• Opening Device Compatibility no longer crashes — with the Apple Silicon or Intel installers (-arm64.dmg / -x86_64.dmg), opening Settings → General → Device Compatibility quit FanBar immediately. Those builds looked for the bundled model and compatibility data in the wrong place; this is fixed. The universal installer was not affected (#86)
• Invalid fan readings no longer cause a quit — when the hardware reports an invalid fan speed (such as NaN or an out-of-range value), FanBar and its fan-control service now treat it as a failed read instead of quitting

Notes

• After updating, FanBar re-registers its fan-control service automatically. If macOS asks, allow FanBar again in System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions

• Custom cooling presets — alongside the four built-in presets you can now create up to six of your own, each with a name, icon and temperature curve. Start from any preset’s curve, then duplicate, rename, change the icon, delete, or pin it to the menu panel like a built-in preset. Deleting the preset in use switches to Balanced and keeps curve control running (#80)
• Russian interface — Settings → General → Interface language now offers «Русский», and System picks it when the Mac uses Russian. The menu panel, settings window, status and error messages, and the desktop widget are translated (#83)

Fixes

• Mode buttons in the English menu panel no longer truncate — the Control mode buttons now size to their labels and the automatic button reads “Auto”, so labels such as “Balanced” and “Performance” show in full (#83)

Notes

• After updating, FanBar re-registers its fan-control service automatically. If macOS asks, allow FanBar again in System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions

• Device compatibility check — a new Device Compatibility section in Settings opens a resizable window that groups this Mac’s sensor readings and fan-control capabilities, and keeps “no data”, “control request accepted” and “confirmed working by hand” apart. Mac models are shown by name, and Macs without a built-in battery show battery temperature as not applicable instead of not detected (#71, #73)
• Control test — test fixed speed and smart cooling in one step: fans are briefly sped up, the mode is read back, and macOS automatic control is restored, also when you close the window or cancel. The test only starts from automatic control, and results are kept on this Mac per version (#71, #74)
• Compatibility reports (optional) — you can submit the results anonymously to report.getfanbar.com to show which models work. Reports contain only the model, chip, versions and capability states, never serial numbers, user names or temperature history. You choose whether a report is public; it expires after 90 days and can be withdrawn at any time with the credential kept on this Mac (#71, #74)
• Diagnostic logs — when temperatures are missing or approval or control fails, you can upload diagnostics that only maintainers can see, or just export them locally. They include sensor formats and raw values, launch, approval, connection and control events from the last 24 hours, sanitized crash summaries, and the build of the running fan-control service, so an old service still running after an update is identified. If FanBar won’t open, run the included FanBar-Diagnostics.command to export them (#71, #75)

Fixes

• Macs that report no fans — the menu no longer shows an empty fan panel and mode buttons, and explains that control is not verified (#71)
• Occasional cooling timeouts no longer overwrite test results — a single smart-cooling write timing out, for example around sleep, no longer turns a passed control test into a failure (#73)
• Cancelling the control test — now reported as cancelled rather than as a failure (#74)

Notes

• After updating, FanBar re-registers its fan-control service automatically. If macOS asks, allow FanBar again in System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions

• High CPU with the stacked readout — with the stacked temperature/fan-speed menu bar mode, FanBar redrew its status item nonstop and used 40–60% CPU even with every animation turned off. That mode now idles at about 2% CPU (#64)

Improvements

• Lower memory use — the menu panel is now built on first open and released a minute after it closes, the Settings window is released when closed, and the in-app copy of a custom app icon is sized for where it is drawn. Idle memory after launch drops from about 61 MB to about 27 MB (#64)

• Selectable menu bar icons — six drawn fan glyphs (Swirl, Ringed, Bold, Propeller, Guard, Outline), chosen in Settings → Appearance; Swirl is the default. Glyphs are optically aligned so they read the same size and weight, and manual control shows a solid hub rather than relying on tint alone (#58)
• Stacked temperature and fan speed — a new menu bar mode stacks the two readings, halving the status item’s width (#57, #58)
• Traditional Chinese and Japanese — new interface languages, including the widget; the System language option picks Traditional Chinese for Hant/TW/HK/MO and Japanese for ja (#58)
• Alternative app icons — an icon picker in Settings with Materials and Styles groups (#56)
• Reorganized Settings — the Menu Bar pane is now Appearance; the alert temperature uses an inline stepper; version, manual check and auto-check share one row; Launch at Login moves into Settings; menu presets use system checkboxes, with better keyboard and VoiceOver access (#56)
• Menu bar preview and choice styling — the Menu Bar card in Appearance shows the mock menu bar preview again, following the chosen icon and the stacked mode; display modes now highlight the current choice instead of dividing every option (#62)

Fixes

• Menu bar icon distortion — fixed the fan icon’s proportions; rotation no longer clips on non-Retina displays (#51, #55)
• Background item icon — fixed FanBar’s small icon rendering incorrectly in the Allow in the Background list, e.g. on a Mac mini 2014 (#50, #54)

Thanks

Thanks to TRAVIS (bilibili) and Taolela (Xiaohongshu) for reporting issues, and to @MrChenSH for suggesting the stacked layout.

• Curve anchors can be dragged past their neighbors — dragging an anchor on the curve is no longer blocked by adjacent anchors; the curve re-sorts by temperature, the anchor stays selected and keeps its speed, and landing on an occupied temperature shifts it by one degree (#47)

• Older Intel Macs (e.g. Mac mini 2014) now work — Macs without an F0Md/F0md mode key no longer fail with SMC operation F0Md failed (65668); manual mode uses the FS! bitmask instead, and a clear message is shown when neither exists (#40)
• Manual fan mode survives sleep/wake, and GPU temperature reads again — the auto-restore timer pauses during sleep, the current mode is re-applied after an XPC timeout, and “Never” no longer reverts after 30 minutes (#41)

Security

• Hardened the privileged helper — XPC callers are verified by audit token instead of PID, and non-finite or negative RPM values are rejected (#42)

• Stopped fans no longer look like they’re spinning — at 0 RPM the panel’s fan graphic stays still and its airflow streaks are hidden; the desktop widget no longer shows airflow either (#34)

• Default automatic-restore duration — Settings → General → Fan Control adds “Restore automatic control” (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour or never), used each time you switch to a manual mode. Changes in the menu apply to that session only and reset once control returns to macOS (#32)
• Panel animation can be turned off — Settings → Menu Bar → Animation adds a “Panel animation” switch. When off, the fans stop spinning and mode changes don’t animate while readings still update live, further lowering CPU use (#32)

Improvements

• Smoother control mode switching — the selection glides between modes, the strip no longer jolts when leaving Automatic, and all mode labels share one size (#32)
• Fixed RPM selection — the current RPM in the Fixed picker, including a custom value, is highlighted with the same background as the control strip (#32)
• Reorganized settings — General is regrouped into Fan Control, Notifications and FanBar; a healthy control service collapses to a single status row; rows, controls and headers share one rhythm; “Check for Updates…” moves beside the version (#32)
• “Hardware safety limits” is renamed “Restore automatic control” to better describe what it does

• Custom fixed RPM — the Fixed menu adds “Custom RPM…”, with a slider for quick changes and a field for an exact value (e.g. 3000 RPM). The allowed range comes from this Mac’s fan hardware limits and is always shown; values outside it can’t be applied. The last custom value is listed in the menu, and presets outside the hardware range are hidden (#26)
• Adjustable high-temperature alert — Settings → Notifications adds “Alert temperature”, configurable from 60–105°C (default 90°C). The row is collapsed by default and expands to a slider when clicked; the value applies when you release the slider, so dragging never triggers a stray notification

Improvements

• Much lower background resource use — fan animations fully pause while the menu bar panel is closed; the spinning menu bar icon only redraws when its image actually changes; system service status is no longer queried every 2 seconds; and the SSD temperature sensors are reused after the first discovery. In local measurement, CPU use with the panel closed dropped from about 20% to about 3% (with the spinning icon turned off) (#26)
• A tighter menu bar item — when showing temperature or fan speed, the item’s width is sized to the actual reading, removing the extra space around the icon and text

• Redesigned the settings window — a native preference-style toolbar (Cooling · Menu Bar · General), card-based preset selection, and one curve card with its temperature source, a live marker showing the target RPM, and a control-point inspector; advanced options (cooling buffer, max step) stay collapsed by default
• The first-run onboarding now surfaces the control-service permission — when it hasn’t been granted yet, a notice explains that adjusting cooling needs one-time permission and offers to enable it directly, instead of silently no-oping the first time a new user tries

Fixes

• Fix the temperature chart’s x-axis losing the hour across an hour boundary — the time format changed from mm:ss to HH:mm:ss
• Fix a straight line being drawn across sampling gaps left by sleep, a locked screen, or a relaunch, and the smoothing window blending readings from either side of the gap; the trace now breaks at the gap and smoothing stops at the boundary too. The last ten minutes of history are also persisted locally, so the chart no longer starts blank after relaunching
• Fix the settings window’s content visibly shifting when switching tabs — its scroller is now forced to overlay style, so the content lane’s width no longer depends on whether that tab happens to need scrolling

Thanks

• Thanks to Hisn0w for contributing the temperature chart fix

• Fix a blank “FanBar Settings” window appearing after clicking the menu bar icon — On recent macOS releases, an empty placeholder settings window opened at launch and came forward with the menu panel. The placeholder no longer appears, and reopening FanBar while it runs or pressing ⌘, opens the real settings window

Thanks

• Thanks to 倾藏 for reporting the issue

• Fix “control service did not respond” and fans spinning up then dropping back to 0 — Some Macs must unlock manual fan mode first, which can take longer than 3 seconds. FanBar gave up after 3 seconds and dropped the connection, which made the control service restore automatic fan control, so every switch failed. The wait now scales with the fan count and the longest unlock time, and quitting FanBar no longer waits on a slow reply
• Diagnostic logging for the control service — Each fan operation’s duration, underlying error, and unlock time are logged; view them with log show --predicate 'subsystem == "local.fanbar.helper"' --last 30m
• Fix the control-mode error overlapping its buttons — The buttons are hidden while the error is shown, long messages no longer overflow into neighboring sections, and the full text is available on hover and to VoiceOver
• Fix crowded settings tab icons on macOS 26 and later — Tab segments now use the system’s native sizing

• Fix intermittent crash on launch-at-login — When launchd started FanBar as a login item before the WindowServer connection was ready, creating an NSStatusItem too early inside SwiftUI’s App.init() hit an AppKit/SkyLight connection assertion and aborted, showing up as “crashes on launch, icon never appears”; status-item creation now waits for applicationDidFinishLaunching, which AppKit only calls once its own startup sequence has finished

• [codex] Add macOS desktop widget by @helson-lin in https://github.com/helson-lin/FanBar/pull/9

• Fix helper crash on exit — The helper trapped with SIGTRAP on SIGTERM/SIGINT (shutdown, sleep, reinstall, app quit) due to a Swift concurrency isolation assertion, skipping fan restore; the signal handler closures are now explicitly @Sendable so the shutdown path reliably restores automatic control

• Editable smart cooling curves — Settings opens on Cooling first: a smooth curve, draggable anchors, CPU / GPU / SSD sources, and 0% idle below the first knee
• One curve per panel preset — Silent, Balanced, Performance, and Extreme each store their own curve; choosing a preset in the menu applies that slot

Improvements

• Advanced controls stay folded — Anchor table, hysteresis, and per-step limits live under Advanced so the curve stays primary
• Settings window fits the display — Height is clamped to the visible screen and tall content scrolls instead of clipping
• Architecture-specific installers — Apple Silicon, Intel, and Universal DMGs; Sparkle updates still use the Universal image

Fixes

• Failed hardware apply does not switch presets — The visible preset and curve commit only after the helper write succeeds
• Falling hysteresis holds across equal samples — Repeated cooler readings keep RPM; output never rises while cooling
• Stale helper invalidations are ignored — An older connection cannot clear its replacement

• Menu bar icon follows fan activity — spins with live RPM, coasts to a stop when idle, blinks on switch failure
• Settings tab navigation — three native toolbar tabs (Menu Bar / Cooling / General), window height adapts per tab
• Grouped settings cards — native macOS grouped style with card containers, section footers for explanatory text

Improvements

• Larger menu bar icon — 12pt → 14pt; rotation and static frames share the same render path, no size jump on transition

Fixes

• Animation ended too early — now continuously driven by live fan RPM instead of XPC call duration

• macOS 11 and later
• Apple Silicon arm64 and Intel x86_64 builds
• Improved English control-mode layout
• Fan speed, temperature charts, smart cooling, and automatic restore

Download the build that matches your Mac, and use the accompanying SHA-256 file to verify the download.