How to hide the notch on a MacBook

You cannot switch the notch off, because it is where the camera lives. You can make the strip around it black, so the notch disappears into it. macOS has three free ways: choose a resolution that stops below the camera, put an app in full screen, or tick one checkbox in an app's Get Info window so that app runs below the camera. On the desktop, a wallpaper with a black top or the free TopNotch app does it too. Each way is below, with what it costs.

Last updated: October 2026

Written by the developer of Crest, a Mac notch app, on 6 October 2026. The three built-in ways were tried on a 16-inch MacBook Pro (Mac16,7) on macOS 27.0.1, with a small test app as the fixture, and every picture is from that Mac. The wallpaper trick and TopNotch were not tried there, and this page says so where they come up. The checkbox, the resolution list and full screen also exist on macOS 26, from Apple's own support article; the exact wording there may differ.

Which way to pick

1. A resolution that stops below the camera

This is the only way that hides the notch everywhere, all the time. MacBooks with a notch list most screen widths twice: once at full height, and once a little shorter. The shorter one leaves out the strip around the camera, so that strip stays dark and the menu bar moves below it.

1. Open System Settings, then Displays.
2. Control-click the row of resolution pictures and choose Show List.
3. Turn on Show all resolutions, under the list.
4. Pick the shorter twin of the size you use. On a 16-inch MacBook Pro the default is 1728 by 1117, and its twin is 1728 by 1080.

Most widths twice. The shorter of each pair, such as 1728 by 1080 under the default 1728 by 1117, stops below the camera.

What it did on the test Mac: we switched from 2056 by 1329 to 2056 by 1285 for a few seconds. macOS stopped reporting a notch at all, the menu bar became an ordinary 30-point bar running the full width of the screen, with no gap in the middle. The cost is height: 44 points in that pair, 37 in the default pair. The short list, without Show all resolutions, does not include these sizes. We only had a 16-inch to try, so on a 14-inch or a MacBook Air look for the same pattern: two sizes with the same width.

2. Full screen

Click the green button in a window's top-left corner, or choose Enter Full Screen from the app's View or Window menu. macOS fits the app below the camera and turns the strip beside it black.

Before and after. With an app in full screen the strip beside the camera turns black, and the notch disappears into it.

On the test Mac the full screen window came out 2056 by 1290 points, 39 shorter than the screen, and those top 39 points went black. The menu bar slides out of the way while you work, which is the In Full Screen Only choice under System Settings, Menu Bar, Automatically hide and show the menu bar.

3. One app at a time: the Get Info checkbox

Games and some older apps draw over the whole screen, notch area included, and part of the picture ends up behind the camera. A checkbox tells macOS to run that one app below the camera instead.

1. Quit the app.
2. In the Finder, open Applications and select the app.
3. Press Command-I, or choose File, then Get Info.
4. Tick Automatically size to fit on screen. That is its name on macOS 27; Apple's support article, written for earlier versions, calls it Scale to fit below built-in camera.

The checkbox, as macOS 27 words it. Apple's own article still calls it Scale to fit below built-in camera.

What it did on the test Mac: our test app drew one window over the entire screen. With the box unticked, macOS told the app the notch was there, 38 points tall. With it ticked, macOS reported no notch while the app was open and kept its picture below the camera.

If the checkbox is missing, the app has told macOS it handles the notch itself. Apple's own apps do not show it (we checked Chess and TextEdit), and on the test Mac 15 of the 56 apps in Applications had opted out, Discord among them.

On the desktop: a black wallpaper strip, or TopNotch

On macOS 27 the menu bar is see-through unless you turn on Show menu bar background in System Settings, Menu Bar. So the top of your wallpaper is what surrounds the notch. Pick a wallpaper whose top edge is black and the notch blends in on the desktop. We did not try this on the test Mac, which runs a live wallpaper app.

TopNotch does the same thing for you: it adapts your own wallpaper so the strip behind the menu bar is black, supports dynamic wallpapers, and can round the top corners. It is free, from MTW, the team behind CleanShot, and needs macOS 11 or later. Its download is version 1.3.2, dated June 2023, and its site does not mention macOS 26 or 27; we did not install it. Both of these only hide the notch on the desktop. Any window or full screen app covering the top brings it back. More in Crest vs TopNotch.

Or put it to work

The other answer is to stop hiding it. Crest is a Mac notch app: the notch stays black, and when you point at it, a panel opens below it with your music, calendar, files and clipboard. It respects every method above: in a full screen app it steps aside, and at a resolution that hides the notch it draws a small pill in the same spot.

Crest's pill on a screen that reports no notch. Captured on a MacBook Pro set to a resolution that stops below the camera, not on a MacBook Neo.

Download Crest to try it. Free tier, no account · 7-day Pro trial, no card · macOS 14 or later

FAQ

Keep reading: Menu bar icons behind the notch · MacBook Neo and the notch · Notch dimensions by model · Crest vs TopNotch · Dynamic Island for Mac · Facts and prices · Crest overview