The bookmarks bar takes up a consistent strip of vertical screen space on every page you visit. If you rarely click anything on it — or if it is cluttered with dozens of folders that make it harder to navigate than to ignore — removing it entirely is a reasonable call. This guide covers the removal steps for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari, and explains what each option actually changes.
What “Remove” Actually Means
Removing or hiding the bookmarks bar only affects its visibility on screen. It does not delete any bookmarks. Everything you have saved remains in the browser and is accessible through the menu, keyboard shortcuts, and the browser’s built-in bookmark manager. The bar can be brought back at any time with the same shortcut or setting that hid it.
The practical question is whether you want it gone temporarily (in which case the keyboard shortcut is faster) or gone permanently as a default (in which case the Settings path is cleaner, because it survives browser restarts without requiring you to press a shortcut each time you open Chrome).
How to Remove the Bookmarks Bar in Chrome
Chrome offers three methods. All produce the same result — the bar disappears and the setting persists across restarts.
Method 1 — Keyboard shortcut (fastest)
Press Ctrl+Shift+B on Windows or Linux, or Cmd+Shift+B on Mac. The bar disappears immediately. The same shortcut brings it back. Pressing the shortcut also updates the underlying Settings value, so you do not need to go into Settings separately.
Method 2 — Settings
- Click the three-dot menu (⋮) in Chrome’s top-right corner
- Click Settings
- In the left sidebar, click Appearance
- Find Show bookmarks bar and click the dropdown
- Select Always hide
The three options in the dropdown are:
- Always show — the bar is visible on every page
- Only on New Tab page — the bar shows only when you open a new tab; it hides on every other page you visit
- Always hide — the bar never appears
The Only on New Tab page setting is worth considering if you still want occasional access to the bar without it taking space during normal browsing. Many users find this a better default than complete removal.
Method 3 — Right-click the bar
Right-click any empty area of the bookmarks bar (not on a bookmark itself) and uncheck Show bookmarks bar in the context menu that appears. This hides the bar immediately. Note that this right-click method only toggles between Always show and Always hide — it does not expose the Only on New Tab option.
Accessing Bookmarks After Hiding the Bar in Chrome
With the bar hidden, your bookmarks are still reachable through:
- Ctrl+Shift+O (Cmd+Option+B on Mac) — opens the full Bookmark Manager at chrome://bookmarks in a new tab
- Three-dot menu → Bookmarks and lists — browse your folders from the dropdown
- Address bar autocomplete — start typing in the address bar and Chrome surfaces matching bookmarks in the suggestions, identified with a bookmark icon
For a deeper look at Chrome-specific options, including the “Only on New Tab” behavior and how the Setting interacts with the keyboard shortcut, see How to Hide Bookmarks Bar in Chrome.
How to Remove the Bookmarks Toolbar in Firefox
Firefox calls its bookmarks bar the Bookmarks Toolbar. The removal process is similar to Chrome.
Keyboard shortcut
Press Ctrl+Shift+B on Windows or Linux, or Cmd+Shift+B on Mac. This toggles the toolbar visibility. If the toolbar was previously set to “Only Show on New Tab,” the shortcut flips it to “Always Show” first — so you may need to press it twice to reach the hidden state from that configuration.
Right-click method
- Right-click any empty area of the toolbar row just below Firefox’s address bar — not on a tab or an existing toolbar button
- Hover over Bookmarks Toolbar in the context menu
- Select Never Show
Firefox presents three options through this right-click menu:
- Always Show — toolbar is visible on every page
- Only Show on New Tab — toolbar appears only on the new tab page
- Never Show — toolbar is hidden everywhere
View Menu method
Go to the View menu in Firefox’s menu bar → Toolbars → Bookmarks Toolbar → select Never Show. If Firefox’s menu bar is hidden, press Alt to reveal it temporarily.
Accessing Firefox Bookmarks After Hiding the Toolbar
With the toolbar hidden in Firefox, bookmarks remain accessible through:
- Ctrl+Shift+O (Cmd+Shift+O on Mac) — opens the Library window showing all bookmarks and history
- Bookmarks menu in the menu bar (if visible), or through the application menu
- Ctrl+B (Cmd+B on Mac) — opens the Bookmarks sidebar panel on the left side of the browser window, which you can leave open while browsing
- Address bar — Firefox surfaces matching bookmarks in the autocomplete dropdown as you type
How to Remove the Favorites Bar in Microsoft Edge
Edge calls its bookmarks bar the Favorites Bar, but the mechanics are the same as Chrome.
Keyboard shortcut
Press Ctrl+Shift+B on Windows or Linux, or Cmd+Shift+B on Mac. The favorites bar toggles off immediately. The same shortcut restores it.
Settings path
- Click the three-dot menu (…) in Edge’s top-right corner
- Click Settings
- In the left sidebar, click Appearance
- Scroll to Show favorites bar
- Select Never
Edge’s options are:
- Always — bar visible on all pages
- Only on new tabs — bar visible only on the new tab page
- Never — bar hidden everywhere
Right-click method
Right-click any empty area of the favorites bar and uncheck Show favorites bar from the context menu.
Accessing Edge Favorites After Hiding the Bar
With the favorites bar hidden in Edge, use:
- Ctrl+Shift+O — opens the Favorites panel as a sidebar
- Three-dot menu → Favorites — browse folders from the menu
- Address bar — Edge surfaces matching favorites in address bar autocomplete
How to Hide the Favorites Bar in Safari on Mac
Safari calls its bookmarks bar the Favorites Bar. Safari does not have a Windows version, so these steps apply to Safari on macOS only.
Menu bar path
Go to the View menu in the macOS menu bar (not the browser toolbar) and click Hide Favorites Bar. When the bar is already hidden, the same menu item reads Show Favorites Bar.
Keyboard shortcut
Press Cmd+Shift+B to toggle the Favorites Bar on or off.
Accessing Safari Bookmarks After Hiding the Favorites Bar
With the bar hidden in Safari:
- Click the open-book icon in Safari’s toolbar to open the Bookmarks sidebar — this shows your full bookmark library in a left-side panel
- Use the menu bar Bookmarks menu to browse folders
- Start typing in the Smart Search Field (the address bar) — Safari surfaces matching bookmarks in the suggestions
Is There a Bookmarks Bar on Mobile Browsers?
No. Chrome on Android, Chrome on iOS, and Safari on iOS do not have a bookmarks bar. The bar is a desktop-only feature in all of these browsers. If you are looking to save screen space on mobile, there is nothing to remove — mobile browsers access bookmarks through the browser menu rather than a persistent bar.
When the Bar Itself Is Not the Real Problem
Hiding the bookmarks bar solves the visual clutter of a crowded bar. It does not solve the underlying problem if what you actually have is hundreds of saved bookmarks spread across disorganized folders, with no way to know which ones still work.
If your bookmark collection has grown large enough that it regularly takes more than a few seconds to find what you need, the bookmarks bar’s visibility is a secondary concern. The more pressing issue is whether the bookmarks themselves are organized, searchable, and still pointing at live pages.
Bookmend addresses the bookmarks themselves rather than the bar: full-text search across every page you’ve bookmarked (not just title matching), dead-link detection across your whole collection, and one-click recovery for pages that have gone offline. It works on top of Chrome’s existing bookmarks with no migration required. Get started free and run a health check on what you have saved.
For related reading:
- How to Delete a Bookmark in Chrome — removing individual saved pages
- How to Export Chrome Bookmarks — creating a backup before a cleanup
- How to Manage Bookmarks When You Have Thousands of Them — organizing a large collection
Frequently asked questions
Ctrl+Shift+B on Windows and Linux, Cmd+Shift+B on Mac. This is a toggle — pressing it once hides the bar, pressing it again brings it back. The change is immediate and also updates the underlying Settings value, so the preference persists after you restart Chrome.
No. Hiding or removing the bar only changes its visibility on screen. Every bookmark you have saved stays exactly where it is. You can still access all your bookmarks through the three-dot menu → Bookmarks and lists, through chrome://bookmarks, or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+O (Cmd+Option+B on Mac) to open the full Bookmark Manager.
Go to the three-dot menu → Settings → Appearance → Show bookmarks bar, and set it to Always hide. This persists across browser restarts and applies to every Chrome window on that profile. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+B is a faster route to the same result — it updates the Settings value when you press it.
Press Ctrl+Shift+B (Cmd+Shift+B on Mac) to toggle it off. Alternatively, right-click any empty area of the toolbar row just below the address bar, hover over Bookmarks Toolbar in the context menu, and select Never Show. Firefox also offers Only Show on New Tab if you want the toolbar on new tabs only.
Press Ctrl+Shift+B (Cmd+Shift+B on Mac) to toggle it off. Or go to the three-dot menu → Settings → Appearance, scroll to Show favorites bar, and set it to Never. Edge offers three options: Always, Only on new tabs, and Never.
Go to the View menu in the menu bar and click Hide Favorites Bar. The keyboard shortcut is Cmd+Shift+B. To bring it back, go to View → Show Favorites Bar or press Cmd+Shift+B again.
With this setting, the bookmarks bar (or favorites bar) is visible only when you open a new tab — it disappears as soon as you navigate to any other page. This is the best compromise for most users: the bar stays out of the way during normal browsing, but reappears when you open a fresh tab and might actually want to use it.
Three reliable ways: press Ctrl+Shift+O (Cmd+Option+B on Mac) to open the Bookmark Manager in a full tab; click the three-dot menu → Bookmarks and lists and browse through your folders; or start typing in Chrome's address bar and look for bookmark suggestions in the autocomplete dropdown — Chrome marks bookmarks with a bookmark icon to distinguish them from history.
Yes. Right-click any empty area of the bookmarks bar itself — not on a bookmark, but on the empty space — to get a context menu. Uncheck Show bookmarks bar. This hides the bar immediately. Note that right-clicking only toggles between Always show and the previous hidden state; it does not expose the Only on New Tab option, which requires going through Settings.
Not in any meaningful way. The bookmarks bar is a lightweight UI element. Hiding it does not speed up page loads, reduce memory usage, or change how Chrome runs. If Chrome is running slowly, the usual causes are too many open tabs, memory-intensive extensions, or a cache that needs clearing.
No. Neither Chrome, Firefox, nor Edge has a native auto-hide option for the bookmarks bar. The available settings are Always show, Only on new tabs, and Never show (labels vary slightly by browser). There is no hover-to-reveal feature built into any of these browsers without a third-party extension.
Press Ctrl+Shift+B (Cmd+Shift+B on Mac) to toggle it back on. If that does not work, check Settings → Appearance → Show bookmarks bar to see if it was reset to Always hide during the update. Chrome updates have occasionally reset this preference. If the bar appears empty rather than missing, check that you are signed into the correct Google account, since bookmarks sync per profile.
No. Mobile Chrome on Android and iOS does not have a bookmarks bar. The bar is a desktop-only feature. On mobile, bookmarks are accessed through the three-dot menu. The setting you control on desktop has no effect on the mobile app.
