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Safari tab limit

What is the tab limit on safari in iOS 12? Does it depend on device?

iPad Air, iOS 12

Posted on Jul 8, 2019 8:28 PM

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Jul 9, 2019 5:04 AM in response to charwood12

Even on iOS 9, as far as I am aware, based upon the available internal storage and available internal RAM and how many active iOS apps are running with some background activity in the iOS app switcher, iOS Safari should be able to handle “up to” approx. 500 active Website tabs.

36 website tabs should not be a limit unless your iPad is running low on available storage space and/or it is an older iPad, like an iPad 2, with less than 1 GB of internal RAM.

Jul 9, 2019 11:32 AM in response to charwood12

There is part of your problem right there.

You are running dangerously low on free internal data storage space.

1.5 GBs of free internal data storage is simply NOT sufficient enough space left on your iPad.

An iDevice, especially any iPad, needs to maintain, at a very minimum], between 2-4 GBs of free data storage for iOS to run at nominal/acceptable performance level.

You should never, EVER completely fill up any computer or computing device with data.

A 16 GBs iDevice only has an a practical, effective internal storage space amount of between 9-11 GBs.

This is one of the main reasons Apple silently did away with all 16 GBs iDevices years, ago, in a quiet admissions that 16 GBs

iDevices simply did not have enough internal storage space to do and install much of anything.

You need to free up, at least, another 1GB of internal storage space, or more, if possible.

You need to free up free data storage space on an iPad/iDevice, you need to start by backing up your iPad to

either Apple's iCloud or by connecting your iDevice to a computer running the latest iTunes or some other offsite, “cloud” data storage service, like Google Drive/Photos, DropBox, Box, etc.

Then, delete any installed apps that you no longer use or use infrequently enough that they aren't missed ( you can

always reinstalled any purchased or free apps at some time later, as you need them ).

Thin out/delete any music/videos/movies/TV shows/images/eBooks/eMagazine/iBooks/audio books/Documents/PDFs, etc.

If you use a POP email account on your iPad, delete/thin out any old saved emails that maybe saved to your iPad.

To permanently delete photos/images off of your iDevice, go into the Photos app and find the Recently Deleted

folder/album and permanently delete any photos/images stored in that folder/album.

Also, you can check to see what stuff is eating up all your valuable data storage space by going into the Settings

App,,General Settings Panel, in the right hand column, tap Storage & iCloud usage panel ( in iOS 11, it’s iPad Storage ), in the top Storage Panel, tap the Manage Storage panel, wait for a list of apps to generate that will tell you how much space each app is taking up on your iDevice.

Then, do a hard reset of your iPad by holding down bott the Home and sleep/wake buttons simultaneously until your

iPad goes to black and restarts with Apple logo, then release the buttons.

Then, try to see if you open more than 36 Safari Website tabs.

Best of Luck to You!

Jul 11, 2019 7:24 PM in response to charwood12

I am not sure.

This Safari tab limitation maybe/could be based on the available amount of internal RAM and how much is used iOS and other apps.

1 GB of RAM is NOT a lot of RAM. Especially lately with most newer iPads, having, at least double the RAM amount, now.

I use a 2015 iPad Pro with 4 GBs of RAM running iOS 10.3.3 and I just tested with my own older version of Safari and I just put up 40 Website tabs with no issue and looks as if I could put up more.

Jul 11, 2019 7:51 PM in response to MichelPM

That’s interesting. After I read your last post, I searched if anyone else had my problem specifically with the first generation iPad Air. This link popped up, and although the commenters are utterly useless, it does seem like the iPad Air might not be getting all the benefit of updated software. https://www.reddit.com/r/ipad/comments/62zw28/ipad_air_ios_103_safari_tab_limit/

Although now I’m wondering if other mobile browsers like Chrome, Firefox, etc. all have the same tab limit.

Jul 11, 2019 8:05 PM in response to lobsterghost1

I rarely open so many tabs, which is why I’m asking now not three years ago. The problem arose when I had 36 tabs open and I opened a link in a new tab. The tab opened but the very first tab was deleted, so the total never exceeded 36. I didn’t realize this, kept opening new tabs, and therefore lost a few tabs in the process. I got annoyed and came on here to figure out why it happened.

Jul 11, 2019 8:09 PM in response to charwood12

OK.......But I wouldn't recommend, especially with the lower memory on your device that you actually keep that many tabs open at the same time. It would be a better solution for you to bookmark the sites you need to quickly access as opposed to keeping the tabs open.

Jul 11, 2019 8:22 PM in response to charwood12

charwood12 wrote:

You could try them and see, just for curiosity sake.

While every iOS browser uses the iOS WebKit, I find many third party Web browsers work differently from Apple’s iOS Mobile Safari.

I never like Safari much and on iOS, I prefer Firefox or Perfect Browser. On my Mac, I prefer Firefox or Waterfox over Safari.

Jul 11, 2019 8:51 PM in response to charwood12

Great to learn!

I like using the iOS version of Firefox.

Be Well & Best of Luck to You!

Jul 8, 2019 9:23 PM in response to charwood12

Why on Earth do you need to know this?

You should not be leaving hundreds of active Web browser tabs open anyways on any iDevice?

Jul 9, 2019 4:57 AM in response to MichelPM

I’m not. It looks like my iPad has a limit of 36. But everything I can find online says that that limit went away after iOS 9.

Jul 9, 2019 9:42 AM in response to MichelPM

I have a 16 gigabyte iPad Air 1, running iOS 12, with 1.5 GB of storage open and 1 GB of RAM.

My iPhone 6 does not have the same problem with the tabs.

Jul 11, 2019 6:21 PM in response to MichelPM

I followed your advice. I now have 4.7 gb of storage space. I did the reset as you instructed, but I still am hitting this 36 tab limit.

Jul 11, 2019 7:58 PM in response to charwood12

Still, why do you ever need to have more than 36 tabs open on your iPad? I don't understand why this would be important?

Jul 11, 2019 8:12 PM in response to lobsterghost1

Yeah, now that I know the limitation I’ll probably do that. I was just kind of hoping that there a technical solution instead of a behavioral one.

Jul 11, 2019 8:18 PM in response to charwood12

The very last comment on Reddit is completely wrong.

Websites are still active in the tabs they are in whether they are the actively viewed tab or not.

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iOS 16: How to Limit Browsing to a Specific Safari Tab Group in Focus Mode

Apple in iOS 15 introduced Focus mode, an expansion of Do Not Disturb that allows you to set up different permissions for apps, contacts, and more depending on what you're doing. In iOS 16, Apple has expanded what Focus modes can do with new features, including the ability to add Focus Filters. This article explains how Focus Filters can be used to associate a Safari Tab Group with a Focus.

In iOS 16, you can set Safari to only show a specific Tab Group when a Focus is turned on. The idea is that by limiting your browsing to only the webpages in the Tab Group, you can avoid going down a rabbit hole of irrelevant links as well as the temptation of going on social media sites or browsing something equally unrelated to the task at hand.

Before you link a Tab Group to a Focus, you'll need to create a Tab Group ahead of time in the Safari app. Once that's done, you can associate the Tab Group with a Focus profile by following the steps below.

• Launch the Settings app on your ‌ iPhone ‌, then tap Focus .

• Scroll down, and under "Focus Filters," tap Add Filter .

• Tap Choose .

Your Safari Tab Group will now be active the next time you enable the Focus mode. Note that when you choose the Tab Group in Focus, you can also toggle a switch to enable or disable opening external links in your Focus Tab Group .

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How to use tabs and private browsing in Safari for iPhone and iPad

Become a tab master.

• How to open a new tab in Safari
• How to switch tabs in Safari
• How to close a tab in Safari
• How to view recently-closed tabs in Safari
• How to view websites from your other devices in Safari

How to use Tab Groups in Safari

• How to use private browsing in Safari

Tabs in Safari let you keep multiple web pages open so you can switch between them efficiently or refer back to them whenever you want. You can open links in new tabs, so you don't lose where you're currently surfing, and even go into Private Mode to give you some privacy on the internet.

Safari has been around for a couple of decades now, and there's a lot to learn — especially for power users. As a first-party app, there are some excellent iOS features Apple's browser can offer, and it integrates seamlessly with your other Apple devices, making it the best web-browser to navigate seamlessly between iPhone, iPad, and Mac. 

How to open a new tab in Safari on iPhone and iPad

Note: We have our Safari Tab Bar at the bottom of our iPhone screen, but all the steps in this guide work if you have yours at the top except from gesture-based manoeuvring. For more on moving the Safari address bar, check out our guide: How to change the Safari address bar on iPhone .

• Open Safari
• On an iPhone, tap the show pages icon in the bottom right of the screen (it looks like two squares). A quick swipe up from the Bottom Tab Bar on iOS 15 and newer gets you there even quicker.
• Tap the + button.

Alternatively, tap and hold the show pages icon, then tap New Tab . For those who like gestures, a quick swipe to the left on the Bottom Tab Bar opens a new tab while a swipe to the right goes back to your previous one. 

You can also open links you come across in a new tab by doing the following:

• Tap and hold (long press) the link you want to open in a new tab.
• Tap Open in New Tab (or Open in Background on iPad).

If you're on an iPad, you can open a link in a new window with Split Screen in Safari . Instead of tapping Open in Background, hit Open in Split Screen to have both tabs side by side -- great for when you're working on an essay for example.

How to switch tabs in Safari on iPhone and iPad

• On an iPhone, tap the show pages icon in the bottom right of the screen (it looks like two squares). On iPad, this looks like four squares and appears in the top right of the screen.
• Tap the tab you want to view.

You'll also benefit from Mac-like tab dividers beneath the URL field on the iPad's larger display. You can tap these to switch between tabs too.

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How to close a tab in Safari on iPhone and iPad

• Tap the X in the top right of a tab to close it. (You can also swipe the card to the left to throw it away).

While the above steps work on an iPad, it is easier to tap the X next to your tab in the toolbar to close it and save yourself an extra tap.

How to quickly close all tabs in Safari on iPhone and iPad

• On an iPhone, tap and hold the show pages icon in the bottom right of the screen (it looks like two squares). On iPad, this looks like four squares and appears in the top right of the screen.
• Tap Close All X Tabs .

How to view recently-closed tabs in Safari for iPhone and iPad

• On an iPhone, tap the show pages icon in the bottom right of the screen (it looks like two squares). On iPad, you can skip this step.
• Tap and hold the + button to bring up the Recently Closed Tabs menu.

How to view tabs open on your other devices in Safari on iPhone and iPad

Safari's iCloud Tabs feature lets you quickly and easily access web pages you've already opened in Safari on any of your other Apple devices — iPhones, iPads, or Macs. It's a very useful tool for getting the most out of your Apple ecosystem.

• On iPhone or iPad, tap the URL field in the Bottom Tab Bar .
• Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see tabs open on your other devices.
• Click on the tab you want to access from your other device.

Each device linked to your iCloud account is sorted alphabetically -- if you don't see your iPhone, iPad, or Mac make sure you sign in with the same Apple ID credentials across all devices. Note: tabs created in Private Browsing mode do not appear in iCloud Tabs, so you won't see those.

In iOS 16 , Apple improved upon Tab-Groups in Safari. Tab-Groups are a great way to combine several tabs together and organize them to make them easy to find. The feature also saves you from leaving a ton of tabs open for later reference.

We have a dedicated guide on how to use Tab Groups in Safari , so check that out to get the most out of the organizing tool. 

How to use private browsing in Safari on iPhone and iPad

Private browsing works just like regular browsing, except Safari won't cache your search terms or add the pages to your browser history -- this can be useful around the holiday period when gift shopping. Here's how to open private browsing on iPhone or iPad.

• Tap Private or New Private Tab .

To exit private browsing mode, press and hold the show pages icon and tap (number) Tabs to return to your previously open regular tabs.

You can also start and stop a private browsing section from the sidebar menu on the iPad.

Become a tab master

Using Safari on iPhone and iPad is similar to using Safari on Mac , however, the interface has some differences to account for smaller screens and touchscreen input. With the above guidance, you'll be well on your way to browsing Safari like a pro on your iOS devices making sure you're getting the best iPhone and best iPad experience possible.

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019.  John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit. 

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iOS Safari 500 Tab Limit

• Thread starter F27
• Start date Aug 13, 2023
• Sort by reaction score
• iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
• iOS and iPadOS

macrumors regular

• Aug 13, 2023

When you open 500 tabs in iOS Safari it won’t let you open anymore but if you click a link it will. What’s odd is that it still shows that 500 tabs are open, not 501. When you close that tab it goes to 499 which suggests it’s closed some other older tab. Problem is doesn’t tell you which one and it doesn’t appear in the recently closed tabs menu. Does anyone know the criteria for which tab is closed when this happens? It’s not the oldest (first) one, I checked. It’s a terribly vague system imo, either close the oldest or show which one was closed in the menu. Now I don’t know which tab I lost. I wasn’t aware of this behaviour till today.  

ThommiTechnik

Macrumors newbie.

500 Tabs in a mobile device?!?! You can‘t even handle this on a stationary Mac. So why on a mobile device, and why such a question?!  

• Aug 14, 2023

ThommiTechnik said: 500 Tabs in a mobile device?!?! You can‘t even handle this on a stationary Mac. So why on a mobile device, and why such a question?! Click to expand...

macrumors 603

I ran into this problem so I cleared a good amount of tabs to avoid this issue. If I have to guess it could be the tab that was last visited the longest time ago.  

macrumors 68030

I never keep more that 1 tab open  

Paddle1 said: I ran into this problem so I cleared a good amount of tabs to avoid this issue. If I have to guess it could be the tab that was last visited the longest time ago. Click to expand...

macrumors 68020

• Aug 15, 2023

It always deletes random tabs for me, which I believe is the most oldest tab  

Mactagonist

Macrumors 65816.

oh ****, im sitting at 453 right now! I didn't know there was a limit!  

• Aug 16, 2023

Apple put a tab ‘limit’ which is a limit that you can actually break… then they go and steal some random tabs off you as punishment! Wow Safari really sucks.  

Just out of curiosity how do you even manage that many tabs being open?  

WarmWinterHat

I get annoyed when I have more than five tabs, including on my computer. 500 tabs on the phone....What's the issue?  

macrumors 6502

• Sep 3, 2023

Don't care.  

sjsharksfan12

Macrumors 68000.

I need to be more comfortable with Tabs because 500 Tabs feels overwhelming to me.  

• Sep 4, 2023

I dont like it if i have more than 2 or 3 tabs open!  

You know Tab groups exists ?  

macrumors member

• Sep 6, 2023

Good for you to test out for us. Seriously I don’t really care if Apple will change the handling or not.  

ghostface147

Macrumors 601.

How do you know what is on tab 287?  

• Sep 17, 2023

I cannot even think of 500 tabs I even want open at the same time lol---freaking crazy!!!  

ghostface147 said: How do you know what is on tab 287? Click to expand...

GfPQqmcRKUvP

Macrumors 68040.

I hate to go to the "you're holding it wrong" category of excuses but with 500 tabs open I think you're just using it wrong lol If Apple designed their software to cater to usage like this then iOS would be an absolute nightmare.  

• Sep 18, 2023

700-Grizz said: I cannot even think of 500 tabs I even want open at the same time lol---freaking crazy!!! Click to expand...

hopsenberry

There is a feature called bookmarks. Use it.  

500?! How do you even find anything at that point? I use 2 TOPS 😅  

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The Safari Settings You Should Tweak Right Now

Your browser is your window onto the world, the app you rely on most during the day. You want to wring every last drop of usefulness out of it. It definitely pays to know all of the features and tricks your daily browser is capable of. For iOS users, that means mastering Safari: how to stay safe online, how to get stuff done faster, and more.

For a smoother online experience, take a few minutes to run through these Safari tweaks to make your life online a little smoother.

Safari is very concerned about the strength of your passwords—perhaps even more so than you are. To see whether you're using any weak passwords, or duplicating passwords across accounts, open the Safari menu and choose Preferences then Passwords . A yellow exclamation mark indicates a potential problem with one of your listed passwords.

You'll often want to carry on watching a video while doing something else, and Safari can help—with a video playing, click and hold the audio icon in the address bar, then choose Enter Picture in Picture . The pop-out video player can be repositioned and resized as needed, but keep the original tab open in the background while you work on other tasks.

Websites want a lot these days: access to your webcam, your mic, your location , and more. To check what a site does and does not have access to, click Safari then Settings for This Website . You can revoke any permissions you've previously given, stop content from auto-playing, and limit the number of pop-up windows that the website can show.

It's taken a long time for Safari to support favicons (the little icons that represent websites), so you might as well take advantage; they also help you identify open tabs more easily as well. From the Safari menu, choose Preferences then Tabs , and then tick the checkbox labeled Show website icons in tabs to apply the change to the browser.

Having access to your recent browsing history can be useful for retracing your online steps, but you don't need it to follow you around for years. Open Safari then Preferences , switch to the General tab, then open Remove history items —you can delete browsing logs automatically after a day, week, fortnight, month, or year.

By default Safari just shows the domain name of the site you're visiting in the address bar, but this can make it tricky to work out exactly where you are on the web. To see the full URL instead, you need to open up the Safari menu, then the Preferences dialog, then switch to the Advanced tab—make sure the Show full website address box is ticked.

No productivity hack is ever going to beat an intuitive keyboard shortcut or two. You'll find a full list for Safari here and here , but some of our favorites include Space (and Shift+Space ) to scroll, Cmd+W to close a tab, Ctrl+Tab (and Shift+Ctrl+Tab ) to scroll through open tabs, and Cmd+L to jump straight to the Safari address bar at the top.

Safari, like every other Apple app, can be fully controlled with your voice in macOS Catalina. To enable the feature, open the Apple menu then choose System Preferences , Accessibility , Voice Control , and Enable Voice Control . It lets you speak out numbers for menus and links, zoom in and out, and much more—there's a full list of commands here .

Safari has an entire Develop menu that's not displayed by default but which is very handy for power users. To show it, open the Safari menu then choose Preferences , then Advanced , then tick the box marked Show Develop menu in menu bar. The new menu then appears, enabling you to access options such as disabling images or extensions.

Clearing out a browser's cache can often improve performance in the long term, even if it takes a short-term hit while local files are refreshed and reset. To do this in Safari, you first need to enable the Develop menu (see the step above), then you can open it and choose Empty Caches . This wipes all of Safari's temporary files and data off the local disk.

Safari has borrowed a very useful feature from Windows: the ability to "snap" open tabs to the left or right of the screen, so you can compare two side-by-side. Open up the Window menu, then choose Tile Window to Left of Screen or Tile Window to Right of Screen to do just that—your other windows are then automatically docked on the opposite side.

Apple devices all play wonderfully well together, as long as you're signed in on the same Apple ID, and jumping between open tabs on different devices is a breeze. To do this on Safari on macOS, you need to click on the Show tab overview button in the top right corner; you'll then see Safari tabs from your other devices listed lower down.

Who has time to read everything during the working day? No one! So make use of Safari's built-in Reading List tool. Use the Plus button on the left side of the address bar to add articles to the Reading List, then click the Show sidebar button (or View and Show Reading List Sidebar ) to bring up the list of all the posts you've saved during the day.

Safari gives you more control than you might have realized over the buttons and options that appear on the toolbar—having the tools you use most often in easy reach can make a big difference to your online productivity. To make changes, select View then Customize Toolbar , then just drag and drop the icons you need most often into the toolbar.

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iPad User Guide

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• Schedule or display events in a different time zone
• Keep track of events
• Use multiple calendars
• Use reminders in Calendar
• Use the Holidays calendar
• Share iCloud calendars
• Use the basic calculator
• Use the scientific calculator
• Solve math with Math Notes
• Work with graphs in Math Notes
• Convert units or currency
• See previous calculations
• See the world clock
• Set an alarm
• Use the stopwatch
• Add and use contact information
• Edit contacts
• Add your contact info
• Share Contacts on iPad
• Add or remove accounts
• Hide duplicate contacts
• Sync contacts across devices
• Import contacts
• Export contacts
• Get started with FaceTime
• Make FaceTime calls
• Receive FaceTime calls
• Create a FaceTime link
• Take a Live Photo
• Turn on Live Captions
• Use other apps during a call
• Make a Group FaceTime call
• View participants in a grid
• Use SharePlay to watch, listen, and play together
• Share your screen in a FaceTime call
• Request or give remote control in a FaceTime call
• Collaborate on a document in a FaceTime call
• Use video conferencing features
• Hand off a FaceTime call to another Apple device
• Change the FaceTime video settings
• Change the FaceTime audio settings
• Change your appearance
• Leave a call or switch to Messages
• Block a FaceTime call and report it as spam
• Modify files and folders
• Find files and folders
• Organize files and folders
• Send files from the Files app
• Set up iCloud Drive
• Share files and folders in iCloud Drive
• Transfer files from iPad to a storage device, a server, or the cloud
• Share your location
• Add or remove a friend
• Locate a friend
• Get notified when friends change their location
• Notify a friend when your location changes
• Add your iPad
• Get notified if you leave a device behind
• Locate a device
• Mark a device as lost
• Erase a device
• Remove a device
• Add an AirTag
• Share an AirTag or other item in Find My on iPad
• Add a third-party item
• Get notified if you leave an item behind
• Locate an item
• Mark an item as lost
• Remove an item
• Adjust map settings
• Turn off Find My
• Get started with Freeform
• Create a Freeform board
• Draw or handwrite
• Solve handwritten math problems
• Add text in sticky notes, shapes, and text boxes
• Add shapes, lines, and arrows
• Add diagrams
• Add photos, videos, and other files
• Apply consistent styles
• Position items on a board
• Navigate and present scenes
• Send a copy or PDF
• Print a board
• Share boards and collaborate
• Search Freeform boards
• Delete and recover boards
• Change Freeform settings
• Get started with Health
• Fill out your Health Details
• Intro to Health data
• View your health data
• Share your health data
• View health data shared by others
• Download health records
• View health records
• Log menstrual cycle information
• View menstrual cycle predictions and history
• Log a pregnancy
• Track your medications
• Learn more about your medications
• Log your state of mind
• Take a mental health assessment
• Customize your Sleep Focus
• Turn Sleep Focus on or off
• View your sleep history
• Check your headphone audio levels
• Use audiogram data
• Back up your Health data
• Intro to Home
• Upgrade to the new Home architecture
• Set up accessories
• Control accessories
• Control your home using Siri
• Use Grid Forecast to plan your energy usage
• View electricity usage and rates on iPad (participating U.S. providers only)
• Set up HomePod
• Control your home remotely
• Create and use scenes
• Use automations
• Set up security cameras
• Use Face Recognition
• Configure a router
• Invite others to control accessories
• Add more homes
• Get music, movies, and TV shows
• Get ringtones
• Manage purchases and settings
• Use iPad like a magnifying glass
• Customize controls
• Get descriptions of visual information around you
• Detect people around you
• Detect furniture around you
• Detect doors around you
• Detect text around you and have it read out loud
• Set up shortcuts for Live Recognition
• Add and remove email accounts
• Set up a custom email domain
• Check your email
• Unsend email with Undo send
• Reply to and forward emails
• Save an email draft
• Add email attachments
• Download email attachments
• Annotate email attachments
• Set email notifications
• Search for email
• Organize your email in mailboxes
• Flag or block emails
• Filter emails
• Use Hide My Email
• Use Mail Privacy Protection
• Change Mail settings
• Delete and recover emails
• Add a Mail widget to your Home Screen
• Print emails
• Use keyboard shortcuts
• Explore 3D maps
• Get travel directions
• Change or add stops to your route
• View a route overview or a list of turns
• Change settings for spoken directions
• Get driving directions
• Report traffic incidents
• Get cycling directions
• Get walking directions
• Save walks or hikes
• Get transit directions
• Get traffic and weather info
• Estimate travel time and ETA
• Download offline maps
• Search for places
• Add places and notes to your library
• Mark places with pins
• Share places
• Rate places and add photos
• Organize places with custom guides
• Find nearby attractions, restaurants, and services
• Get information about places
• Explore places with guides
• Look around places
• Take Flyover tours
• Clear location history
• Delete recent directions
• Choose a default travel mode and units
• Report an issue with Maps
• Measure dimensions
• View and save measurements
• Measure a person’s height
• Set up Messages
• About iMessage
• Send and reply to messages
• Unsend and edit messages
• Keep track of messages
• Forward and share messages
• Group conversations
• Watch, listen, or play together using SharePlay
• Share screens
• Collaborate on projects
• Use iMessage apps
• Take and edit photos or videos
• Share photos, links, and more
• Send stickers
• Create and send Memoji
• React with Tapbacks
• Style and animate messages
• Draw and handwrite messages
• Send and save GIFs
• Request, send, and receive payments
• Send and receive audio messages
• Turn read receipts on or off
• Change notifications
• Block, filter, and report messages
• Delete messages and attachments
• Recover deleted messages
• Subscribe to Apple Music
• Get personalized recommendations
• Mark items as favorites
• Add music and listen offline
• Create an Apple Music Profile
• Share music with friends
• See what friends are listening to
• Search for music
• Find music shared with you
• Find new music
• Use the music player controls
• Use Siri to play music
• Play lossless audio
• Play Spatial Audio
• Listen to radio
• Play music together using SharePlay
• Play music together in the car
• Adjust the sound
• Queue up your music
• Shuffle or repeat songs
• Apple Music Sing
• Show song credits and lyrics
• Tell Apple Music what you enjoy
• Intro to playlists
• Create, edit, and delete playlists
• Collaborate on a playlist
• Join a collaborative playlist
• Add a reaction to a collaborative playlist
• Get started with News
• Use News widgets
• See news stories chosen just for you
• Read and share stories
• Follow your favorite teams with My Sports
• Subscribe to Apple News+
• Browse and read Apple News+ stories
• Use Offline Mode to read downloaded News content
• Manually download Apple News+ issues
• Find puzzles in Apple News+
• Solve crossword and crossword mini puzzles
• Solve Quartiles puzzles
• Search for stories in News
• Save stories in News
• Clear your reading history in News
• Customize the News tab bar
• Subscribe to individual news channels
• Get started with Notes
• Create and format notes
• Use Quick Notes
• Add drawings and handwriting
• Enter formulas and equations
• Add photos, video, and more
• Record and transcribe audio
• Scan text and documents
• Work with PDFs
• Search notes
• Organize in folders
• Organize with tags
• Use Smart Folders
• Share and collaborate
• Export or print notes
• Change the Notes view
• Change Notes settings
• Use passwords on iPad
• Find your password for a website or app
• Change the password for a website or app
• Remove a password
• Recover a deleted password
• Create a password for a website or app
• Use passkeys to sign in to apps and websites
• Sign in with Apple
• Share passwords
• Automatically fill in strong passwords
• Change weak or compromised passwords
• View your passwords and related information
• Find your Wi-Fi password
• Share passwords securely with AirDrop
• Make your passwords available on all your devices
• Automatically fill in verification codes
• Sign in with fewer CAPTCHA challenges
• Use two-factor authentication
• Use security keys
• Delete, share, or copy a photo
• View and edit Photo Booth photos in the Photos app
• Get started with Photos
• View photos and videos
• See photo and video information
• Find photos and videos by date
• Find and name people and pets
• Find group photos
• Browse photos by location
• Find recently saved photos
• Find your travel photos
• Find receipts, QR codes, recently edited photos, and more
• Find photos, videos, and more by media type
• Customize the Photos app
• Filter and sort the photo library
• Back up and sync your photos with iCloud
• Delete or hide photos and videos
• Search for photos and videos
• Get wallpaper suggestions
• Watch memories
• Personalize your memories
• Play videos and slideshows
• Feature someone less
• Create Photo albums
• Edit and organize albums
• Filter and sort photos and videos in albums
• Share photos and videos
• Share long videos
• Create shared albums
• Add and remove people in a shared album
• Add and delete photos and videos in a shared album
• Set up or join an iCloud Shared Photo Library
• Use iCloud Shared Photo Library
• Add content to an iCloud Shared Photo Library
• Edit photos and videos
• Crop, rotate, flip, or straighten photos and videos
• Undo and revert photo edits
• Trim video length, adjust speed, and edit audio
• Edit Cinematic videos
• Edit Live Photos
• Edit portraits
• Make stickers from your photos
• Duplicate and copy photos and videos
• Merge duplicate photos
• Import and export photos and videos
• Print photos
• Find podcasts
• Listen to podcasts
• View podcast transcripts
• Follow your favorite podcasts
• Use the Podcasts widget
• Organize your podcast library
• Download, save, remove, and share podcasts
• Subscribe to podcasts
• Listen to subscriber-only content
• Change download settings
• Get started with Reminders
• Set reminders
• Make a grocery list
• Add details
• Complete and remove items
• Edit and organize a list
• Search your lists
• Organize multiple lists
• Use Smart Lists
• Print a list
• Work with templates
• Change Reminders settings
• Browse the web
• Search for websites
• See highlights
• Customize your Safari settings
• Change the layout
• Create multiple Safari profiles
• Open and close tabs
• Organize your tabs with Tab Groups
• View your tabs from another Apple device
• Share Tab Groups
• Use Siri to listen to a webpage
• Bookmark a website
• Bookmark a website as a favorite
• Save pages to a Reading List
• Find links shared with you
• Annotate and save a webpage as a PDF
• Automatically fill in forms
• Get extensions
• Hide distractions when browsing
• Hide distractions when reading
• Block pop-ups
• Clear your cache and cookies
• Enable cookies
• Browse the web privately
• Sign in with passkeys in Safari
• Check stocks
• Manage multiple watchlists
• Read business news
• Add earnings reports to your calendar
• Use a Stocks widget
• Translate text, voice, and conversations
• Translate text in apps
• Translate with the camera view
• Subscribe to Apple TV+, MLS Season Pass, or a channel
• Find shows, movies, and more
• Personalize the Home tab
• Buy, rent, or pre-order items
• Stream content and control playback
• Watch sports
• Watch multiple live sports streams
• Manage your library
• Add your TV provider
• Change the settings
• Make a recording
• View a transcription
• Play it back
• Edit or delete a recording
• Keep recordings up to date
• Organize recordings
• Search for or rename a recording
• Share a recording
• Duplicate a recording
• Check the weather
• Check the weather in other locations
• View weather maps
• Manage weather notifications
• Use Weather widgets
• Learn the weather icons
• Find out what Siri can do
• Tell Siri about yourself
• Have Siri announce calls and notifications
• Add Siri Shortcuts
• About Siri Suggestions
• Change Siri settings
• Set up Family Sharing
• Add Family Sharing members
• Remove Family Sharing members
• Share subscriptions
• Share purchases
• Share locations with family and locate lost devices
• Set up Apple Cash Family and Apple Card Family
• Set up parental controls
• Set up a child’s device
• Get started with Screen Time
• Protect your vision health with Screen Distance
• Set up Screen Time
• Set communication and safety limits and block nudity
• Set up Screen Time for a family member
• Set up Apple Pay
• Use Apple Pay in apps and on the web
• Use Apple Cash
• Use Apple Card
• Remove payment cards
• Change Wallet & Apple Pay settings
• Power adapter and charge cable
• Use AirPods
• Use EarPods
• Use headphone audio-level features
• Apple Pencil compatibility
• Pair and charge Apple Pencil (1st generation)
• Pair and charge Apple Pencil (2nd generation)
• Pair and charge Apple Pencil (USB-C)
• Pair and charge Apple Pencil Pro
• Enter text with Scribble
• Draw with Apple Pencil
• Take and mark up a screenshot with Apple Pencil
• Quickly write notes
• Wirelessly stream videos and photos to Apple TV or a smart TV
• Connect to a display with a cable
• HomePod and other wireless speakers
• iPad keyboards
• Switch between keyboards
• Enter characters with diacritical marks
• Use shortcuts
• Choose an alternative keyboard layout
• Change typing assistance options
• Connect Magic Trackpad
• Trackpad gestures
• Change trackpad settings
• Connect a mouse
• Mouse actions and gestures
• Change mouse settings
• External storage devices
• Connect Bluetooth accessories
• Play audio from your iPad on a Bluetooth accessory from your iPad
• Apple Watch with Fitness+
• Polishing cloth
• Work across devices using Continuity
• Use AirDrop to send items to nearby devices
• Hand off tasks between devices
• Cut, copy, and paste between iPad and other devices
• Stream video or mirror the screen of your iPad
• Allow phone calls and text messages on your iPad
• Share your internet connection with Personal Hotspot
• Use iPad as a webcam for Apple TV
• Insert sketches, photos, and scans on Mac
• Use iPad as a second display for Mac
• Use a keyboard and mouse or trackpad across your Mac and iPad
• Connect iPad and your computer with a cable
• Transfer files between devices
• Transfer files with email, messages, or AirDrop
• Transfer files or sync content with the Finder or iTunes
• Automatically keep files up to date with iCloud
• Get started with accessibility features
• Use accessibility features during setup
• Change Siri accessibility settings
• Quickly turn accessibility features on or off
• Overview of accessibility features for vision
• View a larger version of text you’re reading or typing
• Change display colors
• Make text easier to read
• Reduce onscreen motion
• Use iPad more comfortably while riding in a vehicle
• Customize per-app visual settings
• Hear what’s on the screen or typed
• Hear audio descriptions
• Turn on and practice VoiceOver
• Change your VoiceOver settings
• Use VoiceOver gestures
• Operate iPad when VoiceOver is on
• Control VoiceOver using the rotor
• Use the onscreen keyboard
• Write with your finger
• Keep the screen off
• Use VoiceOver with an external keyboard
• Use a braille display
• Type braille on the screen
• Customize gestures and keyboard shortcuts
• Use VoiceOver with a pointer device
• Get live descriptions of your surroundings
• Use VoiceOver in apps
• Overview of accessibility features for mobility
• Use AssistiveTouch
• Use an adjustable onscreen trackpad on iPad
• Control iPad with the movement of your eyes
• Adjust how iPad responds to your touch
• Auto-answer calls
• Change Face ID and attention settings
• Use Voice Control commands
• Adjust the top or Home button
• Use Apple TV Remote buttons
• Adjust pointer settings
• Adjust keyboard settings
• Control iPad with an external keyboard
• Adjust AirPods settings
• Adjust double tap and squeeze settings for Apple Pencil
• Intro to Switch Control
• Set up and turn on Switch Control
• Select items, perform actions, and more
• Control several devices with one switch
• Overview of accessibility features for hearing
• Use hearing devices
• Use Live Listen
• Use sound recognition
• Set up and use RTT
• Flash the indicator light for notifications
• Adjust audio settings
• Play background sounds
• Display subtitles and captions
• Show transcriptions for Intercom messages
• Get live captions of spoken audio
• Overview of accessibility features for speech
• Type to speak
• Record your personal voice
• Use Vocal Shortcuts
• Overview of cognitive accessibility features
• Lock iPad to one app
• Control what you share
• Set a passcode
• Set up Face ID
• Set up Touch ID
• Turn on Lock Screen features
• Keep your Apple Account secure
• Control app tracking permissions
• Control the location information you share
• Control access to information in apps
• Control access to contacts
• Control how Apple delivers advertising to you
• Control access to hardware features
• Create and manage Hide My Email addresses
• Protect your web browsing with iCloud Private Relay
• Use a private network address
• Use Advanced Data Protection
• Use Lockdown Mode
• Receive warnings about sensitive content
• Use Contact Key Verification
• Turn iPad on or off
• Force restart iPad
• Update iPadOS
• Back up iPad
• Reset iPad settings
• Restore all content from a backup
• Restore purchased and deleted items
• Sell, give away, or trade in your iPad
• Install or remove configuration profiles
• Important safety information
• Important handling information
• Find more resources for software and service
• FCC compliance statement
• ISED Canada compliance statement
• Apple and the environment
• Class 1 Laser information
• Disposal and recycling information
• Unauthorized modification of iPadOS
• ENERGY STAR compliance statement

Open and close tabs in Safari on iPad

Use tabs to help you navigate between multiple open webpages.

Note: If you’re using the Compact Tab Bar layout, the menus and other items may look different from what’s described in this guide. See Change the layout of Safari .

Open a link in a new tab

Touch and hold the link, then tap Open in Background.

View a tab’s history

You can see which webpages you previously visited in this tab.

Tip: To close all tabs in this Tab Group at the same time, touch and hold Done, then tap Close All [number of] Tabs.

Open a recently closed tab