How to Always Show Menu Bar on iPad with iPadOS 27
One of the more useful new small features available to iPad users in iPadOS 27 is the ability to always show the menu bar when using iPad. With this new setting toggled on, the menu bar will always be visible at the top of the screen on the iPad, much like the MacOS default. You can interact with the iPadOS menu bar at any time when it’s always visible like this, whether that is using touch input, or a trackpad, or mouse.
Having the iPadOS menu bar always visible is particularly useful for iPad users who use their iPad more like a typical computer, whether that’s with the iPad Magic Keyboard in semi-laptop mode, or in a desk workstation setup with a stand, external keyboard, and a a mouse or trackpad. This is just one of various new features available in iPadOS 27 (and don’t forget the handy new iOS 27 features are shared with iPadOS 27 too), and it’s a nice workflow option for many users.
Assuming you have already installed iPadOS 27 onto your iPad, here’s how to enable the always visible menu bar.
How to Show the iPad Menu Bar in iPadOS 27, All The Time
- Open the “Settings” app on iPad
- Go to “Multitasking & Gestures”
- Locate the setting for “Automatically Show And Hide Menu Bar” and toggle this OFF
And yes, you’re toggling a feature OFF to enable the always visible menu bar on iPadOS.
The change is immediate and you’ll instantly see the menu bar visible on the top of the screen.
This is different from the default iPadOS menu bar behavior, which is to automatically hide the menu bar, unless you click, tap, or swipe to the top of the screen when the iPad is in horizontal landscape mode.
And if you’re new to the iPad menu bar in general, but you have a familiarity with MacOS, then you’ll find the iPadOS menu bar is just like the Mac menu bar, able to perform routine actions for file management, editing, window management, and access app-specific features. And much like the Mac version, the iPadOS menu bar also is a helpful reference for learning useful keyboard shortcuts since those are shown alongside the menu items.
If you set the menu bar to always be visible and you also use windowed-app mode on iPad, you will find the user interface and user experience are both very much like MacOS, as you can see in the screenshot below:
By the way, if you’re an iPad user and you don’t yet own an iPad Magic Keyboard, they’re perhaps the single best accessory for the device and well worth adding to your
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