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How to Permanently Disable Sidebar on Safari Catalina

Has anyone been able to find a solution to the constant appearance of the left sidebar on the mac laptop? It's 2020 and there have been so many complaints about this, that you'd think by now there would be a way to resolve it! Everytime I open a new tab, the sidebar returns. Please do not tell me to go to View and Hide the Sidebar. I'd like to PERMANENTLY disable this feature. Thanks!!

MacBook Pro 13″, 10.15

Posted on Jun 11, 2020 6:49 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 21, 2020 6:58 AM

My question: How to Permanently DISABLE the Sidebar on Safari Catalina. I did not ask to REMOVE it from the toolbar. I asked to disable it, while using Safari.


Everytime I open a new tab in Safari, the sidebar returns. Please do not tell me to go to View and Hide the Sidebar. I'm not asking that either. I'm like to PERMANENTLY disable the sidebar feature so when I open a new tab, I WILL NOT SEE THE SIDEBAR.


TO BE CLEAR, when using Safari, I want to open pages in full screen. I do not want the side bar to open each time I use my Safari Browser. Not sure how many different ways I can ask this…but hopefully the question is clear. Thanks!!


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 21, 2020 6:58 AM in response to MoonJ.

My question: How to Permanently DISABLE the Sidebar on Safari Catalina. I did not ask to REMOVE it from the toolbar. I asked to disable it, while using Safari.


Everytime I open a new tab in Safari, the sidebar returns. Please do not tell me to go to View and Hide the Sidebar. I'm not asking that either. I'm like to PERMANENTLY disable the sidebar feature so when I open a new tab, I WILL NOT SEE THE SIDEBAR.


TO BE CLEAR, when using Safari, I want to open pages in full screen. I do not want the side bar to open each time I use my Safari Browser. Not sure how many different ways I can ask this…but hopefully the question is clear. Thanks!!


Jun 15, 2020 5:09 AM in response to kennieken

Hi kennieken,


I understand you want to remove the Sidebar and I want to help.


Is it that you would like to remove it from the toolbar? You cannot remove the feature from the app, but if you remove it from your toolbar and do not enable Sidebar you will not see it.


If you're trying to remove the Sidebar option from the toolbar, follow these steps:

  • Change the items in the toolbar: Choose View > Customize Toolbar, then add, remove, and rearrange toolbar items by dragging them.

Customize the Safari browser window on Mac - Apple Support


Let me know if customizing the toolbar to remove Sidebar helps.


Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities.

Jun 21, 2020 11:08 AM in response to kennieken

Hi Ken,


As mentioned above, you cannot remove a feature of an app from an app. The sidebar that you are referencing, would it be the Reading List as shown on the left in the image below? Keep a Reading List in Safari on Mac





  • If so, "Show or hide your Reading List: Click the Sidebar button in the toolbar, then click the Reading List button   at the top of the sidebar. To hide the list, click the Sidebar button again."


If you hide the Reading List then open a new tab, does that no longer show the sidebar? If that isn't the sidebar you are talking about, can you please describe what you are seeing when you look at the sidebar?




Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities.

How to Permanently Disable Sidebar on Safari Catalina

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