horizontal scroll bar in middle of screen in Safari on ios14

Question

horizontal scroll bar in middle of screen in Safari on ios14

In IOS13 on my iphone11 pro, I never noticed a horizontal scroll bar in Safari. In IOS14.2, there is a scroll bar, but instead of being at the bottom of the screen, it's more or less in the middle of the screen, in just about the worst possible place for it to be (just a little lower than the middle) and it interferes with my reading. For example when I scroll down on the page while reading an article online, both the horizontal and vertical scroll bars show up at the same time, and the horizontal scroll bar is on top of the text I am reading until the scroll bars disappear. And if I scroll just a little up or down, this happens. Every time I scroll just a few lines of text, the scroll bar pops up again and crosses out the text so it's hard the read.

The question is: Is there a way to turn off the horizontal scroll bar? Or to get it to be positioned at the bottom of the screen instead?

iPhone 11 Pro, iOS 14

Posted on Nov 12, 2020 9:01 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Jamphish

Level 1

9 points

Nov 13, 2020 6:52 PM in response to jamesfrompleasanton

I just got off phone with Apple support specialist. She mirrored into my phone so I could show this. I was told they are aware of the issue and looking into a fix. She expected it to be a software fix eventually and not a device issue, so I guess that’s better than needing a new phone. I am on iPhone 12 running iOS 14.2. I would say the more people to call in to specialists and mention this, the quicker a fix may come.

1-800-275-2273

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Answer 2

Nov 12, 2020 9:04 PM in response to jamesfrompleasanton

I should point out that the horizontal scroll bar doesn't always appear. It only appears if I am zoomed in a little bit (or a lot) on the page to make the text bigger and easier to see, or if the page on the website is wide. Also, on some websites the horizontal scroll bar appears gray and on others it appears to be white, so it sometimes is not visible just because it is white on a white web page background, which is great if you don't want to see it and not so great if you actually want to see the scroll bar.

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Answer 3

Nov 12, 2020 9:12 PM in response to jamesfrompleasanton

Another example where the scroll bar is white or very light gray: https://gearslutz.com/

It may have something to do with the color of the page at the top? But the main body of the page is mostly white, so the scroll bar disappears.

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Answer 4

Nov 15, 2020 6:57 AM in response to jamesfrompleasanton

Good to know I have a 3rd Generation iPad Air with 14.2 and I find it is only with Safari, so if it becomes too annoying before they release 14.2.1 Try another browser, Since it does not happen in Google Chrome.

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Answer 5

Jamphish

Level 1

9 points

Nov 30, 2020 12:36 PM in response to adityagoel0887

So far this appears to work on website I was having the issue on. It took a moment to fix. First couple attempts it was still there, but after closing the page and reopening new safari page and going to troublesome sites it now appears fixed. Hoping it stays while we wait for an official fix in an upcoming iOS update. Thanks for the suggestion!

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Answer 6

DrYooHoo

Level 1

4 points

Jan 10, 2021 2:04 PM in response to adityagoel0887

Thanks adityagoel0887 !

Switching off the “reduce motion” in Accessibility settings Does make “the black horizontal line on the middle of a Zoomed Safari page” disappear ! Or be more precise, after some observations, the line actually moved to the very bottom of page and become a grey line instead, which is way less visible and disturbing.

Cheers mate,

iPhone 12 Pro Max 512G

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Answer 7

Tokyo23

Level 1

4 points

Jan 14, 2021 5:45 PM in response to jamesfrompleasanton

Just got off the phone with Apple. They suggested going to Settings-Accessibility-Motion and turning Off ‘Reduce Motion’.

This resolved the issue for me. (Turning ‘Reduce Motion’ back to ON later also kept the issue resolved).

Give it a try and hope it works for you all as it did for me.

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Answer 8

DevTimo

Level 1

10 points

Jan 20, 2021 6:51 AM in response to jamesfrompleasanton

I managed to fix this by disabling the content blockers from Safari. After that, I checked if it’s fixed. Then I re-enabled the content blockers.

it seems that the issue is not happening anymore. Try it maybe you have the same cause.

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Answer 9

crokla

Level 1

4 points

Feb 14, 2021 3:29 AM in response to adityagoel0887

This worked immediately for me. (Toggle switch to disable Settings / Accessibility / Reduce Motion. It was On).

Wasn't able to close Safari yet, but with Safari still open, toggling that Reduce Motion option off or on now, the line does not return.

When I can I'll try a clean start of Safari, and update here. I'm just happy it's gone for now.

For the one who had to have Reduce Motion ON, maybe trying this would remove the line for the current session? Until verification that this is/isn't a permanent fix, it might help you in the interim.

Thanks adityagoel0887 !!

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Answer 10

Feb 26, 2021 11:36 PM in response to jamesfrompleasanton

I just did as suggested here, turning off “reduce motion” in Accessibility. As it didn’t remove the line, I restarted my phone. That moved the line to the bottom, directly above the view buttons. Much more tolerable.

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Answer 11

Nov 30, 2020 7:36 AM in response to jamesfrompleasanton

Switch of reduce motion in accessibility and the issue will be fixed

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Answer 12

Jamphish

Level 1

9 points

Nov 19, 2020 7:01 PM in response to spike247

14.2.1 update today. Was looking good on three sites I had this issue on. Was gonna post a celebration, until I got here. This site still has the line across the middle! C’mon Apple fix this!!

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