Google Chrome will not exit fullscreen mode

Question

I am running 64-bit Ubuntu 13.10, have latest stable google-chrome version 30.0.1599.114-1. Whenever I enter fullscreen mode by pressing F11, it would not allow me to exit this mode by pressing F11. Actually, I see it exit but then fullscreen mode is quickly restored.

I searched for a solution, but nothing really helps. I even tried completely re-installing it with no luck. Any suggestions?

Update: I tried completely removing ~/.config/google-chrome, it did not help.

Update 2: I am running Cinnamon 2.0.6, maybe that would give some clues.

Update 3: I have Chromium 29.0.1547.65, and it does not have this issue.

Thanks, Nick.

Well that's obviously not the case. Mouse clicking on the popup link 'Exist full screen (F11)' does not work either. — ko1Rn, Oct 27 '13 at 07:17
You can try all of the suggestions in this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1867020
Are you running in kiosk mode (with the --kiosk argument)? — kiri, Oct 27 '13 at 07:28
@RaduRădeanu Searching "google chrome not exiting full screen" returns plenty of results (including bugs) — kiri, Oct 27 '13 at 07:46
You are right, but I have tried all of the "solutions" - none of them really worked for me. Most of the bugs were related to old versions of chrome (e.g. v.16). I even tried to install latest unstable version of chrome - same thing. — ko1Rn, Oct 27 '13 at 15:02
Have you tried something other than Cinnamon? Do you have another DE available? — , Oct 28 '13 at 06:44
Yep, I have Unity but it crashed after installing Cinnamon. I would gladly try it too (hopefully they will fix issues that cause crashing). — ko1Rn, Oct 28 '13 at 06:53

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 04 '14 at 18:25

Happened to me with google-chrome.

I've been tinkering around, since removing the whole ~/.config/google-chrome directory removes most of the customization, so I looked for a better way.

I ended up replacing this section: (this is a from a new generated ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Preferences)

browser": {
    "window_placement": {
    "bottom": 586,
    "left": 9,
    "maximized": false,
    "right": 1013,
    "top": 29,
    "work_area_bottom": 600,
    "work_area_left": 0,
    "work_area_right": 1024,
    "work_area_top": 23
    }
},

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 27 '16 at 12:00

I'm running ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and my solution was to close Chrome, then open the Chrome preferences with

nano ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/preferences

and clear the window_placement variable so that it would read

"window_placement":{}

I then saved the file (Ctrl+x) and reopened Chrome, which reset the window_placement variable and removed the full-screen problem.

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

0

You might solve this issue by removing your Chrome configuration directory:

rm -rf ~/.config/google-chrome

Source and more about: Chrome in Linux Ubuntu stays in Full screen mode.

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

Community

1

answered Oct 27 '13 at 06:58

Radu Rădeanu

169,590

Sorry, I tried that too before posting my question here - it did not help me :( – ko1Rn Oct 27 '13 at 07:16

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 27 '13 at 09:55

0

Try this.

Type chrome://plugins in the URL bar, and click the detailed button. Disable Adobe Flash Player the first one that shows up. If you get a meesage about flash click to download the latest version from Adobe.

answered Oct 27 '13 at 09:55

Mitch

107,631

Adobe Flash plugin does not seem to be anyhow related to my issue. – ko1Rn Oct 27 '13 at 15:00
Have you at least tried it? – Mitch Oct 27 '13 at 18:18
Yes I did. I disabled my Flash plugin, restarted Chrome and faced the same issue with full screen again. However I did not quite get it about the message - is it when I visit a website where flash plugin is required? – ko1Rn Oct 28 '13 at 01:51
The message is just about installing the latest flash. – Mitch Oct 28 '13 at 05:15
I see, but I think if disabling flash plugin from my browser does not change anything it proves to be unrelated to the issue. – ko1Rn Oct 28 '13 at 06:28
What I meant is to disable it, until an application asks for it, then install the latest. Or just go ahead, and make sure that flash is at the latest version. – Mitch Oct 28 '13 at 06:37
let us continue this discussion in chat – ko1Rn Oct 28 '13 at 10:03

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 29 '13 at 16:51

This appears to have been an issue with Cinnamon (more accurately, Muffin) - see https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/issues/2500#issuecomment-28562064. If you are on the Cinnamon stable PPA this should be fixed (as of Muffin 2.5 ... Cinnamon 2.0.12 I think).

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 14 '14 at 18:12

I have same thing running Version 34.0.1847.116 Ubuntu 14.04 aura (260972)

My answer, shut down chrome, then start it up again (from terminal) with switch to start in fixed window size:

chromium-browser --windows-size=800,600

then the settings 'stick' until the next time it goes wrong

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 16 '16 at 11:15

All the solutions I have researched so far are for obsolete versions of Chrome, or the workarounds were too awkward or involved for most users. I was moved to keep looking. The solution was simple and intuitive (but it required false starts and force quits to realize it with a seemingly frozen keyboard):

If you use a screen saver with password protection, and you leave the computer in full-screen mode after leaving for work (or falling asleep binge-wacthing Netflix), you must enter your password in order to regain control. In full screen there's no visible dialogue box (it's hidden behind the full screen application).

Try first- before clicking on anything, just type in your password. If you see the cursor turn into a spinning wheel, just wait for your password to be verified. Then you will be able to click on the navigation buttons again.

Try second- however, most of the time I have to blindly alt-tab in order to give the password dialogue the focus, so that I can enter my password.(There's no way to tell which application is right behind the full screen application, so you might have to alt-tab and re-enter the password several times. Persevere, this works. there's no need to modify the settings or crawl the code if this works for you.)

The easiest way to prevent this is to avoid leaving the computer in full screen mode, but this is an effective solution if you fall asleep watching Downton Abbey.

I have verified this on Chrome Version 48.0.2564.109 (64-bit) on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Google Chrome will not exit fullscreen mode

7 Answers7