Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A bug in Chrome v148 is causing the bookmarks bar to appear by default on new tab pages.
- The bar stays, regardless of whether you hit Ctrl+Shift+B, disable the feature in settings, or disable the flag.
- The bar will only go away once you navigate to a website.
Google recently rolled out an update for the Chrome browser — version 148. Released on May 5, the new version introduces a few changes, such as lazy loading for video and audio. It also seems to introduce a minor, but very annoying bug that prevents you from hiding the bookmarks bar.
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Chrome users are hopping on Reddit and Google’s support pages (via PiunikaWeb) to report a new issue with the browser. A bug is forcing the bookmarks bar to appear on the new tab page, even if you typically have the feature hidden. If you don’t have any bookmarks saved, the bar will still appear, but it will be empty.
Usually, you can hide the bookmarks bar by hitting Ctrl+Shift+B or by disabling the feature in settings. However, according to the affected users, neither of these methods appears to work. Even attempting to disable flags like chrome://flags/#ntp-simplification-bookmark-bar seems to have no effect.
Fortunately, this bug only forces the bookmarks bar to appear on the new tab page. Chrome will hide the bar as soon as you navigate to a normal website. However, it’s easy to understand why something like this would be vexing for some.
If you’re running into this bug as well and it bothers you, one user offers a few workarounds. You could try installing an extension that overrides the default new page tab, like Tabliss or Infinity New Tab. There’s also the option of downgrading to Chrome version 147, but this is not recommended as older versions are more vulnerable to security risks.
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