When I have DevTools open, there is a little button that toggles Hide Drawer. and Show Console.. Besides being inconsistently named, the 'drawer' is very annoying to me because it takes up so much of the little screen real estate allotted for devtools (i'm bottom docked). How can I keep this 'drawer' closed permanently? Or if I can't do that, can I at least keep the height of it as low as possible? (it returns to a default height every time I open it)
I solved same problem removing the flag from "Spoof user agent" option under the "Emulation" tab (I don't even know why it was flagged!).
At least you can press ESC to toggle the console area hide and show.
None of the previous answers worked for me. All of my emulation tab options are cleared/reset. I'm not sure if it's new but it turns out that there is a "Toggle emulation" button on the left side, next to the search icon. Mine was blue so I clicked on it to make it non-blue. Screenshot is below. Now, all is happy. That was so frustrating!
Apparently there is a show / hide console button next to the setting button. info and screenshot here - https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-tools/docs/console#opening_the_console
My problem was that the Console was enabled in the chrome menu, you can turn it off by clicking on the Console option in the dev tools settings:
THIS SOLUTION NO LONGER WORKS WITH NEW CHROME VERSIONS. THE ICON WAS REMOVED. The working solution was pasted above by Sigma. Pressing the ESC key will toggle the visibility of the panel.
I notice the majority of these answers are over a year old. I had a similiar issue and it's August 2015.
I was overlooking a simple icon: The >_ next to the gear.
You can see the video of the window being shown and hidden to confirm this is the same issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOC863BxZNM&hd=1
When the "drawer" is open look into the "emulation" tab, then click on "reset." Close dev tool (F12) and then reopen it (F12). The "drawer" is hidden by default.
My Chrome Version: 32.0.1700.77
The response of Darko works, I propose another way to solve this problem.
I hope this helps someone.
click Restore Defaults and Reload in Dev tools Setting right bottom
my chrome version is 37
in my case reset in emulation does not worked although i had tried it recently and it was the root cause
It is because Spoof User Agent is enabled in your Emulation-tab in the drawer.
Deselect the options below
I had the same problem, and also a frame around the page with pixels lenght of page (kind of rulers if you use PSD) with options for device width. I've solved clicking on restore default options. Hope can help someone.
I had to uncheck that box shown in circle in the newest chrome version (38.*).
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20819685/how-can-i-keep-the-console-drawer-hidden-by-default-every-time-i-open-chrome-d