How to stop a website from automatically opening in Safari

"Nothing I've tried gets rid of it."

So tell us what you have tried. What settings have you changed?

Safari->Settings->General-> Safari opens with: ?

New windows open with: ?

NewTabs open with: ?

Homepage: ?

Safari->Safari Extensions...->what extensions have been installed?

What shows in those settings?

First of all, NONE of those websites are “open”, they are just configured for the various Safari features should you choose to visit one those websites. So please stopping using the term “open”. Websites appear in those windows only when they have been visited in the past. They don’t just appear on heir own without user actions.

If you correctly selected the website but the Remove button is greyed out then you have a bigger problem that may need to be troubleshot. First try restarting your Mac in Safe Mode and try again. If that work then it’s likely, as John Gault stated, that Bitdefender and/or iBlocker is mucking things up.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac

But my best advice is to just ignore those settings as they aren't doing anything and are hurting nothing.

jpcollins wrote:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/aea56463-ceba-4af1-8c68-d813a2b9e196

So click on thrursdaynightpizza.com it and then click Remove. Your initial post was extremely misleading in that you stated you wanted a website to stop opening automatically. Now you state that this not what you meant, that you only find it in settings. So it’s not doing anything but taking up a little space and you are annoyed by it? Really?

After removing that site from the Reader menu next go to Safari->Settings->Privacy->Website data:->Manage Website Data->type thursdaynightpizza in the search window. If it shows up remove it means you actually visited that website in the past. Click Remove.

By default Safari shows the last website it loaded. If you want to change it, Customize your Safari settings on iPhone - Apple Support describes how.

Step 1 is to get rid of "Bitdefender". Follow its uninstallation instructions, if you can find them, and assuming they work.

Then, write back for further instructions.