Apple includes privacy indicators in the upper-right corner of your Mac’s display to indicate when critical hardware is in use. An orange indicator means your microphone is in use, while a green indicator suggests the camera is in use. These indicators help users stay diligent about apps that may be using the camera or microphone legitimately or, in the worst case, unscrupulously.
While I appreciate having these indicators, they can become a distraction when taking screenshots or recording my Mac’s external display. Thankfully, Apple provides a solution to address the issue without compromising privacy.
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Starting with macOS Sonoma 14.4, Apple added the ability to disable privacy indicators on external displays connected to your Mac. Privacy indicators will always appear on your Mac’s main display, but being able to limit them on external displays is a thoughtful compromise.
Privacy indicators will always display in the menu bar, but you can disable them when the menu bar is hidden in an app in full-screen mode or when it’s set to hide automatically. If both the microphone and camera are active, the green (camera) privacy indicator takes precedence, since the camera is the more critical hardware.
Video: How to disable privacy indicators for external Mac displays
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How to disable external display privacy indicators
Step 1: Start up your Mac from macOS Recovery by shutting down your Mac, then holding the power button until “Loading startup options…” appears.
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