Learn how to revert Apple’s Liquid Glass design changes for your Mac’s menu bar in macOS Tahoe by replacing the default frosted look with a solid background.
Apple has fixed the frosted menu bar appearance by adding a dedicated option to use a solid background. The new toggle assuages initial complaints about the frosted menu bar background, which came as part of the Liquid Glass redesign in the first developer beta.
Turn on the menu bar background in macOS Tahoe
You can switch between a transparent and solid menu bar background in System Settings > Menu Bar by toggling the option labeled “Show menu bar background.”
Turning this switch on will remove the transparency effect from the menu bar, causing the menu bar background to be tinted with the wallpaper’s primary color.
In the first macOS Tahoe beta, the menu bar did not have a solid background, something Mac owners have been accustomed to for many years. As evidenced in the screenshot below, the menu bar in the first macOS Tahoe beta was exclusively transparent, with the desktop wallpaper showing through.
Transparency also affects menu bar icons in the top-right corner, causing them to appear directly overlaid on top of the wallpaper instead of being an integral part of the menu bar. The closest you can get to the old menu bar is by turning on the accessibility option to Reduce Transparency in System Settings > Accessibility > Display.
Doing so replaces the menu bar’s solid background, which inherits the primary color of the wallpaper beneath, with a standard solid gray background as seen on earlier versions of macOS.
However, this is basically a band-aid solution because turning on the Reduce Transparency feature will also reduce or remove transparency in other parts of the user interface.
Also, check out: 15 new things to try in macOS Tahoe 26