular zero-cost way to hide the notch on a MacBook Air M4 or any other model.

Method 2: Notch-hiding wallpapers

A MacBook notch hiding wallpaper is just Method 1 done for you: an image with a pure black band at the top and a design below it. Search for "notch wallpaper" and you will find many sized for 14" and 16" MacBook Pro resolutions. A few tips so the trick actually works:

• Choose a wallpaper that matches your native resolution, or the black band may end up blurred into a dark grey gradient.
• Keep the band at least as tall as the menu bar. If it is too short you will see a thin coloured strip under the notch.
• Disable Allow wallpaper tinting in windows under Appearance if window title bars pick up colours you do not want.

Method 3: Fix full-screen apps with "Scale to fit below built-in camera"

If the MacBook notch in full screen is covering a game's HUD or a video player's controls, macOS has a per-app fix. It letterboxes the app below the camera so the whole window is visible:

1. In Finder, open the Applications folder and select the app.
2. Press Cmd+I to open Get Info.
3. Tick Scale to fit below built-in camera.
4. Quit and relaunch the app.

The checkbox only appears for apps that have not declared notch support, so if you do not see it the app already handles the camera area correctly. You lose a strip of pixels at the top, but nothing is hidden any more.

Method 4: Stop hiding it and make the MacBook notch useful

The methods above make the notch invisible, but the camera area is still dead space. A notch app does the opposite: it treats the cutout as the anchor for a Dynamic Island, the same idea Apple uses on iPhone. Korinotch draws a black, rounded island around the notch, so the hard edges blend away, and then puts live information in it:

• Media HUD with album art and controls for Spotify, Apple Music or any Now Playing source.
• Volume and brightness HUD that replaces the large macOS overlay in the middle of the screen.
• Notification previews for WhatsApp, Gmail and system banners, shown in the notch instead of the corner.
• Widgets such as weather, calendar reminders, a stocks and crypto ticker, world clock and battery alerts.
• Utilities including a file dropzone, clipboard history, Keep Awake and camera/mic privacy indicators.

You can adjust the notch size so it stays tight on a MacBook Air or extends slightly wider on a 16" Pro, and add a subtle glow if you want it to look intentional rather than hidden. Korinotch runs on macOS 14 and later, is free for 14 days with no credit card, then costs $11.50 once or $1.50 per month. For a deeper look at the setup options, read how to customize the MacBook notch and Dynamic Island on a MacBook.

Free alternatives exist too. BoringNotch is open source and covers media controls; NotchNook and Alcove are paid apps with a similar island concept. If you only want one feature, the free HUD Notch mini app gives you a notch-aligned volume HUD, and File Shelf adds a drag-and-drop tray, both without the full app.

Which method should you use?

Method	Cost	Effort	Result
Dark wallpaper + dark mode	Free	1 minute	Notch blends into black menu bar
Notch-hiding wallpaper	Free	2 minutes	Same, keeps a designed wallpaper
Scale to fit below camera	Free	Per app	Fixes full-screen overlap only
Notch app (Korinotch, BoringNotch)	Free trial / free	Install once	Notch hidden and used for HUDs and widgets

FAQ

Can you remove the notch on a MacBook?

No. The notch is a physical cutout around the camera, so no software can remove it. You can make it visually disappear with a dark menu bar or a notch-hiding wallpaper, shrink the usable area with the scale-to-fit setting, or cover it with an app that turns it into a Dynamic Island.

How do I hide the notch on a MacBook Air M4?

The M4 MacBook Air uses the same methods as every notched Mac: switch to a dark wallpaper or one with a black top band so the menu bar matches the notch, or install a notch app such as Korinotch that draws a black island around the cutout.

Why does the MacBook notch cover content in full screen?

In full screen, macOS normally keeps a black band at the top so nothing sits behind the notch. If an older app draws into that area, enable Scale to fit below built-in camera in the app's Get Info window so macOS letterboxes it below the camera.

Does a notch app hide the notch or add to it?

Both. A notch app like Korinotch paints a black, rounded island that blends with the cutout, so the hard edges disappear, and it uses that space for media controls, volume HUD, notifications and widgets.