CSS position sticky not working: How to fix it?

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The “CSS position not sticky not working” error is very frustrating for many, and we are here to tell you how to fix it and get rid of it forever. Especially if you are familiar with programming, you know all the troubles it causes but don’t worry, after reading the guide, you won’t ever need to deal with it again.

CSS is a programming language used to arrange the visual elements of a web page, including page layout, visual design, fonts, and colors. It is written in HTML or XHTML and can be written in separate files with the .css file extension. It can also be included in the HTML document using a <style> tag. You might see some applications using the language CSS to style their web pages or even interfaces. If you want to learn more about it, you can check Mozilla’s guide.

CSS position: sticky determines a positioning value that enables an element to hold a fixed position when the user scrolls within the viewport. The CSS position sticky not working error is caused by a conflict that sticks the element to the top or bottom of the viewport while the user continues scrolling. Let’s look at the ways to fix it!

How to fix the CSS position sticky not working error?

Problem-solving is one of the most developed attributes of programmers, as they encounter countless errors caused by multiple reasons. The CSS position sticky error is also one of them that different reasons can cause. Below you will find some solutions related to the mentioned causes.

Browser compatibility

Starting with the basics, you must work on a browser that allows the position: sticky command. We listed the supported browsers below, and if you are not working with one of them, you might want to change your browser.

Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Opera
Safari
Internet Explorer
Edge

Specify a threshold

The second basic solution for the CSS position sticky error is to make sure that you are specifying a threshold. You must provide a threshold to make the element sticky. One of the following attributes below must have a different value than “auto”:

Top
Bottom
Right
Left

Safari Vendor Prefix

Even though Safari is a supported browser that you could use, you must include a vendor prefix for the property value to support Safari versions under 13. Using Safari isn’t the only solution to eliminate the CSS position sticky not working error, as you need to maintain a healthy and compatible environment for the process.

Ancestor Element

Another thing that you can check is whether an ancestor element has an overflow property set. If any overflow properties below are set on the element’s ancestor, you will face the CSS position sticky not working error.

overflow: hidden
overflow: scroll
overflow: auto

You can copy and paste the following code into your browser’s web developer console:

let parent = document.querySelector(‘.sticky’).parentElement;

while (parent) {

const hasOverflow = getComputedStyle(parent).overflow;

if (hasOverflow !== ‘visible’) {

console.log(hasOverflow, parent);

}

parent = parent.parentElement;

}

Flexbox Parent Element

In some cases, the sticky element’s parent is a flexbox, and there are two different solutions. The scenarios below could be the problem with your CSS position sticky not working problem; let’s look at them separately.

The sticky element has align-self: auto set.
The sticky element has align-self: stretch set.

The sticky element has align-self: auto set

As a result, you would see the CSS position sticky not functioning problem since the align-self value would be equivalent to the align-items value of the parent. Therefore, the sticky element’s height will expand to fill the entire space if the parent has align-items: stretch or align-items: standard set. This would prevent the sticky element from scrolling inside the parent.