iPhone and iPad users most often use Safari as their default browser. It is so well optimized for iOS and iPadOS that it is the fastest way to open various web pages with it. In addition to everything, Safari has an excellent set of tools for saving various pages. However, most prefer to simply leave the sites of interest to them in open tabs.
How sometimes you can be surprised when, when you enter the browser, the previously opened tabs simply disappeared. At the same time, you remember exactly that you did nothing with them. Let’s see why this could happen and what can be done to bring them back.
How to find closed tabs
I keep Chrome on the tablet only to synchronize tabs with a smartphone on Android. For all other activities – only Safari.
If you are an iPad user and actively use the multi-window mode when interacting with it, then you have probably repeatedly encountered the problem of closing tabs . Fortunately, it is on the tablet that they most often do not disappear into nowhere. Since iPadOS allows you to create several separate windows with the Safari browser, opening new tabs can occur in separate windows. To view all open windows in Safari on iPad , you need to do the following:
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- Go to desktop.
- In the App Library or on one of the screens, find the Safari browser.
It is a pity that the iPhone does not have a multi-window mode in the browser.
- Keep your finger on it.
- Select “Show all windows” from the menu that appears.
After that, all separate browser windows will be displayed on the screen, including those combined with other applications in Split View mode. Perhaps the tab was lost in this way. Then it will be very easy to find it. But there is an even easier way to find the lost. It is also relevant for the iPad .
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- Open the Safari browser.
Tabs can be merged with the click of a button.
- Hold your finger on the button with four squares in the upper right corner of the screen.
- In the menu that appears, click on the “Merge all windows” button.
All tabs open in other windows will immediately move to the currently active one. This search method can be recognized as the fastest and most convenient. If you do not want to look for the right site with your eyes, then you can use it. The only thing that confused me a little is that on my iPad 7, window merging happened with a very noticeable lag in the entire interface. Most likely, a significant amount of power is involved, which my tablet simply does not have today. Users of the current iPad Pro and iPad Air should not notice such breaks.
But it may also happen that you just accidentally closed the site you are interested in. Then you will come to the aid of viewing all recently closed tabs . The following steps are relevant for both iPhone and iPad.
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- Open the Safari browser .
On the iPhone, you can also see the previously closed tabs exactly.
- Hold your finger on the “+” button.
- In the list that appears, select the site that interests you, and it will open in a new tab.
This is a very handy tool that will allow you not to re-search the necessary information on the internet, but simply restore it. This is especially true in a situation where you have killed a large amount of time searching. Losing a valuable result in this case is just a crime. On the other hand, I always advise everyone to save valuable sites as a minimum bookmark, and as a maximum – add to favorites . Then you can, without a twinge of conscience, close everything and save the RAM of your device.
iPhone closed all tabs in Safari
If Safari suits everyone, then you should not even try to look for alternatives to it.
Not everyone knows about another function that can notably spoil life. In the latest versions of iOS and iPadOS, Safari has learned how to automatically close tabs after a certain period of inactivity. Perhaps there was some kind of failure or you intentionally activated this feature, but the tab could disappear due to auto-close. To check this, do the following:
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- Open “Settings”.
- Go to the “Safari” section.
- Scroll down to “Close tabs” and click on it.
- Check the “Manual” checkbox.
After these steps, the tabs will not automatically close. If previously opened sites continue to disappear from the browser, then there is some kind of system failure. It has only two solutions:
- Reboot smartphone.
- Reset to factory settings.
To restart your iPhone with Touch ID , simply hold down the lock button until the Power off slider appears and swipe it. A few minutes after the device turns off, turn it on again. To reboot iPhone with Face ID you need to:
- Open “Settings”.
- Go to the “Basic” section.
- Scroll to the very bottom and click the “Shutdown” button.
- Swipe your finger on the slider and wait for the device to turn off completely.
- After a few minutes, turn it on by holding the lock button.
Observe the behavior of the browser for a few days after these actions. If nothing has changed and the tabs continue to disappear, then there is only one way – reset the device to factory settings . This will require:
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- Open “Settings”.
- Go to the “Basic” section.
Resetting solves most problems, but creates a headache with setting up an iPhone “like new”.
- Scroll to the very bottom and select Transfer or Reset iPhone or Transfer or Reset iPad, depending on the device.
- On the page that opens, select “Erase content and settings” and follow the instructions on the screen of your gadget.
Once the reset is complete, set up your gadget as new and transfer all the data you are interested in to it. The error with missing tabs will no longer be repeated.
