Navigation buttons like back, home, bookmarks and reload are missing

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  • Revision id: 27167
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  • Creator: Michael Verdi
  • Comment: New 160 character search summary
  • Reviewed: Yes
  • Reviewed:
  • Reviewed by: Verdi
  • Is approved? Yes
  • Is current revision? No
  • Ready for localization: Yes
  • Readied for localization:
  • Readied for localization by: Verdi
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The Navigation Toolbar contains the Back, Forward and other navigation buttons along with the Location Bar and Search Bar. If these or other toolbar items are missing, this article will show you how to restore them.

The Forward button is only shown when necessary

In old versions of Firefox, the Forward button was always visible. If there wasn't a page to go forward to, the button was grayed out (inactive). Now, instead of showing a Forward button that doesn't do anything when you click it, the Forward button is hidden until you have a page to travel forward to.
Forward Button Win

Showing the Navigation Toolbar

You may have the Navigation Toolbar hidden.

If the Menu bar is not visible, press Alt to make it appear.
  1. Right-clickHold down the control key while you click on an empty section of the tab stripAt the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the View menu, select the Toolbars menu.
  2. If Navigation Toolbar is not checked, click it to make the Navigation Toolbar visible.
    • If showing the Navigation Toolbar does not restore your missing buttons, continue to the next section.
      Nav Toolbar 10 Win
      Toolbar items missing - Win1

      e85e05e3169b2a4329eca5d032f0621a-1259987618-13-2.png

Restoring the default toolbar set

If the Menu bar is not visible, press Alt to make it appear.
  1. Right-clickHold down the control key while you click on an empty section of the tab stripAt the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the View menu, go down to the Toolbars menu and select Customize... to open the Customize Toolbar window.
  2. Click Restore Default Set

    e85e05e3169b2a4329eca5d032f0621a-1259987618-13-1.png
  3. Click Done to dismiss the Customize Toolbars window.

The default toolbar buttons should now appear in their default locations. If you would like to rearrange your toolbar items, see Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars. If your toolbar buttons are still missing, continue to the next section.

Check for interfering add-ons

An extension or theme may be preventing toolbar items from being displayed. To determine if this is the cause, see Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems.

Reset toolbars and controls

If the above methods fail to restore your toolbar buttons: First, start Firefox's Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode:

  1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Help, select Troubleshoot Mode… and click Restart in the Restart Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode? dialog.

    Note: You can also start Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode by holding down the Shift key while starting Firefox.holding down the option key while starting Firefox.quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode
    You may need to specify the Firefox installation path (e.g. /usr/lib/firefox).
  2. Check mark Reset toolbars and controls.
  3. Click Make Changes and Restart to restart Firefox

    e85e05e3169b2a4329eca5d032f0621a-1259976510-647-1.png

The default toolbar buttons should now appear in their default locations.