Ubuntu – How to disable overlay scrollbar hiding behavior

I found a way to fix this while I was trying to find a way to redefine 3 finger gestures. I posted how I did it there: How can I disable arbitrary default multitouch gestures in Unity?

Let me know if that fixes it for you.

It works for me to position the mouse pointer just a little outside the border of the window (above the scrollbar), then move it a little up or down (in a straight line, until it is outside the scrollbar), then the resize icon appears.

Alternatively, you can wait a few seconds while keeping the mouse above the overlay scrollbar, the overlay scrollbar will disappear (fade away), the resize icon will appear.

Edit

Toggling between scroll modes with a shortcut key combination

Since you mentioned in a comment that toggling between scroll modes would be helpful, you can simply toggle the scrollbar mode to "normal" and back to "overlay" by putting the script below under a convenient key combination. It recognizes the current scrollbar mode, and switches between "normal" and "overlay-auto".

How to use

1. Copy the script below into an empty file, save it as toggle_scrollbar.py

2. Test the script by running it from a terminal window with the command:

    python3 /path/to/toggle_scrollbar.py
   

3. If all works fine, make it available under a shortcut key combination: System Settings > "Keyboard" > "Shortcuts" > "Custom Shortcuts". Click the "+" and add the command.

The script:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess

get = lambda cmd: subprocess.check_output(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd]).decode("utf-8").strip()
def set_value(cmd):
    subprocess.Popen(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd])

if get("gsettings get com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode") != "'normal'":
    cmd = "gsettings set com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode 'normal'"
else:
    cmd = "gsettings set com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode 'overlay-auto'"

set_value(cmd)