Gmail search box disappearing?

[Darren Dirt]

Anyone else had this happen? In Firefox I am fine, in Chrome this happens. Only thing "new" is that I installed Firebug Lite on Chrome (after installing the full Firebug in Firefox, after really giving the JS debugger a full try last night and being very impressed, sad it took me such a long time!)


In the first screenshot you can see the page loads and for a VERY brief moment I see the search box, then something in the CSS or whatever QUICKLY kicks in, and then I see the 2nd screenshot (it was very tough to even capture the first one!)


I did a Google search and someone @ support said try this link http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0  but it didn't change anything. Same thing happens, page loads and I see a search box, then a half-second later it vanishes (or hides behind the toolbar maybe?)

[Mr. Analog]

Y'know how Google takes features out and they think no one gives a @%&#? I took my mom out for lunch today and she was actually pretty upset that iGoogle is going away, I guess she used all the widgets for handy conversions.

I don't know what crap they're smoking over at Google but it seems like every move is stoopid lately, I told mom to try to contact Google about it because she's exactly the kind of person who gets @%&#ed over with these changes but I know she won't. And their support forums are distinctly PR-heavy and mostly useless.

It's like Microsoft, I know there are developers trapped in there somewhere that want to do some good but they're surrounded by the adminisphere and their hands are tied.

[Thorin]

What happens if you push the forward-slash ( / ) key?  That should put the focus in the search box, so maybe the search box will come back when you push that key.

In Chrome, I still have the search box in my gmail.  Do you have any plug-ins running (Firebug Lite, for instance?).  Try disabling all plug-ins and see if the problem fixes itself.

[Darren Dirt]

Do you have any plug-ins running (Firebug Lite, for instance?).  Try disabling all plug-ins and see if the problem fixes itself.

Firsrt thing I did was right-click FBL and click Disable and F5'd the page, still was disappearing just AFTER the page finishes loading.

What happens if you push the forward-slash ( / ) key?  That should put the focus in the search box, so maybe the search box will come back when you push that key.

DING!



And I just learned that it's a TOGGLE! Why isn't it defaulted to "VISIBLE"?!?!?

Nice "undocumented feature" there Google ...

[Thorin]

Well but...  Maybe you set it to hide and maybe it was visible by default but you changed it.

[Darren Dirt]

Well but...  Maybe you set it to hide and maybe it was visible by default but you changed it.

Nope.

Because even when I *do* click "/" , and exit my browser, when I go back into Gmail it's gone again -- and in Gmail's "Settings" there's nothing I can see that says "hide/show mail search by default" or similar.

Musta been Firebug Lite that did it. Since I've got it working fine on FF I'm just gonna uninstall it, will likely fix the problem. 



EDIT: nope, wasn't FBL (shoulda known, since Disabling did nothing)

but it was Gmelius, a very handy Gmail-cleaner-upper, I went to its options and there was a checkbox (that I think might never have been there before). The "/ key to toggle" option was checked, fortunately, but now I unchecked the thing that made the "header" disappear by default. "Fixed".

Thanks for your help though -- weird that I just must have rarely needed to search within Gmail at work, must have been hidden for months without me ever noticing (and I don't have that installed at home -- though it's very handy for removing stuff like Google Chat and Suggested Contacts or whatever).

[Thorin]

Gmelius - nice find.  I might start using that.

[SoundStrategy]

I had the same problem today. Absolutely no search box in existence when in Chrome, hitting the '/' key did nothing. I checked my "Minimalist" extension, and the search bar was checked to not be visible--something I had never done. I unchecked the box, and problem solved!

[Mr. Analog]

That sounds endlessly annoying!

Glad you got a fix for it though...

[Thorin]

Hey...  Welcome to our forums, SoundStrategy

[Lazybones]

I had the same problem today. Absolutely no search box in existence when in Chrome, hitting the '/' key did nothing. I checked my "Minimalist" extension, and the search bar was checked to not be visible--something I had never done. I unchecked the box, and problem solved!

Plugins they do all sorts of "helpful things", some of which you may not like or want.

[Mr. Analog]

Plugins they do all sorts of "helpful things", some of which you may not like or want.

Agreed but to flip a user setting without warning, that's nasty.

I initiated a serious rewrite of validation logic on my project that put an end to changing user data without notification.

[Darren Dirt]

I had the same problem today. Absolutely no search box in existence when in Chrome, hitting the '/' key did nothing. I checked my "Minimalist" extension, and the search bar was checked to not be visible--something I had never done. I unchecked the box, and problem solved!

...even when I *do* click "/" , and exit my browser, when I go back into Gmail it's gone again -- and in Gmail's "Settings" there's nothing I can see that says "hide/show mail search by default" or similar.

Musta been Firebug Lite that did it. Since I've got it working fine on FF I'm just gonna uninstall it, will likely fix the problem. 



EDIT: nope, wasn't FBL (shoulda known, since Disabling did nothing)

but it was Gmelius, a very handy Gmail-cleaner-upper, I went to its options and there was a checkbox (that I think might never have been there before). The "/ key to toggle" option was checked, fortunately, but now I unchecked the thing that made the "header" disappear by default. "Fixed".

Looks like, just as I discoered earlier, the culprit was a "trying to be helpful" extension ended up getting in the way of Google's intentions/designs... Glad we had this thread to reduce the chance of a random visitor (who likely asked Google for help!) from going insane. At your service, internetizens!

Plugins they do all sorts of "helpful things", some of which you may not like or want.

great minds...