How to get left navigation back on home page

[Janet Dixon]

I somehow originally set the left navigation pane/sidebar to be hidden when users first visited the site.  I now want to display it and can't for the life of me figure out how to undo this.    When all the spaces are visited, the left sidebar is display.  It's only when first arriving at the site that it currently doesn't display.

[Jacob Brunson · Accepted solution]

Hi Janet,

My name is Jacob and I'm a Confluence developer who has worked on this functionality. It sounds like you have selected a space as your "Site Homepage" in Confluence settings (under "Further Configuration").

Unfortunately, there is no setting to control whether or not the left navigation sidebar is shown. A custom Site Homepage will always hide the left navigation.

If you let me know a little more about your use case, I can share your feedback directly with the engineering team. Feel free to reply here or to reach out to me privately at jbrunson@atlassian.com

---

In case it helps, I can also share a technical detail. When users land on the custom homepage, there is a `?mode=global` parameter in the URL. Removing this parameter will cause the sidebar to show.

For example, this URL would have a hidden sidebar:

https://example.atlassian.com/wiki/spaces/ABC/overview?mode=global

 While this URL would show the sidebar:

https://example.atlassian.com/wiki/spaces/ABC/overview

[Janet Dixon]

@Jacob BrunsonI just discovered that.  Thanks for the tip on the URL!

[Alison Frane]

I have created a workaround for this. It's not particularly pretty, but workarounds seldom are. 

Having noted the difference in the URL between the page with sidebar and without, I simply created a button that says "reload page with left sidebar" and made it go specifically to the with-sidebar version of the URL.

The ugly part is the explanation that says "Hi there. Welcome to the Test Staff Wiki. If the left sidebar is not showing, and you want to see it, click the button to the right."

But this is, as you can tell from that message, just my playground account. I'm sure the link could be included more elegantly, but I thought I'd post my workaround here, in case someone else might find it useful.

[Janet Dixon]

@Alison FraneThat's a cool idea.  I understand what you mean about it not being pretty, but works.  lol  We do what we must in Confluence!

[Scott Beeson]

"A custom Site Homepage will always hide the left navigation."

BUT WHY?!

[Tracey Annison]

The reply "A custom Site Homepage will always hide the left navigation.", because the URL used includes the "?mode=global" ending is unhelpful. The fact that the Confluence software has been configured (for some reason) to do this by default is not appropriate for all use cases, and users would like be able to control how the page is displayed. 

Thus, this is not "solved".

[Suvradip Paul]

Hi @Janet Dixon ,

Could you please check this guide - https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/improved-confluence-navigation/ and I think the left sidebar can be collapsed and expanded by typing [  or dragging the right edge to the left or selecting the left facing space arrow?

I presume it can be a case if it's hidden and left . So, if you go back to home and return again the sidebar would remain minimized.

Please accept if the above solves your query else respond and allow others to share input.

Cheers

Suvradip

[Janet Dixon]

Sorry @Suvradip Paul , I think you misunderstand my question.  It's the same as this:  https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Using-a-space-for-a-site-homepage-sidebar-disappears/qaq-p/1380945

[Suvradip Paul]

Sorry Janet.