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If you are using Google Chrome on your Android or iOS device and occasionally have issues with a white bar down one side of your screen that doesn’t go away. This article will show you a few different troubleshooting steps you can take to resolve the issue. As far as we are aware, this is generally caused by a bug in Chrome that doesn’t like screen rotations.
Related: How to remove the puzzle icon from all Chrome Web Apps toolbars. (PWA)
Google Chrome on mobile is one of the more stable mobile browsers on the market and doesn’t generally suffer from usability and interface issues. At least if you are using the stable release version and not Canary. For the last six or so months, however, there has been a rather annoying bug that randomly occurs, which causes Chrome to shift its displayed content to one side (usually the left) leaving a white bar down one side of your screen. This happens on both Android and iOS devices.
As far as we are aware, this issue is ongoing and seems to be linked to a device's screen rotation settings. For example, if you have auto-rotate on and switch between vertical and horizontal positions quickly and repeatedly, Chrome sometimes gets a weird idea of how things should be displayed, causing it to shift content to one side. Below is an example of exactly what we mean.
Thankfully, there are a couple of fixes you can use to resolve this problem. Though none of them are permanent sadly. This issue will need to be patched by Google to remove it entirely. Until then, however, you can do the following if you get stuck with a white bar down the side of your screen when using Chrome.
Chrome white bar down the side fixes for Android and iOS:
- Try to Update Chrome Mobile.
- First Restart your device.
- Uninstall and reinstall Chrome. If you can't remove it entirely. Uninstall updates, then re-update.
- Switch to Microsoft Edge mobile until Chrome is patched.
How do you fix the White bar on the side on Chrome mobile? Android & iOS.
As we mentioned above, this issue doesn’t have a proper or permanent fix at the moment so the first thing you are going to want to do is keep checking for Chrome updates. Most people should have their accounts to auto-update, however, if you don’t just check from Chrome updates from time to time and install them as they appear. Until an update addresses the problem you can do the following to remove the white bar down the side of chrome mobile.
- One of the quickest and easiest ways to remove the white bar down the side of Chrome mobile is to Restart your device. A simple reboot will only take a minute or two and will remove the bar straight away. How long it takes to come back is mostly just luck. You may get a few days or weeks or it may come back within the hour.
- The next option you have at your disposal is to completely uninstall and reinstall Google Chrome on your device, this is a little more extreme and should only be done if you are getting the white bar down the side of Chrome mobile more frequently. Generally, this is more effective on iOS devices.
- Try switching over to a different Chromium browser. I would suggest using Microsoft Edge as it is equally as good (if not better) than the current iterations of Chrome. It also supports all the same extensions and has a few little tricks up its sleeve. It also integrates well with Microsoft Launcher and the desktop versions of Edge.
- If you don’t have the time to do any of these you can try to pinch-zoom your screen to zoom the white bar away, however, this is a quick fix and something you don’t want to be doing every time you use Google Chrome mobile.
As we mentioned above, the most important thing you can do regarding this issue is to wait for Google to update the mobile version of Chrome.
