How to Customize the Start Page

How do I add Top Sites to the start page? My start page only shows five! And it also does NOT show any "frequently visited" although I have that selected in the start page preferences! So what's going on?

It seemed like at one point we could add them by dragging a website url to the start page box in the toolbar, but now that only adds them to the "reading list" which is a royal hassle, as it means if I move my mouse to the top or bottom of a window, it may suddenly switch to the next reading list site above or below it, which IMHO, is crazy ridiculous. There's not even a setting for the Top Sites on the start page, and we can do to the ones it chose to put there is delete any we don't want, no way to add more. And I don't know why there's no frequently visited sites, as that would be a big help. Any ideas?

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.7

Posted on Jan 28, 2026 11:19 AM

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3 replies

Feb 9, 2026 12:10 PM in response to D.I. Johnson

Great, I went to the linked page, for "guidance" and the info there further messed me up. It said I needed to have Safari synced to iCloud. When I did so, it then asked if I wanted to merge all my bookmarks & reading list with what was already there, so I clicked yes. Of course what happened was it immediately deleted almost ALL of my bookmarks! IMHO, iCloud has been one of the worst features ever offered, because it doesn't work as it should, & it ends up causing lots of people to lose all their bookmarks, pictures, mp3 files, etc, due to the instructions not being very clear, and especially new users, have no idea that deleting some pics or mp3s from one device, means they're deleted from them all....

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How to Customize the Start Page

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