Overflow-x:hidden doesn't prevent content from overflowing in mobile browsers

163
votes

I have a website here.

Viewed in a desktop browser, the black menu bar properly extends only to edge of the window, since the body has overflow-x:hidden.

In any mobile browser, whether Android or iOS, the black menu bar displays its full width, which brings whitespace on the right of the page. As far as I can tell, this whitespace isn't even a part of the html or body tags.

Even if I set the viewport to a specific width in the <head>:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=1100, initial-scale=1">

The site expands to the 1100px but still has the whitespace beyond the 1100.

What am I missing? How do I keep the viewport to 1100 and cut off the overflow?

17
cssoverflowviewportmobile-browser
This is especially an issue in iOS9 – Chuck Le Butt

17 Answers

321
votes

Creating a site wrapper div inside the <body> and applying the overflow-x:hidden to the wrapper instead of the <body> or <html> fixed the issue.

It appears that browsers that parse the <meta name="viewport"> tag simply ignore overflow attributes on the html and body tags.

Note: You may also need to add position: relative to the wrapper div.

96
votes

try

html, body {
  overflow-x:hidden 
}

instead of just

body {
  overflow-x:hidden 
}
74
votes

VictorS's comment on the accepted answer deserves to be it's own answer because it's a very elegant solution that does, indeed work. And I'll add a tad to it's usefulness.

Victor notes adding position:fixed works.

body.modal-open {
    overflow: hidden;
    position: fixed;
}

And indeed it does. However, it also has a slight side-affect of essentially scrolling to the top. position:absolute resolves this but, re-introduces the ability to scroll on mobile.

If you know your viewport (my plugin for adding viewport to the <body>) you can just add a css toggle for the position.

body.modal-open {
    // block scroll for mobile;
    // causes underlying page to jump to top;
    // prevents scrolling on all screens
    overflow: hidden;
    position: fixed;
}
body.viewport-lg {
    // block scroll for desktop;
    // will not jump to top;
    // will not prevent scroll on mobile
    position: absolute; 
}

I also add this to prevent the underlying page from jumping left/right when showing/hiding modals.

body {
    // STOP MOVING AROUND!
    overflow-x: hidden;
    overflow-y: scroll !important;
}
36
votes

As @Indigenuity states, this appears to be caused by browsers parsing the <meta name="viewport"> tag.

To solve this problem at the source, try the following:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, minimum-scale=1">.

In my tests this prevents the user from zooming out to view the overflowed content, and as a result prevents panning/scrolling to it as well.

35
votes

This is the simplest solution to solve horisontal scrolling in Safari.

html, body {
  position:relative;
  overflow-x:hidden;
}
16
votes
body{
height: 100%;
overflow: hidden !important;
width: 100%;
position: fixed;

works on iOS9

6
votes

Keep the viewport untouched: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

Assuming you would like to achieve the effect of a continuous black bar to the right side: #menubar shouldn't exceed 100%, adjust the border radius such that the right side is squared and adjust the padding so that it extends a little more to the right. Modify the following to your #menubar:

border-radius: 30px 0px 0px 30px;
width: 100%; /*setting to 100% would leave a little space to the right */
padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; /*fills the little gap*/

Adjusting the padding to 10px of course leaves the left menu to the edge of the bar, you can put the remaining 40px to each of the li, 20px on each side left and right:

.menuitem {
display: block;
padding: 0px 20px;
}

When you resize the browser smaller, you would find still the white background: place your background texture instead from your div to body. Or alternatively, adjust the navigation menu width from 100% to lower value using media queries. There are a lot of adjustments to be made to your code to create a proper layout, I'm not sure what you intend to do but the above code will somehow fix your overflowing bar.

6
votes

Creating a site wrapper div inside the body and applying the overflow->x:hidden to the wrapper INSTEAD of the body or html fixed the issue.

This worked for me after also adding position: relative to the wrapper.

4
votes

Adding a wrapper <div> around the entirety of your content will indeed work. While semantically "icky", I added an div with a class of overflowWrap right inside the body tag and then set set my CSS like this:

html, body, .overflowWrap {
overflow-x: hidden;
}

Might be overkill now, but works like a charm!

4
votes

I encountered the same problem with Android devices but not iOS devices. Managed to resolve by specifying position:relative in the outer div of the absolutely positioned elements (with overflow:hidden for outer div)

4
votes

No previous single solution worked for me, I had to mix them and got the issue fixed also on older devices (iphone 3).

First, I had to wrap the html content into an outer div:

<html>
  <body>
    <div id="wrapper">... old html goes here ...</div>
  </body>
</html>

Then I had to apply overflow hidden to the wrapper, because overflow-x was not working:

  #wrapper {
    overflow: hidden;
  }

and this fixed the issue.

3
votes

I solved the issue by using overflow-x:hidden; as follows

@media screen and (max-width: 441px){

#end_screen { (NOte:-the end_screen is the wrapper div for all other div's inside it.)
  overflow-x: hidden;
   }
 }

structure is as follows

1st div end_screen >> inside it >> end_screen_2(div) >> inside it >> end_screen_2.

'end_screen is the wrapper of end_screen_1 and end_screen_2 div's

3
votes

As subarachnid said overflow-x hidden for both body and html worked Here's working example

**HTML**
<div class="contener">
  <div class="menu">
  das
  </div>
  <div class="hover">
    <div class="img1">
    First Strip
    </div>
     <div class="img2">
    Second Strip
    </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="baner">
dsa
</div>

**CSS**
body, html{
  overflow-x:hidden;
}
body{
  margin:0;
}
.contener{
  width:100vw;
}
.baner{
   background-image: url("http://p3cdn4static.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3500628/Image/abstract-art-mother-earth-1.jpg");
   width:100vw;
   height:400px;
   margin-left:0;
   left:0;
}
.contener{
  height:100px;
}
.menu{
  display:flex;
  background-color:teal;
  height:100%;
  justify-content:flex-end;
  align:content:bottom;
}
.img1{
  width:150px;
  height:25px;
  transform:rotate(45deg);
  background-color:red;
  position:absolute;
  top:40px;
  right:-50px;
  line-height:25px;
  padding:0 20px;
  cursor:pointer;
  color:white;
  text-align:center;
  transition:all 0.4s;
}
.img2{
  width:190px;
  text-align:center;
  transform:rotate(45deg);
  background-color:#333;
  position:absolute;
  height:25px;
  line-height:25px;
  top:55px;
  right:-50px;
  padding:0 20px;
  cursor:pointer;
  color:white;
  transition:all 0.4s;
}
.hover{
  overflow:hidden;
}
.hover:hover .img1{
  background-color:#333;
  transition:all 0.4s;
}
.hover:hover .img2{
  background-color:blue;
  transition:all 0.4s;
}

Link

2
votes

I had tried many ways from replies in this topic, mostly works but got some side-effect like if I use overflow-x on body,html it might slow/freeze the page when users scroll down on mobile.

use position: fixed on wrapper/div inside the body is good too, but when I have a menu and use Javascript click animated scroll to some section, It's not working.

So, I decided to use touch-action: pan-y pinch-zoom on wrapper/div inside the body. Problem solved.

2
votes

easiest way to solve this , add

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, user-scalable=no, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, minimum-scale=1.0">

1
votes

I've just been working on this for a few hours, trying various combinations of things from this and other pages. The thing that worked for me in the end was to make a site wrapper div, as suggested in the accepted answer, but to set both overflows to hidden instead of just the x overflow. If I leave overflow-y at scroll, I end up with a page that only scrolls vertically by a few pixels and then stops.

#all-wrapper {
  overflow: hidden;
}

Just this was enough, without setting anything on the body or html elements.

0
votes

The only way to fix this issue for my bootstrap modal (containing a form) was to add the following code to my CSS:

.modal {
    -webkit-overflow-scrolling: auto!important;
}