Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Can I disable or remove the new sidebar that appeared today with the latest update?

more options

I updated my desktop browser today and now there is an expandable sidebar at the left margin of the window showing tool icons for Tabs from other devices, History and Customize sidebar. I can see how to remove tool icons and how to expand or collapse sidebar but can I remove the sidebar completely? Is this an option? I prefer the old look with the browser web page content extending all the way to the left of the screen, without the narrow vertical sidebar.

I updated my desktop browser today and now there is an expandable sidebar at the left margin of the window showing tool icons for Tabs from other devices, History and Customize sidebar. I can see how to remove tool icons and how to expand or collapse sidebar but can I remove the sidebar completely? Is this an option? I prefer the old look with the browser web page content extending all the way to the left of the screen, without the narrow vertical sidebar.

Chosen solution

So, what I assume the solution they found was to change the behavior of the new sidebar button to hide the sidebar instead of the default of "expands and collapse" it.

Read this answer in context 👍 3

All Replies (20)

more options

Never mind, I figured it out! :)

Helpful?

more options

Suluhisho teule

So, what I assume the solution they found was to change the behavior of the new sidebar button to hide the sidebar instead of the default of "expands and collapse" it.

Modified by tony289

Helpful?

more options

tony289 said

So, what I assume the solution they found was to change the behavior of the new sidebar button to hide the sidebar instead of the default of "expands and collapse" it.

Yes, you have got it right. Since I changed the radio button to show/hide instead of expand/collapse now the sidebar disappears when I click on that icon in the toolbar. Sorry for not sharing the info but glad you figured it out and thanks for posting the solution.

Modified by Ferrara

Helpful?

more options

I opened Firefox an hour ago to find this new Sidebar. I do not like it, and it is redundant. I already have History and Bookmarks at the very top of my browser.

I would like to have it gone, completely. I have tried the "chosen solution" but the Sidebar remains. I've tried everything I can think of, but the Sidebar remains. It appears to be immortal, and it's driving me insane.

I want it consigned to the Fires of Mordor. Help.

LOL

Modified by Bobby

Helpful?

more options

Bobby said

I opened Firefox an hour ago to find this new Sidebar. I do not like it, and it is redundant. I already have History and Bookmarks at the very top of my browser. I would like to have it gone, completely. I have tried the "chosen solution" but the Sidebar remains. I've tried everything I can think of, but the Sidebar remains. It appears to be immortal, and it's driving me insane. I want it consigned to the Fires of Mordor. Help. LOL

After you select the option to show/hide as shown in the screenshot by tony289 then you must click on the sidebar icon which appears in the top leftunder the tab heading and to the left of the back arrow, it toggles the sidebar to show or hide it.

Modified by Ferrara

Helpful?

more options

The thing that made it confusing for me is that maybe my theme made the bar all white so I could not see any of the icons inside it and I had to blindly click around in it until I found the options posted above. Making it collapse made it disappear, whew!

Helpful?

more options

What a piece of junk. After about 15 minutes of fumbling around (and reading some goofy "guides" I figured this our for myself. Hope the damned sidebar doesn't keep reappearing. What a dumb idea.

Helpful?

more options

For pictorial reference:

Helpful?

more options

Ferrara said

Bobby said

I opened Firefox an hour ago to find this new Sidebar. I do not like it, and it is redundant. I already have History and Bookmarks at the very top of my browser. I would like to have it gone, completely. I have tried the "chosen solution" but the Sidebar remains. I've tried everything I can think of, but the Sidebar remains. It appears to be immortal, and it's driving me insane. I want it consigned to the Fires of Mordor. Help. LOL

After you select the option to show/hide as shown in the screenshot by tony289 then you must click on the sidebar icon which appears in the top leftunder the tab heading and to the left of the back arrow, it toggles the sidebar to show or hide it.

That did it! Thank you very much.

Helpful?

more options

Who's bright idea was this!!

Helpful?

more options

You can remove this sidebar entirely by typing the following in the address bar, "about:config"

once your on the config page, in the search area inside the config page, type sidebar.

You should see a line called "sidebar.revamp", click on the value "true" and change it to "false".

Enjoy.

Helpful?

more options

patrickanthonyolson dixo

You can remove this sidebar entirely by typing the following in the address bar, "about:config" once your on the config page, in the search area inside the config page, type sidebar. You should see a line called "sidebar.revamp", click on the value "true" and change it to "false". Enjoy.

God bless you, good sir! :) That's the only solution that helped to remove this annoying sidebar.

Helpful?

more options

lbtrader said

Who's bright idea was this!!

I agree 100000000000%! Should have their coding privileges permanently revoked!

Helpful?

more options

Pavel Avraamov said

patrickanthonyolson dixo

You can remove this sidebar entirely by typing the following in the address bar, "about:config" once your on the config page, in the search area inside the config page, type sidebar. You should see a line called "sidebar.revamp", click on the value "true" and change it to "false". Enjoy.

God bless you, good sir! :) That's the only solution that helped to remove this annoying sidebar.

YES! It worked, but why in the first place. This is the stupidest thing ever Mozilla!

Helpful?

more options

jimson1 said

What a piece of junk. After about 15 minutes of fumbling around (and reading some goofy "guides" I figured this our for myself. Hope the damned sidebar doesn't keep reappearing. What a dumb idea.

It should be in a cesspit where it belongs with the rest of it's kind!

Helpful?

more options

Please revert this "feature".

Helpful?

more options

Awful feature. Would be better left hidden by default.

Helpful?

more options

patrickanthonyolson said

You can remove this sidebar entirely by typing the following in the address bar, "about:config" once your on the config page, in the search area inside the config page, type sidebar. You should see a line called "sidebar.revamp", click on the value "true" and change it to "false". Enjoy.

THIS.

I cannot stress this enough, THIS.

I did the 'collapse' option for the button, then removed the stupid button at the top, and I don't know if it was checking history or what but the sidebar popped up again and this time I couldn't close it because the toggle button wasn't there. There's no setting to perm disable the sidebar until I checked the config...


WHO THE ABSOLUTE F___ THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?

Modified by appuser.ant

Helpful?

more options

Hi All, Mozilla is gathering feedback about your likes/dislikes/requests for the updated sidebar on Mozilla Connect in the following thread:

Sidebar and vertical tabs: release channel experimentation

To summarize where we are:

(1) Choosing Your Experience

Currently, users can switch between the new sidebar experience (vertical button bar on the left) and the classic experience using the sidebars.revamp preference in about:config (Configuration Editor for Firefox) as mentioned earlier in this thread.

Note: This is likely to be a temporary option until the bugs are worked out. It is important to request the features you want to make this new experience work better for you. See the above Mozilla Connect link.

(2) Closing/Hiding the new Sidebar completely

If you have not used Firefox's classic sidebar to access Bookmarks, History, Synced tabs, or add-on content such as tab groups, vertical tabs, etc., and you don't have an interest in that now, then having an updated navigation feature like the vertical button bar probably is not useful for you at this time.

In Firefox 133, to completely hide the new sidebar including the vertical button bar, there is a two-step process (as discussed in this thread):

(A) Click the gear button at the bottom of the button bar and set the Sidebars toolbar button to show/hide instead of expand/collapse

(B) Click the Sidebars toolbar button to hide the sidebar

It would be logical and useful to have a close/"X" button on the vertical button bar, since that is where most people would look for it. I don't know whether anyone has requested that yet, but it would be a good thing to mention in the Mozilla Connect thread if you are heading that way.


For reference in configuring the Sidebars toolbar button:

Helpful?

more options

This update was very invasive and annoying, I didn't ask for it and the process for deactivated it was complex. Why? This is a kind of thing that Microsoft does...

Had to enter to the cog, change behaviour to "hide" and not "expand" and then had to enter to the Customize Toolbar, to remove the button.

Maybe in the future just let me know that the new feature exists? Not activate it immediately

Helpful?

  1. 1
  2. 2
Uliza swali

You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.