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Want a Smoother Firefox Experience? Try Turning Off Vertical Tabs Animations
Mozilla Firefox’s redesigned sidebar offers quick access to features like AI chatbots, synced tabs, history, and bookmarks. The vertical tabs feature moves your open tabs from the top bar to a left-side panel, which is especially useful for wide-screen monitors.
However, the sidebar and vertical tabs include animation effects when opening or closing. While visually appealing, these animations can slow down performance and introduce delays. Disabling them results in a noticeably faster and more responsive interface.
Why Disable Sidebar Animations?
- Reduces lag when opening or closing the sidebar or vertical tabs.
- Improves overall browser responsiveness, especially on older hardware.
- Eliminates unnecessary visual effects for a cleaner, distraction-free experience.
Step-by-Step Guide to Disable Sidebar and Vertical Tabs Animations
- Open Firefox and enter about:config in the address bar.
- Accept the warning by clicking “Accept the Risk and Continue.”
- In the search box, type sidebar.animation.
- Locate the preference: sidebar.animation.enabled.
- Double-click this preference (or click the Toggle icon) to set its value to False.
After this change, the sidebar and vertical tabs will open and close instantly, without animation delays.
Optional: Adjust Animation Speed
- Search for sidebar.animation.duration-ms in about:config.
- The default value is 200 milliseconds. Lower the value (e.g., to 50) for faster animations, or increase it to slow them down.
- Setting it to a very low value makes transitions nearly instantaneous.
Restore Animations Anytime
To re-enable animations, repeat the steps above and set sidebar.animation.enabled back to True.
Benefits
- Noticeable speed improvement when using sidebar and vertical tabs.
- Enhanced productivity with quicker access to bookmarks, history, and open tabs.
- Customizable animation speed for a tailored browsing experience.
Disabling sidebar and vertical tabs animations in Firefox is a practical way to boost browser performance and streamline your workflow.