How to Disable Swipe Navigation Gestures in Google Chrome for Mac

May 9, 2015 - 41 Comments

Chrome

Many Mac apps support a two-finger swipe to go back / forward gesture, but not all users wish to use the scrolling gesture. For those who use Google Chrome, you may find that if you have disabled the system-wide “Swipe between pages” feature, you’ll still have the swipe navigation available in the Chrome app. This is because the swipe navigation feature is built into Chrome which lets the feature be separate from the scrolling gesture at the Mac OS X level.

In any event, if you want to disable two-finger swipe forward and swipe backward navigation gestures in the Google Chrome browser on a Mac, you can use a defaults command string to do so.

How to Disable Chrome Swipe Gesture on Mac

Open the Terminal and enter the following command string:

defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

You will not need to restart Chrome for the change to take effect, it should be immediate either way. You can confirm this by using a two-finger swipe gesture and it should no longer navigate back or forth in the browsing history of an active window or tab.

Re-Enable Chrome Navigation Swipe Gestures on Mac

If you wish to turn this back on, simply enter the following defaults command string, the only difference being that “FALSE” has been changed to “TRUE”:

defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool TRUE

For most users, these swipe gestures are generally good to leave enabled, particularly since they’re the same in many iOS apps and many other Mac apps too, making it a somewhat universal back / forth navigation function that is applicable to both Mac OS X and iOS devices.

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Mac OS, Tips & Tricks

41 Comments

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  1. Lucas Soto says:

    This work on chrome on OS 11.1. Thank you.

    Used this one:

    defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

    Only took it after I restarted chrome.

  2. GeoffB says:

    For other chrome based Browsers:

    # Chrome
    defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

    # Chrome Canary
    defaults write com.google.Chrome.canary AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

    # Chromium
    defaults write org.chromium.Chromium AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

    # Microsoft Edge
    defaults write com.microsoft.Edge.plist AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

  3. Jacques says:

    I can confirm this worked for me on Mojave 10.14.6
    remember to quit Chrome

    defaults write com.google.Chrome AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

  4. MOON says:

    Any ideas on what the command line for Mojave 10.14.4 could be? Both lines (the first one and later for High Sierra) are not working anymore.

    Thanks!

  5. surfslasher says:

    Thank you. Had to restart the app for the chance to take effect.

  6. Alfred says:

    Can confirm NOT working on High Sierra 10.13.6.

    Also, turning off the trackpad 2 finger swipe gesture does NOT work.

  7. Scott Yan says:

    defaults write com.google.Chrome AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

    (without .plist)
    must restart chrome to take effect.

    this stupid gesture drive me crazy….. and thanks!

  8. User says:

    Worked a treat! Thanks!

  9. Giles says:

    Great tip thanks. Still works in Sierra, just remove the .plist and restart and you’re good to go.

  10. Nick says:

    For Sue and others who don’t want to use the terminal, try this if you’re on a Mac:

    System Preferences > Trackpad > More Gestures > Under “Swipe between pages” just uncheck that box.

    Hope it works for you like it did for me.

  11. Molly says:

    Lifesaver! I had to remove .plist as well, but then it worked like a charm. Such a relief!

  12. Treavor says:

    So useful! Many thanks…i had to take of .plist per @Toto AND restart

  13. Tim says:

    What a help this is! I had to take off .plist as @Toto said, but it worked like a charm.

  14. andrew says:

    Worked on El Capitan, thanks!

  15. Sue Crawford says:

    Oh for gods sake is there no way to do this without the terminal???

    • bekep says:

      Terminal.app is an application in your /Applications/Utilities/ folder, use Spotlight if you can’t find something on the Mac.

      You’re WELCOME, I know I am HELPFUL to you. Now ask yourself Sue, do YOU want to help someone who is rude and cussing at everyone? Probably not, so remember the Golden Rule.

  16. Amr says:

    Not working for me. I’m on 10.11.3 (El Cap), Chrome 49.0.2623.87. :(

  17. Dan says:

    Not working on Yosemite. Any ways to change this?

  18. Dan says:

    THANK YOU SO MUCH! This was driving me absolutely crazy! Oh, joyous day!

  19. hyxer says:

    *Update* : it works on el capitan, but i need to restart chrome

  20. hyxer says:

    not working on el capitan public beta. maybe they changed something in elcapitan

  21. Sebastian says:

    Perfect, thank you a lot!

    This two-finger swipe forward and swipe backward navigation gestures in Chrome drove me crazy.

    Now i use Better Touch Tool for changing the tabs with the same gesture.! Works Great!!

  22. Toto says:

    The domain part of the command should be “com.google.Chrome” without “.plist” at the end or it won’t work.

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