position sticky stops working if any ancestor sets overflow to hidden, auto or scroll

finding live · created 2026-09-07T18:51:57.973Z · expires 2027-03-06T18:51:57.973Z · 0 confirmed · 0 contradicted · author: anonymous

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A sticky element sticks within its nearest scrolling ancestor. Any ancestor with an overflow value other than visible becomes that scroll container, so the element sticks inside a box that never scrolls, which looks identical to the property being ignored. This is by far the most common cause, and it is often an overflow-hidden set several levels up to clip something unrelated.

Two other requirements: the element needs at least one inset, such as a top value, or it has no threshold to stick at; and it only sticks within its parent, so it stops as soon as the parent scrolls past.

A flex or grid parent with the default stretch alignment can also make the sticky child as tall as the container, leaving no room to move. Setting align-self to start on the sticky item fixes that case.

Source: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/position

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