Common Reasons and Solutions

Here are the primary reasons why margin-inline: auto (or margin-left/margin-right: auto) might not be working, along with their solutions:

• The element is display: inline: Inline elements flow with content and cannot have their horizontal margins automatically adjusted to center them.
  • Solution: Change the element to display: block or display: inline-block.
• The element is display: block but has no specified width: A block element by default takes up 100% of the parent container's width, so there is no extra space for the auto margins to divide.
  • Solution: Set a width (or max-width) that is less than 100% of the container.
• The element is display: inline-block: While inline-block elements respect margins, they still cannot be horizontally centered using margin: auto because their width is determined by their content, not the container's available space.
  • Solution: Apply text-align: center to the parent container of the inline-block element.