Apple has implemented a few tools in its operating systems over the past few years that are intended to show quickly and easily whether certain tools are currently being accessed. Under iOS on the iPhone, iPadOS on the iPad as well as macOS on the Mac, e.g. B. the green and the orange point Used to show camera and microphone usage. After the update to macOS 13.3, which was rolled out this week, there is a third dot color on the Mac: blue. What does the blue dot next to that mean control center in the menu bar? You will find an answer to this question here.
If you look at the menu bar of your Apple Mac from macOS 13.3, you may see a blue dot to the right of the control center. This indicates active location services. You can read here what that means and what settings are available for it.
That means the blue dot in the menu bar of the Apple Mac
After the update to macOS 13.3, you will not only find the green and orange dots mentioned above, which have been known from the iPhone since 2020. A blue dot may also appear. It represents the device's location services and indicates that the Mac is querying for location. This can e.g. B. be necessary to prepare the forecast for the current location in the weather app. The location is also required when using the Maps app and creating a route from the current location. You can click on the blue dot to see which ones App or which service is currently querying the location.
asks e.g. For example, if the weather app reads your location in order to be able to display the forecast, a blue dot in the macOS menu bar indicates this.
Mac location services: This is how you can make settings
If you don't want any macOS app or system tool to track the location of your Mac, iMac, MacBook, or other Apple computer, go to the System Settings. You can find it there in the menu item Privacy right first the Location services.
You can make individual adjustments for the use of the location services of the Apple Mac in the system settings.
If you call this up, you can generally specify whether location services may be used or not - but also which individual apps may use this when the location service is switched on. If you scroll down the list, you will find a very important app: Where is? The location should always be activated if you want to find a lost or stolen Mac.
For "Where is?", among other things, it is advisable to leave the location detection of the Apple device switched on - not only on the Mac, but also on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Co.
Below you will find another item, namely the system services. If you want to know what these are all about, just click on the "Details..." button to the right. You can already choose which macOS system services are allowed to determine your location. Here, Find My Mac should remain enabled. At the bottom you can determine whether the blue dot in the menu bar or the explanation in the control center should be displayed when system services retrieve the location.
Find My Mac should also remain enabled. If you don't want the location query for system services to be displayed in the menu bar with a blue dot, you can disable this with the last slider.
Do you have any questions or comments on the topic? Then please leave a comment!
After graduating from high school, Johannes completed an apprenticeship as a business assistant specializing in foreign languages. But then he decided to research and write, which resulted in his independence. For several years he has been working for Sir Apfelot, among others. His articles include product introductions, news, manuals, video games, consoles, and more. He follows Apple keynotes live via stream.
Did you like the article and did the instructions on the blog help you? Then I would be happy if you the blog via a Steady Membership would support.
Is my Mac compatible with macOS 14 Sonoma?
