restore tabs in safari mac

How to Restore Recently Closed Tabs and Windows in Safari

Ever close a browser tab by accident or lost a number of tabs after Safari crashed? It happens to the best of us. Thankfully, you can quickly reopen your last closed tab or restore tabs from your last browsing session with the tips below.

Open the Last Closed Tab in Safari on the Mac

Safari lets you undo your action of closing a tab--as long as you act promptly. If you close a tab by mistake and then open a new tab, you won't be able to restore the closed tab with the shortcut below, because the undo feature only works on your last action.

In OS X, after closing a tab, press Command+Z , the standard Mac keyboard shortcut for Undo. Your lost tab will be instantly restored. Alternatively, you can go to the Edit menu and select "Undo Close Tab".

For other tabs you've closed before the last one, head to the History men u for the list of sites you've recently visited.

Reopen Closed Windows in Safari on the Mac

You can also reopen a Safari window with the tabs you had open even days after closing the window or quitting Safari.

If you have more than one Safari window open and close one by mistake, go to the History menu and select "Reopen Last Closed Window."

If you quit Safari and want to restart it with all of the tabs you had open last time, go to the History menu and select Reopen All Windows from Last Session.

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You'll be up and running with all of the windows and tabs you were using last time.

Open the Last Closed Tab in Safari on the iPad

On the iPad or iPhone , you can also quickly reopen your last tabs. Safari on iOS lets you quickly open up to five of the last tabs you closed.

Tap and hold down the new tab button (a plus icon) to bring up the list of recently closed tabs.

Tap the site to restore and the site will open in a new tab.

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5 Ways to Recover Your Safari Tabs After Restarting Your Mac

Do you keep losing all your tabs on Safari every time you restart your Mac? Here are some quick fixes to help solve that problem.

Safari offers an excellent browsing experience: it is energy efficient, works seamlessly on every Apple device, and is great at protecting your privacy. However, there is one pesky flaw you may have noticed.

Every time you restart your Mac and re-launch Safari, all the windows and tabs from your previous session will disappear. Instead, you'll see the default Safari homepage. This can be annoying if you are like many users who want to pick up right where they left off with their web browsing.

So if you've been wondering how to restart your Mac without losing your Safari tabs, here are some quick fixes you can try.

1. Pin the Tabs in Safari

If you almost always use a certain website, you can pin that tab to your Safari browser. When you pin a tab, or multiple tabs, you don't have to open them manually or worry about losing them each time you close and relaunch your browser.

When you open Safari, pinned tabs appear immediately, ready for you to access them. And even when you open a new Safari window, you never have to worry about losing your tabs. Every tab you've pinned appears the same on every window, so you don't need to worry about having different versions of the same tab on multiple windows.

Pinning a tab is not difficult. Just follow these steps:

• Start by opening the website you'd like to pin.
• Then Control-click the tab.
• A dialog should appear; choose Pin Tab from the options.
• Repeat this process for as many tabs as you'd like to pin.

Alternatively, you can place your cursor on the tab you'd like to pin and drag it to the left until the tab shrinks to the size of the website's logo.

There appears to be no limit on how many tabs you can pin on Safari at once. We tested up to 25. However, whatever the number you have, you should learn how to manage your pinned tabs in Safari .

2. Customize Safari's Settings

You may not have favorite tabs to pin. And having so many tabs permanently pinned to your Safari windows might be too much clutter for you. However, if you'd prefer to resume right where you left off whenever you open Safari, there's another simple fix in the settings.

To customize Safari's settings:

• Look to the top-left corner of your screen and click on Safari .
• In the menu that appears next, click Preferences .
• A new General window should appear; look for the Safari opens with menu.
• Click on the corresponding A new window option.
• From the list of dropdown options, you can select All windows from last session or All non-private windows from last session , depending on whichever you prefer.

Once you've completed these steps, re-launch Safari. Once you open Safari, it should open the tabs from your previous browsing session.

3. Use Safari's New Tab Button

The first two fixes are preventive strategies. If you implement them before restarting your Mac, they can prevent you from losing your tabs once you relaunch Safari. However, you may have restarted your Mac without implementing either strategy. In that case, you still don't have to worry about losing your tabs because you can use Safari's New Tab option as a corrective strategy.

You may think Safari's New Tab icon has only one purpose: to create a new tab. But it can also help you recover your recently closed tabs. Just look at the toolbar and Control-click on the New Tab icon, which looks like a plus (+) . A list of Recently Closed Tabs should appear, so you can select the one you'd like to recover.

4. Use the Undo or Reopen Action

After restarting your Mac and launching Safari, you may decide to close some tabs you no longer need. If they are a lot, you might get carried away with the monotonous task of clicking Close and accidentally closing a tab you still need.

A quick fix that can help you correct that mistake is the Undo menu or keyboard shortcut. Rather than panic when you've closed a tab or fumble with your settings, use the Undo action. It is pretty straightforward. Just follow these two steps.

Look to the top-left corner of your screen and select Edit from the options. A dialog box should appear with a list of options; click Undo Close Tab .

A quicker fix is the keyboard shortcut. To open the last tab you just closed, press this combination of keys: Shift + Cmd + T to reopen your last closed tab.

If you closed more than one tab, repeat the sequence for as many tabs as you'd like to restore. Our Safari shortcuts cheat sheet contains more keyboard shortcuts you can try on your Mac.

5. Reopen Tabs Using Your Safari History

You may have accidentally closed a window, or there may be simply too many tabs to keep pressing the combination of keys we mentioned earlier. Don't sweat it. Launch Safari and do the following. To view your history:

• Look to the top-left corner of your screen and select History from the options.
• A dialog box should appear with a list of options for you. You can choose any of these three options: Recently Closed , Recently Last Closed Tab , or Reopen All Windows from Last Session .
• Click the relevant option to reopen your recently closed tabs, or find the specific tab you're looking for in the Recently Closed dropdown.

Improve Your Browsing Experience on Safari

Losing a tab may be frustrating, but it shouldn't affect your productivity too much. With these quick fixes, you can ensure you never lose a tab on Safari if you restart your Mac. And when you close an important tab by mistake, you can always recover it.

Safari offers a brilliant browsing experience, arguably better than many other browsers, like Chrome. The experience becomes even smoother once you learn some essential Safari tricks and tips and implement them on your Mac.

How to reopen recently closed tabs in Safari for Mac

Safari for Mac makes it simple to reopen any accidentally closed windows or tabs from your last browsing session , but did you know that you can also bring back one or more tabs or windows that you closed during your current session? This tutorial shows you how to do just that.

How to reopen closed Safari tabs on Mac

You can view multiple web pages in a single Safari window by opening them in tabs.

Each tab is its own process that consumes CPU time, RAM, and other system resources. Therefore, it makes sense to close any Safari tabs and windows you no longer need in order to cut down on RAM usage, conserve power, and free up CPU cycles for other tasks. But did you close one accidentally or unknowingly and wish to open it again?

Safari for Mac lets you reopen your recently closed tab(s) in three different ways.

1. Use keyboard or menu shortcut

Use the standard undo shortcut  Command + Z to bring back the last closed tab or choose Undo Close Tab from the Edit menu. If you’ve closed multiple tabs in a row, invoke the shortcut repeatedly to reopen closed tabs one by one.

The shortcut won’t execute if you perform another undoable action after closing a tab. In that case, choose the option Reopen Last Closed Tab from Safari’s History menu or press the corresponding keyboard shortcut Shift + Command + T .

Like with the undo action, you can press this shortcut repeatedly to resurrect several tabs in the order you closed them, which is really nice. If you have closed a window instead of a tab, this menu option will read Reopen Last Closed Window .

2. Use the New Tab icon

Safari’s New Tab icon has a secret: not only does it let you create a new tab, but also quickly resurrects your recently closed tab(s). To access the list of recently closed tabs in older Safari versions, click and hold the “+” icon on the rightmost side of Safari’s tab bar.

In newer versions of Safari, this button appears in the toolbar.

Up pops a menu with all of the tabs you’ve closed in this browsing session. Select a webpage you’d like to reopen, then click the mouse or trackpad to bring it back.

I prefer this method over the undo action because it reopens a closed tab right where it was. I try to keep my tab bar organized so this has been really helpful. On the downside, restarting Safari clears the list of recently closed tabs under the New Tab button.

3. Check your Safari history

Lastly, you can reopen a recently closed webpage by choosing the Recently Closed item from Safari’s History menu, then choose the webpage from a sub-menu that you want to reopen. Or, select the Reopen Last Closed Window menu option to quickly bring back the most recently closed Safari window along with all of its tabs.

The list of recently closed webpages in the History menu remains intact when Safari is restarted, unlike that under the New Tab button—even though they’re the same lists. If you just restarted Safari and want to reopen a tab that was closed during a previous browsing session, use the history method.

Don’t forget that you can quickly consolidate and convert all your Safari windows to tabs in a single window by choosing the Merge All Windows action from the Window menu.

Other browser tips:

• 3 ways to change the default web browser on Mac
• 12 Safari keyboard shortcuts you should know
• How to open multiple websites at once on Mac
• How to reopen recently closed tabs in Safari for iPhone

How to reopen a closed tab in Safari on a Mac computer in 2 different ways

• You can reopen a tab you recently closed on a Mac in Safari using a keyboard shortcut or a menu option. 
• You can also reopen tabs you closed days ago going through the History in Safari.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

It's easy to accidentally close a tab in Safari on your Mac . 

But fear not: You can also reopen your closed tabs very easily in Safari. 

Here are two ways you can do this.

Check out the products mentioned in this article: 

Macbook pro (from $1,299.99 at best buy), how to reopen a closed tab on a mac in safari using keyboard shortcuts.

You can use the keyboard shortcut Shift + Command + T to reopen your last closed tab. This works no matter what you have open in your browser.

You can also reopen a closed tab with the keyboard shortcut Command + Z . This makes the last closed tab reappear in the same spot where it last was among your open tabs. 

A caveat about Command + Z, however: This can also undo your last action in a document or spreadsheet. If you use this command while you're in a Google doc, for instance, it will undo the last edit you made and not reopen a tab in your browser. Click into a regular web page before you use the Command + Z option. If you mistakenly click on Command + Z in a doc, Command + Y will redo your last edit.

How to reopen a closed tab on a Mac in Safari using menu options

Some people prefer menu navigation over keyboard shortcuts. It's easy to access the command to reopen the last tab from the Safari menu.

1. For this example, we started with two tabs open.

2. After closing one tab, click on History in the Safari menu at the top of your screen (not the top of the browser window).

3. Select Reopen Last Closed Tab from the drop-down menu. Once you click on this, your last-closed tab will reappear in the same position it was in before you closed it. Notice that this menu also gives you the keyboard shortcut, in case you need it. 

The History menu also gives you a handy list of your recently closed tabs right in the menu, with the last-closed tab at the top. You can choose the tab you want to reopen from the menu. You can also select Recently Closed from the menu, for a longer list, or look at tabs you viewed on a different day by selecting one of the date options at the bottom of the History menu.

Related coverage from  How To Do Everything: Tech :

How to clear the cache on a safari browser to make it run more efficiently, how to reset the safari browser on your iphone in 2 different ways, how to update the safari browser on your mac computer by installing the latest version of macos, how to reset all of your safari browser's settings on a mac, including clearing your cache and removing plugins, how to block websites on a mac computer using parental controls in your safari browser.

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How to Reopen Closed Safari Tabs and Windows and Access Past History

Quickly get back to where you were

Tom Nelson is an engineer, programmer, network manager, and computer network and systems designer who has written for Other World Computing,and others. Tom is also president of Coyote Moon, Inc., a Macintosh and Windows consulting firm.

What to Know

• Undo a closed tab: Go to Edit > Undo Close Tab , press Command + Z , or click and hold the plus sign to the right of the Tabs bar.
• Or, select History > Reopen Last Closed Tab , go to History and mouse over Recently Closed , or press Shift + Command + T .
• Restore a closed window: Go to History > Reopen Last Closed Window . Or, History > Reopen All Windows From Last Session .

This article explains how to reopen tabs or windows you may have closed by accident in the Safari web browser. You can also use the History list to reopen sites.

How to Undo a Closed Tab in Safari

You can open your lost tab using four methods. The first is to either select Undo Close Tab from the Edit menu, or press Command + Z on your keyboard.

You can restore multiple tabs you've closed by using the command repeatedly.

Another way to reopen a page you've closed is to click and hold the plus sign at the far right of the Tabs bar. Usually, you click this once to open a new tab, but holding opens a menu with a list of ones you've recently closed. Select the one you want to reopen.

The third way is to select Reopen Last Closed Tab under the History menu or press Shift + Command + T on your keyboard.

Finally, you can find a list of tabs you've recently closed under the History menu. Mouse over Recently Closed to see a list of pages you can reopen, and then click the one you want to restore.

Restoring Closed Windows

If you close a Safari window , you can reopen it just as you can reopen a closed tab, but the command is under a different menu. Select Reopen Last Closed Window under the History menu, or press Shift + Command + T on your keyboard.

The Reopen Last Closed Window and Reopen Last Closed Tab commands share the same spot in the History menu and keyboard shortcut. Which you see depends on which you closed most recently.

Reopen Safari Windows From Last Session

Besides being able to reopen closed Safari windows and tabs, you can also open all Safari windows that were open the last time you quit Safari.

Safari, like all the Apple apps, can make use of OS X’s Resume feature , which was introduced with OS X Lion. Resume saves the state of all the open windows of an app, in this case, any Safari window you have open. The idea is that the next time you launch Safari, you can resume right where you left off.

From the History menu, select Reopen All Windows From Last Session .

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How-To Geek

How to make safari always open your previous tabs on mac.

Tired of losing all your browser tabs when you close or restart Safari on Mac? Here's how to make Safari restore your session every time you start the app.

It can be frustrating when you need to restart Safari on your Mac and you lose what you've been working on because all of your tabs and windows close. Luckily, there's an easy way to make Safari restore your session every time you start the app. Here's how to set it up.

First, launch Safari on your Mac. At the top of your screen, click the "Safari" menu and select "Preferences."

When the "Preferences" window appears, click the "General" tab, then locate the "Safari opens with" option. In the drop-down menu beside it, select "All windows from last session" if you want all of your windows---including your Private Browsing windows ---to be restored.

If you only want your non-Private windows to be restored, select "All non-private windows from last session" in the drop-down menu.

After that, close Preferences. The next time you restart Safari, it will remember your browsing session, and all the windows and tabs you had open last time will reopen automatically. Happy browsing!

Related: How to Always Start Safari in Private Browsing Mode on a Mac

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(5 Ways Included) How to Restore Closed Tabs in Safari?

Updated on Wednesday, April 24, 2024

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5 Effective Ways to Restore Recently Closed Tabs in Safari

If you use a Mac as your workstation, then circumstances where Safari tabs are accidentally closed or Mac power failure suspends your incomplete webpages occur as commonly as a meal.

Yet don't be upset, you have 5 ways to restore closed tabs in Safari on your iPhone and Mac without issue. Just read this article from  iBoysoft  and try the way that you like.

How to restore recently closed tabs in Safari on Mac

If you think that Safari gets the better of Chrome in the  Safari vs Chrome  battle and take it as your default browser, it's not an odd thing that you close all Safari windows with one mouse click. Take it easy, you can learn 3 methods to reopen the Safari tabs on your computer running  macOS  here.

Method 1: Use the keyboard shortcuts or menu shortcuts

Just like you  undo an email on Mac , you can also undo the tab shut actions with certain keyboard shortcuts or the Safari menu shortcuts on the context menu.

You can relaunch Safari on your computer and then press the Command + Z keys to bring back the last closed tab. If you have shut several tabs in one click, you should hold down the keyboard shortcuts repeatedly to restore all the tabs one by one.

Alternatively, you are able to select the Reopen Last Closed Tab option to bring the closed Safari tab back. Let me show you how to do:

• Launch Safari on your Mac via  Spotlight Search shortcuts .
• Head to the History menu on the top toolbar of your Mac desktop.
• Select Reopen Last Closed Tab on the dropdown menu of the History. You can also hit the responding Shift + Command + T keyboards to complete the restoration.
• Then all the tabs you have closed on Safari will show up automatically.

Method 2: Utilize the add icon on Safari

Safari's new tab icon allows you to create a new tab with a left click and restore the closed tab with a right click. You will have the list of all closed tabs and windows that you have closed as long as you right-click this icon.

• Relaunch the Safari browser on your device.
• Head to the upper right corner of the Safari main interface.

• Choose the tab that you plan to restore and it will come back.

Method 3: Check the Recently Closed option

You are also allowed to recover your closed tab on Safari by checking the Recently Closed menu. Different from the Restore Last Closed Tab option, this way won't show you all the closed tabs and you can choose specific tabs to recover.

• Launch the Safari browser on your Mac.
• Locate the History tab on the top menu bar.

• Click the website that you visited and then it will appear on the Safari main window.

If you have known how to restore recently closed tabs in Safari on your Mac with the guideline, why not share it with more people?

How to restore closed tabs in Safari on iPhone

The way to reopen a recently closed Safari tab on your iPhone is pretty much the same as on your Mac. You can click the + icon or search for your Closed Tabs in the Safari history to reopen the closed tabs, though they are not as easily accessible as the Mac.

Method 1: Utilize the add icon on Safari 

• Run the Safari browser on your iPhone, and tap the Show All Tabs icon at the bottom right corner of the iPhone screen.
• Tap and hold your finger on the + (New Tab) icon for a couple of seconds.

Method 2: Search for the Closed Tabs in the Safari history

If you fail to restore the Safari tabs, you may need to browse the history and then reopen them manually. Safari saves every website you visit in the browsing history until you browse them in Private mode. 

You can easily view your history list or search for particular websites to reopen your closed Safari tabs here:

• Open Safari and tap the Book icon.
• Tap the Clock icon to view your browsing history.
• Search your closed Safari tab or scroll through your history in chronological order.

Missing all Safari tabs with one accidental click or Mac power failure really drives people crazy. Fortunately, this article tells you how to restore closed tabs in Safari on your iPhone and Mac with specific instructions. Meeting this trouble, too? Read this post right now!

For more information about the Safari browser, please read the related articles:

• Safari Not Working on Mac/MacBook, How to Fix?
• How to Fix Safari Downloads not Working on Mac?
• How to Convert Chrome Extension to Safari on Mac?
• How to Fix Safari Won't Open Issue?
• 9 Ways to Speed Up Safari on Mac

If you find this article helpful and useful, please share it to help more people!

FAQ about how to restore closed tabs in Safari

If you click the red X to close Safari, the Reopen All Windows from Last Session option becomes greyed out from the dropdown menu. You can press the Command + Q keyboards to quit the Safari app and then the Reopen All Windows from Last Session option functions normally.

You can utilize the add icon on Safari to recover the closed tab. Follow the steps: Relaunch the Safari browser on your device > Head to the upper right corner of the Safari main interface > Locate the + icon and then right-click it > Choose the tab that you plan to restore and it will come back.

Vain Rowe is a new technical editor at iBoysoft. She spares no effort to learn tech knowledge during the training and after training. She has shared dozens of articles across iBoysoft website and other websites, providing solutions and information about file restoration, disk cleanup, work efficiency, and data security.

Jessica Shee is a senior tech editor at iBoysoft. Throughout her 4 years of experience, Jessica has written many informative and instructional articles in data recovery, data security, and disk management to help a lot of readers secure their important documents and take the best advantage of their devices.

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Disappearing Safari Tabs on iPhone or iPad? How to Find Them

Every so often, a seemingly small bug in Apple's operating systems survives the company's annual OS launches and continues to cause users huge frustration from one software update to the next.

While there isn't an accepted solution to the problem of disappearing tabs, there are cases where it might seem that your tabs are gone, when in fact they are just hidden from view. Here are some ways that you may be able to get them back or stop them from disappearing in the first place.

Reveal Hidden Tabs

On iPadOS, for example, if you press and hold the Show Tab Overview button (four squares in a quadrant) in the top-right corner of the Safari window, this will reveal a dropdown menu that includes an option to Merge All Windows .

Reveal the Shelf

Another action worth trying on iPadOS is pressing and holding the Safari icon in the Dock or on the Home Screen and selecting Show All Windows from the popup menu that appears.

Recently Closed Tabs

If you have an inkling that some of the tabs you're missing have been inadvertently closed, you can always use the Recently Closed Tabs option to re-open them. All you have to do is open up the tab view in Safari and long press on the "+" icon to get a look at all of the tabs that you've recently closed.

Turn Off Auto-Close Tabs

If you still haven't been able to find some of your tabs, make sure that Safari isn't closing them after a certain duration on your behalf: Open Settings , tap through to Safari -> Close Tabs and ensure that Manually is selected.

Bookmark All Open Tabs

If the above suggestions haven't worked for you, there is a workaround: Consider bookmarking your open tabs after each browsing session. This might sound like more hassle than it's worth, but since iOS 13 Apple has included a one-tap option to just that.

A popup menu will appear at the on the screen from which you can select Add Bookmarks for X Tabs , the X being the number of tabs open.

Once you've tapped this option, you'll be asked to save the tabs in a new bookmarks folder (remember to give it a recognizable name). Alternately, you can choose a location from the existing folder list in which to save the tabs.

To access your bookmarks in Safari at any time, simply tap the Bookmarks icon in the main browsing interface or the sidebar to reveal all of your saved favorites and folders. Press and hold on the folder of bookmarks and select Open in New Tabs , or alternatively, Open in Tab Group if you want them grouped.

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How to Restore Accidentally Closed Safari Tabs on iPhone

• If you’ve accidentally closed Safari tabs on an iPhone, you can easily recover them by using the Recently Closed Tabs list.
• Another alternative method is to restore deleted Safari tabs by accessing the History tab.
• And, finally the Shake to Undo feature also allows you to recover recently closed Safari tabs on iPhone.

Did you accidentally close all tabs open in Safari on your iPhone? If you did, you’re not alone. Several people, including myself, have encountered this issue at least once. However, it is nothing to worry about as you can easily recover any deleted Safari tab. Read along to learn how to Restore accidentally closed Safari tabs on iPhone. 

How To Recover Deleted Safari Tabs on iPhone

Since Safari is the primary web browser for most of us, we have multiple tabs open within the browser. Some of us leave these tabs open as we need to revisit them later. Now, if you accidentally delete or close all of these tabs in Safari, do not panic. Recovering accidentally closed Safari tabs isn’t all that difficult. 

Many people accidentally close tabs and you can find several posts regarding this issue on Apple’s Discussion Community page . Therefore, to solve this issue, we’ve put together some of the best troubleshooting methods to help you recover deleted Safari tabs on your iPhone.

1. Restore Accidentally Closed Tabs from Recently Closed Tabs List in Safari 

The Safari browser on iPhone has a Recently Closed Tabs list hidden in plain sight within the browser. Not many people are aware of this feature and hence panic when they accidentally close multiple Safari tabs on their iPhones. However, we will help you navigate to the Recently Closed Tabs list and reopen all the tabs you accidentally closed on Safari. 

Time needed:  1 minute

Steps to reopen websites from the Recently Closed Tabs list in Safari on iPhone. 

Once the tab opens, you can continue browsing. If you want to reopen several tabs that you accidentally closed, you will have to repeat this step multiple times. 

2. Restore Deleted Safari Tabs From Safari History

Another simple method to recover accidentally closed tabs is to restore them from History. Like most browsers, Safari also stores your browsing history in the History tab. However, note that if you accidentally closed tabs in the Private Browsing Mode, then they cannot be restored.

This is because Apple does not store browsing history for any activity in the Private Browsing Mode on iPhone. If they did, the Private Browsing Mode wouldn’t be that private. But if you’re on Mac, there’s a workaround that allows you to view Private Mode browsing history .

With that said, here’s how to recover deleted Safari tabs from Safari History on your iPhone. 

• Open the Safari browser on your iPhone. 
• Tap the Bookmarks icon located below the address bar. 
• Here, tap the History tab (clock icon). 
• Next, tap the page you want to reopen.
• Alternatively, you can also tap and hold and then select the Open in New Tab or Open in New Tab Group option if you do not want to load the link on the current tab. 

3. Shake Your iPhone To Undo Changes and Recover Accidentally Closed Tabs in Safari 

Have you ever tried the Shake to Undo feature on your iPhone? Chances are, you have used this feature to correct typing errors. However, the Shake to Undo feature offers a lot more and can help you undo several accidental changes, including the ability to restore recently closed tabs in Safari on iPhone. 

Apart from reopening accidentally closed tabs, the Shake to Undo feature also works in other apps and services. Here are a few examples of using your iPhone’s Shake to Undo feature.

• Creating, editing, renaming, or deleting files or folders in the Files app. 
• Creating, editing, or deleting events in the Calendar app.
• Editing or deleting images or videos in the Photos app.
• Rearranging apps and widgets on the Home Screen.

We understand that this feature might be helpful you right now. Because a few minutes must’ve passed since you accidentally closed these tabs. Regardless, it might come in handy in the near future. Therefore, here’s how to use the Shake to Undo feature to restore accidentally closed tabs in Safari on iPhone. 

• The moment you accidentally close Safari tabs, quickly shake your iPhone . We suggest using the hammering motion as that is what seems to work for us. 
• The iPhone will display an Undo Close Tab pop-up. Tap the Undo button. 
• The closed tab will be restored and you can continue browsing. 

If the Shake to Undo feature is not working on your iPhone, you might have accidentally disabled it. Here’s how to enable the Shake to Undo feature on iPhone. 

• Open the Settings app and tap the Accessibility option. 
• Select the Touch option located under the Physical and Motor menu. 
• On the next screen, enable the Shake to Undo toggle. 

Prevent Accidentally Closing Safari Tabs 

Why do you have multiple tabs open in Safari? Mostly, it might be because you visit those sites often and do not want to search for them every single time. However, navigating through hundreds of tabs to revisit a website isn’t very easy. While doing so, you might accidentally close all of the open tabs too. 

Therefore, in order to prevent accidentally closing Safari tabs on iPhone, we suggest bookmarking tabs you visit frequently. This will streamline the entire process of navigating websites you visit often and in turn save time. Here’s how to bookmark tabs in Safari on your iPhone. 

• Head to the website you want to bookmark.
• Now, tap and hold on the Bookmark icon below the address bar. 

• On the next screen, you can edit the Name and the Link of the website . 
• If you want to change the location of the Bookmark, tap the option below Location and select the Bookmark Folder of your choice. 

Conclusion 

We hope you were able to restore all the accidentally closed Safari tabs on your iPhone. I can completely relate to your pain of losing all the open tabs. It has happened to me in the past too. If you have any other doubts or are aware of other methods that can help restore accidentally deleted tabs in Safari, please let us know in the comments below. 

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• Darryl Dsouza

• Utility and Productivity

How to Restore Safari Tabs on iPhone, iPad, & Mac

Hey there! So, you’re scratching your head about how to restore Safari tabs on iPhone, iPad, or even your Mac? Look, we’ve all been there. Apple throws out these significant, shiny updates every year, but sometimes, a teeny-tiny but ultra-annoying bug slips through. Have you ever had your Safari tabs just vanish into thin air? It’s a thing, and it’s been messing with us since the iOS 13 updates.

But chill, your tabs are probably just playing a game of hide and seek. There are some easy steps to pull them back or make sure they stick around in the first place.

How to restore Safari tabs on iPhone and iPad

Okay, listen up. If you’ve accidentally closed a Safari tab and you’re freaking out, relax. There are many super easy ways to get that back. Also, if the tabs get closed on their own because of a glitch, or you’ve purposely closed them but regret it later, you can still recover them.

In this section, I’ll share with you two ways to restore your closed Safari tabs on your iPhone or iPad.

Here’s how to restore closed Safari tabs on iPhone or iPad from recently closed tabs list:

• The first step is to open the Safari browser . You got this!
• Next, look at the bottom-right corner of your screen . You’ll see a little icon that looks like two squares on top of each other. That’s the “ Show All Tabs ” button. Please go on tap it.
• Now, see the “+” icon down there. That’s usually the button you tap to start a new tab. But today, we’re mixing things up. Press and hold that “+” for a couple of seconds.
• Then, A list will pop up, showing you all the tabs you’ve recently closed. Tap the one you want, and it’ll return to your active Safari tabs.

How to restore closed Safari tabs from search history

If you’re having trouble getting your Safari tabs back, no worries! You can always dig through your browsing history and open it up again one by one. Remember, this won’t work if you use Private mode because Safari doesn’t save that history.

To find those lost tabs, check out your history list or use the search function to find the websites you were on. Then you can reopen them from there-

• First off, open Safari and look for the Bookmark icon (it looks like an opened book). Tap on it.
• Next, hit the Clock It is where your browsing history lives.
• Now, you can search for that specific tab you closed or scroll through your history. It’s all listed in chronological order.
• Found it? Great! Tap on it, and it’ll open up in a new tab.

How to restore Safari tabs on Mac

Hey, so you’re Team Safari? Me too! If you’re like me and sometimes get click-happy, closing all your Safari windows with just one click, don’t worry. There are some easy ways to get those tabs back, especially if you’re using a Mac. Let’s dive into how you can do that.

How to use the keyboard shortcuts or menu shortcuts to restore Safari tabs

Oops! Have you closed a tab by mistake? Don’t worry; it happens to the best of us. Luckily, some quick keyboard tricks and menu options in Safari can help you get that tab back quickly.

Try pressing the Command + Z keys on your keyboard after reopening Safari. It will bring back the last tab you closed. If you close multiple tabs simultaneously, keep pressing those keys until all your tabs are back.

Another way to reopen a closed tab is to right-click and choose the ‘Reopen Last Closed Tab’ option.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it-

• Start by opening Safari on your Mac. You can use Spotlight Search shortcuts to do this quickly.
• Next, go to the History menu in your Mac desktop’s top toolbar.
• Click on ‘Reopen Last Closed Tab’ from the dropdown menu. Alternatively, press Shift + Command + T on your keyboard to achieve the same result.
• All the tabs you closed will reappear automatically.
• If you accidentally closed an entire window, don’t worry. You’ll see an option for ‘Reopen Last Closed Window’ in the same dropdown menu. Click on that, and you’ll restore the entire window with all its tabs.

How to utilize the Add icon on Safari to restore tabs on Mac

Did you know about this cool feature in Safari? There’s this new tab icon; if you left-click it, it will create a new tab for you. But if you right-click the same icon, it will restore your closed account and show you a list of all the tabs and windows you’ve closed. Here are the steps-

• First off, go ahead and relaunch Safari on your device. Just close it and open it up again.
• Next, look at the upper right corner of the main Safari screen. That’s where you’ll find what you need.
• Then, spot the little “+” icon and give it a right-click. It’s usually near the other tabs you have open.
• Lastly, a menu will pop up. Choose the tab you want to bring back and restore it!

How to check the Recently Closed option

Here’s how to recover a specific closed tab in Safari using the ‘ Recently Closed’ menu. It differs from restoring your last closed tab because it lets you pick which one you want back.

• First things first, open up Safari on your Mac.
• Next up, look for the ‘History’ tab. You’ll find it on the top menu bar, usually between ‘Bookmarks’ and ‘Window.’
• Now, click ‘History’ and scroll down until you see ‘Recently Closed.’ Click on that.
• Finally, you’ll see a list of websites you’ve visited recently. Just click on the one you want to bring back, and it’ll pop right up on your Safari main window.

Why did all my Safari tabs disappear on my iPhone or iPad, and how to fix it?

I get it; losing all those open Safari tabs can be frustrating! It’s one of those things that can occur for all sorts of reasons, like when an app suddenly crashes, or maybe you accidentally removed the app, or even after a software update. No need to stress! I’ve got your back. Check out these simple tricks to make sure you don’t run into this problem again:

Okay, let’s start with something useful. Do you know how Safari likes to close your open tabs automatically? The main reason for that could have been that you’ve set a time limit for Safari to automatically close tabs from your Safari settings.

Well, you can make it stop doing that.

Here’s how:

• Open up your Settings . You know, that app with the gears on it.
• Look for the Safari It’s got that compass icon like you’re setting off on a browsing adventure.
• Tap on “ Close Tabs .” It’s like telling Safari how to handle your tabs.
• You’ll see some choices, but go ahead and pick “ Manually .” It means Safari will only close your tabs if you say so.
• Your tabs will stay open until you can give them the boot.

If you’re using an iPad and you want to make sure you can see all your tabs at once, here’s what you do:

• Open Safari, you know, the internet app with the little compass.
• Take a look at the top right corner. See those little square things? Tap on them.
• Now, you’ve got two choices: ‘Show All Windows’ or ‘Merge All Windows.’ Don’t worry; they’re not as complicated as they sound.
• Pick either one. ‘Show All Windows’ gives you a bird’s-eye view of all your tabs. ‘Merge All Windows’ puts them together so you can easily switch between them.
• You will get all of those tabs you wanted to keep open.

No worries, I’ve got one more trick for you. If a sneaky tab disappears on you, here’s how to bring it back:

• Jump into Safari again, the place where you do your web stuff.
• Look for the little “Plus” button-down at the bottom. Give it a good press and hold, like you’re saying, “Hey, I need something back!”
• Guess what? A list will pop up showing tabs you closed recently. They’re still alive!
• Pick the tab you’re missing from that list, and like magic, it’ll pop right back up. See? No more panicking over a lost tab.

How to find recently closed tabs on iPhone Safari?

Alright, did you close a tab in Safari? Don’t worry, I got you. Safari’s a bit sneaky compared to Chrome or Edge; it doesn’t have a straightforward menu to find your recently closed tabs.

But here’s the hack: Open Safari and tap the little two-square icon at the bottom right. That’s your Tabs button. Now, press and hold the “+” sign that’s nearby. A list of your recently closed Safari tabs will show up, and you can tap the one you want to bring back to life in a new tab.

Here is another way: find the “+” sign and hold it down. Now, if you’re more into digging through your history, there’s another way. Open Safari, look for a book-like icon, tap it, and then go to the ‘History’ tab. From there, you can tap any link to reopen it in a new tab. So, there you go, two easy ways to get back to browsing what you were browsing.

Alright, let’s wrap this up! We’ve talked about how to restore Safari tabs on iPhone, figured out how to reopen closed tabs in Safari, and even delved into the mystery of why all my Safari tabs disappear.

So, whether you’ve accidentally closed all tabs on your iPhone or scratching your head because your Safari tabs disappeared on your iPad, know you’ve got a toolkit of solutions now. Next time you’re in a tab crisis, don’t look outside—this guide’s got your back. Happy browsing, everyone!

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Tips & Tricks

Troubleshooting, how to restore & reopen all closed tabs in safari on ipad.

If you’ve accidentally closed tons of Safari tabs on iPad or iPhone and want to restore them, or you lost all of your Safari tabs by trying to create a Safari Tab Group (a surprisingly common occurrence, what a feature bug), you are probably desperately wondering how you can recover and reopen all closed tabs in Safari and restore them all to your iPhone or iPad.

Many people use Safari tabs as an alternative to bookmarks, keeping hundreds of tabs open at a time, but forget to bookmark them. Endless hours of research, resources, etc, open in tabs, can all be gone in a flash if you encounter a hiccup with Safari on iPhone or iPad. Oops. Indeed, Safari is unforgiving on the iPad (or iPhone), and your tabs may be toast.

Worried you lost your Safari tabs on iPad? Not so fast!

There’s good news and bad news.

While there’s no official “Reopen all closed tabs” option or ‘Restore previous session’ in Safari on iPadOS or iOS, you’re not out of options.

The bad news is that if you had tons of open tabs, say 300, 400, or 500 open tabs, they might be lost for good, or at least many of them may be gone.

But the good news is you can try to recover many of them through several different options. And if you have a keyboard hooked up to the iPad in particular, you’ll be able to get quite a few of the lost tabs back.

Restoring Closed Safari Tabs on iPad with Keyboard Shortcut

If you have an external keyboard, Magic Keyboard, Smart Keyboard, or similar keyboard with the iPad, you can use a keyboard shortcut in Safari to restore the last closed Safari tabs.

• Hit Command + Shift + T on a keyboard repeatedly, until all tabs have been reopened

I have personally experienced catastrophic tab loss due to the Tab Groups bug, but by using the Command Shift T method I was able to recover about 200 of 500 lost Safari tabs. This is probably the most broadly useful trick, and the closest method to restoring all closed tabs in Safari on iPad.

Unfortunately, this trick is probably not available for iPhone, but you can try connecting a bluetooth keyboard to iPhone and giving it a shot anyway – let us know if it works.

Recovering Closed Tabs in Safari on iPad via New Tab Button

The plus button in Safari on iPad and iPhone is the traditional commonly used method used to recover closed tabs in iOS Safari and iPadOS too.

• On iPad: Tap and hold on the + plus button, then select the closed tabs you wish to reopen from the drop-down menu
• On iPhone: Tap the two overlapping squares icon to access tabs view, then tap and hold on the + plus button to select closed tabs you want to reopen

The + tab drop down menu that shows with a long press will reveal all tabs that have been closed recently, so repeat this process to reopen and recover closed tabs as needed.

Restoring Lost Tabs in Safari on iPad through History

You can also browse through Safari history to restore closed tabs, though if you have tons of tabs you are trying to restore you’ll be in the history menu for a while.

• Tap the sidebar menu button, then tap on “History”
• Tap on the history item(s) you want to restore the tab for

This is fairly tedious but it can be very effective if you don’t mind putting the time into restoring from browser history.

Of course if you deleted and cleared the browser history, this won’t be an option.

Restore from a Recent Backup to Recover All Lost Safari Tabs?

If your tabs were super important, perhaps you were doing tons of research and lost them all, and if you had a recent backup made from before you lost the tabs, you can also try to restore the iPad from the backup to recover those lost tabs.

However this usually does not work to recover the tabs if Safari is syncing through iCloud Tabs, so if you’re in that situation you’ll want to use the approaches above rather than the backup recovery approach.

Were you able to restore your lost Safari tabs on iPhone or iPad using these tricks? Which method worked best for you? Do you have another approach to recovering all your closed Safari tabs in iOS and iPadOS? Share with us your experiences in the comments.

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Related articles:

• How to Reopen Closed Tabs in Chrome on iPhone, iPad, Mac
• How to Reopen Closed Tabs in Safari for iPhone
• How to Re-Open Recently Closed Tabs in Safari for Mac the Easy Way
• How to Re-Open Historical Windows & Tabs in Safari on Mac with a Keystroke

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[cmd]-[shift]-T doesn’t work on german installed macbook –> opens the [sharing] menu

This article is aimed at iPad users with a keyboard case or external keyboard attached, however, for Mac; Command+Shift+Tab in Safari for Mac (US English) will reopen the last closed tab. You can see what the equivalent would be on Mac (German) by going to the Safari “History” menu and looking for the “Reopen Last Closed Tab” option to see the associated keystroke. Hope that helps!

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Safari tabs on quit

Using iphone for years and I never lost my tabs or tab groups when I completely closed the app. However, it is not the same on Safari on Macbook... How can I make my macbook safari work like iphone safari in this matter? Thanks!

Posted on Apr 25, 2024 9:58 AM

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Apr 25, 2024 10:07 AM in response to spgIT

You’ll indeed lose the tabs if you close Safari by clicking the red icon (top left of the window.) If you happen to do this, click History in the menu bar where you’ll find various options to reopen websites.

You could use the orange icon (top left) to minimize Safari and keep your tabs. Personally, I use Safari > Quit to close Safari (actually I use the keyboard shortcut command + Q.) Upon reopening, Safari will still show the opened tabs.