safari toolbar missing on ipad

How to Show or Hide the Tab Bar on an iPad: A Step-by-Step Guide

Are you looking to customize your iPad experience by showing or hiding the tab bar? It’s a straightforward process that can be done in just a few taps. Whether you want a cleaner look or easier access to your tabs, this guide will help you achieve that.

Step by Step Tutorial: How to Show or Hide the Tab Bar on an iPad

Before we dive into the steps, it’s important to know that the tab bar is the section at the bottom of your iPad’s screen that displays open tabs in Safari or other apps. By showing or hiding the tab bar, you can change how you navigate and organize your workspace. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Open the App You Want to Edit

Open the app where you want to show or hide the tab bar.

Some apps automatically show or hide the tab bar based on their design or your previous settings. However, most will allow you to adjust this feature manually.

Step 2: Locate the Settings or View Menu

Look for the ‘Settings’ or ‘View’ menu within the app.

This menu is often represented by three dots or lines, or it might be found in the app’s menu bar. It’s where you’ll find options to customize your app’s layout.

Step 3: Toggle the Tab Bar Option

Find the option to show or hide the tab bar and toggle it accordingly.

If you can’t find the option right away, it might be under ‘Appearance’, ‘Layout’, or a similar section within the ‘Settings’ or ‘View’ menu.

After you’ve completed these steps, the tab bar will either appear or disappear from the bottom of your app screen, depending on your selection. It’s an easy way to tailor your iPad to your personal preferences.

Tips: How to Show or Hide the Tab Bar on an iPad

Keep in mind that not all apps will have the option to show or hide the tab bar.
If you’re using Safari, the tab bar will show or hide automatically as you scroll down or up on a page.
You can also use gestures to show or hide the tab bar in some apps by swiping up or down.
If you can’t find the option to customize the tab bar, check the app’s help section or support website.
Remember that hiding the tab bar can give you a bit more screen real estate, but showing it provides quicker access to your tabs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can i show or hide the tab bar on any ipad model.

Yes, as long as your iPad is running an iOS version that supports this feature, you can show or hide the tab bar on any model.

Will hiding the tab bar affect my ability to switch between tabs?

No, you can still switch between tabs even when the tab bar is hidden. You’ll just need to use other methods, like gestures or the tab overview screen.

Can I customize the tab bar’s appearance?

In some apps, yes. You might have options to change the color or the transparency of the tab bar.

What if the option to show or hide the tab bar is greyed out?

This likely means the app doesn’t support hiding the tab bar, or it’s necessary for the app’s functionality.

I hid the tab bar and can’t figure out how to show it again. What should I do?

Try reversing the steps you followed to hide it, or look for a full-screen mode toggle that might bring the tab bar back.

Open the app you want to edit.
Locate the ‘Settings’ or ‘View’ menu.
Toggle the option to show or hide the tab bar.

Customizing your iPad by showing or hiding the tab bar can enhance your user experience, whether you’re browsing the web, reading, or working. It’s a simple adjustment that can make a big difference in how you interact with your device. Don’t be afraid to play around with your settings – it’s all about making your iPad work best for you. If you have any more questions or need further assistance, remember there’s a whole community of iPad users and tech enthusiasts out there to help. So go ahead, optimize your iPad experience with this handy guide on how to show or hide the tab bar.

Matt Jacobs has been working as an IT consultant for small businesses since receiving his Master’s degree in 2003. While he still does some consulting work, his primary focus now is on creating technology support content for SupportYourTech.com.

His work can be found on many websites and focuses on topics such as Microsoft Office, Apple devices, Android devices, Photoshop, and more.

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How to Show or Hide the Tab Bar on an iPad

When you browse on a mobile device like your iPhone or iPad, it’s possible for you to have multiple tabs open at once. Typically you may be used to touching the Tabs button and navigating between those tabs from that menu, but your iPad can actually show a tab bar at the top of the window that you can use to navigate as well.

This tab bar consists of small gray rectangles below the address bar that identify each of the open tabs. By pressing one of those rectangles you can switch to that tab. But if you aren’t seeing that tab bar, or if you would like to remove it so that you can see more of your Web pages on the screen, then our guide below will show you how to make that change.

Find out how to send a message with confetti if you have received one and wanted to be able to send similar messages to other people from your iPhone.

How to Enable or Disable the Tab Bar in Safari on an iPad

The steps in this article were performed on a 6th generation iPad using iOS 12.2. By completing the steps in this guide you will be adjusting the display of the tab bar, which is identified in the image below.

Step 1: Open the Settings menu.

Step 2: Scroll down and select the Safari option from the column at the left side of the screen.

Step 3: Tap the button to the right of Show Tab Bar to adjust whether or not it’s displayed. I have the tab bar enabled in the image below.

There are a lot of things you can do with your iPad, including playing games from your Steam Library. Check out our article on using Steam Link to play Magic Arena and see how to configure the remote play option that allows you to connect to your Steam library on a PC from your iPad.

You can also find out how to make Safari open to Google on Mac if you would like to be able to use the Google search engine as your Web browser homepage.

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.

After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.

His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.

Read his full bio here.

How to fix Safari tabs disappearing on iPad and iPhone

While using Safari, have you noticed that some of your open tabs are missing and you can’t seem to find them? The tabs are most likely still open, you just have to look for them in the right places. Let’s show you how.

1. See all your open windows in Safari on iPad

Unlike iPhone, but like Mac, Safari on iPad lets you open more than one window.

You might not see a Safari tab that’s open in a different window in case you have multiple active windows that you opened and forgot. Secondly, clicking some website links can force a new browser window.

In these situations, you might miss seeing a specific tab if it isn’t on your current Safari window but on a different one.

Here’s how to quickly see all open Safari windows on iPad:

Go to your iPad Home Screen or pull up the Dock.
Press and hold the Safari app icon.
Tap Show All Windows .

Now, tap one of the windows that has the Safari tab you thought had disappeared.

2. Merge all Safari windows on iPad to get back hidden tabs

With Safari open on Mac, when you click Windows from the top menu bar, you see an option called Merge All Windows. Clicking this instantly brings all the tabs of different windows in a single window.

The same handy functionality is in Safari for iPad.

Here’s how to see your hidden Safari tabs on iPad by merging all active windows into one:

Inside Safari, press and hold the button made up of four tiny squares.
Tap Merge All Windows .

Now, Safari will bring all the tabs of different windows to a single place. From here, you can easily find the Safari tabs that you thought were missing or hidden from plain sight.

3. Reopen your recently closed Safari tabs on iPad and iPhone

Sometimes, it’s likely that you accidentally closed a Safari tab or closed one intentionally and then forgot about it.

You can easily open such recently closed Safari tabs by following these steps:

Inside Safari, tap the tab button (made of two overlapping squares).
Press and hold the plus button (+) to see Recently Closed Tabs.
Tap the desired website to reopen it.

For more: How to quickly reopen recently closed tabs in Safari on iPhone or iPad

4. Stop Safari from automatically closing open tabs

With iOS 13 and later, Safari can automatically close open tabs after one day, one week, or a month. In case you or someone with access to your iPhone or iPad enabled this option, you might be opening a tab, and the next day it closes, making you wonder, “Where has my Safari tab gone!”

To fix this, follow these steps to prevent the auto-close of Safari tabs:

Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
Tap Safari .
Select Close Tabs .
Choose Manually .

Stop Safari from automatically closing tabs

From now, open Safari tabs won’t disappear, and you can access them as long as you don’t close them manually.

Fixed: Safari tabs hiding or missing on iPhone or iPad

This is how you can fix the issue of Safari tabs hiding or disappearing from plain sight on your iPhone or iPad. Besides this, if you continue to face such inconveniences, make sure you inculcate the habit of restarting your iPhone at least once every three days.

Finally, if you’re on an old version of iOS or iPadOS, go to Settings > General > Software Update and install the newest available version of the operating system for your device. Usually, such bugs are fixed by Apple via software updates, ensuring an improved experience.

Safari tips for you:

11 tips to customize and personalize Safari on iPhone and iPad
How to allow pop-ups in Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
How to stop name, address, email, and payment autofill suggestions in Safari

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How to Find Missing Safari Icon on iPhone or iPad

By: Sam Patwegar | September 15, 2024

When the Safari Icon goes missing from the Home screen of iPhone, most users start thinking about the possibility of Safari App being accidentally deleted by them or by someone with access to their device.

However, this is never the case as Apple prevents users from deleting native apps and Safari happens to be one of the most essential native Apps that cannot be deleted from an Apple device.

In most cases, the problem of missing Safari Icon ends up being due to the Safari App being accidentally moved to another Home Screen or becoming hidden in a Folder on the App Library screen.

A less common reason for Safari Icon missing or disappearing from the Home screen on iPhone is due to the Safari App being restricted by Screen Time Settings .

What to Do If Safari Icon is Missing on iPhone?

It can be quite frustrating to find Safari Icon missing on iPhone. Fortunately, in most cases, you should be able to fix this problem using the following steps.

1. Check All Home Screens & Folders

As mentioned above, the most common reason for Safari Icon missing on iPhone is due to the Safari App being accidentally moved to another Home Screen or a Folder.

Hence, the first step would be to carefully go through all the Home screens on your iPhone and look for the Safari App.

Also, go through all Folders and make sure that Safari Icon is not hiding in a Folder on your device.

2. Search For Safari Browser On iPhone

Follow the steps below to make your iPhone look for the missing Safari app.

1. Bring up the Search bar on the Home screen of your iPhone ( Swipe down or Swipe left , depending on the model of your iPhone).

2. Type Safari in the Search bar and this should bring up Safari App in the search results.

3. Tap & Hold on the Safari Icon , drag it upwards slightly and release the finger to place Safari Icon back on the Home Screen of your iPhone.

Note: Even if the Safari App is hidden in a Folder, you will see the name of the Folder in which the Safari App Icon is hidden on your device.

3. Look For Safari in App Library

If you had accidentally removed Safari from the Home screen, it should be available in the App Library on your iPhone.

1. Swipe Left on the Home screen of your iPhone, until you reach the App Library screen.

2. On App Library screen, type Safari in the Search bar and you should find Safari appearing in the Search results.

3. Once Safari appears in the search results, tap and hold on Safari Icon and select Add to Home Screen option.

This should immediately bring the Safari Icon back on the Home Screen of your device.

4. Unhide Home Screen

Another possibility is that you may have accidentally moved Safari to another Home screen and also hidden that Home Screen.

1. Tap & Hold on the Dots located on the Home Screen of your iPhone.

2. Look for Safari Icon in the Thumbnails and tap below the Thumbnail that contains the Safari Icon (if it does not have the check mark).

Unhide iPhone Home Screen Containing Safari Icon

3. This will unhide the Screen containing Safari Icon and you will find Safari back on the Home screen of your iPhone.

5. Reset Home Screen

An easy way to get native Apps like Safari back to their default position on the Home screen of your iPhone is to Reset the Home Screen.

1. Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset .

2. On the Reset Screen, select Reset Home Screen Layout option.

Reset Home Screen Layout option in iPhone

As mentioned above, resetting the Home Screen should bring back the Safari Icon to its usual position on the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.

6. Disable Restrictions on Safari App

You may have accidentally or intentionally placed restrictions on Safari App, in order to prevent the possibility of your children accessing the internet and using up all your data.

1. Go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions .

Content & Privacy Restrictions Settings Option on iPhone

2. On the next screen, tap on Allowed Apps .

3. On Allowed Apps screen, move the toggle next to Safari to ON position.

Note: If you are using Screen Time Passcode , you will be prompted to enter Screen Time Passcode.

Clear History Option Grayed Out in Safari On iPhone
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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.

apple macos bigsur safari improvedtabs 06222020

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.

play Even if you're aware of the gesture, it's worth a reminder that this feature exists in case someone gets ahold of your phone and checks your browser. Even if you've closed out a tab, it's still going to be visible in Safari, unless you were using a private browser window or have cleared your browsing history.

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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Safari tabs disappeared on iPhone or iPad? How to get them back!

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We’ve all been there: Opened Safari on our iPhone or iPad, ready to pick up where we left off, only to realize that all our tabs have suddenly disappeared. It is natural to panic when this happens. But fret not. This guide explains why it happens and, more importantly, how to get back disappeared Safari tabs on your iPhone or iPad.

Why do Safari tabs get disappeared?

1. show all safari windows, 2. access hidden safari tabs, 1. reopen your recently-closed tabs, 2. look for the tabs in a tab group or safari profile, 3. go through your browsing history, 1. disable the auto-close tabs feature, 2. update your iphone or ipad, 3. bookmark all tabs on safari.

Unless you have accidentally closed all your open tabs , either by swiping them away or tapping the Close All Tabs option, there are only a few reasons that can cause your Safari tabs to disappear on an iPhone or iPad.

If there is a corrupted cache in Safari, it can sometimes make tabs disappear on your device.
At times, software bugs or glitches can cause the Safari tabs to disappear unexpectedly.
If your iPhone or iPad is running low on memory, Safari may automatically close tabs to free up space, causing them to vanish.
Having the auto-close tabs feature enabled on your device can automatically close tabs after a specified period of time.

Understanding the cause can help you prevent it in the future. Now, let us jump to the methods to restore the disappeared Safari tabs on iPhone and iPad.

How to get back disappeared Safari tabs on an iPad

Safari’s interface on the iPad is a bit different from that on the iPhone. So, first we will share some iPad-specific troubleshooting steps to help you get back disappeared Safari tabs on your iPad.

Sometimes, your tabs aren’t lost; they’re just in a different window. It might be because you are using multiple Safari windows on your iPad. Let us see how to switch between multiple Safari windows and find the disappeared tabs:

Press and hold the Safari app icon on the Dock or Home Screen.

Show all Windows option in the Safari context menu on an iPad

If you have too many Safari windows open and cannot find the disappeared tab(s), you can merge all windows into one to find them quickly. All you have to do is:

Open Safari .
Tap and hold the Show Tab Overview button in the top-right corner.

Merge All Windows option in the tab button context menu in Safari on an iPad

As you can see, all the tabs present in multiple Safari windows will be combined and shown under a single window. Now, you can jump between tabs without fear of losing any tab unexpectedly until you close them.

How to find disappeared Safari tabs on an iPhone

Now that you know the methods to get back disappeared Safari tabs on an iPad, let us see how to restore the tabs on an iPhone. You can also use the following steps on your iPad if the above methods didn’t fix the issue.

Safari keeps a history of all the tabs you have visited. So, if you have accidentally closed all your tabs, you can reopen them, as shown below.

Tap and hold the + button in Safari for iPad in the top-right corner of the screen. On iPhone, tap the tabs button and long press the + button.

A list of all the recently closed Safari tabs on an iPhone

Safari Tab Groups help you organize tabs into specified folders. For example, I organize all the tech-related news tabs in a tab group named iGeeks. For more personalization, iOS 17 brought Safari Profiles , which allows you to divide your browser sessions into distinct profiles.

So, it is possible that the tab you have been looking for may be hidden in a Tab Group or Safari profile. You can find the tab like this:

In Safari, tap the tab icon at bottom.
Swipe left on the tab bar below.
Here, you can see the other tab groups you have created previously.

To change the Safari profile, tap the list icon in the middle and select the drop-down beside Profile . Choose any profile and check its Tab Groups.

Your browsing history is a reliable source to get back your disappeared Safari tabs on an iPhone. This is what you need to do:

Open Safari and tap the book icon.
Go to the History tab (a clock icon).

History tab showing past browsing history in Safari on an iPhone

How to prevent losing Safari tabs on an iPhone or iPad

It is not uncommon to have your Safari tabs disappear on your iPhone or iPad. But there are a few things you can do to prevent losing Safari tabs.

Safari has a built-in auto-close feature to close all the tabs automatically after a particular period, such as a day, week, or month. This makes sure your browsing experience is not cluttered. If it is turned on, you can disable it like this:

Open Settings .
In iOS 18, go to Apps and select Safari . (In iOS 17, Open Settings and select Safari )

Close Tabs option in Safari Settings on an iPhone to disable the auto close tabs feature

You cannot update Safari individually since it is a system app. The only way to update it is by updating your iOS or iPadOS version . Another advantage of keeping your device updated is that it can prevent all other kinds of bugs, too.

To check for the latest software updates on an iPhone or iPad, open Settings and navigate to General → Software Update . Download and install any available updates.

If none of the above fixes solve the issue and Safari tabs keep disappearing on your iPhone or iPad, it could be due to some bugs in iOS or iPadOS. However, if you do not see a new software update on your device, it would be better to stick with a workaround until one arrives with a fix. The best one is to bookmark all the tabs that you are using.

Go to the page you want to bookmark.
Tap and hold the book icon.
Select Add Bookmarks for X Tabs .
Give a name for the bookmark folder and choose the bookmark location.

Signing off…

Having your Safari tabs disappear on your iPhone or iPad can be a really frustrating experience. But we hope the fixes in this guide will help retrieve your disappeared tabs and prevent the issue from happening again.

Once retrieved, be sure to take preventive steps to prevent losing Safari tabs on your iPhone or iPad again.

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How to Put Safari Back in the Dock at Bottom of iPhone or iPad Home Screen

This has happened to many iPhone and iPad users; in some way or another, you have deleted your Safari app icon from the Dock on your Home Screen, and you want it back. Of course, deleting something is much easier than putting it back; after all, when you removed it, you knew where it was. This article will explain how to return your Safari icon to your Dock or Home Screen.

On your iPhone or iPad, the Safari icon is what you tap on in order to open your Safari browser. For many people, their browser is one of their most used apps, and so they like to keep their browser icon in a convenient place. You may have removed the icon by accident, or maybe you were trying out another browser like Firefox or Chrome. Whatever the case, we’ll show you how to get your Safari icon back.

Finding your Safari app icon

Generally, there are a couple of possibilities when you can’t find an app on your device:

You deleted the app from your iPhone (iPad).
You put the app icon on another page or removed it from the Home Screen.

However, some Apple apps like Safari can not be deleted from your iPhone or iPad. For Apple apps that can be deleted , you can download and reinstall them from the App Store .

Safari and all of the other apps currently installed on your iPhone or iPad, whether they are on your Home Screen or not, can be found in your App Library .

Putting Safari back

Here is how to get Safari from the App Library:

On your iPhone or iPad, swipe left on your Home Screen pages until you get to the last page. Swipe left again to see your App Library.
In the search field, type Safari .
Tap on Add to Home Screen .
If you have space in the Dock, Safari will appear there. Otherwise, Safari will appear on one of your Home Screens.
Your right-most Home Screen will appear. If you want to drop it on one of your Home Screen pages, just keep dragging it until you get to the desired spot on the page, then release it.
If you want it in your Dock at the bottom of your screen, drag it down to the Dock, position it where you would like and release.
To reposition Safari, press and hold on the icon until all icons begin to wiggle. Then you can drag Safari to the desired location. Tap Done in the top-right corner of your screen.

The apps on your iPhone or iPad can be deleted, removed from the Home Screen or hidden (you can even hide entire Home Screen pages if you want to). If you need to recover deleted apps for your device, you should be able to download them again from the App Store (assuming they are still available).

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Dr. Stacey Butler is a tech writer at macReports covering news, how-tos, and user guides. She is a longtime Mac and iPhone user and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She is a former faculty member and a math teacher. Here is her LinkedIn profile , Google Scholar profile and her ResearchGate profile . Email Stacey Butler .

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How to hide the tab bar on safari for ipad (or show it).

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By default, Safari for iPad shows a toolbar full of browser tabs when you have more than one tab open at a time. If you'd rather simplify the look of your screen, there's a way to hide your open tabs. Here's how to hide the tab bar---or how to get it back.

First, open Settings on your iPad by tapping the grey "gear" icon.

In Settings, scroll down through the sidebar and tap "Safari."

In Safari settings, swipe upward until you locate the "Tabs" section. Tap the switch beside "Show Tab Bar" to turn it off.

If you previously turned off the tab bar and want it back, tap the "Show Tab Bar" switch instead to turn it back on here.

After that, launch Safari. You'll notice that the tab toolbar is now hidden. (Or, if you've re-enabled it, it will appear once again.)

With the tab bar disabled, you can easily switch between open tabs by tapping the "tabs" button (which looks like two overlapping squares) in the toolbar. It works just like it does on iPhone.

If you change your mind and want to see the tab bar again, just revisit Settings > Safari and switch "Show Tab Bar" back on. Happy browsing!

Related: How to Close All Safari Tabs at Once on iPhone and iPad

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Customize Safari Toolbar, Favorites, Tab, and Status Bars

Personalize the Safari browser window to suit your style

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.

Customize the Toolbar

Return to the default toolbar.

Bookmarks Are Called Favorites
Hide or Show the Favorites Bar

Hide or Show the Tab Bar

Hide or show the status bar.

Like many applications, Safari lets you tweak its interface to suit your preferences. You can customize, hide, or show the toolbar, bookmarks bar, favorites bar, tab bar, and status bar. Configuring these Safari interface bars to suit the way you use the browser can save you time and effort.

The toolbar runs across the top of the Safari screen, where the address area is. Here's how to add and remove items to your liking.

From the View menu, select Customize Toolbar .

Select an item you want to add to the toolbar and drag it to the toolbar. Safari will automatically adjust the size of the address and search fields to make room for the new item(s). When you finish, choose Done .

Try adding iCloud Tabs to easily continue browsing sites right where you left off when using other Apple devices. Select Text Size to add the capability to change the size of text on a page quickly.

Alternatively, right-click in an open space in the toolbar and select Customize Toolbar .

You can adjust a couple of other things very quickly, too:

Rearrange icons in the toolbar by clicking and dragging them to a new location.
Delete an item from the toolbar by right-clicking it and selecting Remove Item from the pop-up menu.

If you get carried away with customizing the toolbar, and you're not happy with the result, it's easy to return to the default toolbar.

Click and drag the default toolbar set from the bottom of the window to the toolbar.

Click Done .

Safari Favorites Shortcuts

Apple changed the name of the bar from bookmarks to Favorites with the release of OS X Mavericks . No matter what you call the bar, it's a handy place to store links to favorite websites.

Hide or Show the Bookmarks or Favorites Bar

If you don't use the Favorites bar or want to gain a little screen real estate, you can close the bar. Simply select View > Hide Favorites Bar ( or Hide Favorites Bar , depending on the version of Safari you are using).

If you change your mind and decide you miss the bookmarks bar, go to the View menu and select Show Bookmarks Bar or Show Favorites bar.

In OS X Yosemite and later: Web page titles no longer appear in the toolbar area of the Safari browser if you have the tab bar hidden. Displaying the Tab Bar allows you to see the current page title, even if you don't use tabs.

Like other browsers, Safari supports tabbed browsing , which lets you have multiple pages open without having multiple browser windows open.

If you open a webpage in a new tab, Safari will automatically show the tab bar. If you want the tab bar always to be visible, even if you only have a single web page open, select View > Show Tab Bar .

To hide the tab bar, select View > Hide Tab Bar .

If you have more than one page open in a tab, you'll need to close the tabs before you can hide the tab bar. Click or tap the Close button (the little "X") in a tab to close it.

The status bar displays at the bottom of the Safari window. If you let your mouse hover over a link on a web page, the status bar will show the URL for that link, so you can see where you're going before you click the link. In most cases, this isn't important, but sometimes it's nice to check a URL before you go to the page, especially if the link is sending you to a different website.

To display the status bar, select View > Show Status Bar .
To hide the status bar, select View > Hide Status Bar .

Experiment with the Safari toolbar, favorites, tab, and status bars to find what works best for you. Generally, you'll find that having all the bars visible is most helpful, but if you need to maximize your viewing area, closing one or all is always an option.

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Use Distraction Control in Safari to hide items on a webpage

If a webpage regularly shows one or more items that you find distracting, you can use the Distraction Control feature to hide those items until you choose to see them again.

Hide distracting items in Safari

Show hidden items in safari.

Distraction Control works best with items that don’t regularly change. It doesn't permanently hide ads or other items that update frequently. If other pages on the same website use the same items in the same way, they’re hidden on those pages as well. Items hidden in one Safari profile are also hidden in other Safari profiles on the same device.

Requires macOS Sequoia or later

As you move the pointer around the page, Safari shows a border around each item that you can hide.

Click an item to hide it. You can click to hide additional items as well.

Click Done in the Smart Search field to confirm your changes. Or click Cancel.

On iPhone or iPad

Requires iOS 18 or later, or iPadOS 18 or later

Tap to select the item that you want to hide. Safari shows a border around the selected item.

Webpage with an item to be hidden selected

Tap anywhere within the item to hide it. You can tap to hide additional items as well.

Tap Done in the Smart Search field to confirm your changes. Or tap Cancel.

For a distraction-free experience when reading articles, use Reader on Mac , Reader on iPhone , or Reader on iPad .

On Mac, if you installed a Safari extension that blocks content, Distraction Control might work best when the Content Blockers setting is turned on for the website. From the menu bar in Safari, choose Safari > Settings, click the Websites tab, then click Content Blockers in the sidebar. Find the website listed on the right and make sure that the setting is turned on.

If you use Clear History on Mac or Clear History and Website Data on your iPhone or other devices when using the default Safari profile, you also clear all hidden items on that device.

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WebKit Features in Safari 18.0

Sep 16, 2024

by Jen Simmons

New in Safari 18

Web apps for mac, spatial web, managed media source, web inspector, safari extensions, deprecations, bug fixes and more, updating to safari 18.0.

Safari 18.0 is here. Along with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia and visionOS 2, today is the day another 53 web platform features, as well as 25 deprecations and 209 resolved issues land in WebKit, the rendering engine driving Safari.

Distraction Control

Distraction Control lets you hide distracting items as you browse the web, such as sign-in banners, cookie preference popups, newsletter signup overlays, and more, in Safari for iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia.

We always recommend using semantic HTML when creating a website, including <video> , <main> , <article> and other elements that describe content. Doing so helps ensure both Safari Reader and Safari Viewer work best for the users of your website.

Safari windows on a Mac, with a video playing, big, in one window. The website is faintly visible behind the large video.

iPhone Mirroring and remote inspection

With iPhone Mirroring on macOS Sequoia, you can use your iPhone from your Mac. Combine it with remote inspection from Safari, and now it’s easier than ever to test and debug websites on iOS using Web Inspector .

Get set up for remote inspection by first ensuring you have Safari’s developer tools enabled on your Mac (if you can see the Develop menu in Safari, you’ve already done this step). Next, enable Web Inspector on your iPhone at Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced > Web Inspector. Then, you’ll need to connect the device to your Mac using a cable to grant permission. Once plugged in, your device will appear in the Develop menu in Safari. Finally, to enable wireless debugging, go to Safari on macOS > Develop > [your device] > Connect via Network.

Now you can use Web Inspector to wirelessly debug websites running on iPhone anytime. And with iPhone Mirroring, you don’t even have to pull out your phone. Everything is on your Mac’s screen.

Learn more about remote inspection by reading Inspecting iOS and iPadOS , or by watching Rediscover Safari developer features from WWDC. Learn more about iPhone Mirroring 1 on apple.com .

Last year , we added support for web apps in macOS Sonoma. You can add any website to your dock — whether or not it was built with a Manifest file, Service Worker, or other technology to customize the web app experience. Go to the site in Safari, then File > Add to Dock… where you can customize the icon, change the name, and even adjust the URL. Then, just click on the web app icon in your Dock, and the website will open as a stand-alone app.

This year brings two improvements to web apps on Mac.

Opening links

macOS Sequoia adds support for opening links directly in web apps. Now, when a user clicks a link, if it matches the scope of a web app, that link will open in the web app instead of their default web browser. For example, imagine you have added MDN Web Docs to your Dock. Then a colleague sends you a link to an MDN page in Messages, Mail, Slack, Discord, IRC, or any non-browser application on your Mac. Now when you click on that link, it will open in the MDN Web Docs web app instead of your default browser.

Clicking a link within a browser will maintain the current behavior. This feature only affects links opened elsewhere. (When a user is in Safari, clicking on a link that matches the scope of a web app that is added to Dock, they will see an “Open in web app” banner, unless they have previously dismissed the banner.)

By default, this behavior applies when the link matches the host of the web page used to create the web app. As a developer, you can refine this experience by defining the range of URLs that should open in the web app with the scope member in the web app manifest .

Extension support

Now users can personalize web apps on Mac with Safari Web Extensions and Content Blockers. Navigate to the web app’s Settings menu to access all the installed Content Blockers and Web Extensions. Any enabled in Safari will be on by default in the web app. Each web app is uniquely customizable, just like Safari profiles.

View Transitions

WebKit added support for the View Transitions API in Safari 18. It provides an optimized browser API to animate elements from one state to another. Safari supports the CSS View Transitions Module Level 1 specification that adds new CSS properties and pseudo-elements for defining transition animations, along with a new browser API to start transition animations and react to different transition states. It works by capturing the current (old) state of the page and applying an animated transition to the new state. By default, the browser applies a cross-fade between the states.

Call the document.startViewTransition() method to initiate the capture. You can pass a callback function as the first argument to make DOM state changes between the old and new captures. The method returns a ViewTransition object which contains promises that can be used to track when the view transition starts or ends.

Once the states are captured, a pseudo-element tree is built which can be targeted with CSS, allowing you to modify the CSS animations used for the transitions. The animations out of the old page state and into the new page state can be modified via the ::view-transition-new(*) and ::view-transition-old(*) selectors. You can also ask the browser to independently track state changes for a specific element by naming it with the CSS view-transition-name property. You can then use the pseudo-elements to customize animations for it.

The :active-view-transition pseudo-class becomes active on the root element when a view transition is running.

The example below demonstrates state management with tabbed navigation. Each tab view has a custom transition animation out and a subtly different animation in, while the tabs themselves rely on the default page transition.

Style Queries

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for Style Queries when testing CSS Custom Properties. Similar to how developers can use Sass mixins, Style Queries can be used to define a set of reusable styles that get applied as a group.

Here, if the --background custom property is set to black, then certain styles will be applied — in this case to make the headline and paragraph text color white.

Don’t forget to pay attention the HTML structure. By default, Style Queries reference the styles on the direct parent element. You can create a different reference through the use of Container Query names.

currentcolor and system color keywords in Relative Color Syntax

Support for Relative Color Syntax shipped in Safari 16.4 . It lets you define colors in a more dynamic fashion, creating a new color from an existing color. The value lch(from var(--color) calc(L / 2) C H) for instance uses the lch color space to take the variable --color and calculate a new color that’s half its lightness, calc(L / 2) .

Now in Safari 18.0, the first browser to ship support, you can reference the currentcolor or a system color keyword as you define the new color. For example, this code will set the background color to be the same color as the text color, only 4 times lighter, as calculated in the oklch color space.

Being able to reference system color keywords opens up another world of options. System colors are like variables that represent the default colors established by the OS, browser, or user — defaults that change depending on whether the system is set to light mode, dark mode, high contrast mode, etc. For example, canvas represents the current default background color of the HTML page, while fieldtext matches the color of text inside form fields. Find the full list of system colors in CSS Color level 4 .

Relative Color Syntax lets you define dynamic connections between colors in your CSS, lessening the need to control color through variables in a tightly-regimented design system. Learn more about Relative Color Syntax by watching this portion of What’s new in CSS from WWDC23.

Translucent accent colors

Partially transparent colors in accent-color are now blended on top of the Canvas system color to match the latest updates to the web standard. This means that any of the many ways to define colors using an alpha channel will now work as expected when used to define an accent color for a form control.

Animating display

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for transition animation of the display property.

Many developers are excited to use @starting-style along with transition-behavior and display: none interpolation. WebKit for Safari 17.4 added general support for transition-behavior , including transition-behavior: allow-discrete . WebKit for Safari 17.5 added support for @starting-style , letting you define starting values for transitioning an element as it’s created (or re-created). Now in WebKit for Safari 18.0, you can use these features together to transition the display property.

Backdrop Filter

Originally shipped in Safari 9.0, backdrop filter provides a way to apply graphics effects to the content behind a particular element. You can apply backdrop-filter to a headline, for example, and everything behind the headline will be blurred, or have decreased saturation, or increased contrast. Any of the filter functions from SVG can be used — blur() , brightness() , contrast() , drop-shadow() , grayscale() , hue-rotate() , invert() , opacity() , saturate() , and sepia() .

For many years, backdrop filter only worked in Safari. It was available when you prefixed the property with -webkit-backdrop-filter . Now, starting in Safari 18.0, you don’t need the prefix. We also improved our implementation, fixing bugs and boosting interoperability.

This demo shows eight different filters and what you might do with each one alone. You can, of course, combine filters to create even more interesting results. With backdrop filter supported in Safari since 2015, Edge since 2018, Chrome since 2019, Samsung Internet since 2020, and Firefox since 2022, this is a great time to consider the kind of graphic design possibilities it enables.

Content visibility

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for content-visibility . This property controls whether or not an element renders its contents in a fashion that’s useful for making performance optimizations. It lets you communicate to the browser that certain portions of the page will likely be initially offscreen, and suggest they be omitted from layout and rendering. This can make the page load faster.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds parsing support for the custom value for the prefers-contrast media query. (It does not return “true” on Apple platforms, since there is no forced-colors mode in iOS, iPadOS, macOS or visionOS.)

Safari 18.0 for visionOS 2 adds support for immersive-vr sessions with WebXR . Now you can create fully immersive experiences for people using Apple Vision Pro and deliver them through the web. WebXR scenes are displayed using hardware-accelerated graphics driven by WebGL .

A beautiful garden rendered in created graphics. There's a tree with bright red leaves. A blue sky full of puffy white clouds. Bright green grass, with a path leading by plants and garden sculpture. It's a world created in WebXR.

Safari for visionOS 2 supports the new WebXR transient-pointer input mode. It lets you make the most of natural input on visionOS, and allow your users to interact with a look and a pinch.

We are in a rendered 3d environment, in a garden. We look at a chess board, with a real human hand lifting a rendered chess piece to make the next move in the game. A floating panel has two buttons reading "Leave garden" and "Reset game".

If you want to animate a 3D model of the user’s hands, Safari for visionOS 2 also includes support for WebXR hand tracking . To ensure privacy, permission to allow hand tracking will be requested from users at the start of their WebXR session.

Learn all about WebXR on visionOS 2 by watching Build immersive web experiences with WebXR from WWDC. Learn more about transient-pointer input mode by reading Introducing natural input for WebXR in Apple Vision Pro . And learn all about how to use Safari’s developer tools on Mac to inspect and debug in Apple Vision Pro by reading Try out your website in the spatial web .

Spatial photos and panoramas

One of the amazing experiences you can have on Apple Vision Pro is looking at spatial photos and panoramas. The web is a great place to share these photos with others.

A family blows out candles on a birthday cake in a photo — that's floating in a frame in midair, in a living room. This is a still from the WWDC23 Keynote that introduced Apple Vision Pro. It's an example of how spatial photos work.

When you open the Photos app in visionOS, you see your library of photos. When you tap an image, it appears alone in a floating frame in front of you. Spatial photos appear at just the right height and viewing angle to make it feel like you’ve gone back to a moment in time. A second tap of the UI breaks a spatial photo out of its frame, becoming even more immersive. Similarly, a panorama floats in a frame on first tap. Then on second tap of the UI, it expands to wrap all around you, creating a fully immersive experience.

Now in Safari 18.0 for visionOS 2, you can use the JavaScript Fullscreen API to create a similar experience on the web. You can embed the photo in a web page, and provide the ability to tap. The photo will pop into a floating frame as the Safari window disappears. Then when the user taps on the spatial photo or panorama UI that visionOS provides, the photo will further expand to create a more immersive experience. When they exit the image, the Safari window will return.

Let’s walk through how to support experiencing a spatial photo or panorama on the web using Fullscreen API. First, include the image on your web page using any of the techniques used for years. Here, we can embed a flattened panoramic photo into the web page using simple HTML.

Then using JavaScript, we’ll trigger .requestFullscreen() on tap. Perhaps like this.

You could, of course, create your own UI for the user to tap, rather than making the entire photo the tap target.

Spatial images work just the same, although it’s likely we want to provide fallbacks for browsers that do not support HEIC files . We can do so with the picture element.

Spatial images are stereoscopic, with both a left and right channel. In Safari, when the image is embedded in the web page, the browser will show the left channel. And there’s no need to worry about providing a fallback of any sort for Safari on macOS, iOS, or iPadOS — the stereoscopic HEIC file works great.

This technique will also cause images to go fullscreen in any browser that supports Fullscreen API. Learn more about adding panorama and spatial photos to your websites by watching Optimize for the spatial web from WWDC.

Shaping interaction regions on visionOS

As a web developer, you’re very familiar with how link styling works on the web. For decades you’ve been able to use CSS to style text-decoration , color and more for :link , :hover , :active , and :visited states. You’ve also been able to adjust the size of the invisible tap target through use of padding.

Apple Vision Pro adds a new dimension to how links work — tap targets are visible on visionOS. Anytime a user looks at an interactive element, it’s highlighted to let them know that it can be tapped. And you as a designer or developer can intentionally design how an interaction region looks. You may want to add padding, for instance, or even a rounded corner to the otherwise invisible box.

Now in Safari in visionOS 2 , when you use CSS clip-path to change the shape of tappable area of a link, the visible interaction region will change shape as well. Interactive UI elements built with SVG and cursor: pointer will also be highlighted with the proper shape. Learn more by watching Optimize for the spatial web from WWDC.

Video on visionOS

Safari for visionOS 2 adds support for docking fullscreen videos into the current Environment . Anytime a user is watching a video fullscreen, they can tap the mountain symbol to enter an immersive experience. Turning the Digital Crown adjusts the immersion.

Writing Suggestions

At last year’s WWDC, Apple unveiled inline predictive text on iOS, iPadOS, macOS and more. It helps users input text faster by predicting what they might be typing and finishing the word, phrase or even a whole sentence when the user taps the space bar. Now, WebKit for Safari 18.0 on iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, macOS Sequoia and macOS Sonoma brings inline predictive text to the web.

While inline predictive text makes for a fantastic, personalized user experience, there might be specific situations on the web where it’s better to not have predictions. WebKit for Safari 18.0 on iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, macOS Sequoia and macOS Sonoma gives web developers the opportunity to disable inline predictions through the writingsuggestions attribute. By default, writing suggestions is set to true. You can turn off the capability by including the writingsuggestions="false" attribute on any type of text input field.

WebKit for Safari on iOS 18 adds haptic feedback for <input type=checkbox switch> . This means, now when a user taps a switch control on iPhone, a single tap is felt — just like how toggling a switch feels in Settings app on iOS. Try this demo to see what it’s like.

Date and time inputs

WebKit for Safari 18.0 on macOS improves accessibility support for date and time input field types. Now <input type="date"> , <input type="datetime-local"> , and <input type="time"> elements work properly with VoiceOver.

Usually elements have the labels they need, but sometimes there is no text label for a particular button or UI. In this situation, ARIA can be used to provide an accessible label. The aria-label attribute provides names of labels while aria-roledescription provides the description for the role of an element.

On very rare occasions, you may need to override aria-label or aria-roledescription to provide different names or descriptions specifically for braille. The aria-braillelabel and aria-brailleroledescription attributes provide such an ability. They exist to solve very specific needs, including educational contexts where the site needs to render the specific braille table dot pattern. If you do use braille-related ARIA attributes, be sure to test them using a braille reader. If in doubt, relying on the accessible name from content or aria-label / aria-roledescription is almost always the better user experience . WebKit has supported these ARIA attributes for years.

Now, WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for the ariaBrailleLabel and ariaBrailleRoleDescription element reflection properties. These make it possible to get and set the aria-braillelabel and aria-brailleroledescription ARIA attributes on DOM elements directly via JavaScript APIs, rather than by using setAttribute and getAttribute .

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for Unicode 15.1.0 characters in RegExp. Unicode 15.1 added 627 characters, bringing the total of characters to 149,813. Now, these new characters can be used in regular expressions.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 also adds support for the v flag with RegExp.prototype[Symbol.matchAll] . providing more powerful ways to match Unicode characters, as specified in the ECMAScript 2024 standard.

For example, you can now specify to only match on Latin characters, while avoiding matching on Cyrillic script characters.

Or split a string matching on Emojis.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for URL.parse() , a way to parse URLs which returns null rather than an exception when parsing fails.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 expands Declarative Shadow tree support by adding the shadowRootDelegatesFocus and shadowRootClonable IDL attributes to the <template> element. It also adds the shadowRootSerializable attribute and shadowRootSerializable IDL attribute to the <template> element, enabling those using Declarative Shadow roots to opt into making them serializable. Serializing can be done through the new getHTML() method that has been added at the same time.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for PopStateEvent ’s hasUAVisualTransition , indicating whether the user agent has a visual transition in place for the fragment navigation.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for subresource integrity in imported module scripts, which gives cryptographic assurances about the integrity of contents of externally-hosted module scripts.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for the bytes() method to the Request, Response , Blob , and PushMessageData objects. This replaces the need for web developers to call arrayBuffer() , which can be difficult to use, and wraps the result in a Uint8Array . Calling bytes() is now the recommended way going forward when you need to access the underlying bytes of the data these objects represent.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for feature detecting text fragments by exposing document.fragmentDirective . Note that the returned object (a FragmentDirective ) doesn’t provide any functionality, but it’s helpful if you need to know if Fragment Directives are supported by the browser.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for the willReadFrequently context attribute for the getContext() method. It indicates whether or not a lot of read-back operations are planned. It forces the use of a software accelerated 2D or offscreen canvas, instead of hardware accelerated. This can improve performance when calling getImageData() frequently.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 extends 2D canvas support for currentcolor . It can now be used inside color-mix() or Relative Color Syntax. Here currentcolor will default to the computed color property value on the canvas element.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds Workers support for both Managed Media Source (MMS) and Media Source Extensions ( MSE ). This can be especially helpful on complex websites that want to ensure continuous and smooth video playback even when other site activity (such as live commenting) causes a very busy main thread. You can see the performance difference in this demo .

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for the WebRTC HEVC RFC 7789 RTP Payload Format. Previously, the WebRTC HEVC used generic packetization instead of RFC 7789 packetization. This payload format provides a new option for improving videoconferencing, video streaming, and delivering high-bitrate movies and TV shows.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for MediaStreamTrack processing in a dedicated worker. And it adds support for missing WebRTC stats.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for secure HTTPS for all images, video, and audio by upgrading passive subresource requests in mixed content settings. This means that if some files for a website are served using HTTPS and some are served using HTTP (known as “mixed content”), all images and media will now be auto-upgraded to HTTPS, in adherence with Mixed Content Level 2 .

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for six new WebGL extensions:

EXT_texture_mirror_clamp_to_edge
WEBGL_render_shared_exponent
WEBGL_stencil_texturing
EXT_render_snorm
OES_sample_variables
OES_shader_multisample_interpolation

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for fuzzy search code completion in the Web Inspector’s CSS source editor.

Two years ago at WWDC22, we announced support for passkeys — a groundbreaking industry-standard way to login to websites and app services. Passkeys provide people with an extremely easy user experience, while delivering a profound increase in security. To learn more, watch Meet Passkeys or read Supporting passkeys .

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for three new features as we continue to improve passkeys. First, Safari 18.0 adds support for using mediation=conditional for web authentication credential creation. This allows websites to automatically upgrade existing password-based accounts to use passkeys. Learn more by watching Streamline sign-in with passkey upgrades and credential managers from WWDC.

Second, WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for using passkeys across related origins. This lets websites use the same passkey across a limited number of domains which share a credential backend.

And third, WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for the WebAuthn prf extension. It allows for retrieving a symmetric key from a passkey to use for the encryption of user data.

Safari 18.0 also adds support for Mobile Device Management of extension enabled state, private browsing state, and website access on managed devices. This means schools and businesses that manage iOS, iPadOS, or macOS devices can now include the configuration of Safari App Extensions, Content Blockers, and Web Extensions in their management.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 adds support for funds transfer via Apple Pay.

While it’s rare to deprecate older technology from the web, there are occasions when it makes sense. We’ve been busy removing -webkit prefixed properties that were never standardized, aging media formats that were never supported in other browsers, and more. This helps align browser engines, improve interoperability, and prevent compatibility problems by reducing the possibility that a website depends on something that’s not a web standard.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 removes support for OffscreenCanvasRenderingContext2D ’s commit() method.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 deprecates support for a number of rarely used -webkit prefixed CSS pseudo-classes and properties — and even one -khtml prefixed property.

-webkit-alt and alt properties
:-webkit-animating-full-screen-transition pseudo-class
:-webkit-full-screen-ancestor pseudo-class
:-webkit-full-screen-controls-hidden pseudo-class
:-webkit-full-page-media pseudo-class
:-webkit-full-screen-document pseudo-class
:-khtml-drag pseudo-class

WebKit for Safari 18.0 also deprecates support for the resize: auto rule. Support for the resize property remains, just as it’s been since Safari 4. The values Safari continues to support include : none , both , horizontal , vertical , block , inline , plus the global values. Early versions of CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 3 defined auto , but it was later written out of the web standard.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 also deprecates support for non-standardize WEBKIT_KEYFRAMES_RULE and WEBKIT_KEYFRAME_RULE API in CSSRule .

WebKit for Safari 18.0 removes support for the JPEG2000 image format. Safari was the only browser to ever provide support.

If you’ve been serving JPEG2000 files using best practices, then your site is using the picture element to offer multiple file format options to every browser. Safari 18.0 will simply no longer choose JPEG2000, and instead use a file compressed in JPEG XL, AVIF, WebP, HEIC, JPG/JPEG, PNG, or Gif — choosing the file that’s best for each user. Only one image will be downloaded when you use <picture> , and the browser does all the heavy lifting.

We have noticed that some Content Deliver Networks (CDN) use User Agent sniffing to provide one file to each UA, offering only JPEG2000 images to Safari — especially on iPhone and iPad. If you expect this might be happening with your site, we recommend testing in Safari 18.0 on both macOS Sequoia and iOS or iPadOS 18. If you see problems, contact your SaaS provider or change your image delivery settings to ensure your website provides fallback images using industry best practices.

If you notice a broken site, please file an issue at webcompat.com .

WebKit for Safari 18.0 removes [[VarNames]] from the global object to reflect changes in the web standard, a change that now allows this code to work:

WebKit for Safari 18.0 removes support for non-standard VTTRegion.prototype.track .

WebKit for Safari 18.0 removes the last bits of support for AppCache.

When AppCache first appeared in 2009, in Safari 4, it held a lot of promise as a tool for caching web pages for use offline. It was imagined as “HTML5 Application Cache” back when HTML itself was being further expanded to handle more use cases for web applications. A developer could create a simple cache manifest file with a list of files to be cached. Its simplicity looked elegant, but there was no mechanism for cache busting, and that made both developing a site and evolving the site over time quite frustrating. AppCache also had security challenges. So new web standards were created to replace it. Today, developers use Service Workers and Cache Storage instead.

WebKit deprecated AppCache with a warning to the Console in Safari 11.0. Then in 2021, we removed support for AppCache from Safari 15.0, with a few exceptions for third-party users of WKWebView . Now we are removing those exceptions. This change to WebKit will only affect the rare web content loaded in older third-party apps that have JavaScript code which relies on the existence of AppCache related interfaces.

WebKit for Safari 18.0 removes the SVGAnimateColorElement interface, as well as the non-standard getTransformToElement from SVGGraphicsElement .

WebKit for Safari 18.0 removes support for four non-standard Web APIs:

KeyboardEvent.altGraphKey
AES-CFB support from WebCrypto
KeyboardEvent.prototype.keyLocation
HashChangeEvent ’s non-standard initHashChangeEvent() method

Deprecated some legacy WebKit notification names including:

WebViewDidBeginEditingNotification
WebViewDidChangeNotification
WebViewDidEndEditingNotification
WebViewDidChangeTypingStyleNotification
WebViewDidChangeSelectionNotification

In addition to all the new features, WebKit for Safari 18.0 includes work to polish existing features.

Accessibility

Fixed role assignment for <header> inside <main> and sectioning elements.
Fixed range input not firing an input event when incremented or decremented via accessibility APIs.
Fixed setting aria-hidden on a slot not hiding the slot’s assigned nodes.
Fixed VoiceOver to read hidden associated labels.
Fixed comboboxes to expose their linked objects correctly.
Fixed VoiceOver support for aria-activedescendant on macOS.
Fixed time input accessibility by adding labels to subfields.
Fixed aria-hidden=true to be ignored on the <body> and <html> elements.
Fixed datetime values being exposed to assistive technologies in the wrong timezone.
Fixed wrong datetime value being exposed to assistive technologies for datetime-local inputs.
Fixed ignored CSS content property replacement text when it is an empty string.
Fixed the computed role for these elements: dd , details , dt , em , hgroup , option , s , and strong .
Fixed hidden elements targeted by aria-labelledby to expose their entire subtree text, not just their direct child text.
Fixed accessible name computation for elements with visibility: visible inside a container with visibility: hidden .
Fixed updating table accessibility text when its caption dynamically changes.
Fixed updating aria-describedby text after the targeted element changes its subtree.
Fixed the transition property to produce the shortest serialization.
Fixed the animation property to produce the shortest serialization.
Fixed arbitrary 8 digit limit on a line item’s total amount.

Authentication

Fixed navigator.credentials.create() rejects with “NotAllowedError: Operation Failed” after a conditional UI request is aborted.
Fixed setting the cancel flag once the cancel completes regardless of a subsequent request occurring.
Fixed drawImage(detachedOffscreenCanvas) to throw an exception.
Fixed OffscreenCanvas failing to render to the placeholder with nested workers.
Fixed losing the contents layer of the placeholder canvas of OffscreenCanvas when switching off the tab.
Fixed drawImage to not alter the input source or the destination rectangles.
Fixed toggling the visibility on a canvas parent undoing the effect of clearRect() .
Fixed the Canvas drawImage() API to throw an exception when the image is in broken state.
Fixed a detached OffscreenCanvas to not transfer an ImageBuffer.
Fixed treating the lack of an explicit “SameSite” attribute as “SameSite=Lax”.
Fixed setting white-space to a non-default value dynamically on a whitespace or a new line.
Fixed custom counter styles disclosure-open and disclosure-closed to point to the correct direction in right-to-left.
Fixed backface-visibility to create a stacking context and containing block.
Fixed getComputedStyle() to work with functional pseudo-elements like ::highlight() .
Fixed: Aliased :-webkit-full-screen pseudo-class to :fullscreen .
Fixed: Aliased :-webkit-any-link to :any-link and :matches() to :is() .
Fixed getComputedStyle() pseudo-element parsing to support the full range of CSS syntax.
Fixed @supports to correctly handle support for some -webkit prefixed pseudo-elements that were incorrectly treated as unsupported.
Fixed updating media-query sensitive meta tags after style changes.
Fixed changing color scheme to update gradients with system colors or light-dark() .
Fixed incorrect inline element size when using font-variant-caps: all-small-caps with font-synthesis .
Fixed :empty selector to work with animations.
Fixed preserving whitespace when serializing custom properties.
Fixed updating style correctly for non-inherited custom property mutations.
Fixed element removed by parent to end up losing the last remembered size.
Fixed an incorrect difference between implicit and explicit initial values for custom properties.
Fixed the contrast of Menu and MenuText system colors.
Fixed keeping the shorthand value for CSS gap as-is in serialized and computed values.
Fixed the style adjuster for @starting-style incorrectly invoking with a null element.
Fixed excluding -apple-pay-button from applying to any element that supports appearance: auto and is not a button.
Fixed missing color interpretation methods added to CSS color specifications.
Fixed hsl() and hsla() implementation to match the latest spec changes.
Fixed the implementation of rgb() and rgba() to match the latest spec.
Fixed the hwb() implementation to match the latest spec.
Fixed the remaining color types to be synced with the latest spec changes.
Fixed carrying analogous components forward when interpolating colors.
Fixed applying the fill layer pattern for mask-mode .
Fixed backdrop-filter: blur to render for elements not present when the page is loaded.
Fixed: Improved large Grid performance.
Fixed some CSS properties causing quotes to be reset.
Fixed an issue where input method editing would sporadically drop the composition range.
Fixed dictation UI no longer showing up when beginning dictation after focusing an empty text field. (FB14277296)
Fixed displayed datalist dropdown to sync its options elements after a DOM update.
Fixed input elements to use the [value] as the first fallback step base.
Fixed <select multiple> scrollbars to match the used color scheme.
Fixed updating the input value when selecting an <option> from a <datalist> element. (FB13688998)
Fixed the value attribute not getting displayed in an input element with type="email" and the multiple attribute.
Fixed the iOS animation for <input type=checkbox switch> .
Fixed form controls drawing with an active appearance when the window is inactive.
Fixed constructed FormData object to not include entries for the image button submitter by default.
Fixed the properties of History to throw a SecurityError when not in a fully active Document.
Fixed “about:blank” document.referrer initialization.
Fixed parsing a self-closing SVG script element. It now successfully executes.
Fixed RegExp.prototype.@@split to update the following legacy RegExp static properties: RegExp.input , RegExp.lastMatch , RegExp.lastParen , RegExp.leftContext , RegExp.rightContext , and RegExp.$1, ... RegExp.$9 .
Fixed String.prototype.replace to not take the fast path if the pattern is RegExp Object and the lastIndex is not numeric.
Fixed spec compliance for Async / Await, Generators, Async Functions, and Async Generators.
Fixed async functions and generators to properly handle promises with throwing “constructor” getter.
Fixed return in async generators to correctly await its value.
Fixed Symbol.species getters to not share a single JS Function.
Fixed throwing a RangeError if Set methods are called on an object with negative size property.
Fixed eval() function from another realm to not cause a direct eval call.
Fixed eval() call with ...spread syntaxt to be a direct call.
Fixed try/catch to not intercept errors originated in [[Construct]] of derived class.
direct eval() in a default value expression inside a rest parameter creates a variable in the environment of the function rather than the separate one of the parameters;
a ReferenceError is thrown when accessing a binding, which is defined inside rest parameter, in eval() , or a closure created in a default value expression of a preceding parameter, but only if there is a var binding by the same name;
a closure, created in the default value expression inside a rest parameter, is created in a different VariableEnvironment of the function than its counterparts in preceding parameters which causes the incorrect environment to be consulted when querying or modifying parameter names that are “shadowed” by var bindings.
Fixed TypedArray sorting methods to have a special-case for camparator returning false .
Fixed programming style for bitwise and in setExpectionPorts.
Fixed emitReturn() to load this value from arrow function lexical environment prior to the TDZ check.
Fixed NFKC normalization to work with Latin-1 characters.
Fixed parsing of private names with Unicode start characters.
Fixed instanceof to not get RHS prototype when LHS is primitive.
Fixed bracket update expression to resolve property key at most once.
Fixed bracket compound assignement to resolve the property key at most once.
Fixed Object.groupBy and Map.groupBy to work for non-objects.
Fixed Array.fromAsync to not call the Array constructor twice.
Fixed inconsistent output of Function.prototype.toString for accessor properties.
Fixed Set#symmetricDifference to call this.has in each iteration.
Fixed logical assignment expressions to throw a syntax error when the left side of the assignment is a function call.
Fixed throwing a syntax error for nested duplicate-named capturing groups in RegEx.
Fixed ArrayBuffer and SharedArrayBuffer constructor to check length before creating an instance.
Fixed Intl implementation to ensure canonicalizing “GMT” to “UTC” based on a spec update.
Fixed RegEx lookbehinds differing from v8.
Fixed fractionalDigits of Intl.DurationFormat to be treated as at most 9 digits if it is omitted.
Fixed optimized TypedArrays giving incorrect results.
Fixed Intl.DurationFormat for numeric and 2-digit .
Fixed navigator.cookieEnabled to return false when cookies are blocked.
Fixed MediaSession to determine the best size artwork to use when the sizes metadata attribute is provided. (FB9409169)
Fixed video sound coming from another window after changing tabs in the Tab Bar in visionOS.
Fixed playback for MSE videos on some sites.
Fixed allowing a video’s currentTime to be further than the gap’s start time.
Fixed broken audio playback for a WebM file with a Vorbis track.
Fixed sampleRate and numberOfChannels to be required and non-zero in a valid AudioEncoderConfig.
Fixed media elements appending the same media segment twice.
Fixed an issue where Safari audio may be emitted from the wrong window in visionOS.
Fixedrejecting valid NPT strings if ‘hours’ is defined using 1 digit.
Fixed picture-in-picture when hiding the <video> element while in Viewer.
Fixed the return button not working after the video is paused and played in picture-in-picture.
Fixed upgrading inactive or passive subresource requests and fetches in would-be mixed security contexts to match standards.
Fixed incorrect Sec-Fetch-Site value for navigation of a nested document.
Fixed loading WebArchives with a non-persistent datastore.
Fixed Timing-Allow-Origin to not apply to an HTTP 302 response.
Fixed print buttons with a print action implementation.
Fixed Open in Preview for a PDF with a space in its name.
Fixed “Open with Preview” context menu item to work with locked PDF documents.
Fixed Greek uppercase transforms failing for some characters.
Fixed resizing a <textarea> element with 1rem padding.
Fixed the color correctness of the color matrix filter.
Fixed backdrop-filter to apply to the border area of an element with a border-radius .
Fixed intrinsic inline size calculators to account for whitespace before an empty child with nonzero margins.
Fixed overlapping elements with flex box when height: 100% is applied on nested content.
Fixed incorrect grid item positioning with out-of-flow sibling.
Fixed break-word with a float discarding text.
Fixed min-content calculation for unstyled only-child inlines elements.
Fixed ellipsis rendering multiple times when position: relative and top are used.
Fixed a bug for inline elements inserted in reverse order after a block in a continuation.
Fixed the flash of a page background-colored bar in the footer when the window is resized.
Fixed garbled bold text caused by glyph lookup using the wrong font’s glyph IDs when multiple installed fonts have the same name. (FB13909556)
Fixed selecting Japanese text annotated with ruby in a vertical-rl writing mode table.
Fixed support for border, padding, and margin on mfrac and mspace elements in MathML.
Fixed the cursor not updating as content scrolls under it on some pages.
Fixed stripping the scroll-to-text fragment from the URL to prevent exposing the fragment to the page.
Fixed CORS bypass on private localhost domain using 0.0.0.0 host and mode “no-cors”.
Fixed blocking cross-origin redirect downloads in an iframe.
Fixed blocked cross-origin redirect downloads to attempt rendering the page instead.
Fixed the SVG parser to interpret “form feed” as white space.
Fixed error handling for invalid filter primitive references.
Fixed displaying an SVG element inside a <switch> element.
Fixed SVG title to have display: none as the default UA style rule.
Fixed the UA stylesheet for links in SVGs to apply cursor: pointer matching standards.
Fixed returning the initial value for the SVG gradient stop-color if it is not rendered in the page.
Fixed the SVG marker segment calculations if the marker path consists of sub-paths.
Fixed SVGLength to sync with the WebIDL specification.
Fixed disclosure counter styles to consider writing-mode .

Web Animations

Fixed percentage transform animations when width and height are animated.
Fixed updating an animation when changing the value of a transform property while that property is animated with an implicit keyframe.
Fixed display transition to none .
Fixed cssText setter to change the style attribute when the serialization differs. (FB5535475)
Fixed history.pushState() and history.replaceState() to ignore the title argument.
Fixed URL text fragment directives not fully stripped from JavaScript.
Fixed showPicker() method to trigger suggestions from a datalist .
Fixed lang attribute in no namespace to only apply to HTML and SVG elements.
Fixed unnecessarily unsetting the iframe fullscreen flag.
Fixed DOM Range to correctly account for CDATASection nodes.
Fixed getGamepads() to no longer trigger an insecure contexts warning.
Fixed inserting a <picture> element displaying the same image twice.
Fixed throwing exceptions in navigation methods if in a detached state.
Fixed a minor issue in URL’s host setter.
Fixed cloning of ShadowRoot nodes following a DOM Standard clarification.
Fixed GeolocationCoordinates to expose a toJSON() method.
Fixed IntersectionObserver notifications that sometimes fail to fire.
Fixed GeolocationPosition to expose a toJSON() method.
Fixed setting CustomEvent.target when dispatching an event.
Fixed navigator.language only returning the system language in iOS 17.4.
Fixed: Removed presentational hints from the width attribute for <hr> .
Fixed an issue when inserting writing suggestions into an editable display: grid container.
Fixed the warning message for window.styleMedia .
Fixed resolving www. sub-domain for Associated Domains for all web apps.

Web Assembly

Fixed initialization of portable reference typed globals.

Web Extensions

Fixed getting an empty key from storage. (FB11427769)
Fixed Service Workers not appearing in the Develop menu or remote Web Inspector menu. (130712941)
Fixed web extensions unable to start due to an issue parsing declarativeNetRequest rules. (FB14145801)
Fixed font sizes in the Audits tab.
Fixed expanded sections of Storage to not collapse.
Fixed Web Inspector to show nested workers.
Fixed CSS font property values marked !important not getting overridden when using the interactive editing controls.
Fixed an issue where the Web Inspector viewport might appear cut off.
Fixed runtimes to be aligned in the Audit tab.
Fixed remembering the message type selection in the Console tab.
Fixed autocomplete for the text-indent property suggesting prefixed properties instead of each-line or hanging .
Fixed background autocompletion suggestion to include repeating-conic-gradient .
Fixed the list of breakpoints in the Sources tab disappearing when Web Inspector is reloaded.
Fixed console clearing unexpectedly when Web Inspector reopens.
Fixed console code completion to be case-insensitive.
Fixed overflow: scroll elements to scroll as expected when highlighting an element from the DOM tree.
Fixed showing additional Safari tabs from an iOS device in the Develop menu.
Fixed Console and code editor completion not auto-scrolling the suggestion into view.
Fixed search in the DOM tree view unexpectedly chaning the text display.
Fixed clicking the “goto” arrow for computed CSS when “show independent Styles sidebar” is disabled.
Fixed inspectable tabs from Safari in the visionOS Simulator don’t appear in Developer menu on the host macOS.
Fixed Accessibility inspector for switch controls to report “State: on/off” instead of “Checked: true/false”.
Fixed Gamepad API in WKWebView.
Fixed repainting HTML elements when their width or height change in legacy WebView.
Fixed retrieving titles containing multibyte characters.
Fixed RTCEncodedVideoFrame and RTCEncodedAudioFrame to match the WebIDL specification.
Fixed VideoTrackGenerator writer to close when its generator track (and all its clones) are stopped.
Fixed WebRTC AV1 HW decoding on iPhone 15 Pro.
Fixed black stripes with screen sharing windows.
Fixed black stripes with getDisplayMedia captured windows when the window is resized.

Safari 18.0 is available on iOS 18 , iPadOS 18 , macOS Sequoia , macOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, and in visionOS 2 .

If you are running macOS Sonoma or macOS Ventura, you can update Safari by itself, without updating macOS. Go to  > System Settings > General > Software Update and click “More info…” under Updates Available.

To get the latest version of Safari on iPhone, iPad or Apple Vision Pro, go to Settings > General > Software Update, and tap to update.

We love hearing from you. To share your thoughts on Safari 18.0, find us on Mastodon at @[email protected] and @[email protected] . Or send a reply on X to @webkit . You can also follow WebKit on LinkedIn . If you run into any issues, we welcome your feedback on Safari UI (learn more about filing Feedback ), or your WebKit bug report about web technologies or Web Inspector. If you notice a website that seems broken in Safari, but not in other browsers, please file a report at webcompat.com . Filing issues really does make a difference.

Download the latest Safari Technology Preview on macOS to stay at the forefront of the web platform and to use the latest Web Inspector features.

You can also find this information in the Safari 18.0 release notes .

1. iPhone Mirroring is available on Mac computers with Apple silicon and Intel-based Mac computers with a T2 Security Chip. Requires that your iPhone and Mac are signed in with the same Apple ID using two-factor authentication, your iPhone and Mac are near each other and have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned on, and your Mac is not using AirPlay or Sidecar. iPhone Mirroring is not available in all regions.

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Apple Intelligence comes to iPhone, iPad, and Mac starting next month. Learn more >

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Missing toolbar on my iPad screen

The toolbar on my home page is missing all of a sudden. I am not able to get it back no matter how I tried. I am unable to setup my screen brightness, sound, Wi-Fi, screen rotate options etc. from the Home Screen. It’s difficult to go to settings each time without the toolbar. Please help me figure this out and get my iPad toolbar back.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Dec 10, 2023 8:41 PM