How to Edit Touch Bar on Mac | Add, Drag & Delete Buttons

The Touch Bar on a MacBook Pro is fully customizable through System Settings, letting you add, remove, or rearrange its buttons in under a minute.

The Touch Bar on a 2016–2019 MacBook Pro can do a lot more than its default row of buttons. Learning how to edit Touch Bar on Mac takes about a minute once you know where the settings live, and this guide covers every option Apple offers — from the global Control Strip to per-app customizations. If your MacBook Pro has the Touch Bar hardware, the tools are already built into macOS.

Which MacBook Pros Have the Touch Bar?

The Touch Bar is hardware-exclusive to 2016 through 2019 MacBook Pro models — both the 13-inch and 15-inch versions with the butterfly keyboard. Apple dropped the Touch Bar starting with the 2020 MacBook Pro lineup and replaced it with a physical F1–F12 row. If you own a 2021 or later MacBook Pro, the Touch Bar settings won’t appear because the hardware simply isn’t there. No software update can add it.

Editing the Touch Bar on a MacBook Pro: Where Settings Live Today

On macOS Monterey (12.0) and later — including Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia — the Touch Bar customization menu lives inside System Settings. The path changed from the old System Preferences name in earlier OS versions, which catches a lot of people off guard.

Open the settings this way:

1. Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner.
2. Select System Settings.
3. Click Keyboard in the sidebar (scroll down if you don’t see it).
4. Click Touch Bar Settings.

That screen is your command center for everything the Touch Bar does. Apple’s own Touch Bar customization guide confirms the same menu structure. On macOS Big Sur and earlier, the path is Apple menu > System Preferences > Keyboard > Touch Bar Settings, but the interface looks slightly different.

How to Add, Remove, and Rearrange Buttons

The Customize Control Strip button opens a drag-and-drop editor where you build the button row that appears in the Touch Bar alongside app controls. This is the main way to personalize the bar globally.

1. In Touch Bar Settings, click Customize Control Strip. A grid of available buttons appears on the screen, and the Touch Bar itself enters a jiggling edit mode.
2. Add a button: Drag any button from the on-screen grid down to the Control Strip. The bar accepts the button and the other buttons shift to make room.
3. Rearrange: Drag a button left or right within the strip to reorder it.
4. Remove: Drag a button from the strip up to the empty screen area — it disappears with a puff of animation.
5. Click Done on the screen, or tap Done in the Touch Bar itself, to save the layout.

The the buttons stop jiggling and your new layout stays put across all apps until you edit it again.

Here is the full list of buttons Apple makes available for the Control Strip:

Changing What the Touch Bar Shows

The Touch Bar Shows dropdown determines the primary view the bar defaults to. Your choice here changes the whole character of the Touch Bar.

• App Controls — Shows context-sensitive buttons for whatever app is in front. This is the default and the most useful for everyday work.
• Expanded Control Strip — Stretches your customized Control Strip buttons across the full bar. The app controls appear only when you tap the small grid icon on the left.
• F1, F2, etc. Keys — Turns the bar into a traditional function key row. You can still tap the fn key to temporarily swap views.
• Quick Actions — Shows automations and shortcuts from the Finder.
• Spaces — Displays your Mission Control spaces for quick switching.

Below that dropdown, three more toggles control the details: Show Control Strip keeps the familiar volume and brightness icons visible alongside app buttons; Show typing suggestions enables predictive text in the bar; and the Press and hold fn key to option lets you pick what happens when you hold the function key — showing the Control Strip, the F-keys, Quick Actions, or Spaces.

How Do You Customize App-Specific Controls?

Some applications let you customize their own Touch Bar buttons separately from the global Control Strip. Not all apps support this — only those that have a Customize Touch Bar option under the View menu.

1. Open the app (Safari, Photos, and Finder are good examples that support it).
2. In the menu bar at the top of the screen, click View.
3. Select Customize Touch Bar. A grid of available buttons for that specific app appears on the screen.
4. Drag buttons from the grid onto the Touch Bar, or drag them off to remove them, just like the Control Strip editor.
5. Click Done to save those app-specific customizations.

The the app’s buttons appear correctly every time you switch to that app. If the View menu doesn’t list Customize Touch Bar, that app doesn’t support it — no workaround exists within Apple’s native tools.

Here are the most common problems people run into when customizing the Touch Bar, and how to fix each one:

Making the Touch Bar Work for You

Three settings make the biggest difference in day-to-day use. Set the Touch Bar Shows option to App Controls so the bar adapts to whatever you’re doing. Add the Sleep and Screen Lock buttons to the Control Strip if you frequently step away from your desk. And for anyone who codes or uses terminal-based tools, add the apps you need F-keys in through System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Function Keys so the function row appears automatically inside those apps. That combination turns the Touch Bar from a novelty into something you’ll actually reach for.