Need to recover safari tabs

Question

Level 1

9 points

Need to recover safari tabs

I had to clear my history and website data on my iPhone to troubleshoot a problem. It also cleared all my open tabs in safari. Many of which I need back. I guess I wasn’t fast enough to save them from being synced to my iPad because the synced tabs were gone too. I restored from my most recent backup (saw this recommended several places) but my tabs weren’t restored. What else can I do to get these tabs back? That really shouldn’t have cleared my history across all my devices or removed my tabs with no warning. It really seems like my tabs should have been included in the backup.

iPhone SE

Posted on Feb 4, 2022 10:51 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TheLittles

Level 10

195,479 points

Feb 4, 2022 11:40 PM in response to mhmisenh

mhmisenh Said:

"Need to recover safari tabs: [...] What else can I do to get these tabs back? That really shouldn’t have cleared my history across all my devices or removed my tabs with no warning. It really seems like my tabs should have been included in the backup."

-------

Troubleshooting iPhone Tabs:

A. Not Yet an App-Only Feature:

Unfortunately, tabs cannot be brought back. This is because leaving tabs open is not a feature for the iPhone yet.

B. Recommend this to Apple:

Do your Part: These are user-to-user forums. Apple rarely reads these forums on their own time as it is. So, provide Apple with feedback on this. Apple wont get back to you directly, but the more they hear of this, the more they will know what their customer prefer, and what to include in models to come.

To Provide Feedback:

Go Here: Feedback - iPhone - Apple
Select: "Feature Request" for the "Feedback Type"
Comment: on why you want this to be an option, and how it can help others
Proceed form there as necessary

Reply

Answer 2

mhmisenh Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 4, 2022 11:50 PM in response to TheLittles

I leave tabs open all the time. I’m pretty sure they even transferred to my new iPhone when I transferred everything over. But one small mistake did cause then to vanish with no warning. I’ll give feedback to Apple if I can’t find a solution, but I’m hoping to still find a way to recover the tabs.

Reply

Answer 3

TheLittles

Level 10

195,479 points

Feb 5, 2022 10:34 AM in response to mhmisenh

mhmisenh Said:

"Need to recover safari tabs"

History from iCloud:

A. "Thankfully the ipad tabs were still there." So all is restored?

History from Restoration:

B. "Just prior to posting this I restored from my most recent backup (B), but it didn’t restore anything in safari. Seems like it should have."

IT would restore those items in the History. They wouldn't have opened as tabs. Moreover, they would only be in the History, if those tabs existed in the backup. So, was this backup made while these tabs were open? If not, then they will not come up on the iPhone after is restoration.

History from Browser-Syncing:

C. "is there a way to sync Firefox to iOS safari that I missed?"

Use This Link: Import Bookmarks, History, and Passwords in Safari on Mac - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 4

TheLittles

Level 10

195,479 points

Feb 5, 2022 2:53 PM in response to mhmisenh

mhmisenh Said:

"Need to recover safari tabs: [...]Pretty poor design on apple’s part. They probably thought it was brilliant.”

———-

Provide Feedback to Apple:

Apple wont get back to you directly, but the more feedback they receive on this the more they can know how things are easily used, and how it suits their users expectations.

Go Here: Feedback - macOS - Apple
Select: "Feature Request" for the "Feedback Type"
Select: "User Interface" for the "Feedback Area"
Comment: on how and why this does not meet you satisfactions, so that Apple can be made aware of this
Proceed from there as necessary

Reply

Answer 5

TheLittles

Level 10

195,479 points

Feb 5, 2022 12:05 AM in response to mhmisenh

mhmisenh Said:

"I leave tabs open all the time. I’m pretty sure they even transferred to my new iPhone when I transferred everything over. But one small mistake did cause then to vanish with no warning. I’ll give feedback to Apple if I can’t find a solution, but I’m hoping to still find a way to recover the tabs."

-------

Recovering Safari History:

Three Thoughts...

A. iCloud-Sharing Safari History:

Is this iPhone synced with iCloud? If so, and Safari is enabled n the iCloud settings, then open Safari on another device signed into the same iCould account. See if these tab's sites are seen in the History of Safari on the other device.

B. Have a Backup with These?:

You could restore your iPhone from a backup of your iPhone that contains these tabs.

C. Sync with Another Browser:

See this video from Mozilla: Sync bookmarks, logins and browsing history on Firefox for iOS - Mozilla

So, try setting this up seeing If it then works.

Reply

Answer 6

mhmisenh Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 5, 2022 8:33 AM in response to TheLittles

Thanks!

Sadly the very first thing I did was A, I even immediately put my iPhone into airplane mode hoping it wouldn’t have time to sync back to my iPad. But the open iPhone tabs weren’t showing anymore on my iPad. My history had actually been removed from my ipad as well. Thankfully the ipad tabs were still there.

Just prior to posting this I restored from my most recent backup (B), but it didn’t restore anything in safari. Seems like it should have.

I’ll gave C a try, hoping some magic would happen that finds the lost history. But I wasn’t able to find a way to transfer anything from safari to Firefox on iOS. I already have firefox set up syncing for specific projects I’m working on, is there a way to sync Firefox to iOS safari that I missed?

Reply

Answer 7

mhmisenh Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 5, 2022 11:42 AM in response to TheLittles

A) sadly no. The “clear history and website data” cleared everything in my history across all my devices in iCloud not just my iPhone. It also deleted all my open tabs on my iPhone. Thankfully it didn’t delete the tabs that were open on my iPad. But none of those were the tabs I need to recover from my iPhone.

B) You would think that is how it would work. The backup was made when the tabs were open, but apparently iCloud backup doesn’t backup safari history/info because safari syncs through iCloud already. So when I inadvertently cleared all of my safari history across all iCloud (which I didn’t really realize I was doing), I erased all of that info. There is apparently no way to recover it unless you have a backup on a computer. Which I stopped doing a couple months ago and started completely relying on iCloud.

C) sadly, I don’t have access to my computer right now (it’s been in storage for months). And even if I did the button I pushed would have deleted that history anyway since my computer is connected to my iCloud account.

The data is lost. Despite doing everything I thought I should be doing to protect my information. Pretty poor design on apple’s part. They probably thought it was brilliant.

Reply

Answer 8

Mar 15, 2022 11:21 PM in response to mhmisenh

I had iCloud set to back up safari, I asked the person at the Apple store repeatedly if that backs up my tabs to be restored. He said it does. I restored and no tabs came back. I wiped my phone and tried again, still nothing. 😤

Reply

Answer 9

mhmisenh Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 19, 2022 9:40 AM in response to AppleNeedsToFixTheirIssues

I eventually just gave up and had to accept they were gone. Thankfully I had sent a screenshot of the most important one to someone and remembered a few others. I’ve started putting things I want to save for later into tab groups (which I hadn’t really messed with before). It does make it easier to manage tabs across devices. I just wish they’d quit changing how things work, my brain needs some consistency in the things I use everyday.

Reply