I lost all safari tabs after updating to ios 13. How can i restore them?

A few things I found.

I can’t slide tabs around as I used to. It opens a new ‘window’ or instance of Safari.

To reorder tabs, tap the tabs (two overlapping squares) icon in top rh corner. That brings up open tabs and you can drag them around at will.

To merge ‘windows’ click AND hold the tabs icon. Click on Merge all Windows. Et voila! All tabs back in one place.

Really, Really annoying tho Apple!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SOLVED

Double click the Home button. All your Safari tabs will appear as large ‘thumbnails’ in a grid (along with other recent app and other activity).

David.menefee’s comment needs to be the top helpful answer.

I got all my tabs back that were open at the time of the one I clicked on that showed all my tabs - I didn’t get back the more recent tabs, from the last 24 hours, but those are in my History.

. Be careful. Really look and take your time choosing which window you’re going to open (though I suppose you could pick another one by double clicking again, but I’m not going to test that myself.

It does not in many cases - for instance:

if you have a number of tabs open that you intend to come back to and read later (like scanning the headlines of a newspaper and opening article in a new tab) and then along the way you open, read, and then close other tabs in your session, if Safari hiccups and closes all your tabs you have no option to restore that session.

Yes, you can go back and open recently closed tabs, but if you have already read them and closed them you don’t want to open them again. The tabs you want restored are the ones that you have opened but have not read yet.

This may happen within a day, or quite commonly can accumulate over a few days where you hope to get back to some article or references that are opened in their own tab, but which you are not finished with yet. Once Safari dumps those, it’s impossible to get them back without crawling back through the history line by line. And that history includes things you read, are done with, and have closed, as well as what you wish would have remained open.

Just a real world example of how many use Safari - or any other browser...

I beg differ on the disappearing tabs. Previously when it happened I could go to the double tabs icon in the upper right and press it to get a “merge all tabs” selection. Poof they were restored. Try it now and that option is gone.

Now the solution seems to be to go to history , pack a lunch and go through a list of every search ever made and try to find a lost tab. Until this is fixed I am using Chrome for any open tab requirements. Something that worked well was lost in an update. If you call Apple Support they seem bewildered by this. This is a legitimate gripe, you can find posts on the internet looking to solve this puzzle. Yes, there is a lot of good functionality, but this should be an easy fix for Apple.

Oh my, “IT” happened again this morning. So I went to The overlapping tabs icon...AND..it was there! “Merge all Tabs”. One touch on that and all my tabs were back. I hope that option is back for the duration

Hi, from posting my query on here I’ve received a solution. Click on the double squares in the top right corner and merge tabs. They all come back, probably repeated like mine from when I’ve re-re-opened the tabs previously.

The solution to your problem is thoroughly documented here:

iPadOS - Safari - Lost Windows, Lost Tabs… - Apple Community

I agree, since iOS 13 update, I’ve been losing tabs left and right. History is fine, but I’d much rather have the tabs that I use left open. Am moving to a different browser for the URL’s that I open from the browser. Unfortunately, one can’t make any browser except safari the default in iOS. Anyways, pretty disgusted with how Apple has destroyed the usability of safari in iOS 13.

I had a tab freeze the window and I tried closing and immediately reopening as I have done for years and even some times after this latest update to restore the window and all tabs on said window and then on this occasion it opened up empty now the tabs I could find in history or on my iPhone link however I had private tabs open too no history and I can’t remember what they were - this is very inconvenient I suggest a safari restart or have a setting like on Mac when you close the app the window and all tabs for the window reopen on start up!

It’s always unwise to rely upon “cached” page data within your browser to preserve website data that may change or completely disappear. There are many ways/reasons that cached page data may be lost or irretrievably modified.

The recommended approach is to “save” valued webpage content as a web-archive (different Operating Systems and browsers offer this function in differing ways). iPadOS/iOS present this feature by way of its Reading List (touch-and-hold the book icon to the left of the address bar, then touch Add to Reading List). Alternatively, you can save an entire webpage as a PDF file using the native Markup function.

I hope you find this helpful in adding some alternative (but effective) strategies to your knowledge.

You’ll find many helpful answers to your issues here:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250002077

If this article doesn’t explain what’s happening in your case, let me know - and I’ll do my best to update it with additional information that does!

In the interest of balance - and at acknowledged risk of adding fuel to this fire - I personally believe iPadOS Safari to be a massive improvement over that offered by the previous “simple browser” implementation of earlier versions of iOS. For those that choose to embrace new capabilities, iPadOS Safari now has rich functionality that greatly boosts flexibility and productivity of the App.

This new version of Safari is not without faults, which will hopefully be ironed-out over successive updates - but for the current range of iPads, it is generally very stable; when you understand how to use the revised UI and features, lost tabs and Safari pages are very rarely lost.

To be clear, I and others within the Support Communities fully recognise that some users are experiencing genuine difficulties where they are accustomed to the “old” versions of iOS Safari - or if they are using older iPad devices with less than 3GB RAM. Where we can, we do what we can to help others overcome difficulties - but we are not Apple or their representatives.

For Users that really dislike the enhanced features and functionality of iPadOS, or for those Users that really have no interest in either reading the published User Guide(s) or leaning about iPadOS devices, or for those Users that have devices perceived to be problematic, it remains possible to disable many of the new features that you either heartily dislike (as witnessed by the previous post) or with which you have difficulty. Once the advanced features are disabled, your iPad will behave largely as it did prior to the release of iPadOS13 - but your iPad will retain compatibility with newer/revised Apple Services.

To disable the multitasking features of iPadOS - that have significant impact upon Safari:

Settings > Home Screen & Dock > Multitasking >

Allow Multiple App - set to OFF

Picture in Picture - set to OFF

Gestures - set to OFF

No, the merge option has not gone, but is another example of a feature that has has just changed. Touch-and-hold (i.e., long touch) the icon with two overlapping squares at top-right of your Safari window - and an Action Menu will appear.

Nearly every icon has a full set of secondary functions accessed in the same manner - the UI (User Interface) been documented in the iPad User Guide that many persist in avoiding.

Before anyone again shoots the messenger, please consider that none of what follows represents critique or criticism - but is instead intended to provide solid information.

A software update is generally intended to bring new features (and with it, by definition, change). Some updates will not introduce change - but will be intended to offer a fix (otherwise known as a “patch”) for something that doesn’t work as intended. So, if you see an update, you should expect to see potential change.

You can get a good idea as to the purpose of an “update” by looking at the release notes or official documentation; the onus is on you to check. Apple are very good in providing comprehensive documentation - and if you don’t take the initiative to use or review provided resources, it is inevitable that you’ll encounter “unexpected changes”.

Another place from which to derive the purpose of an update - is the version number. Here I’m only going to illustrate Apple’s iOS/iPadOS numbering as it is this that is relevant to the discussion...

The version number is in three parts; taking the current release as an example, 13.4.1:

13 - represents the major version number. This will be a major release, in great probability, will offer major changes over the previous major release (in this case, the previous release was iOS12).

Big change - new features and functionality - big differences and change.

.4 - represents a feature update. The incremental update from “.3” to “.4” will have brought additional features and changes within both the feature-set and user interface (UI). This incremental update will include “patches” for the prior release.

New features - anticipate changes.

.1 - represents a patch that fixes either a functional issue or security vulnerability. By and large, no new features or substantial changes are likely to be present - unless the change is, of itself, a fix for something that was previously broken. The next “patch” is very likely to be e “.2”.

This is the most unhelpful “feature”, which so many folks including myself have been complaining about since last year, yet it not only isn’t going away, but Apple hasn’t provided a workaround to either. We need a way to get our tabs back when Safari closes them due to this new “side sliding tab ‘feature’ has been added”!