No menu bar icon when run outside of bundle (macOS Tahoe)

[nbolton]

Repro steps:

1. Clone https://github.com/nbolton/hello-rust-tray
2. Build and run:

   cargo build
   target/debug/hello-rust-tray
   

Expected: Icon in the menu bar (works fine on macOS Sequioa)

Actual: No icon on macOS Tahoe Beta 4 (25A5316i) and Beta 5 (25A5327h).

[FabianLars]

This was discussed here as well tauri-apps/tauri#13770 - it seems like macos requires the app to be an .app bundle for the icon to show up.

I didn't look into it lately but last time i couldn't find a workaround.

[nbolton]

it seems like macos requires the app to be an .app bundle for the icon to show up.

Interesting. I will try bundling this and running it as an app to see what happens.

In our production app, we add the binary that creates the tray into an existing bundle, so I wonder if Tahoe now only allows the primary bundle binary to create menu items.

[nbolton]

it seems like macos requires the app to be an .app bundle for the icon to show up.

Interesting. I will try bundling this and running it as an app to see what happens.

Yes, confirmed. I ran:

cargo install cargo-bundle
cargo bundle --release
open ./target/release/bundle/osx/hello-rust-tray.app

And the menu bar icon is now showing.

So, what do we think? Is it a bug or by design?

[FabianLars]

I'd lean towards "by design", it's awfully in line with macOS' usual behavior quirks. But it's hard to say because Apple usually doesn't communicate changes like these.

[nbolton]

I guess we'll know for sure which way when it goes from beta to GA... shall we leave the issue open until then or close it assuming it's by design?

[FabianLars]

let's leave it open for now so it's more visible until we can document it (waiting for stable to confirm as you said)

[nbolton]

This appears to have been fixed in Tahoe 26 Beta 7 (25A5346a)... for now.

I guess it was a macOS bug after all.

Edit: Not tested in macOS 26 beta 8 (25A5349a) from August 25, 2025.