# My scroll bar arrows went AWOL **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 10, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410 "2014-01-10T00:55:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dee\_Troit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dee\_Troit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dee_Troit)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/1 "2014-01-10T00:55:03Z")
In Chrome. My preferred browser. The scroll bar is still there, but the up and down arrows at ether end are gone. I’ve looked in tools, restarted, and searched this site and the web, all to no avail. They’re still present and working in IE. Any one got a clue? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/2 "2014-01-10T02:14:30Z")
They aren’t needed. The arrows are a terrible way to scroll – they only display the next line of data. Clicking on the scroll bar itself displays the next screen of data (as does pressing the spacebar). It always was a pet peeve of mine that people would work hard to put their cursor on the little down arrow and then go down a single line per click when there were far better ways to do it. Removing the arrows is a big improvement. ---
**Author:** ![Mother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@Mother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mother)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/3 "2014-01-10T02:17:32Z")
I had the same trouble, ended up going to Chrome extensions and getting Ubuntu light-themes scroll bars. Still looks different, but at least the arrows are back. **Reality Chuck,** I’m too stuck in my ways and must have my arrows. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/4 "2014-01-10T04:35:28Z")
Mine did that recently, it was because the third-party skin on my browser was updated to a version without them. I never use the arrows, but the other graphical updates were also ugly, so I went back a version. ---
**Author:** ![Dee\_Troit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dee\_Troit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dee_Troit)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/5 "2014-01-10T05:39:48Z")
I’m aware of several means of scrolling the screen, and use the one that’s most convenient for the task at hand. I’m not asking how to scroll. I miss the arrows. I would like them back. Was this the result of a Chrome update? What is a third party skin? Sounds nasty. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/6 "2014-01-10T06:14:36Z")
A third party skin is a graphical update somebody made (someone who is not associated directly with the browser maintainers) that you can use if you wish. In my case I use [FT Deepdark](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ft-deepdark/) on Firefox. As you don’t know what that means, it’s probably not the cause of your missing arrows. Indeed, it appears to be [a common problem](http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/oALMlQeYnG4) that is yet to be addressed by Google. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/7 "2014-01-10T14:19:53Z")
> [@Dee\_Troit](#): > > I’m aware of several means of scrolling the screen, and use the one that’s most convenient for the task at hand. I’m not asking how to scroll. > I miss the arrows. I would like them back. > Was this the result of a Chrome update? > What is a third party skin? Sounds nasty. But you get the same effect by simply clicking on the scroll bars. No need for the arrows. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/8 "2014-01-15T23:41:27Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > But you get the same effect by simply clicking on the scroll bars. No need for the arrows. You said yourself they’re different. The arrows scroll one line or so, the scrollbar pages down. Sometimes I only want to scroll a little bit, just like sometimes I want to scroll to the very bottom or sometimes I want to scroll three lines. Most often this is a case of making long blocks of text easier to visually track (since paging down can cause me to lose my spot in the paragraph). It’s possible to use the arrow keys or a mousewheel for similar functionality, but the arrows are a useful tradition as well. I really hope this was just a bug and not a deliberate feature removal. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/9 "2014-01-16T01:12:26Z")
> [@Dee\_Troit](#): > > Was this the result of a Chrome update? This one. The latest Chrome update changed the scrollbar to one with a different look and no arrows. Get used to it, install a skin, or switch browsers. Google is totally unresponsive to backlash from their UI changes (see GMail), so there’s approximately zero chance that the arrows will be restored. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/10 "2014-01-16T02:20:59Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > This one. The latest Chrome update changed the scrollbar to one with a different look and no arrows. > > Get used to it, install a skin, or switch browsers. Google is totally unresponsive to backlash from their UI changes (see GMail), so there’s approximately zero chance that the arrows will be restored. Maybe it’s not completely hopeless. A Googler said they’ve heard the feedback and will at least consider it: [http://productforums.google.com/d/msg/chrome/oALMlQeYnG4/bZhDlzyXGFwJ](http://productforums.google.com/d/msg/chrome/oALMlQeYnG4/bZhDlzyXGFwJ) ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_from\_CB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/278dde/32.png) [@Alex\_from\_CB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_from_CB)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/11 "2014-01-17T20:30:56Z")
I also went to Ubunta for the fix. Arrows returned except in my bookmarks. here… [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ubuntu-light-themes-scrol/mikdfeaeaecoffpjoodiihgejnbfigln](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ubuntu-light-themes-scrol/mikdfeaeaecoffpjoodiihgejnbfigln) Added that (downloaded) extension and I’ve got arrows again. Click the 3 horizontal lines in the upper right corner, then click tools, then click extension, find ubunta and turn it on. Neither the spacebar nor clicking the scrollbar moves the page a space per click. It moves a whole page. Don’t want that. However, the up and down arrows on the number pad part of my keyboard moves the page one line per click. ---
**Author:** ![Rama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ccd318/32.png) [@Rama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rama)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/12 "2014-01-17T22:05:13Z")
The last update added a toolbar at the bottom of the Windows 8 Chrome app with some of the Google apps to mimic Chrome OS (and make sure we use their apps to the fullest extent). The new scroll bar was made to match the new design. I never used the arrows but I don’t see the point of deleting them. Maybe simplicity? ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/13 "2014-01-18T12:15:37Z")
Never realised that they were missing until I saw this thread and opened Chromium to check. Very rarely use them 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/14 "2014-01-19T14:25:54Z")
It seems like a side effect of the change is that I lost another scroll feature. I used to be able to drag the scroll bar up or down a bit to find something else on the page, and then, while still holding the mouse button down, I could move the pointer away from the scroll bar. It would snap back to the original location. I use this alot - it let’s me re-read an earlier comment in a thread, for instance, without having to remember where I was. The snap back feature no longer works for me. Has anyone else experienced this? Any of the plugins help? I’ll go through and try some of them when I have some down time, if no one happens to have an easy answer for me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/15 "2014-01-29T01:15:42Z")
The arrows are back on the Chrome dev channel. They’ll probably make it back to the Stable channel soon. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/16 "2014-01-29T03:19:29Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > The arrows are back on the Chrome dev channel. They’ll probably make it back to the Stable channel soon. How do you get the dev channel version? (Besides google…that would be too easy…) ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/17 "2014-01-29T04:41:48Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > How do you get the dev channel version? > (Besides google…that would be too easy…) [http://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel](http://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel) But I wouldn’t suggest it. Dev randomly crashes a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/18 "2014-01-31T03:30:49Z")
I can’t live without the scroll arrows. Say what you want about the superiority of the slider-thingy, but I hate it. The amount of scroll per movement of the slider is different on all the pages. When I need to scroll, I have to drive my mouse to a different area of the screen each time, taking my eyes off what I am reading. The slider suckity-suck-sucks and I rarely use it. But WHY force us to do things one specific way? I should be able to customize the bejeezus out of my browser. Add the scroll arrows! Delete the Scroll slider! I disowned Chrome. I installed Firefox. Firefox won’t load my [sites.google.com](http://sites.google.com) pages. I uninstalled Firefox. Now I am using Internet Explorer like a _cave man_. A fricken CAVE MAN! I am this close to deciding to go 100% Google-free. Is it possible? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/19 "2014-01-31T04:26:24Z")
The latest iterations of IE aren’t that bad. I like the arrowless chrome. It fits with their sleeker modern design style and I never use them. There are loads of ways to navigate pages. The up and down arrowkeys, pageup and pagedown, clicking on the scroll bar, if you have a trackpad using two fingers to scroll up or down… ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2014, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410/20 "2014-01-31T04:34:48Z")
> [@Karen\_Lingel](#): > > I installed Firefox. Firefox won’t load my [sites.google.com](http://sites.google.com) pages. I uninstalled Firefox. I use Firefox almost exclusively. I hadn’t heard of [sites.google.com](http://sites.google.com), but the browser connected to a Google page where the user logs in, so the problem must be with your computer. Google is Firefox’s sugar daddy, so I doubt Firefox would block [sites.google.com](http://sites.google.com). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-scroll-bar-arrows-went-awol/678410.md?page=2)