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How do I prevent tabs from being closed automatically?

I have Safari set to close tabs manually, but periodically (and irregularly) it closes a bunch of them automatically. Most recently, It closed all tabs open longer than about four hours. I had been stepping through all of my open tabs from time to time to keep them from being closed (last time about four days ago), but it didn’t work this time.


I really hate this behavior. I use open tabs to remember things.

iPad Pro 11-inch Wi-Fi, Cellular

Posted on Mar 3, 2021 7:33 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 4, 2021 6:44 AM

Without having a greater understanding of your specific situation, such as the number of simultaneously open tabs, how many instances of Safari you may have - and other factors - it is difficult to provide an explanation for your specific issue.


You may find this article to be helpful in understanding some of the frequent difficulties encountered by users new to iPadOS Safari - along with some of Safari’s more esoteric features and quirks:

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


Insofar as possible, I hope to have distilled most of the frequent problems reported here - and documented procedures, strategies and [where needed] some useful workarounds.


2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 4, 2021 6:44 AM in response to John D III

Without having a greater understanding of your specific situation, such as the number of simultaneously open tabs, how many instances of Safari you may have - and other factors - it is difficult to provide an explanation for your specific issue.


You may find this article to be helpful in understanding some of the frequent difficulties encountered by users new to iPadOS Safari - along with some of Safari’s more esoteric features and quirks:

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


Insofar as possible, I hope to have distilled most of the frequent problems reported here - and documented procedures, strategies and [where needed] some useful workarounds.


Mar 4, 2021 8:41 AM in response to LotusPilot

At the time of the occurrence, I was using a single instance of Safari with 50-70 open tabs. I’m on iPadOS 14.4, but this has been happening since I upgraded to 13. I normally stay with a single instance of Safari. Occasionally I inadvertently open a new window by dragging a link off the current Safari window, but I usually merge it back in right away. This happened shortly before the mass tab closure, but all of the tabs were present after the merge. After the closure, there were eight tabs remaining.


I didn’t know about the recently closed tab list, but in a quick look I do not see the missing tabs there. I will check more thoroughly later.


Thanks for that article - very comprehensive.

How do I prevent tabs from being closed automatically?

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