Where did my Scroll Bars Go?

os x scroll bars

I recently upgraded to the latest version of Apple OS X. Mostly, the experience was positive, but one gotcha was that my scroll bars disappeared. I realize that the scrolling functionality remained, you could still use the multi-touch trackpad to control window scrolling. But, I liked the visual clues given by the scroll bars. For instance, how far down was I in a page? If the scroll bar disappearance is bothering you, this is how to reclaim them!

  1. Run System Preferences:
    • Open Finder
    • Navigate to the Applications folder
    • Run the “System Preferences” app
  2. Open Settings:
    • Click the General icon to open the General preferences
  3. Change the “Show scroll bars” option:
    • Click the “Always” radio button under the “Show scroll bars” option
    • Close the General dialog box by clicking the red X

Changes take effect immediately.