Removing location menu bar in OS X

I have the location menu bar entry which looks like an compass arrow pointing north east.

This is not a third party application but a privacy service setting. I can usually move and remove entries with dragging using the Command key, but this doesn't work on this particular entry.

Disable Location Services completely

You can try to disable Location Services from System Preferences » Security & Privacy.

The following methods seem to work in OS X 10.10, but do not seem to work under macOS Sierra, due to System Integrity Protection constraints:

Remove the menu bar entry – Method 1

Other than that, if you still want to use location services, but don't want to see the menu bar, you can open a Finder window, press Cmd-G and enter the following location:

/System/Library/LaunchAgents

From this folder, move the file com.apple.locationmenu.plist somewhere else, e.g. your home folder. Then, reboot. To restore this, place the file back, and reboot.

Remove the menu bar entry – Method 2

Alternatively, run the following in a Terminal:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.locationmenu.plist

Note: don't use sudo here; that will fail. This will unload and store the setting. To reverse this, run the same command with load instead of unload.

OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 appears to have a UI menu approach to disabling the menu bar entry through System Preferences, while retaining the System Services use of Location Services.

Open System Preferences and choose Security and Privacy.

Within Security and Privacy choose the Privacy tab/button and choose Location Services in the sidebar on the left. A checkbox and list should be seen to the right but will not be editable until these settings are unlocked to make changes. Click the lock icon in the lower left corner and enter your system password.

This should enable an editable checkbox to "Enable Location Services" and a list of apps that use this to determine your location.

Look for System Services in this list and click the Details... button

This launches a modal dialog with a checkbox at the button with the label "Show location icon in menu bar when System Services request your location"

Uncheck this checkbox to be able to remove the icon from the menubar while retaining the ability for Spotlight Suggestions to determine your location (if that checkbox further above has been checked). You should be able to repeat this for other apps as necessary.

This feature seems useful for keeping Location Services active but allowing a temporary indicator/alert/reminder (for privacy notification reasons) in the menu bar for new apps that use or send Location Service data.