PyQt5 menubar.setNativeMenuBar(True) does nothing on MacOS Monterey

Ard_Flamingo

I've been making a text editor using the PyQt5 framework (I chose this older version since there's more tutorials for it) and I've made a simple menu bar in Designer. In the class for the Main Window UI, setting menubar.setNativeMenuBar(True) does nothing, while setting it to False does as it's intended to, it creates the menu bar inside the actual app, not the MacOS menu bar. I want it to be native but setting the function to True does nothing. My code:

.py file

import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import (
    QApplication, QWidget, QMainWindow, QDialog, QPushButton, QPlainTextEdit, QMenuBar, QMenu, QAction
)
from PyQt5.uic import loadUi


class MainWindow(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        super(QMainWindow, self).__init__()
        loadUi("MainWindow.ui", self)
        menubar = self.menuBar()
        menubar.setNativeMenuBar(True)
        self.show()


app = QApplication(sys.argv)


window = MainWindow()


app.exec_()

.ui file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ui version="4.0">
 <class>MainWindow</class>
 <widget class="QMainWindow" name="MainWindow">
  <property name="geometry">
   <rect>
    <x>0</x>
    <y>0</y>
    <width>1000</width>
    <height>650</height>
   </rect>
  </property>
  <property name="windowTitle">
   <string>NeoText</string>
  </property>
  <property name="styleSheet">
   <string notr="true"/>
  </property>
  <property name="documentMode">
   <bool>false</bool>
  </property>
  <property name="tabShape">
   <enum>QTabWidget::Rounded</enum>
  </property>
  <widget class="QWidget" name="centralwidget">
   <widget class="QPlainTextEdit" name="plainTextEdit">
    <property name="geometry">
     <rect>
      <x>0</x>
      <y>0</y>
      <width>1001</width>
      <height>601</height>
     </rect>
    </property>
    <property name="baseSize">
     <size>
      <width>0</width>
      <height>0</height>
     </size>
    </property>
    <property name="font">
     <font>
      <family>Apple Color Emoji</family>
      <pointsize>24</pointsize>
     </font>
    </property>
    <property name="styleSheet">
     <string notr="true"/>
    </property>
    <property name="backgroundVisible">
     <bool>false</bool>
    </property>
   </widget>
  </widget>
  <widget class="QStatusBar" name="statusbar">
   <property name="enabled">
    <bool>true</bool>
   </property>
  </widget>
  <widget class="QMenuBar" name="menubar">
   <property name="enabled">
    <bool>true</bool>
   </property>
   <property name="geometry">
    <rect>
     <x>0</x>
     <y>0</y>
     <width>1000</width>
     <height>24</height>
    </rect>
   </property>
   <property name="minimumSize">
    <size>
     <width>0</width>
     <height>0</height>
    </size>
   </property>
   <property name="baseSize">
    <size>
     <width>0</width>
     <height>0</height>
    </size>
   </property>
   <widget class="QMenu" name="menuSettings">
    <property name="minimumSize">
     <size>
      <width>0</width>
      <height>0</height>
     </size>
    </property>
    <property name="title">
     <string>Settings</string>
    </property>
    <addaction name="actionPreferences"/>
   </widget>
   <widget class="QMenu" name="menuFile">
    <property name="title">
     <string>File</string>
    </property>
   </widget>
   <widget class="QMenu" name="menuEdit">
    <property name="title">
     <string>Edit</string>
    </property>
   </widget>
   <addaction name="menuSettings"/>
   <addaction name="menuFile"/>
   <addaction name="menuEdit"/>
  </widget>
  <action name="actionPreferences">
   <property name="text">
    <string>Preferences</string>
   </property>
  </action>
 </widget>
 <resources/>
 <connections/>
</ui>

Thanks in advance, I've really been hitting my head over this.

Ard_Flamingo

Alright, I figured it out. Looks like it's half a MacOS thing and half my fault.

Menubars on MacOS are weird, like 'Settings' and 'Edit' are preserved and they're just wank. It turns out that (apparently) you can't have a 'Settings' menu being MacOS preserves it under a different menu and all that. It also seems that in order for a menu (at least the ones which are not preserved) to natively be displayed, they must have a sub menu. My mistake was that I only gave 'Settings' a sub menu but since it's preserved, it isn't allowed to exist. Weirdly, a few minutes after opening the application, 'Edit' pops up, but it isn't the menu I created, it's most likely the MacOS 'Edit' since the only sub menu under it is the emojis and symbols menu.

Weird, but hopefully this helps people out.

SGaist

Hi and welcome to devnet,

What exactly are you expecting when setting that value to True ? It's the default value.

Ard_Flamingo

Hi @SGaist

I might be wrong but when you set it to true, the menu bar should be displayed to the native position on the system (top of the app for Windows; on the menu bar for MacOS). Currently, it does not put it in the native position, and it disappears completely. When it's set to false, it works just fine, and it sits inside the actual app window. Its default value being true makes sense, since before I found this function and used it the menu bar was completely inexistent; exactly like it is right now as it's set to true. I used Designer to create the UI file (which includes the menubar) so could that be the problem? Do I have to create it manually in the .py file if I want the position to be native to the system? I also couldn't find anything related to the menubar in the privacy & security tab in the settings, so I don't think it's a permission issue.

SGaist

Ok, it's clearer now. Looks wrong as it should work out of the box.

I would check two things:

that the menu menuBar returns has the proper content (I suspect not) and check whether the one you defined is not empty
generate the python code with the PyQt5 pyuic tool to see if it does things correctly in contrast with loadUi

Ard_Flamingo

Hi @SGaist

Since the menubar can modify setNativeMenuBar() of the menubar widget, I would assume it returns the proper content.

After generating the python code from the terminal and modifying my main file, it works exactly the same as it did when I used loadUi.

main .py file:

import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import (
    QApplication, QWidget, QMainWindow, QDialog, QPushButton, QPlainTextEdit, QMenuBar, QMenu, QAction
)
from PyQt5.uic import loadUi
from MainWindow import Ui_MainWindow


class MainWindow(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        super(QMainWindow, self).__init__()
        self.ui = Ui_MainWindow()
        self.ui.setupUi(self)
        self.show()


app = QApplication(sys.argv)


window = MainWindow()


app.exec_()

UI .py file

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# Form implementation generated from reading ui file
#
# Created by: PyQt5 UI code generator 5.15.7
#
# WARNING: Any manual changes made to this file will be lost when pyuic5 is
# run again.  Do not edit this file unless you know what you are doing.


from PyQt5 import QtCore, QtGui, QtWidgets


class Ui_MainWindow(object):
    def setupUi(self, MainWindow):
        MainWindow.setObjectName("MainWindow")
        MainWindow.setWindowModality(QtCore.Qt.NonModal)
        MainWindow.resize(1000, 650)
        MainWindow.setStyleSheet("")
        MainWindow.setDocumentMode(False)
        MainWindow.setTabShape(QtWidgets.QTabWidget.Rounded)
        self.centralwidget = QtWidgets.QWidget(MainWindow)
        self.centralwidget.setObjectName("centralwidget")
        self.plainTextEdit = QtWidgets.QPlainTextEdit(self.centralwidget)
        self.plainTextEdit.setGeometry(QtCore.QRect(0, 0, 1001, 601))
        self.plainTextEdit.setBaseSize(QtCore.QSize(0, 0))
        font = QtGui.QFont()
        font.setFamily("Apple Color Emoji")
        font.setPointSize(24)
        self.plainTextEdit.setFont(font)
        self.plainTextEdit.setStyleSheet("")
        self.plainTextEdit.setBackgroundVisible(False)
        self.plainTextEdit.setObjectName("plainTextEdit")
        MainWindow.setCentralWidget(self.centralwidget)
        self.statusbar = QtWidgets.QStatusBar(MainWindow)
        self.statusbar.setEnabled(True)
        self.statusbar.setObjectName("statusbar")
        MainWindow.setStatusBar(self.statusbar)
        self.menubar = QtWidgets.QMenuBar(MainWindow)
        self.menubar.setEnabled(True)
        self.menubar.setGeometry(QtCore.QRect(0, 0, 1000, 24))
        self.menubar.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(0, 0))
        self.menubar.setBaseSize(QtCore.QSize(0, 0))
        self.menubar.setStyleSheet("")
        self.menubar.setDefaultUp(False)
        self.menubar.setNativeMenuBar(True)
        self.menubar.setObjectName("menubar")
        self.menuSettings = QtWidgets.QMenu(self.menubar)
        self.menuSettings.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(0, 0))
        self.menuSettings.setObjectName("menuSettings")
        self.menuFile = QtWidgets.QMenu(self.menubar)
        self.menuFile.setObjectName("menuFile")
        self.menuEdit = QtWidgets.QMenu(self.menubar)
        self.menuEdit.setObjectName("menuEdit")
        MainWindow.setMenuBar(self.menubar)
        self.actionPreferences = QtWidgets.QAction(MainWindow)
        self.actionPreferences.setObjectName("actionPreferences")
        self.menuSettings.addAction(self.actionPreferences)
        self.menubar.addAction(self.menuSettings.menuAction())
        self.menubar.addAction(self.menuFile.menuAction())
        self.menubar.addAction(self.menuEdit.menuAction())

        self.retranslateUi(MainWindow)
        QtCore.QMetaObject.connectSlotsByName(MainWindow)

    def retranslateUi(self, MainWindow):
        _translate = QtCore.QCoreApplication.translate
        MainWindow.setWindowTitle(_translate("MainWindow", "NeoText"))
        self.menuSettings.setTitle(_translate("MainWindow", "Settings"))
        self.menuFile.setTitle(_translate("MainWindow", "File"))
        self.menuEdit.setTitle(_translate("MainWindow", "Edit"))
        self.actionPreferences.setText(_translate("MainWindow", "Preferences"))

Really not sure what could be going on here.

The code:

#!/usr/bin/python

"""
ZetCode PyQt5 tutorial

This program creates a submenu.

Author: Jan Bodnar
Website: zetcode.com
"""

import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QMainWindow, QAction, QMenu, QApplication


class Example(QMainWindow):

    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()

        self.initUI()

    def initUI(self):

        menubar = self.menuBar()
        fileMenu = menubar.addMenu('File')

        impMenu = QMenu('Import', self)
        impAct = QAction('Import mail', self)
        impMenu.addAction(impAct)

        newAct = QAction('New', self)

        fileMenu.addAction(newAct)
        fileMenu.addMenu(impMenu)

        self.setGeometry(300, 300, 300, 200)
        self.setWindowTitle('Submenu')
        self.show()


def main():
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    ex = Example()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

From the Zetcode website (https://zetcode.com/gui/pyqt5/menustoolbars/) works fine though, it creates a native menubar which is visible and works, so that pretty much rules it out from being an issue with MacOS.

Ard_Flamingo

Alright, I figured it out. Looks like it's half a MacOS thing and half my fault.

Menubars on MacOS are weird, like 'Settings' and 'Edit' are preserved and they're just wank. It turns out that (apparently) you can't have a 'Settings' menu being MacOS preserves it under a different menu and all that. It also seems that in order for a menu (at least the ones which are not preserved) to natively be displayed, they must have a sub menu. My mistake was that I only gave 'Settings' a sub menu but since it's preserved, it isn't allowed to exist. Weirdly, a few minutes after opening the application, 'Edit' pops up, but it isn't the menu I created, it's most likely the MacOS 'Edit' since the only sub menu under it is the emojis and symbols menu.

Weird, but hopefully this helps people out.

SGaist

From the looks of it, you have two issues:

Your menus have no text but File and Edit are special cases on macOS as well as Preferences
Your menus are empty

Ard_Flamingo

@SGaist

Yeah, weird though since empty menus are allowed when not using the native menu bar.

I changed 'Preferences' to something else in the 'Settings' menu and it displayed properly next to 'File.' Is it possible to put the 'Settings' menu into the "proper" MacOS place (under the [App name] menubar)?

mpergand

@Ard_Flamingo said in PyQt5 menubar.setNativeMenuBar(True) does nothing on MacOS Monterey:

Is it possible to put the 'Settings' menu into the "proper" MacOS place (under the [App name] menubar)?

See Menu Role

Ard_Flamingo

Thanks everyone. Everything is working now! Just have to ask, could 'Preferences' be any lower? I hate it being so high on the list.

mpergand

@Ard_Flamingo said in PyQt5 menubar.setNativeMenuBar(True) does nothing on MacOS Monterey:

could 'Preferences' be any lower? I hate it being so high on the list.

No it can't and this is the place where users expect it to be

SGaist

The position of Preferences is managed by macOS and not something you should try to change as it would break the macOS guidelines.