So your Gmail sidebar menu collapsed and you need to unhide it? You're not alone.
Change is hard. But Google seems to disagree...
I love that Google is always working on new features and functions for Gmail, but every now and then a new feature or design comes along that makes me scratch my head.Â
The latest Gmail update includes:
- helpful reminders (e.g., "Received 3 days ago. Reply?")
- a new, sleek design
- a snooze feature (you can pick a future date for mail to re-appear in your inbox)
- a collapsing sidebar
I have to say, as a work-from-home professional that uses their personal email for business, I love the snooze feature.
But... a collapsing menu? Why?
Well. I guess I understand why.
People want to maximize their screen space.
Nothing could go wrong with that one. That is unless users aren't clear on how to hide and unhide the sidebar.
That would be no fun at all. Hmm.
So your Gmail sidebar menu has collapsed, and you can't figure out how to keep the sidebar from collapsing? If your left navigation panel is collapsed and only appears if you hover over it, I have the fix.
Here's how to reveal your main menu for good:
- Head to your Gmail.
- Click the Main Menu button.
It's in the upper left corner of the screen above the Compose button. These three horizontal lines are commonly referred to as a "hamburger" menu.
When you hover, it says "Main menu." See the photo below.
This three-line button will hide or unhide the main menu.
Hello, my friend.
When you hide the menu, Gmail will always collapse the main menu by default and show icons only. You can hover over the smaller icons to reveal the full menu with text temporarily.
When you unhide the menu, it will always display the sidebar by default. This is my preferred setting.
I much prefer to have my menu uncollapsed.
As much as I understand the desire to maximize screen space, my brain really can't compute those icons. There are too many menu items (inbox, starred, snoozed, important, sent, drafts, spam, trash) for icons to be feasible for me.
Plus, I actively use my folders/labels, so I like to see the navigation in its full glory.
It's so simple to show/hide the menu, yet it stumped me! The menu button is hidden in plain sight.
Why didn't I think of that?
If you're a user of the Gmail app, you may be more familiar with the hamburger menu. In the app, you don't see the menu at all unless you tap the menu icon on the left side of the search bar.
I think most of us are accustomed to seeing hamburger menus on mobile, so maybe it's the desktop context that's throwing us all off. (You see, I'm assuming you're here because you are/were just as stumped as I was).
And when I went looking for an answer, it seemed I was in good company, so don't beat yourself up. It's so easy to accidentally click the button, perhaps aiming for the frequently-used Compose button.
UX changes are likely the things that keep Google Developers up at night.
Will people know how to collapse the menu?
Will people know how to unhide the menu?
The answer is maybe... but if not, there will be a tutorial for that.
But hey, there's good news.
If you don't like the Gmail sidebar, you can hide it... as you must have discovered if you found yourself here reading this article.
Sorry, my glass half full POV kicked in.
Next, check out my tips for organizing your Gmail inbox. I've used Gmail since it was in Beta testing (I believe it was around 2004 or so), so I know a thing or two about the platform.
I share my tips for using labels, automating your inbox with filters, change the default sorting of your incoming email, archive email, and using my favorite add-on.
What's my favorite add-on, you ask?
Well, you'll just have to read my tips and see for yourself. But, I will tell you: it bundles all of your subscription emails into one easy-to-read daily digest.
What are you waiting for?
sirisha says
Thank you very much for fixing the gmail sidebar issue.
romina says
thank you SO MUCH!!!!
Kelsey Smith says
You are so very welcome.
Linda Nichols says
OK, what am I doing wrong? This hint used to work but today it isn't. I've been trying for a couple hours. I have a choice of nothing on my side bar or only 3 icons show up. I want the list of choices in actual words. How do I get them back?
Kelsey Smith says
This should still work to reveal the icon names. I'm not sure of any other setting that would hide/reveal the sidebar icon names.
Linda Nichols says
Since the Gmail upgrade 2 weeks ago, now I either get 4 icons or the words MAIL or MEETING over on the side and when I'm in an email there are a bunch of icons that show up along the top of the page
I need to be able to get into my SPAM folder. I volunteer with a group that assists disabled vets and sometimes they end up in SPAM for some reason.
I now can't pull up SPAM, TRASH or DRAFTS. Very frustrating.
Thanks for replying. I'll just keep poking things.
Kelsey Smith says
Okay I have two ideas:
Here is something you can check: Go to Settings > Labels > and under System Labels you should see Spam, make sure that you have "show" selected.
Another thing could be that the "Meet" block is just covering your labels. There is a thin horizontal line above the Meet section, you should be able to drag this line down and expose any hidden folders/labels.
Jack says
OMG thanks! I was going crazy trying to find how to keep the sidebar from collapsing! I'm glad I searched using the right keywords it took me to your article.
Brooke says
Kelsey! Thank you so much!!!
Another grateful person that you have helped. 🙂
Edward Bear says
Thanks. There is nothing worse than sidebars flashing open and closed literally a hundred times a day. I have three screens to I don't need this space-saving "feature".
Google has great ideas but should ALWAYS offer a way to opt out, which is explained at the time of introduction.
Becca says
OMG, thank you so much for posting this because I could not deal with not being able to see my left side panel, and I searched the settings via the icon that looks like a "gear" at the top right of gmail. I read some other explanation on the web of how to solve this issue, but I could not, for the life of me, figure out where my "hamburger menu" icon was. I could not find any icon that looked like a hamburger. So, thanks a million for explaining what a hamburger menu looks like!!
Sadiya says
Thank you so much!!!!
Much love from India!
Melinda says
Thank you so much!
nicole says
OMG That was it!? It was that simple yet complicated! Haha! Thanks for this post! Without it I was completely lost!
Yuan says
google are nuts if they think thats intuitive.... everyone else has a effing pin symbol. The hamburger is a drop down menu symbol.
Laura says
Thank you so much for stating how to expand and collapses the mail "inbox." I looked for this for hours. Thank you so much!
Joy says
Thank you so much! I was going crazy with this collapsing menu.
Nellybelly says
Thank you, you saved my life! This had me on the brink of insanity : (
BJ says
THIS WORKS!!!
Thanks for taking the time to post this. That #&*@! collapsible menu was driving me to distraction. NOTE TO GOOGLE DEVELOPERS: "Different" is NOT always "better."
Jenna says
The collapsing Menu on the left side of Gmail. was driving me nuts, I got dizzy spells and nausea while working.
Thank you so much for your advice, you saved me from going mad.
Great Job!!!
Jenna
Amy M says
Hi, I know this was posted ages ago, but I told myself I'd ask anyway. I have a massive amount of labels, but I also use hangouts quite regularly. Sometimes, I can't access the hangouts, because I think the labels list takes over. Usually I can drag the labels section up to get access, but I'm not sure how I do it even. Could you help me?
Kelsey Smith says
There's a grey line just above the Meet/Hangouts section of the sidebar. When you hover your cursor over it, another horizontal grey line appears. Grab and drag that to pull the meet/hangouts section up.
Nellybelly says
I have the opposite problem; I HATE the Hangouts tab, which takes up my precious label space, but I can't pull it down any further and it just lives there in the way....FOREVER!
Kelsey Smith says
You can toggle it to disappear. Below the hangouts box are three icons, a person, a chat bubble, and a phone. Click the chat bubble and Hangouts will disappear.
Petra Wilson says
thanks for this great tip - small thing, but great benefit! Just in case you have ever given it any thought ..... I am looking for tips on sharing gmail with a co-worker. I run my own business and have just engaged a personal assistant, I want to be able to delegate some emails to her with capacity to answer etc. Is there a way of doing that? Can one delegate just the 'primary' tab in gmail?
Thanks again!
Kelsey Smith says
Here are instructions on how to add a delegate, but it's email-wide access, not limited by subfolder.
Pratap Kodancha says
Hello Kelsey Smith,
Thanks a lot for fixing this very irritating feature!
I feel it is stupid irritating bug, not a institutive feature at all!
Thanks again!
Best, Pratap
M D says
Good god,this was easily one of the most helpful and impactful articles I ever read!! The auto-hide behavior was driving me nuts and the solution was indeed really not self explanatory. Kudos !!
Karen Miller says
Thank you! I've been trying to figure this out all day.
AT says
Thank you.
Melissa says
Oh thank you THANK YOU!! I was going CRAZZZZZY with the collapsed side and found nothing worked! Wow, it was there all along, hidden in plain sight, pretty sneaky of Google/Gmail! Thank you again for a fix that was easy to understand and apply, within a couple of minutes!!!
Avi says
Thank you. Amazing how they could make such a UI mistake!
Serious says
Must have just had an update or something and I just dealt with this for the last couple days. In my web design days we used to call this Mystery Meat Navigation. It's terrible UX design.
Kelsey Smith says
Mystery meat! I love that, thank you for sharing.
Karen says
Oh my gosh thank you!
AlanaP says
Thank you. The little sucker kept on disappearing and could not get it to stop. It is now as it should be.
Kevin O'Donnell says
This had me absolutely FLUMMOXED!! I HATE that the sidebar kept disappearing on me. I use about 4 different Gmail accounts and this was only happening on 1 so this was worse still!
Thanks so much for fixing it. You have removed a stone from my shoe!
Kevin
Alex says
Oh wow what a terrible UI experience, somehow mine just became collapsed and I'm so thankful to have it back!
James says
Thank you - great help I disliked the new auto hide feature, this is a simple solution! Have clicked on your ads too 🙂
Barbara says
Thanks so much - like the many commenters above, you saved the day for me! And I learned a new term I can impress my digital native kids with - "Hamburger" - how cool is that!
T Morris says
OMG! This article is about 2 years old, but I am SOOOO glad I found it...even today, it proved to be very helpful! Thank you so much!!!!!
lurch says
hahaa thanks for this! helped me a lot, i was going crazy.
there may be too much explaining for such a simple solution (take it as a suggestion if you like), but it did the job anyway. 🙂
Deb says
I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 Tab Lite and there is nothing on any of the menus on my GMail app that address the lock sidebar issue. And, the menus are not in the places you mentioned. Any ideas? Thanks
Kelsey Smith says
I'm not familiar with that tablet, but you're welcome to send me a screenshot of what your google app looks like ([email protected]) and I can take a stab at trouble shooting with you.
Clint Smitheman says
I can't believe I've been living with a collapsed menu for 2 years and I did not have to. Passed your link onto a friend.
Thank you for the time you took to post a well thought out answer with screen shots and arrows.
Heather says
SUPER helpful, thank you!!
Adrian says
Thank you.
john says
fk so many words and so little useful
Kelsey Smith says
Move along, John.
Damian says
Thanks!!!!
this was driving me crazy.
jon says
Looks like it was auto-changed on my accounts over the last couple of days to no longer show the side bar... As both a desktop and a mobile user I _should_ have figured this out.
On the other hand, I was suddenly greeted by 20 some Icons with no text. And quite honestly I use a number of e-mail programs and web based e-mails that I just can't memorize every icon for every different system when I'm switching back and forth all day.
Thank You!!!
And thank you for updating this! (If you hadn't modified it with a date, I probably would have skipped it in my search results for being too old, especially since the change on my desk top just happened!)
Elizabeth Grant says
I'll repeat what most of the comments are...this was driving me bat crazy when I was left literally with less then an INCH to see my menu on the left BECAUSE MY MENU WOULD HIDE AND HANGOUTS/MEETINGS WERE TAKING UP MY REAL ESTATE! I never use those options (now removed them). Lame-o Google.
Thank you so much. This was not you or us. This was very dumb design. Very. I had no unearthly idea when this changed on me and I struggled with this for way too long. The exact opposite of what good tech does. Thanks for permanantly and quickly solving this.
Edward Toh says
Millions thanks to you Kelsey !
This thing was driving crazy for weeks. And finally I found this solution from you.
God bless you !
Antonios J Tsompanidis says
Thank you! This drives me nuts to not be able to see my created folders!
Kip Ingram says
Ah.... Kelsey, I love you. Thank you so much. I owe you dinner - that was making me lose my mind. Stay safe out there!
Mary says
Thank you so much. It is so simple, I would have never thought of it!!! All the best!
Theresa says
Thank you for the humerus, self-deprecating explanation that was making me crazy. Will check out your other tips for organizing Gmail.
Penni says
Thank you!!! It was making me crazy.
Jack says
subject: enlarging the left panel on GMAIL
I am sorry to disturb you with a problem which, for so many others, you already solved.
But in my case, it is not solved: PC, Windows10
What I can see, is a small window which let me see only two labels at once :"INBOX" and "IMPORTANT". Then I can move the existing little cursor and one after the other , other labels appear! This makes me unhappy, I would like to see the entire list , but nothing I tried I, solved a problem . (There is there a little straight line, which can me lowered with mouse and, all the labels list could be seen. But only as long as the mouse is there!)
I will be very much in debt to you, if you can help !
Thanks for your time,
Jack Cohen, PhD
TelAviv,Israel
Kelsey Smith says
In your label sidebar, scroll to the bottom and there should be a gear icon that says "Manage Labels." On this page you can force individual labels to show or hide.
Sean Keam says
THANK YOU SO MUCH! Your guide saved my brain from exploding!
Keith Langley says
Thanks for that. This has solved the problem and is one of the most user friendly explanations I've ever seen. My only question is why Google don't make it more obvious how to stop the collapsing sidebar.