Navigation Controls not visible / Status Bar off by default

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Navigation controls (Go Back, Go Forward, Top of Call Stack) aren’t showing up in the UI anymore after the recent changes introduced on version 2.1.
Similar with the Status Bar, it won’t be visible by default if you open a repo that wasn’t previously used with version 2.1 even if you have the option enabled. Once you enable it again it’ll show up, but it needs to be done for every repo that wasn’t previously opened with 2.1.

Steps to Reproduce

Navigation Controls:

  • Right click Menu Bar > Navigation Controls

Status Bar:

  • Open any repo that wasn’t previously used with version 2.1. Under View > Appearance > Status Bar the option shows as checked even though it’s not visible. Clicking on it solves the problem, but it needs to be done for every repo.

Expected Behavior

Navigation Controls:

  • Controls should show up if the option is checked. Shortcuts such as Alt + :left_arrow: or Alt + :right_arrow: are still working though.

Status Bar:

  • Should be displayed by default if the option is enabled.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.1.34 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 609c37304ae83141fd217c4ae638bf5321856500
Date: 2025-11-25T16:35:52.391Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

2 Likes

I can echo this issue. In my case, the status bar doesn’t appear even after turning the setting back on in both workspace and user settings.

Version: 2.1.36 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 9cd7c8b6cebcbccc1242df211dee45a4b6fe15e0
Date: 2025-11-26T03:43:48.079Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

1 Like

Welp, maybe I fat fingered a key or something because I guess I’m in zen mode, which was set to remove the status bar. I’ve disabled that setting for zen mode and it’s reappeared for me.

I’m not sure I really understand why, because as I understand it zen mode is meant to be full screen (among other things), and I certainly wasn’t. Confirmed by toggling zen mode to on, and it was a very different experience. So that’s fun.

I can confirm I wasn’t using zen mode, and the status bar problem itself isn’t that big of a deal once I opened most of my repos. But I can confirm that the Navigation Controls are still missing for me since this past Monday with the latest UI changes, I’m surprised I didn’t found another topic about it (am I the only one using it??)

Is this on Agent or Editor layout?

In Agent layout it’s intentional:

That was it indeed, thanks. Switching to Editor layout brought back the controls and the status bar.

1 Like

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