"workbench.activityBar.location": "left" not working

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Hey, thanks for the report. There are two things here:

  1. Wrong settings key. workbench.activityBar.location controls where the Activity Bar itself sits (top/bottom/hidden), not whether it’s on the left or right. To move the sidebar to the left, you need a different key:
"workbench.activityBar.orientation": "vertical"
  1. Known persistence bug. Even with the right key, the setting might not stick after restarts. This is a known issue and the team is aware.

Let me know if that helps.