topic Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density? in Discussions

157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri514 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 18:15:09 GMT

157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density? Old methods dont help.

This doesnt help:
"With the release of Firefox 157 and its new "Nova" visual design refresh, Mozilla actually brought back Compact Mode as a fully supported native setting. You no longer need to mess with hidden about:config flags or the "Customize Toolbar" menu.
To fix the sparse padding and restore high-density spacing for your bookmarks and toolbars, follow these steps:
1. Click the Menu button (three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner of Firefox.
2. Select Settings.
3. Choose Appearance from the left-hand sidebar menu.
4. Locate the Window density section.
5. Select Compact."

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri514 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 18:17:27 GMT

Here is a screenshot

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

dftf — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 18:28:07 GMT

In the about:config screen, try setting "browser.nova.enabled" to "false"

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri514 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 18:34:20 GMT

I tried, no effect.

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

dftf — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 18:49:28 GMT

Odd, I'm using the "compact" mode and have "browser.nova.enabled" set to "false" and my bookmarks are not as spaced-out

Two things you can check:

Right-click an empty area of the Firefox toolbar, and do "Customise Toolbar..."
Click "Density" at the bottom and make sure "Use touch for Tablet Mode" isn't enabled

In the Settings app in Windows 11, on the "System" page look at "Scale" and it's probably set to something like 125% or 150% and not 100%, as mine is. So this might be causing the extra padding.

The only way to change that would be to go into C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox , right-click firefox.exe and go to the Compatibility tab, then click "Change high DPI settings" then click "Override high DPI scaling behaviour" and try a different setting. You must fully-close Firefox between each time you change that setting, then re-open it, to see any change take effect

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri5141 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 21:22:05 GMT

This was introduced in 157.0. The 156.01 was much more dense. I don't want to make everything smaller by changing DPI. I want the lines in bookmarks window to be closer to each other, the way they were in previous versions, without changing the letter size.

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri5141 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 21:25:55 GMT

Here is the version 156.01

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri5141 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 21:30:02 GMT

In 156 letters are the same size, but lines are closer to each other. Uploading again side by side

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri5141 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 21:30:18 GMT

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri514 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 23:42:19 GMT

Here is a good quality screenshot from version 157. Comparing it with Version_156.jpg you can clearly see that 157 increased the distance between text lines.

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

dftf — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 07:36:15 GMT

Yes, at first I didn't notice the change in the spacing, but I can see it now (initially I wondered if it might be a Windows difference, as my device is on Windows 10).

The best thing to do is a Google search for how to change this using the userChrome.css file, which lets you customise size and spacing for various parts of the Firefox UI. It's a bit beyond my scope, but if you do a search with that file name included you'll likely find someone on Reddit has done the steps on it before now

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Redglyph — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:05:19 GMT

Yes, it's so annoying that they have to introduce those regressions regularly. Why change something that works?

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

GeorgeLefeurve — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:10:10 GMT

Exactly, the latest update to 157 today has increased the padding in my drop-down menus, and there's nothing that will put it right. I've tried all the workarounds. Compact is not as compact as it was. I'm really angry about this. I just wish they'd concentrate on the security updates, and leave the cosmetics well alone. STOP MESSING !!!!!

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

dftf — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:16:03 GMT

@Agentvirtuel : explain to the user how they can decrease the padding between menu items, such as bookmarks, after the Firefox 157.0 update. Assume the user has already made the browser.nova.enabled to false change in about:config , and has set the UI density to "compact" mode.

Explain what changes the user should make in the "userChrome.css" file to achieve this, explaining where that file is usually located. Also remember to say "toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets" must be set to "true" in about:config for the .css file changes to take-effect.

Be sure your solution is valid for Firefox 157.0 release; don't rely on old training data that may now be obsolete and not work in the latest version.

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

billyswong — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 19:21:11 GMT

Now that compact mode is under official support, they really should also fix the excessive line spacing of address bar dropdown and search box dropdown too.

Edit: dropdown of text boxes in webpages now get excessive line spacing in Firefox 157 too. So all dropdown in Firefox are now running sparse UI mode disregarding the UI density setting.

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

GeorgeLefeurve — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:19:10 GMT

This doesn't work. Compact density is not compact anymore. My drop down menus have increased by at least a third in length.

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri5141 — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 22:59:52 GMT

Yes, these updates are constantly introducing features nobody cares about, but breaking something useful. It feels like the goal of Firefox team is to make me switch to another browser! The compact bookmarks was the only thing that kept me from switching to Chrome. STOP MESSING !!!!!

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Agentvirtuel — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:19:13 GMT

Bonjour

My answer, this article https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/contributors-guide-firefox-advanced-customization

I found your message among the many messages.

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

benalvi — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 06:02:08 GMT

Had the same thing after updating to 157, compact mode barely changes anything now. The only fix that actually worked for me was going the userChrome.css route. In about:config set toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets to true, then create a folder called chrome inside your profile folder and put a file named userChrome.css in it with this:

menupopup > menuitem,

menupopup > menu {

padding-top: 2px !important;

padding-bottom: 2px !important;

}

Restart Firefox and the bookmark menus go back to being tight. Tweak the numbers to whatever feels right, I settled on 3px in the end.

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

dftf — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 06:51:42 GMT

Please provide the exact steps the user needs to make in the "userChrome.css" file to resolve this issue: what exact lines of code should they add to it?

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

dftf — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 06:56:52 GMT

A user above has suggested these edits inside the userChrome.css file:

menupopup > menuitem,
menupopup > menu {
padding-top: 2px !important;
padding-bottom: 2px !important;
}

Please test these and check if they work

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Agentvirtuel — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 07:42:45 GMT

If you wish to try

Copy/paste the code into your notepad
Save
Type: All files
userChrome.css

Create a chrome folder
Move userChrome.css to your chrome folder

Go to your profile folder https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data#w_how-do-i-find-my-profile

Move your chrome folder to your profile folder

Go to configuration editor https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
Enter a search term toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets
Double-click on the preference, to set its value to true

And restart Firefox

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

dftf — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 07:49:07 GMT

@Dmitri514 : from the screenshot attached, the changes do seem to do what you want

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

GordonH — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:10:24 GMT

Absolutely Perfect! Thank you.

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri514 — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:05:49 GMT

You've said:

"Create a chrome folder
Move userChrome.css to your chrome folder"

I already have this folder and the file userChrome.css in it. So I cant create the folder. Should I delete the folder and create the new one? Should I replace my existing file with a created one? Should I add the code:

menupopup > menuitem,
menupopup > menu {
padding-top: 2px !important;
padding-bottom: 2px !important;
}

to the existing file? If, yes to where: beginning, end?

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri514 — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:08:09 GMT

Here is the folder

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri514 — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:14:01 GMT

Here is the beginning of the file

@media (-moz-proton) {
/** Darkmode - Color lighter ************************************************/
:root[style*="--lwt-accent-color:rgb(12, 12, 13); --lwt-text-color:rgba(249, 249, 250);"] {
--toolbar-bgcolor: rgba(43, 42, 51, 5) !important; /* Original: rgba(43, 42, 51, 1) */
}

/** Root - Reduce Padding ***************************************************/
:root {
/* Tab Bar */
--proton-tab-block-margin: 2px !important; /* Original: 4px */
--inline-tab-padding: 6px !important; /* Original: 8px */

/* Panel */
--arrowpanel-menuicon-padding: 8px;
--arrowpanel-menuitem-margin: 0 var(--arrowpanel-menuicon-padding) !important; /* Original: 0 8px */
--arrowpanel-menuitem-padding: 5px !important; /* Original: 8px */
--arrowpanel-padding: 0.8em !important; /* Original: 16px or .cui-widget-panel, .cui-widget-panel::part(arrowcontent) => 4px 0 */
}

:root[uidensity=compact] {
/* Tool Bar */
--toolbarbutton-outer-padding: 2px !important; /* Original: 3px, General is 2px */

/* Panel */
--arrowpanel-menuitem-padding: 3px !important; /* Original: 8px */
}

:root[uidensity=touch] {
/* Tab Bar - Like Original */
--proton-tab-block-margin: 4px !important; /* Original: 4px */
--inline-tab-padding: 8px !important; /* Original: 8px */

/* Panel - Like Original */
--arrowpanel-menuitem-padding: 8px !important; /* Original: 8px */
}

/** Tab Bar - Reduce Width, Show more tabs **********************************/
.titlebar-spacer[type="pre-tabs"] {
width: 30px !important; /* Original: 40px */
}
.titlebar-spacer[type="post-tabs"] {
width: 25px !important; /* Original: 40px */
}

:root {
--newtab-button-minus-width-padding: 2px;
--newtab-button-width-padding: calc(var(--toolbarbutton-inner-padding) - var(--newtab-button-minus-width-padding));
}

#new-tab-button > .toolbarbutton-icon,
#alltabs-button > .toolbarbutton-badge-stack {
/* Original: calc(2 * var(--toolbarbutton-inner-padding) + 16px) */
width: calc(2 * var(--newtab-button-width-padding) + 16px) !important;

/* Original: --toolbarbutton-inner-padding */
padding-left: var(--newtab-button-width-padding) !important;
padding-right: var(--newtab-button-width-padding) !important;
}

#tabbrowser-tabs[haspinnedtabs]:not([positionpinnedtabs]) > #tabbrowser-arrowscrollbox > .tabbrowser-tab[first-visible-unpinned-tab] {
margin-inline-start: 1px !important;
}

:root:not([uidensity=touch]) #tabbrowser-arrowscrollbox {
--scrollbtn-inner-padding: 1px;
--scrollbtn-outer-padding: 3px;
}
#scrollbutton-up {
padding-left: var(--scrollbtn-inner-padding, 4px) !important; /* Original: 4px */
padding-right: var(--scrollbtn-outer-padding, 4px) !important;
}
#scrollbutton-down {

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

dftf — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:12:49 GMT

@Dmitri514 : maybe reply to user "benalvi" on this post who first suggested this, as they may be able to assist you better

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri514 — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:19:48 GMT

I already have this folder and the file userChrome.css in it. So I cant create the folder. Should I replace my existing file with a created one? Should I add the code:

menupopup > menuitem,
menupopup > menu {
padding-top: 2px !important;
padding-bottom: 2px !important;
}

to the existing file? If, yes to where: beginning, end?

Re: 157.0 made bookmarks sparce again. How to restore high density?

Dmitri514 — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:35:09 GMT

In about:config I set toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets to true

and added

menupopup > menuitem,
menupopup > menu {
padding-top: 4px !important;
padding-bottom: 4px !important;
}

to the beginning of my existing userChrome.css file.

This restores the pre-157 spacing. Thank you benalvi!