Safari won't take to the set Home page on MacBook

Yes, I quit the Safari application. When I re-open it the same start page -- What's new in Safari -- appears not the HomePage I selected. As I said in the original post after I quite Safari I restarted the Mac holding down the shift key. Then I shut down the Mac and restarted it. None of this worked. The Set to Current Page button is light grey. Usually an active button is blue. When clicked on the button it briefly flashes. I don't see anyway to save the changes before closing.

I've not received any information from this discussion on how to resolve the issue. No fix even from talking to Apple support directly. To reiterate Safari functions except for the inability to set the HomePage. Thanks for replying even so.

Okay now I understand your question. When I open Safari I get a Start Page that is titled "What's New in Safari." That's the first dialog box. Then there's series of images -- Favorites, Frequently Visited, and so on. That's the start page that I want to replace with my HomePage. I can't upload the screenshot. I'm trying to replace that Start Page with a HomePage of my selection. I been trying to do that using the General setting in Safari, which you provided a screen shot of. Thanks for following through with this conversation

I followed the instructions to unpin, but that did not solve the issue. The tab does not disappear, The pinned tab is not the Start Page. It's another page that only opens when I click on the pin. I don't know why that pin is there. I must have inadvertently pinned it, but I don't recall visiting that website. Thanks for the continued discussion.

Let me summarize, and probably conclude this thread since our protracted conversation has not yet resolved the issue. Sberman has been patient in trying to help me work through this issue and I thank him.  I feel that further efforts will be “beating a dead horse.”

To sum up, I migrated the data base from my old MacBook Air, which is 10 years old, running OS Big Sur to my newly purchased MacBook Air M3 running OS Sonoma 14.4.1.  The issue is that I have not been able to set my preferred Home Page using the process in Safari 17.4.1 – Settings: General. Safari continues to open with the original Start Page. Sonoma and Safari are up to date. All my data (browsing history, book marks, etc.) migrated fine and I’ve not had any issues using Safari 17.4.1. 

So, I can comfortably live with the current Start Page as it’s easy to navigate quickly to other web pages and sites. Consequently, it doesn't make sense for me to continue to try to resolve the issue. I would be interested to learn, however, if any one else has experienced this problem and was able to resolve it.

This is the Start Page when I open Safari. Again, I can't change it to the Home Page when I open Safari.

Yes. When I quit the page Safari will not open to the Homepage I selected. Is there a way to save the homepage setting I chose?

So it will take a while to "reset?"