This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Menu Bar

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

jetlag0515
jetlag0515
more options

Until recently, hovering my mouse at the top of the screen would unhide the normally hidden Firefox menu bar (File, Edit, View). This seems to have changed with a recent Firefox update (I'm currently at v99.0 for Ubuntu). Using the ALT key to hide/unhide the menu bar works but interferes with a desktop keyboard shortcut which also uses that key. I can use "Customize" to have the menu bar display all the time but would prefer to restore the previous behavior. How can I do this?

Until recently, hovering my mouse at the top of the screen would unhide the normally hidden Firefox menu bar (File, Edit, View). This seems to have changed with a recent Firefox update (I'm currently at v99.0 for Ubuntu). Using the ALT key to hide/unhide the menu bar works but interferes with a desktop keyboard shortcut which also uses that key. I can use "Customize" to have the menu bar display all the time but would prefer to restore the previous behavior. How can I do this?

All Replies (5)

Zian
Zian
more options

Although I do not have a fix for auto-unhiding the menu bar on mouseover, it is possible to change your keyboard shortcuts so that interference does not occur when using the Alt key. 1. Go to Settings (Ubuntu App) -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts 2. Search for "alt" in the search bar 3. Change the shortcut that conflicts with Firefox's Alt key

Terry
Terry
more options

Are you referring to full-screen mode? If not, starting at the top, what tool bars do you have?

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

See also this pref on the about:config page.

  • about:config => ui.key.menuAccessKeyFocuses = false

I don't think that Firefox from the Mozilla server has ever had the feature to unhide the menu bar by hovering the mouse at the top of the screen. Full screen mode does this for the Navigation Toolbar and the Tab bar. This might be a Ubuntu feature of the Unity desktop that uses its own menu bar instead of the built-in Firefox menu bar.

Note that Firefox from the Ubuntu repositories might behave differently.

jetlag0515
jetlag0515 Question owner
more options

Thanks guys for your suggestions.

Zian- I think your solution may be the best workaround if I cannot somehow return things to the way they were.

Terry- No, I'm not in full-screen mode although that behavior (mouse cursor at the top of the screen) is what I'm trying to replicate to show the menu bar on demand. No toolbars used, just the nav and url bars. 3 extensions installed but I ruled them out by verifying that nothing changes in Safe mode (now called Troubleshoot mode).

cor-el- I did try toggling that pref back and forth from true to false with no discernible effect. My Firefox originally came as an included component of Ubuntu 13.04 (so probably Firefox version 20 or thereabouts) and had behaved as I described through numerous Ubuntu and Firefox updates. Not sure what might have changed recently. You bring up a good point and I will investigate to see if any recent Ubuntu/Unity updates might have caused the change.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Setting the pref to false should prevent Firefox from opening the Menu bar by merely pressing the Alt key, Alt+F and others should still work to access the menu bar.