Chrome recently replaced the download bar at the bottom with a download icon in the Chrome toolbar. This icon takes less space. However, everything is now hidden under the icon, so you have to click the icon to check the download progress of each file and even open the downloaded file. If you are like us and prefer the old layout where you could check downloads at a glance, here’s how you can get the old Downloads bar back on Google Chrome.
How to Get Back Downloads Bar on Chrome
1. Open the Chrome browser on your Windows, Mac or Linux computer. (Chromebooks have their own download UI, this method will not work on there).
2. Now type chrome://flags in the Omni bar at the top and click Enter to open the Chrome Flags page.
3. On the Chrome Flags page, you should see a search bar at the top. Here type #download-bubble and press Enter to search for the Download Bubble flag.
4. Now in the search results, you should see an Enable Download Bubble option. Just click on the drop-down toggle beside that option and select Disable. This will disable the new download layout.
5. Finally click on the Relaunch button at the bottom for the changes to apply on Chrome.
That’s it, now you can download anything on Chrome browser and see progress and downloaded files in the Downloads bar at the bottom.
How to Fix the Download Bar Not Showing on Chrome
Not able to access the download bar even after disabling the flag? Then there are 3 options left for you to try.
1. You must also disable the Download bubble V2 flag in Chrome. The steps are similar. Open Chrome Flags, then search for #download-bubble-v2, and select Disable from the drop-down menu. Once done, click on Relaunch and test the feature. This flag should also be disabled automatically if the #download-bubble flag is disabled. But in case you are having any issues, it’s better to turn it off manually.
2. Update the Chrome browser to the latest version. You can do that by clicking on the kebab menu (three-dot menu) at the top right corner and then selecting the Settings option. Here, select the About Chrome option in the left sidebar. Now Chrome will start searching for the latest versions. If there is an update available, click on the Update button to update the browser.
3. Finally, try deleting Chrome browser application cache. Here, we are not deleting the cache of websites. instead, we have to delete the cache your Chrome browser created in your OS. Removing that cache will reload all the features. To do so, follow this guide on clearing the cache on any platform where you will also learn how to delete an app’s cache on Windows and Mac.
Back at Where It Has to Be
Chrome changes a few settings every now and then to make the experience better. While the experience can improve, we can sometimes get used to a feature the way it used to be. Apart from bringing back old features, you can also use Chrome flags to get new features.
