Safari jumps to the top of the previous page

Just got off the phone after an hour and a half with the next level apple care tech. They were very good and listened and tried several things. We did turn off all experimental webkit features and it didn't work for me. The only solution for now is to use the Google (third party) app.

FIX FOUND

using iPhone 13ProMax (16.1.2) Safari

open a search and chose a listing. When ready to return to the search page, swipe right (very slowly) till you see the search page, continue slow right swipe till the original page I presented at the place you left off. Important: slow as a slug swipe right and the phone screen must be absolutely clean. If the screen is dirty or the swipe is fast it won’t work. You’re welcome

None of that works long term, if at all. Switch to google crom - that’s the permanent fix.

The only fix is to use google chrome and Apple won’t tell you that because they never recommend third party vendors - this from Apple care today 😳

I disagree at this point and if you do a lot of research on your phone that top page jumping is a nightmare. I’m using GoogleChrome now and see to inferior issues.

Also might be a good idea to power off/power on the phone after changing settings.

Bug reporting

For iPhone

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

For iOS / Safari

Feedback - Safari - Apple

It’s not a search engine problem. I open, say, the New York Times, with Safari. I scroll down to the story I want to see. I open the story and read it. When I hit the back button – once – Safari brings you back to the top of the NYT homepage. This is clearly a bug.

I have preload top hit turned off. It still jumps to the top of the search results.

I spoke with a tech from Apple. He confirmed that it was supposed to do that, although he didn’t know why anyone would want to return to the top of the results.

Same here (iOS 16.2) and this has been very frustrating me for a long time. I do not get that iOS dev team does not experience this and if they do why they won’t fix it.

Whenever I click a link somehwhere on a page and I hit the back button or swipe back, 99% of the times I don’t go back to where I left off but instead I go back to the very top of the page, having to scroll down to the search result or link I clicked.

First I thought it had something to do with content or cooky blockers but after removing those the situation did not improve.

I think it has something to do with cookies and storing data where a user is on a web page and maybe privacy even.

Very frustrating to say the least. I can’t imagine the iOS Safari development team does not know about this but they sure aren’t doing anything about it.

Anyway, I’m going to file a bug report and I suggest all of you do the same. The sooner this will get fixed. Well, I hoped for a fix in many iterations of iOS but no luck so far so don’t get your hopes up.

Hmm this is a very interesting fix. Thank you for pointing it out! Tested it myself and it seems to work. Although Like most people I know, having the search bar at the bottom is not nice. Never liked this design change. However, this issue has been so annoying I’m going to leave the bar at the bottom. At least until Apple finally fixes this problem. Thanks again for finding this workaround!

I’ve tried this technique but sadly it’s not a fix for me. There’s a deeper problem in iOS 15 Safari. Pages even sometimes jump downwards a bit when browsing back. Opening in a new tab is a workaround but it’s not a favourable solution.

Don't do this. I own many Apple devices and Safari has been having this problem for many years now, and on all devices without an exception. It is definitely a bug in Safari and factory reset etc. won't help. It's a waste of time, believe me.

Yeah, that worked for a minute. What also worked for a minute was the IOS 16 update, and after that the 16.0.3 update. All these fixes have worked temporarily only. No issues on the macBookAir, just my phone (13pm). Apple Care (once you can get them to admit this is a known issue), recommends a factory reset. I’m reluctant to do that. Has anyone permanently researched over this issue with a factory reset?

Well Safari uses Google or one of four other browsers anyway. Maybe one of the others will work for you. Or download a different third party browser that you like. So far it is the best solution. Settings>Safari>Search Engines: