Flex layout broken in IE11 [duplicate] - css

Question

I have been unable to determine why flexbox is not working in IE 11.
For testing, I sourced a very simple flexbox layout from CodePen and have pasted the information below.
Chrome works as intended; IE11 fails.
Image of layout-success running on Chrome:
Image of layout-failure on IE11
body {
background: #333;
font-family: helvetica;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 1.7rem;
}
ul {
list-style: none;
}
li {
background: hotpink;
height: 200px;
text-align: center;
border: 2px solid seashell;
color: seashell;
margin: 10px;
flex: auto;
min-width: 120px;
max-width: 180px;
}
.flex {
display: flex;
justify-content: flex-start;
flex-wrap: wrap;
}
<ul class="flex">
<li>1</li>
<li>2</li>
<li>3</li>
<li>4</li>
<li>5</li>
<li>6</li>
<li>7</li>
<li>8</li>
<li>9</li>
<li>10</li>
</ul>
http://codepen.io/hankthewhale/pen/IdKkB?editors=110

Answer 1

IE has a problem parsing the flex property.
Here are a few workarounds that have worked for me:
Use the long-hand properties instead of the shorthand.
Instead of something like this: flex: 0 0 35%.
Try this:
flex-grow: 0
flex-shrink: 0
flex-basis: 35%
Make sure flex-shrink is enabled.
So instead of this: flex: 0 0 35%
Try this: flex: 0 1 35%
(In other cases flex-shrink needs to be disabled: Flex item overlaps another item in IE11)
Careful with percentage and unitless values with flex-basis
This may depend on your version of IE11. Behavior appears to vary.
Try these variations:
flex: 1 1 0
flex: 1 1 0px
flex: 1 1 0%
Beware! Certain css minifiers will replace 0px with 0, which can be a really annoying thing to debug (however, they won't change 0% for some reason).
More details here:
Image behavior within flexbox (rows embedded in columns)
Why does shorthand flex property behave differently than long hand properties in IE?
Instead of flex: 1 use flex: auto (or add in flex-basis: auto)
If you're using flex: 1 in flex-direction: row (such as on larger screens), and you switch to flex-direction: column in a media query (let's say for mobile devices), you may find that your flex items collapse.
In your media query, add flex-basis: auto. This will override the flex-basis value in the flex: 1 rule (which is usually 0, 0px or 0%, depending on the browser).
Using flex: auto should also work, which is short for:
flex-grow: 1
flex-shrink: 1
flex-basis: auto
Use old-fashion width / height properties instead of flex.
Use block layout instead of flex layout.
You don't need to completely abandon flex layout. But for a particular container you may be able to get the job done with display: block instead of display: flex; flex-direction: column.
For example, in needing to use the padding trick to responsively embed a video in a flex item, the obstacle I faced was that some browsers don't work well with percentage padding (or margin) in a flex container.
To make it work I switched the display value on the flex item from this:
/* a flex item, also a nested flex container */
#footer-container > article {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
}
to this:
#footer-container > article {
display: block;
}

Answer 2

For me, using
flex: 1 1 auto;
instead of
flex: 1;
solved the flex issue on IE 11.

Answer 3

Just use flex:1 0 auto;. It will work.

Answer 4

As in #Michael_B answer, limit the growth with Flexbox flex property: flex: 0 1 (1/n - b) taken in % value, where n is the number of flex items in a row and b is the gap that you want to see between flex items in IE.
On the flex items along with flex property above use the max-width property with percentage value of 1/n - b.
In your case the generalized CSS for the flex item would be:
li {
// ... the remaining code from your snippet
// Calculate the following manually and insert or use CSS preprocessor that does math for you.
// See the formula explanation above.
max-width: (your flex container max-width / 2) * 100% - b;
flex: 0 1 (your flex container max-width / 2) * 100% - b;
}
In actual case with 5 items / row there will be (1/5) * 100% - 1% = 19% => max-width: 19% and flex: 0 1 19%;.
Play with b parameter to make flex items short enough to allow flex: wrap; work.

Answer 5

In my case, the CSS minifier rejects the px unit of the last argument in -ms-flex shorthand rule, I tried using % unit and it works fine.