diff --git a/gramps/gui/uimanager.py b/gramps/gui/uimanager.py
index ba35b15b0..3fe1896f7 100644
--- a/gramps/gui/uimanager.py
+++ b/gramps/gui/uimanager.py
@@ -134,6 +134,8 @@ class UIManager():
         self.et_xml = ET.fromstring(initial_xml)
         self.builder = None
         self.toolbar = None
+        self.old_toolbar = None  # holds previous toolbar until Gtk is idle
+        self.old_toolbar_items = None
         self.action_groups = []  # current list of action groups
         self.show_groups = []  # groups to show at the moment
         self.accel_dict = {}  # used to store accel overrides from file
@@ -242,6 +244,11 @@ class UIManager():
         # the following updates the toolbar from the new builder
         toolbar_parent = toolbar.get_parent()
         tb_show = toolbar.get_visible()
+        if not self.old_toolbar:
+            self.old_toolbar = toolbar
+            self.old_toolbar_items = toolbar.get_children()
+        else:
+            print("Problem: multiple Toolbar updates before idle")
         toolbar_parent.remove(toolbar)
         toolbar = self.builder.get_object("ToolBar")  # new toolbar
         if config.get('interface.toolbar-text'):
@@ -251,8 +258,18 @@ class UIManager():
             toolbar.show_all()
         else:
             toolbar.hide()
+        GLib.idle_add(self.delete_old_toolbar)
         #print('*** Update ui')
 
+    def delete_old_toolbar(self):
+        """ This is used to finish removal of the old toolbar after Gtk is
+        idle.  To avoid an issue with the toolbar being removed before all
+        references were removed.
+        """
+        self.old_toolbar = None
+        self.old_toolbar_items = None
+        return False
+
     def add_ui_from_string(self, changexml):
         """ This performs a merge operation on the xml elements that have
         matching 'id's between the current ui xml and change xml strings.