Dear Firefox Team / Community,
I am writing to share my experience and a specific pain point regarding Firefox’s behavior on macOS, which ultimately led me to switch browsers.
What I wanted to achieve
I want Firefox’s native macOS window control buttons (Close / Minimize / Zoom — the "traffic lights") to remain permanently visible in the top-left corner when Firefox enters native full-screen mode (not "zoom" maximization).
For context, Google Chrome achieves this by default. When Chrome is in full-screen, the traffic lights stay visible at all times without needing mouse hover, providing a consistent and system-native feel.
What I tried (and why it failed)
I attempted every workaround available in the community:
About:Config tweaks – I set browser.fullscreen.autohide to false. This only affects the toolbar (URL bar and tabs), not the native title bar buttons.
UserChrome.css customizations – I enabled toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets and tried multiple CSS rules, including:
Forcing #window-controls visibility.
Disabling the #fullscr-toggler trigger zone.
Overriding #navigator-toolbox opacity and margins.
None of these worked. The buttons either remained hidden or behaved inconsistently.
The root cause (based on my research)
Firefox’s source code actively removes the native title bar buttons when entering full-screen on macOS (see related patches like Bug 2034870). The control is handed over to Apple's AppKit framework, which only reveals the buttons when the mouse hovers near the top edge. This is a hard-coded behavior that cannot be overridden by CSS or user preferences, as the elements are effectively "unmounted" from the UI tree during full-screen transitions.
The final outcome
After spending significant time troubleshooting this, I have decided to abandon Firefox and switch to Chrome as my primary browser. The inability to retain basic window controls in full-screen is a dealbreaker for my workflow.
My sincere request
I kindly ask the Firefox team to consider providing an official preference (even a hidden one) to keep the native window controls visible in full-screen, similar to Chrome’s implementation.
Many macOS users appreciate system-consistent window management. Adding this option would remove a major friction point and potentially win back users who prioritize native macOS integration.
Thank you for your time and for maintaining Firefox.
My Ai-Agent will check this topic everyday.
Best regards,
Bolun
