# Textarea scroll bar

**URL:** <https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/textarea-scroll-bar/9092>\
**Category:** Photoshop\
**Tags:** uxp\
**Created:** [January 23, 2025, 9:23am UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/textarea-scroll-bar/9092 "2025-01-23T09:23:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bianca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Bianca](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/Bianca)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 9:23am UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/textarea-scroll-bar/9092/1 "2025-01-23T09:23:01Z")

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Hi everyone,  
I have a problem with the scroll bar for text areas, I tried to fix a height but the scroll bar is never displayed, is it a bug or is it wanted that the text areas do not show the scroll bar?

 ![immagine](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/xdplugins/original/2X/d/d72340505fe04b0839c3b88806fa5f644ef55db6.png)

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**Author:** ![Karmalakas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/karmalakas/32/1048_2.png) [@Karmalakas](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/Karmalakas)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 9:52am UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/textarea-scroll-bar/9092/2 "2025-01-23T09:52:00Z")

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It’s a known issue (among lots of others) and was never fixed

> [@Is it possible to customize the scrollbar](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/is-it-possible-to-customize-the-scrollbar/2447/6):
>
> Actually, Textarea on windows does not have any scrollbar at all. So it would be an improvement. Now you can scroll only using keyboards and page up/down or selecting and dragging the text.

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**Author:** ![ariestav](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/ariestav/32/4531_2.png) [@ariestav](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/ariestav)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:35pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/textarea-scroll-bar/9092/3 "2026-01-08T20:35:45Z")

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I cannot understand how UXP spectrum textarea has no ability to use scrolling — all of a sudden I feel like I’m back in a 1995 computer lab on my old university campus. Baffling!

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**Author:** ![photonic](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/photonic/32/2513_2.png) [@photonic](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/photonic)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 7:29pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/textarea-scroll-bar/9092/4 "2026-01-14T19:29:15Z")

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It is not only spectrum UXP but the “textarea” HTML element itself which has the issue. I really don’t understand very well how UXP render engine works as it is somehow “based” on HTML but is not HTML? 🤔

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**Author:** ![ariestav](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/ariestav/32/4531_2.png) [@ariestav](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/ariestav)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 7:41pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/textarea-scroll-bar/9092/5 "2026-01-14T19:41:21Z")

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HTML:

`<textarea></textarea>`

CSS:

```auto
textarea {
  overflow-y: scroll;
  height: 100px;
  resize: none; /* Remove this if you want the user to resize the textarea */
}

```

Scrollbars will render if the entry text is over 100px in height.

UXP does not allow this and I simply do not understand why. Scrolling is obviously an important interaction for the utility of `<textarea>` _especially_ when text-to-whatever prompts are fashionable. UI designers do not want the element to constantly expand.

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**Author:** ![lachlanda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d78d45/32.png) [@lachlanda](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/lachlanda)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 12:33am UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/textarea-scroll-bar/9092/6 "2026-01-23T00:33:38Z")

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Thanks for your reply on the other thread **[ariestav](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/ariestav)**. Did you ever end up finding a work around for the scroll bar issue? It was also on my list to implement after resizable text areas.

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**Author:** ![tomzag](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/tomzag/32/2464_2.png) [@tomzag](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/tomzag)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 8:23am UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/textarea-scroll-bar/9092/7 "2026-01-23T08:23:03Z")

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The only workaround is probably defining a custom textarea inside [Webview](https://developer.adobe.com/photoshop/uxp/2022/uxp-api/reference-js/Global%20Members/HTML%20Elements/HTMLWebViewElement/).

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**Author:** ![ariestav](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/ariestav/32/4531_2.png) [@ariestav](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/ariestav)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/textarea-scroll-bar/9092/8 "2026-01-23T16:35:04Z")

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@lachlanda I think the workaround that @tomzag proposed is the only workable one. Implementing a “Webview” is not very trivial, but it is doable.