The Disappearing Scrollbar
In an effort to maximize screen real estate and mimic the sleek aesthetics of mobile operating systems, the GNOME desktop environment (used by Ubuntu) utilizes “overlay scrollbars.” Instead of a permanent, thick grey bar on the right side of your windows, the scrollbar is completely invisible by default. It only appears as a razor-thin line when you actively scroll your mouse wheel, and it only expands to a clickable width if you hover your cursor perfectly over that thin line. For users who prefer to grab and drag the scrollbar manually, or who need a visual indicator of how long a document is at a glance, this auto-hiding behavior is maddening.
Restoring the Permanent Scrollbar
To improve visual navigation and stop Ubuntu from automatically hiding scrollbars, you must disable the overlay feature using the GNOME configuration tool.
This setting is not available in the standard Ubuntu Settings menu. You will need to use the terminal to change the hidden system variable. Open your terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. To force the scrollbars to remain visible at all times, you must tell the GNOME desktop interface to stop using the overlay feature. Type the following command exactly: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface overlay-scrolling false and press Enter. The change takes effect immediately without requiring a reboot. If you open a long webpage in Firefox or a long folder in the Nautilus file manager, you will now see a traditional, permanent scrollbar permanently locked to the right side of the window.