What happened to the Status Bar?

The Status Bar at the bottom of the Firefox window has changed since Firefox 4 and some of its features have been moved to other places. This article explains where to find everything and links to an add-on that recreates the old Status Bar.

Table of Contents

  • 1 The new Status Bar
    • 1.1 What do link previews look like?
    • 1.2 Where is the page loading status?
  • 2 Where is the downloads status?
  • 3 Where is the padlock for secure connections?
  • 4 Where are my Add-ons?
  • 5 How can I get the old Status Bar back?

The new Status Bar

The new Firefox Status Bar only shows page loading activity and link previews. When neither of those are needed it simply disappears.

When you mouse over a link, a preview of the URL popups at the bottom left side of the page.

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Where is the page loading status?

When Firefox is loading images and other assets from a website, the status popup appears at the bottom left side of the page and displays the URLs where these things are coming from. If the status popup is in your way, you can move your mouse over it and it will move to the right side of the page. When the page is done loading, the status popup disappears.

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Where is the downloads status?

The status of downloads can be found in the Downloads Window which conveniently opens when you download a file.

Where is the padlock for secure connections?

The padlock wasn't guaranteeing that you were connected to the right server. Security information about a web page is now only shown by the Site Identity Button.

Where are my Add-ons?

Many Add-ons used to place an icon in the Status Bar that gave you quick access to their features. Now they have their own toolbar called, you guessed it, the Add-on bar. The Add-on bar isn't shown by default — it's only shown when you install an Add-on that uses it. To learn more, see The Add-on Bar gives you quick access to add-on features.

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Many Add-ons used to place an icon in the Status Bar that gave you quick access to their features. Now they place their buttons in the main toolbar. To learn more, see What happened to the Add-on Bar?

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How can I get the old Status Bar back?

The old Status Bar is dead, long live Status-4-Evar! Status-4-Evar is an Add-on that recreates all of the features of the old Status Bar and lets you put them in the new Add-on Bar.


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