Flexbox/IE11: flex-wrap: wrap does not wrap (Images + Codepen inside)

Question

I created a list with social icons. Those icons should wrap on small screens.

I use flex-wrap: wrap; and it works perfect in Firefox and Chrome:

But Internet Explorer 11 (and IE 10) will not break the line:

Code Pen Example

View the code here: http://codepen.io/dash/pen/PqOJrG

HTML Code

<div>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="#"><img src="http://placehold.it/40x40" alt=""></a></li>
    <li><a href="#"><img src="http://placehold.it/40x40" alt=""></a></li>
    <li><a href="#"><img src="http://placehold.it/40x40" alt=""></a></li>
    <li><a href="#"><img src="http://placehold.it/40x40" alt=""></a></li>
    <li><a href="#"><img src="http://placehold.it/40x40" alt=""></a></li>
    <li><a href="#"><img src="http://placehold.it/40x40" alt=""></a></li>
    <li><a href="#"><img src="http://placehold.it/40x40" alt=""></a></li>
    <li><a href="#"><img src="http://placehold.it/40x40" alt=""></a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

CSS Code

body {background: #000;}

div {
    background: rgba(255, 255, 255, .06);
    display: table;
    padding: 15px;
    margin: 50px auto 0;
}

ul {
        display: -webkit-flex;
        display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: flex;
        -webkit-flex-wrap: wrap;
        -ms-flex-flow: row wrap;
    flex-wrap: wrap;
        -ms-flex-pack: center;
        -webkit-justify-content: center;
    justify-content: center;
    list-style: none;
    padding: 0;
}

li {
    background: purple;
    margin: 4px;
}

img {
    display: block;
    height: 40px;
    padding: 7px;
    width: 40px;
}

This seems to be a IE bug which shows up when a flex element's parent container is set to display: table;. Removing this line fixes the problem. But I need display: table; to center the parent container.

Any ideas how to get IE11 to wrap the images?

Solution

Try defining a width for the parent container, e.g. width: 20%;. Thus, the container will be formatted as you want and flex-wrap will work. And yes, you can remove the display: table;.

Comments

[dash]

Although this solution is not 100% perfect, as I do not know the parent container's width, it works. Thanks a lot!

[jhorapb]

Yeah, with percentages you don't need to define an explicit width for example in pixels, and it's better to do it by relative values.

[Tony Smith]

Along these same lines, you could add a max-width to the parent to make it wrap within the bounds of your layout.

[Amerrnath]

@jhorapb I know this solution might help this use case . But wats the actual issue with flex-wrap in IE10 or edge