How to revert Safari sidebar to a simple list on macOS Sequoia 15.5?

hello 6x6. I have a quick question. I just tried the terminal commands you supplied. I cannot get them to work. I keep getting "cannot write to this domain". I have made sure safari was completely closed before proceeding. do you have any idea what I might be doing wrong?

Same ugly failure running Safari 26.0.1 in Sonoma.

The problem is not so obvious on a large iMac but on a 13 inch Air/Pro the sidebar becomes I-n-v-a-s-i-v-e. Plus the descriptions force the already over spaced icons further apart.

Many users only need their Favourites as a simple list, but I suspect someone removed this functionality in the great leap forward to 26? Maybe this is the 'vision' where all MacOS apps will look exactly like their iOS cousins, but don't work the same?

Reported to Apple - if that actually makes a difference?

The dots are only in iOS not MacOS

I suspect the new look adds extra network traffic; the favourite icons visibly flick as they update. Clearing the description field only seems to work until the description refills itself!

Reading the public reaction in other threads on other forums, this was not a 'productive' improvement.

UndefinedVariable wrote:

The dots are only in iOS not MacOS

if you have no dots in the location that Lawrence Finch showed in one of their previous replies, then you must be on sequoia. please see the other replies here for a possible solution for those of us on sequoia.

Indeed, no dots on Sonoma and Sequoia, but Safari's jump to version 26 assumes we have dots!

Or at least the developer on the Safari team did?

So is the implication that Safari 26 is NOT fully backwards compatible with pre-Tahoe(26) versions of MacOS?

I guess the solution for DevOps is to either fix Safari or, not upgrade to Safari 26 when the OS is < Tahoe 26.

Remember, not every user on Sonoma and Sequoia is able to upgrade to Tahoe or, are willing to upgrade; for whatever reason. And not everyone is a Terminal Geek.

The above Terminal commands only work if you enable "full disk access" to the Terminal.app via the System Settings /  / Pricacy & Security / Full Disk Access / Terminal - click on the little toggle to make it green. You can turn it off when done if you like.

I then restarted Safari and had the old compact sidebar setup again. Thank you!!!

Why can't Safari Sequoia sidebar just use the format of bookmarks and bookmark folders shown in the "Edit Bookmarks" menu? Instead of reordering them in the sidebar? And yes, allow users to use a compact format to save endless scrolling through the sidebar.

Hello - I'm a 25yr Mac user. I am very proficient on a Mac, however I am not that knowledgeable/comfortable in the Terminal world, so I proceed with caution. Any (simplified) help is appreciated.

1st - Thanks for this! I was able to get this to work on an Intel MBP, a M1 MacBook Air, a M1 Mac mini, and a M2 Mac mini.

2nd - Unfortunately, it fails on my M1 MacBook Pro, every attempt. I am stumped, as I am a simpleton in Terminal. When I enter either/both commands, I get the same reply:

2025-11-12 09:18:14.456 defaults[42963:1605812] Could not write domain /Users/speck/Library/Containers/com.apple.safari/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.safari; exiting

• Thank you in advance!

HI - The above Terminal commands only work if you enable "full disk access" to the Terminal.app via the System Settings / Privacy & Security / Full Disk Access / Terminal - click on the little toggle to make it green. You can turn it off when done if you like.

Terminal will not tell you this... I got the same notification as you show above. After I enabled the full disk access it worked. Restart your Mac and open Safari - should now be reverted back to the simple list.

Thanks for the reply! I thought I read that, but thank you for confirming it is Tahoe. I am holding out on Tahoe for the moment due to third party compatibility hesitation, but good to know that it's an option in that version. Too bad Apple couldn't do it for Sequoia. It fumes me when apple make significant changes like that without the option to go back. Nothing like forced change no one asked for. Thanks, again!

I'm sorry, I should have added that once you are in full disk access, you need to manually add terminal to your list.

at the bottom left of the full disc access list, click the 'plus sign".

and from there, navigate to terminal (found in Applications > Utilities) and add it to full disk access.

62016...

62016 wrote:

which tab is it please? when you open full disc access there is not a terminal al selection.

Click the plus "+" button at the very bottom of the list of applications, then navigate to the Terminal.app in your Utilities folder.

You need to add the Terminal app to this list manually - then you can click the slider to make it green (once it's in the list). That's it.

bakkumd wrote:

then you can click the slider to make it green (once it's in the list).

FWIW, it totally depends on the user's chosen "accent colour" for the colour of the "off / on" slider. mine is green because that is what I use.

it will vary from one user to the next. :)

62016 wrote:

Could someone please share how to "execute terminal commands"? I enabled full disc access and then did a copy paste of the above 2 commands in terminal, did a restart but no luck.

before executing the commands, are you making sure safari is completely closed?

jonathanl-c wrote:

Yes close safari down, then open terminal having copied lines of code from this discussion click on terminal so you have an active window, paste the code, press Enter and should all work.

yes if safari is completely closed, it should work. are you trying the commands one at a time?