Safari start page suddenly reorganizing favorites?

I’ve noticed since the latest round of iOS/MacOS updates that the favorites bookmark icons on my start page in Safari are automatically sorting themselves, presumably, by frequency of use. I’m not seeing a way to tell it not to do this in any settings. I like having my own organizational structure to my favorites. Is this a new feature or does anyone know of a way to disable this? Thanks!

Posted on Apr 4, 2022 7:46 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 5, 2022 9:45 AM

Hi Jon Corry,


If you'd like your Favorites in Safari to appear in a certain order, these steps might help. 


While we understand why one might think that, "frequency of use" isn't currently a feature of Safari Favorites. You can rearrange them by dragging them as shown in Sort, alphabetize, or rearrange bookmarks in Safari on Mac.


Another option is to:


1. In the Safari app on your Mac, click the Sidebar button in the toolbar, then click Bookmarks.
2. Drag a bookmark or folder to a new location.


- To copy a bookmark, Option-drag it.


- To sort bookmarks in a bookmarks folder, Control-click the folder in the sidebar, then choose Sort By > Name or Sort By > Address. Address is the website URL.



If the issue remains after reordering your bookmarks, do you use iCloud Bookmarks or Reading List? We ask because we're wondering if that could be the cause of this issue. Check out If your iCloud or Safari bookmarks aren’t syncing for more information.  


We hope that helps with your question and take care!

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 5, 2022 9:45 AM in response to Jon Corry

Hi Jon Corry,


If you'd like your Favorites in Safari to appear in a certain order, these steps might help. 


While we understand why one might think that, "frequency of use" isn't currently a feature of Safari Favorites. You can rearrange them by dragging them as shown in Sort, alphabetize, or rearrange bookmarks in Safari on Mac.


Another option is to:


1. In the Safari app on your Mac, click the Sidebar button in the toolbar, then click Bookmarks.
2. Drag a bookmark or folder to a new location.


- To copy a bookmark, Option-drag it.


- To sort bookmarks in a bookmarks folder, Control-click the folder in the sidebar, then choose Sort By > Name or Sort By > Address. Address is the website URL.



If the issue remains after reordering your bookmarks, do you use iCloud Bookmarks or Reading List? We ask because we're wondering if that could be the cause of this issue. Check out If your iCloud or Safari bookmarks aren’t syncing for more information.  


We hope that helps with your question and take care!

Apr 5, 2022 5:34 PM in response to Alex_Han

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply and instructions. I had a particular order set to the favorites icons on all my devices start page that was synched perfectly between devices before the latest iOS/MacOS updates. Since then, the order kept randomly getting scrambled between all of my devices (iPhone/iPad/iMac). Despite the fact that I was making zero changes to them on any device, they were inexplicably rearranging themselves each time I opened Safari on any of my devices. I actually put my devices side by side and the bookmarks were literally rearranging themselves before my eyes in odd ways that made no sense as I opened Safari. I was making no changes myself to the order or quantity.


A possible solution... I disabled the "Use Start Page on All Devices" option in Safari across all three of my devices and this seems to have possibly stopped the random rearranging of favorites icons.... I think.

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Safari start page suddenly reorganizing favorites?

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