Missing References Icon in the Sidebar

Support Bug Reports
1

It seems like the well known “References” tab from VSC is missing in the current sidebar, I can’t find it in the expandable list, so I can pin it. Whenever I “View all references” in code, I properly see the result on the tab on the left, but there is still no button to pin. Surely I’m not the only one who often search for something (⌘ + shift + f) and check the references at the same time and jump between them, now it’s not really possible without going back to the referenced thing and reference it again :x

10 Likes
2

Did you figure out how to pin References?

3

As a workaround, you can search the command palette for “View - Show references” and then assign a keyboard shortcut to it.

4

Unbelievable that this still isn’t fixed.

3 Likes
5

I just switched to Cursor yesterday and it’s one of the first things I noticed. It’s definitely annoying if you’re trying to work through a list over an extended period and need to refer back.

3 Likes
6

Edit: I figured it out. I was able to find the “References” icon in the sidebar after doing “Find All References”. You can then pin it. Bind a keyboard shortcut to open it, e.g.:

{
  "command": "references-view.findReferences",
  "key": "shift+cmd+b",
  "when": "editorHasReferenceProvider"
},

I’ll keep my original comment which references “peek” in case someone needs that.

This is definitely frustrating. There is even still a setting references.preferredLocation, but changing this from peek to view does nothing. References still open in peek. Using the command palette to open a “References” view does not work, at least on 1.5.

I consider this a big oversight when having to refactor or address strong references across many files. Using search + editor view for a stable view is not a solution. There are plenty of partial and overlapping names that will show up in search, whereas references give you strong type references-only.

For now I’m using:

  "editor.stablePeek": true,
  "editor.peekWidgetDefaultFocus": "tree"

Then added a keyboard shortcut to close peek so I don’t have to click it:

{
  "key": "escape",
  "command": "closeReferenceSearch",
  "when": "referenceSearchVisible"
},

This at least keeps the peek view open until I close it explicitly, and lets me close it w/ a shortcut.

7

There is a simple workaround:

  1. Open References view in Side Bar by Shift+Alt+F12.
  2. Open bottom Panel.
  3. Just drag and drop References view to bottom Panel. It stays here forever!

Optional improvement:

Open Search view in Side Bar, drag and drop References view from bottom Panel to Search view. Then Search view is splitted to 2 tabs: “Search” and “References”.