[Tip] Always Show or Hide Bookmarks Toolbar on New Tab Page and Everywhere in Mozilla Firefox

When you upgrade or install newer versions of Mozilla Firefox web browser (version 85 and later), you’ll notice that by default the Bookmarks Toolbar (or favorites toolbar) shows on New Tab Page (NTP) only. As soon as you open a webpage, the Bookmarks Toolbar disappears from Firefox.

This is a new feature or functionality introduced in newer Firefox versions. Now you can force Bookmarks Toolbar to always show, always hide or show on New Tab Page only.

In older versions of Firefox, you could either enable or disable the Bookmarks Toolbar on all pages. Users were given only 2 choices: either show Bookmarks Toolbar everywhere or hide Bookmarks Toolbar on all pages.

In newer versions, Mozilla team has given more control over appearance of Bookmarks Toolbar.

Now there might be 3 types of users:

• Users who want to always show Bookmarks Toolbar everywhere (new tab page as well as all web pages) in Firefox.
• Users who don’t want to show Bookmarks Toolbar anywhere (not even new tab page) in Firefox.
• Users who want to show Bookmarks Toolbar on New Tab page only (default behavior) in Firefox.

That’s why Mozilla team implemented this new behavior in newer versions of Firefox browser. Now you can decide where you want to show Bookmarks Toolbar.

Following steps will help you in controlling Bookmarks Toolbar appearance in Firefox browser:

Always Show or Always Hide Bookmarks Toolbar Everywhere in Firefox:

It’s actually very simple. You can press Ctrl+Shift+B keys together and it’ll toggle Bookmarks Toolbar appearance. If Bookmarks Toolbar is hidden and you press Ctrl+Shift+B keys together, the toolbar will appear and will always show on all pages. If Bookmarks Toolbar is enabled and you press Ctrl+Shift+B keys together, the toolbar will disappear and will always hide on all pages.

Show Bookmarks Toolbar on New Tab Page Only in Firefox:

Right-click on empty area on Bookmarks Toolbar or right-click on titlebar and you’ll get Bookmarks Toolbar menu option. Now you can select Always Show, Never Show or Only Show on New Tab options to always show, always hide or show bookmarks toolbar on new tab page only, respectively.

Restore Classic Behavior of Bookmarks Toolbar in Mozilla Firefox:

It’s a bonus tip. Actually there is a hidden preference/flag to enable/disable new functionality of Bookmarks Toolbar in Mozilla Firefox web browser.

If you remember, we told you about this secret preference in following tutorial last year:

[Firefox Tip] Enable Hidden Secret Menu Option to Show Bookmarks Toolbar on New Tab Page Only

The same preference is still present in newer versions of Firefox and we can modify the preference to disable new behavior and restore classic behavior of Bookmarks Toolbar in Firefox.

Once you restore classic Bookmarks Toolbar behavior, you’ll only get 2 choice: either show or hide Bookmarks Toolbar in Firefox as shown in following screenshot:

Following steps will help you in restoring classic Bookmarks Toolbar options in Firefox:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox and type about:config in the addressbar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “Accept the Risk and Continue” button. It’ll open Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page.

2. Now type 2020 in Search filter box and look for following preference in the window:

The preference value is set to true by default, which means the new visibility options developed for Bookmarks Toolbar are activated and enabled in Firefox.

3. To disable new behavior and restore classic options of Bookmarks Toolbar, double-click on browser.toolbars.bookmarks.2h2020 preference and set it to false. Alternatively, you can click on the Toggle icon given next to the preference name.

4. You might need to restart Firefox to apply changes. If you have opened multiple tabs and you don’t want to lose them, you can restart Firefox without losing tabs using methods given in following tutorial:

[Tip] How to Restart Mozilla Firefox Without Losing Tabs

That’s it. Restart Firefox browser and right-click on titlebar or tab bar and you’ll see old classic Bookmarks Toolbar option restored in context menu.

PS: As we told in above mentioned tutorial, when we select Always, Never or Only on New Tab options given in Bookmarks Toolbar menu, it modifies following preference/flag in about:config page:

You can manually change value of this flag to always, never or newtab.

Also Check:

[Firefox Tip] Hide or Remove “Other Bookmarks” Folder from Bookmarks Toolbar