diff --git a/client/ui/assets/netbird-menu-22.png b/client/ui/assets/netbird-menu-22.png
deleted file mode 100644
index 87c6b5995..000000000
Binary files a/client/ui/assets/netbird-menu-22.png and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/client/ui/icons_menu_darwin.go b/client/ui/icons_menu_darwin.go
index 464e67096..29fe2d894 100644
--- a/client/ui/icons_menu_darwin.go
+++ b/client/ui/icons_menu_darwin.go
@@ -4,20 +4,22 @@ package main
 
 import _ "embed"
 
-// 22x22 menu-row icons used on macOS. Apple's HIG recommends an 18–22 px
-// glyph for NSMenuItem leading images; 22 sits at the top of that range
-// and matches the visual weight of the surrounding row text. Windows
-// ships a 16x16 variant (Win32 SM_CXMENUCHECK slot) and Linux a 24x24
-// variant (GTK menu row supports the larger range) — see the sibling
-// icons_menu_*.go files.
+// 22x22 status dot icons used on macOS. Apple's HIG recommends an
+// 18–22 px glyph for NSMenuItem leading images; 22 matches the visual
+// weight of the surrounding row text. Windows ships a 16x16 variant
+// (Win32 SM_CXMENUCHECK slot) and Linux a 24x24 variant (GTK menu row
+// supports the larger range) — see the sibling icons_menu_*.go files.
+//
+// iconMenuNetbird is intentionally empty on macOS. NSMenuItem.setImage
+// stretches the row height to the leading image's pixel size, which
+// makes the About row taller than the unadorned rows above and below
+// it regardless of the PNG size we ship. The brand mark is rendered
+// only on Windows and Linux (see those platforms' icons_menu_*.go
+// files); on macOS the About row stays text-only — the tray icon
+// itself already supplies the brand presence.
 //
-// Regenerate the brand mark from assets/svg/netbird-menu.svg (vector
-// source — re-rendering keeps the strokes crisp at every target size):
-//   inkscape assets/svg/netbird-menu.svg -o netbird-menu-22.png -w 22 -h 22 \
-//     --export-background-opacity=0
 // Status dots are downscaled from the 24x24 originals with ImageMagick.
 
-//go:embed assets/netbird-menu-22.png
 var iconMenuNetbird []byte
 
 //go:embed assets/netbird-menu-dot-connected-22.png
diff --git a/client/ui/tray.go b/client/ui/tray.go
index f28aa4a83..62a75d171 100644
--- a/client/ui/tray.go
+++ b/client/ui/tray.go
@@ -383,7 +383,11 @@ func (t *Tray) buildMenu() *application.Menu {
 
 	aboutLabel := t.loc.T("tray.menu.about")
 	about := menu.AddSubmenu(aboutLabel)
-	if aboutItem := menu.FindByLabel(aboutLabel); aboutItem != nil {
+	// iconMenuNetbird is empty on macOS — NSMenuItem.setImage stretches
+	// the row to the leading image's pixel size, and the result looks
+	// out of place next to the unadorned rows above and below. Skip the
+	// brand mark there and keep the row text-only.
+	if aboutItem := menu.FindByLabel(aboutLabel); aboutItem != nil && len(iconMenuNetbird) > 0 {
 		aboutItem.SetBitmap(iconMenuNetbird)
 	}
 	about.Add(t.loc.T("tray.menu.github")).OnClick(func(*application.Context) {