Thaw - An Ice Fork

[stonerl]

Hi everyone,

since some people, myself included, had to deal with some bugs in Ice, I took it upon myself to fix a couple of these. I fixed an issue on macOS 26 where no icons would be shown if Displays have separate spaces was disabled. Furthermore, I addressed some performance and memory leak issues.

For some of these fixes I already opened PRs. Others can be found in my repo.

Here are the fixes that are included in my build:

Commits included

8ab94a6 Implement per-display search window positioning with UUID-based storage
483bb6e refactor: cleanup redundant deinit calls and improve memory monitoring
aca25e8 Fix(MenuBarOverlayPanel): Prevent task leaks with explicit timeout wrapper
aa434fc Restart on display disconnect to avoid stale menu bar state
f19c2df Revert: limiting retry attempts for rehiding
739a8f8 Optimize menu bar wallpaper capture for lower memory usage
96a15ec Fix memory leaks in overlay panel and optimize resource usage
ce5cf20 Optimize memory usage and reduce CPU overhead
2927c89 Fix: More accurate memory usage reporting
2824c59 feat: enhance memory monitoring with lower threshold and timestamps
46db81d fix: restore app icon click to open settings
0deb426 fix: resolve settings window not opening consistently
0130213 Optimize image capture with failure blacklist and reduce timer frequencies
3466f6f Fix: Implement proper LRU cache eviction and invalid entry cleanup
9ad823a Fix: Resolve memory leaks in overlay panels and PID cache
627f2ea Fix: Prevent EventTap leak on event operation timeout
232b3c8 Fix memory leaks causing growth from 60MB to 400MB
e504c3e fix: add more memory leak fixes and debugging
b8d8a60 fix: resolve Mach port leak in window array creation
952d770 Fix: Background memory leak in MenuBarOverlayPanel
f7a3dee Fix: Memory leak when showing/hiding menu bar items
6ec0e01 Fix display UUID comparison logic
8766b07 Fix memory leak in screen capture window array creation
8e4b6c6 Prevent auto-rehide when menu bar item menus are open
ff8e771 Add fallback timer to Smart rehide strategy
835db7d Fix "Publishing changes from within view updates" error in Settings
fbe2d2e Fix infinite cache refresh loop and improve sourcePID detection
c700922 Fix "Hide Application Menus" reliability
25da2eb Improve Search Window positioning across multiple displays
b06457f Fix MenuBarSearchPanel position persistence across restarts
cd3cac5 Persist MenuBarSearchPanel position and center on first launch
fdeb218 Update Ifrit to v4.0.0 and refactor search logic
41ebe8f Fix menu bar items not displaying when "Displays have separate spaces" is disabled
77c675b Fix concurrency issues and enforce MainActor isolation for MenuBarItem creation
de9f504 Fix memory leak in MenuBarItemTag.Namespace UUID cache
20a0c2b Fix build error in MenuBarItemImageCache cleanup logic
6123a3d fix(#530): Remove expired CGImages from cache
1e610ca (fix-clipping) Fix: Remove comparison of non-optional Bool to nil in MenuBarOverlayPanel
ea738c7 fix: menu bar clipping showing up on secondary monitor
d156a46 Optimize "Show on Hover" performance to reduce energy impact
e74b245 Reduce CPU usage by conditionally enabling mouse move event tap

Since the app is signed with my development key, you need to remove the permission before you can grant them again:

Outdated Images

Let me know if it fixes some of the issues for you.

Previous versions

Ice.zip (0.11.13-dev.2b-unofficial)
Ice.zip (0.11.13-dev.2c-unofficial)
Ice.zip (0.11.13-dev.2d-unofficial)
Ice.zip (0.11.13-dev.2e-unofficial)
Ice.zip (0.11.13-dev.2f-unofficial)
Ice.zip (0.11.13-dev.2g-unofficial)
Ice.zip (0.11.13-dev.2h-unofficial)

Please use Thaw instead: https://github.com/stonerl/Thaw/releases/tag/1.0.0-beta.2

If these fixes help you, consider throwing a coin in my hat: https://github.com/sponsors/stonerl/

Best
Toni @stonerl

[KaKi87]

Hi,

Would you like to look into #298 ?

Thank you

[stonerl]

I might. Currently, I'm focused on fixing the memory footprint of the app. Although I was able to get it down by a bit, it still grows over time.

[UYTR5]

@stonerl I wish your fixes could be officially implemented. Did you get the chance to be in touch with @jordanbaird?

Also, about the memory footprint bug you're working on, will you update your own build and communicate about it?

Many thanks

[KaKi87]

Did you get the chance to be in touch with @jordanbaird?

As he said : For some of these fixes I already opened PRs.

[IamWJC]

Thank you for this. There were a few bugs that were annoying me a lot and this fixed them for me. Hopefully these get merged into Jordan's version and an official update is released soon.

[paulwakeford]

I can't this to start - can't get past the permissions screen. Tried turning permissions off and on and off, quitting and restarting Ice, rebooting.. Only option even after all that is Quit. Any ideas? Old version worked fine.

[donangel]

Usually, what you need to do when replacing an unofficial app, is to handle that a bit manually. Do this:

1. Close Ice completely
2. Ensure you have the new one already installed
3. Manually remove both permissions: Accessibility and Screen recording, by selecting Ice from each permission and clicking (-).
4. Drag'n'drop Ice from Applications to each permission screen.
5. Start Ice

That should make you pass through that nuisance.

[paulwakeford]

Tahoe 26.2.

[rebdeg]

Try removing the permissions (The - in the lower corner) before starting the downloaded new app. Op 14 januari 2026 bij 16:34:46, Paul Wakeford ***@***.***) schreef: I can't this to start - can't get past the permissions screen. Tried turning permissions off and on and off, quitting and restarting Ice, rebooting.. Only option even after all that is Quit. Any ideas? Old version worked fine. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#847 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHK7OPPZNW3GGT66XKS3SR34GZOZNAVCNFSM6AAAAACRFQQYZKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKNBZG4ZTCNA> . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[UYTR5]

This worked for me.

[paulwakeford]

Awesome - I missed I had to remove the permissions, I was turning them off only. Working now. Thanks.

[KaKi87]

Hi,

Try removing the permissions (The - in the lower corner) before starting
the downloaded new app.

I did the following :

• Start the app ;
• Click the first Grant Permission button ;
• Wait for system settings to open ;
• Toggle off the switch ;
• Type my password and submit ;
• Close system settings ;
• Click the second Grant Permission button ;
• Wait for the Screen Recording prompt ;
• Click Open System Settings ;
• Wait for system settings to open ;
• Toggle off the switch ;
• Type my password and submit ;
• CLick Quit & Reopen ;
• Wait for the app to relaunch ;
• Click the first Grant Permission button ;
• Wait for system settings to open ;
• Toggle on the switch ;
• Type my password and submit ;
• Close system settings ;
• Click the second Grant Permission button ;
• Wait for the Screen Recording prompt ;
• Click Open System Settings ;
• Wait for system settings to open ;
• Toggle on the switch ;
• Click Quit & Reopen ;
• Wait for the app to relaunch ;
• Expect Continue to no longer be greyed out.

But the Continue button is still greyed out.

What am I missing ?

Thanks

[stonerl]

You need to remove the permissions using the - before opening the app.

[KaKi87]

Using the - button worked, thanks !

I do open the app because I'm not much into Mac OS so I don't know the paths to stuff in system settings, I'd rather use the app to take me there directly.

So, opening the app, clicking the grant buttons, then clicking -, then reopening the app, then toggling the switches on, worked.

[sgtlighttree]

This worked for me. Tahoe 26.2. Hoping this gets merged pretty soon. Thanks for your efforts!

[SwimBearPRG]

Thank you, and yes.. now i understand: delete the permission with minus symbol, not only turning off. :D

[MalloryKnox86]

Forgive me for the dumb question, I'm not a developer, should I uninstall ice before installing your build?

[stonerl]

No, just remove the permissions, as mentioned above.

[BillChirico]

Awesome work, hoping this fixes all the issues I've been having, like my mouse disappearing.

Edit: All issues seem to be fixed!

[MalloryKnox86]

Thank you 😊 Sent from my iPhoneOn Jan 17, 2026, at 6:03 PM, Toni Förster ***@***.***> wrote: No, just remove the permissions, as mentioned above. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[KaKi87]

So, I experienced an issue that doesn't occur in the original app : when trying to reorder an icon, the icon's app crashes, then reappears at the position I wanted to move it away from.

Thanks

[KaKi87]

I also experienced another issue, when Show on hover is enabled, context menus would be unusable : the icon would disappear as soon as I'd move the cursor on the menu, and the menu would disappear as soon as the icon would.

[stonerl]

Don't have these issues. But I did some updates lately. The new build (Ice 0.11.13-dev.2c-unofficial) can be found at the end of the first post.

[stonerl]

So, I experienced an issue that doesn't occur in the original app : when trying to reorder an icon, the icon's app crashes, then reappears at the position I wanted to move it away from.

Thanks

Are you using non-default menubar spacing?

[KaKi87]

No

[BillChirico]

@stonerl Do you have these on a fork that we can follow along with?

[KaKi87]

As he said :

For some of these fixes I already opened PRs. Others can be found in my repo.

[BillChirico]

@stonerl I see you have your own repo for it, how do we build from it?

[stonerl]

Clone my repo, checkout the my-build branch and open it in Xcode.

[BillChirico]

Clone my repo, checkout the my-build branch and open it in Xcode.

How do I make it bundled and installable like dragging it into my Applications folder?

[stonerl]

Build for running and then open the build folder. These commands are accessible from the menu.

[BillChirico]

Build for running and then open the build folder. These commands are accessible from the menu.

Awesome, thank you so much! Are there fixes not included in your posted version here?

[stonerl]

They are all included in the version I posted here.

[donangel]

Perfect, many thanks! Hopefully, the author will integrate it soon into the official version. Meanwhile, that worked like a charm!

[donghaomin]

There has been a persistent issue in the official version that really bothered me: whenever a Live Activity appeared, it would cause the menu bar settings to crash, making items that were supposed to be hidden show up.

I’m not sure which specific fix addressed this, but the issue is resolved in your version. Thank you so much!

[ilyagr]

I'm on Sonoma for now, and when I try to start the unofficial fork of Ice 2f, absolutely nothing happens apart from a request to launch a "downloaded application" on the first run. I can't find it in Activity Monitor. I tried disabling the permissions, that didn't change anything.

Is there anything in this fork that requires Tahoe? Sequoia?

The last official release of Ice works for me, though it might be causing some WindowManager memory leaks (I was trying to find out if the unofficial version is better in this regard).

[stonerl]

I'd recommend you replace the old one with the new one.

[ilyagr]

Hmm, I might try it. I'm worried about getting into a state where neither binary works well.

[ilyagr]

Suggestion: I'm not sure what all the consequences would be, perhaps you should consider changing whatever identifier makes macOS think it's the same app?

For me personally, the original Ice works well enough on Sonoma. I might try the fork again if I upgrade to Tahoe, or if there is any useful debug info that could provide.

[1nutzername]

If the new version doesn't work for any reason, you could just download from the original release page to downgrade again, right?

[stonerl]

Correct

[BillChirico]

My mouse sometimes disappears when clicking on the Ice menu and then activating a submenu

[abbasahmad]

nice, Thank you so much for the fixes. i am strugling to find a better alternative to Bartender!

I have 2 questions you might help me with:

• How do we get from this unofficial app to the official when your fixes are pushed ?
• Do we get updates of the offical version in this ?

Or the idea it that at some point we will have to uninstall and reinstall ?

plus a feature idea: Use Ice Bar only on screen with a notch would be extra!

thank you again

[stonerl]

Ideally all my changes get merged into main. You then just need to update the app the normal way, remove the permission and grant them again since the official app is signed with a different key.

The updater is still running so it should be possible to get the update the normal way, but not sure if the different keys might be a problem. If you use homebrew then you would just get the update from there.

I hope that answers you questions,

I also contacted @jordanbaird via mail and asked him whether he would be open to the idea of a co-maintainer.

[stonerl]

I now also track the memory usage internally. The values are higher then what you see in Activity Monitor so don't be confused, since the internal state also tracks virtual memory.

I'll keep it running for some more days and will post an updated graph.

[stonerl]

I found another memory leak but as of now I have not figured out how to fix it. Every time you plug in an external display and then unplug it memory grows. That explains why some people have up to 900MB memory usage after 2 weeks.

[stonerl]

I think I found a solution. Every time a display is disconnected a new Ice instance is started and the old one is terminated. That should prevent the ever-growing memory footprint.

For the user this is transparent and should be without any menubar flicker. Please test version0.11.13-dev.2g-unofficial.

[paullenhardt]

This is awesome, thanks for all the fixes. The only issue I am currently having is that Netbird.io's menu bar item refuses to work with ICE. I am not sure if that is due to ICE or due to Netbird.io.

[stonerl]

I assume this is the same issue as with the temporary items, like Currently playing. It seems the icon is always registered as a new icon. Might need to check this if I find time.

[paullenhardt]

I have found that the library NetBird uses (fyne-io) does not properly act like a native app and has some oddities with their menubar implementation. I have opened a ticket with fyne-io on the subject. This may not be due to an ICE bug.
fyne-io/fyne#6092

[stonerl]

This seems to be indeed an issue with netbird.io. The icon is always present as new to macOS, and therefore it will always be placed in the most left position. I check if I can implement a way so "new" icons always show up in the visible section.

A cleaner but more complex way would be to have all items position stored permanent and rearranging them based on these positions. But this would involve some major changes.

[stonerl]

@farzadmf the search window issue will be solved with version 0.11.13-dev.2h-unofficial. Currently no prebuild available but you can build from the my-build branch in my repo.

I changed the search window handling. The position can be freely set per display and will now be saved across app launches. So you can have a different position for every display. The default position is centred.

[stonerl]

BTW if someone finds my fixes useful and wants to throw a coin in my hat: https://github.com/sponsors/stonerl/

[stonerl]

I just uploaded version 0.11.13-dev.2h-unofficial This contains a minor cleanup of the code and changes to the search window handling.

The search window is now always shown centered, fixing a bug I introduced. The position of the window is also saved per physical display. This means you can move the window to any position on the screen and its location will be saved. This is done per physical monitor. Meaning on your MacBooks internal display you can have the window centered and on your external display in the top left corner for example.

If you connect a new monitor that Ice has not seen before it will show the window centered, and you can move the window to whatever position you like. When reconnecting the monitor later the position will be restored to where you moved it.

[UYTR5]

Thanks @stonerl
Did you hear back from Jordan Baird after you contacted him for being a co-dev officially on the project?

[stonerl]

Sadly I did not.

[BillChirico]

Can we get this in a fork instead of a discussion to make it easier to follow? Also, have we gotten any contact at all from @jordanbaird @stonerl

[stonerl]

No, sadly not. I will wait for a couple if days. If I don't hear back I will consider a fork, although that is what I really like to avoid. But if this is the only way to go forward, so be it. 😔

[BillChirico]

No, sadly not. I will wait for a couple if days. If I don't hear back I will consider a fork, although that is what I really like to avoid. But if this is the only way to go forward, so be it. 😔

Yeah of course we want to avoid that, ideally you'd become a maintainer but we have to do what we have to do. I'll help you set it up and even provide a community for it if you want. Are you on Discord? If so, add me at Bapes I'd love to chat with you about this.

[stonerl]

I'm also stonerl on Discord

[danielraffel]

So nice to see Ice working again on macOS 26. Eager to see Thaw because F Ice! 🤣

[stonerl]

I see what you did there 🤣

[stonerl]

I decided to fork and create Thaw.

There won't be be a stable relase until I get anything in order, the way I want it, so definitely no ETA

But I do have a beta pre-release: https://github.com/stonerl/Thaw/releases/tag/1.0.0-beta.1

If you are adventurous you can install it and set the update channel to development. Whenever I publish a new build it should ne available for update inside the app.

Please only install this if you want to help testing. Keep in mind that I do development in my spare time. Besides this post I won't advertise Thaw until I have a stable release.

There be dragons…

[stonerl]

Yes I made some changes to smart rehiding strategy but this need refinement.

[stonerl]

BTW I also have enabled discussions. We might move Thaw related chatter over there: https://github.com/stonerl/Thaw/discussions

[UYTR5]

And another question: is there a way to "migrate" Ice settings to thaw?

You're probably deep into "you're on your own if something breaks" territory, but just from a quick scroll over commits, I didn't find anything that would look like a completely breaking change, so I just did a

cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.jordanbaird.Ice.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.stonerl.Thaw.plist

and that worked for me.

@farzadmf have you tried this? Worked like a charm for me too. Even imported custom menu bar icon.

[stonerl]

Importer will be available with beta.2

[stonerl]

Beta 2 is out. You should be able to update from inside the App, if you're on the Development channel.

[levanid]

Hey @stonerl
Thank you for your amazing work on reviving ICE -> THAW

I'm facing an issue on both apps when I'm clicking on hidden apps in the menu - it doesn't move into shown apps, the dot blinks and app stays hidden. If I cmd+drag any app in the menu app then I might be able to drag the required app out of hidden menu as it's being shown in that menu and not in the bar.
I don't know what breaks behaviour here.

Here's the video

Screen.Recording.2026-01-30.at.12.47.59.mov

Here's the list of apps in the menu

[stonerl]

In case this happens with Thaw as well, wold you kindly move this issue over to the Thaw repo. 🙏

[levanid]

The video was made out of thaw
I’ll move it there

[liuhaoXD]

Works for me