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Yahoo Mail InBox list of E-Mails keep shifting left to right constantly

  • 21 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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When I use my Yahoo Mail, the list of messages in my In Box keep moving back and forth across my monitor. This is very unnerving. It does not happen in Yahoo Mail in Microsoft Edge.

When I use my Yahoo Mail, the list of messages in my In Box keep moving back and forth across my monitor. This is very unnerving. It does not happen in Yahoo Mail in Microsoft Edge.

All Replies (20)

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jmarunc said

When I use my Yahoo Mail, the list of messages in my In Box keep moving back and forth across my monitor. This is very unnerving. It does not happen in Yahoo Mail in Microsoft Edge.

Hi jmarunc, this is hard to picture. Do you recall when this problem started? Were there any updates around that time -- Firefox updates, add-on updates, or Windows updates?

If a site is generally known to work in Firefox, these are standard suggestions to try when it stops working normally:

Double-check content blockers: Firefox's Content Blocking feature and extensions that counter ads and tracking may break websites that embed third party content (meaning, from a secondary server).

(A) Do you see a shield icon toward the left end of the address bar, near the lock icon? More info on managing the Tracking Protection feature in this article: Content Blocking.

(B) Extensions such as Adblock Plus, Blur, Disconnect, Ghostery, NoScript, Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin or uMatrix should provide toolbar buttons to manage blocked content in a page. There may or may not be a number on the icon indicating the number of blocked items; you may need to click the button to see what's going on and test whether you need to make an exception for this site.

Cache and Cookies: When you have a problem with one particular site, a good "first thing to try" is clearing your Firefox cache and deleting your saved cookies for the site.

(1) Clear Firefox's Cache

See: How to clear the Firefox cache

If you have a large hard drive, this might take a few minutes.

(2) Remove the site's cookies (save any pending work first). While viewing a page on the site, try either:

  • right-click (on Mac Ctrl+click) a blank area of the page and choose View Page Info > Security > "Clear Cookies and Site Data"
  • (menu bar) Tools > Page Info > Security > "Clear Cookies and Site Data"
  • click the padlock or "i" icon in the address bar, then the ">" button, then More Information, and finally the "Clear Cookies and Site Data" button

In the dialog that opens, you will see one or more matches to the current address so you can remove the site's cookies individually without affecting other sites.

Then try reloading the page. Does that help?

Testing in Firefox's Safe Mode: In its Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox. (On Mac, hold down the option/alt key instead of the Shift key.)

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
  • (menu bar) Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement?

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Tried all of these things and list of In Box items in Yahoo Mail still keeps shifting from side to side for about half of the In Box page.

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Is something else switching position? My Inbox has this:

  • left column lists folders
  • center column lists messages
  • right column shows ads (or placeholders for blocked ads)

Are there fluctuations in the other columns that cause the shape/position of the message list to change?

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The only thing that is shifting is the Messages which are in my center column. I have folder on the left and Notepad, Calendar, and Contacts on the right.

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I guess I don't understand how/where they are shifting if they are staying in their column and none of the columns are disappearing or changing places.

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The middle column column (Just the topic/title of the E-Mail just keeps moving back and forth and does not leave the middle column. So the shift is fairly small but annoying. Also, this does not happen when I use Google Mail in Firefox.

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AFAIK the descriptions your describing sounds like a scrolling function issue. Are you sure if on laptop nothing is moving the touchpad scroll functions or mouse or keyboard is faulty causing the movements. From what I am reading this is what is looks like since there doesn't sound to be a malware or virus infection causing this.

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This is happening on a desktop computer and it doesn’t happen when I use another browser like Edge. Only Firefox.

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jmarunc said

The middle column column (Just the topic/title of the E-Mail just keeps moving back and forth and does not leave the middle column.

Hmm, somewhere I have seen text that is too wide slide from side to side to show the full text. However, I haven't seen it in Yahoo mail (yet).

I looked at mailbox settings and could not find one for this. Are you using the standard HTML layout?

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Yes. I have changed nothing. By the way, I tried Yahoo Mail in Google Chrome and there was no problem. Also, the problem exists in Firefox in all Yahoo Mail folders, not just my In Box.

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Still waiting for a solution. I am about to change browsers if I do not get one.

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Hi jmarunc, I had forgotten about this issue.

So to summarize, if a folder list (Inbox or other folder) has subject lines that are too wide to fit, those subjects, or the entire folder list, scrolls left and right on their own? Only in Firefox?

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Is this about the RTL versus LTR (bidi) direction of text on the page ?

Can you attach a screenshot ?

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jscher2000 said

Hi jmarunc, I had forgotten about this issue. So to summarize, if a folder list (Inbox or other folder) has subject lines that are too wide to fit, those subjects, or the entire folder list, scrolls left and right on their own? Only in Firefox?

Why did this just start happening several months ago? How do you fix it? It only happens in Firefox.

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I can't reproduce the problem with my basic free Yahoo! account. If I narrow my window so the subject lines do not fit, they are truncated (...) and do not scroll. (Example screenshot attached.)

Could you try:

New Profile Test

This takes about 3 minutes, plus the time to test problem site(s).

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Click the "Create a New Profile" button, then click Next. Assign a name like Jan2020, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Launch profile in new browser button.

Firefox should open a new window that looks like a brand new, uncustomized installation. (Your existing Firefox window(s) should not be affected.) Please ignore any tabs enticing you to connect to a Sync account or to activate extensions found on your system so we can get a clean test.

Does Yahoo mail work normally in the new profile?

When you are done with the experiment, you can close the extra window without affecting your regular Firefox profile. (Jan2020 will remain available for future testing.)

Note: if this test changed your default profile, use the Set as Default Profile button for your regular profile to set it back to normal.

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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Sorry for not replying sooner, but I have been out of town. I tried the suggestion about a new profile and the problem still exists in it too when using Yahoo Mail.

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cor-el said

Is this about the RTL versus LTR (bidi) direction of text on the page ?
Can you attach a screenshot ?

                        Could it be that you missed this post  ?

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Not sure how a screen shot would help you, as you would not be able to see the shifting. By the way, I created a new Yahoo E-Mail address and sent myself about 6 E-Mails. The In Box screen does not appear to shift with that E-Mail address. Perhaps the problem has to do with the number of E-Mails I have in my In Box and/or Folders. Perhaps Firefox just can't handle the volume, although it is not a problem in Edge or Chrome.

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jmarunc said

Not sure how a screen shot would help you, as you would not be able to see the shifting.

I was thinking about an answer to the first sentence in that post, rather than providing a screenshot ....

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Yes, the list of E-Mails keeps shifting from right to left.

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