How do I re-center Spotlight search bar (Mac)?

Question

Spotlight search bar is no longer centered, how do I put it back?

Because you moved it there? Move it back. – jcaron Jan 31 '16 at 14:25 — jcaron, Jan 31 '16 at 14:25

score 154 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 29 '16 at 04:34

154

Click and hold the Spotlight icon on the menu bar, until the Spotlight window has returned to its original location.

edited Jun 29 '16 at 04:34

The Tech Guy

129

answered Jan 31 '16 at 18:02

Redarm

5,418

14

Agreed, this is the correct answer. – pickles Dec 16 '18 at 05:04
2

This is the right answer. – Omar Tariq Jul 08 '19 at 14:07
1

My search bar had somehow jumped offscreen when I was doing some spaces management. This got it back without a restart/re-login. – Adam Evans Feb 08 '20 at 13:41
An addition to this one, I just had a really weird case where clicking and holding on the spotlight icon in my menu bar didn't work. I went to my display settings and moved around my monitors in the arrangement settings, and for some reason this jostled the spotlight menu into a different location, and after that I was able to click and hold on the button in the menu bar to reset it. No idea why – Jay May 31 '23 at 17:47

score 38 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 31 '16 at 14:26

38

Since El Capitan, you can move the Spotlight bar/window. Just click-and-drag it to wherever you want.

answered Jan 31 '16 at 14:26

jcaron

827

3

LOL. I feel stupid; ironically, I'm a computer science student - you'd think I'd have worked that out blush
Thanks!
– Ben Wainwright Jan 31 '16 at 14:32
3

For your defence, there's no obvious UI to show it can be moved, and it had a fixed position in previous versions of OS X (which was terribly annoying). – jcaron Jan 31 '16 at 14:32
What if it’s offscreen? – 2540625 Mar 29 '23 at 14:47

score 32 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 27 '18 at 07:59

32

The answer is two-fold.

Centering it horizontally: Drag the spotlight bar horizontally and you will feel a slight stickiness to a place. That is where you have centered it horizontally.

Centering it vertically: Similar to above, drag the spotlight bar, vertically and you will a stickiness to a place, and that's where you reach the vertical center.

answered Feb 27 '18 at 07:59

Krishna Gupta

461

2

Also force feedback clicks at stick points. – Gökçer Gökdal Mar 04 '20 at 13:50
5

Best answer if you don't have the spotlight icon in your menu bar. – MoOx Apr 20 '21 at 04:53
FWIW, on Sonoma I had to put Spotlight on the right point on the X axis first and only then Y axis was sticky too. – Rafał Cieślak Nov 20 '23 at 14:49

score 23 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 04 '20 at 13:54

23

Same answer as https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/225746/364510 with additional image to describe. Also you can drag-drop search bar to reposition it as you want. Note: When you move to original location vertically or horizontally it will stick a bit and force feedback will happen from touchpad (click sound).

Image credits: https://osxdaily.com/2016/10/18/move-relocate-spotlight-search-window-mac-os-x/

answered Mar 04 '20 at 13:54

Gökçer Gökdal

331

3

Thank you, I was going mad. I thought my Spotlight was broken, but it must've been just somewhere off screen and this fixed it. – fancy Jun 05 '20 at 06:26

How do I re-center Spotlight search bar (Mac)?

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