Safari iOS 7 keeps flashing previously closed tabs upon reopen? Security Problem

Hello, I am using an iPad 2 on iOS 7 with safari in private mode. Safari on iOS 7 has a bug (iOS 6 didn't behave this way) where you can close tabs and leave the safari app and when you come back to open safari, it will flash an old tab on the screen before loading a fresh blank page. The weirdest thing is the tab isn't even the most recent tab, just something random during the day. I could just picture this causing problems for people e.g. Husband shopping for surprise trip online and expedia flashes on screen for his wife even though he thought he'd safely closed the tab or any other situation where you don't people getting a peek at your business. What is the point of private mode if safari chooses to randomly display previously closed tabs to anyone?


Please post if you've noticed the same behavior.

iPad 2, iOS 7.0.2

Posted on Oct 5, 2013 5:24 AM

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192 replies

Dec 18, 2014 9:47 PM in response to uncledamfee

Да вы охуели там что ли в конец? Проблеме 2 года почти, перенеслась из ios7 в ios8 и хоть бы одна **** пошевелилась. Даже ежу понятно, что глюк заключается в скриншоте, который делается при переключении в другое приложение. Ну не будьте такими долбоёбами, сделайте заплатку уже.

Dec 26, 2014 11:19 AM in response to uncledamfee

Same issue using iphone 5 with iOS 8.1 and iPad mini 2. This has probably caused a divorce or two. Surprised no one has sued Apple. funny i use to buy apple products to feel "safer" using bank accounts and personal info. Erased all personal data from my devices. This probably won't be solved, it's been an issue for over a year now, even with the new iOS nothing has been solved. Embarrassing for Apple!

Dec 27, 2014 2:22 PM in response to Hwl53

Fortunately I only discovered this when my wife saw the page for her Christmas present 2 days after Christmas - phew!


There is a much simpler solution. Go to a non-confidential site and rotate the pad through all 4 orientations, ie home button right, bottom, left, top. That seems to load a fresh screenshot of each orientation into the cache.


You can test this:

  • Go to site A and rotate the pad for all four orientations.
  • Go to site B without rotating the pad
  • Click home button
  • Rotate pad to another orientation.
  • Double click home button and site A will show in the open apps images
  • Click Safari and site A will flash up followed by site B.
  • This test shows that the pad uses a separate cache of the last site for each orientation. Hence the easy way to erase the cache is to display a 'safe' site at the end of your session and rotate to each orientation.

Dec 28, 2014 1:21 PM in response to oldcache

I read this entire post and some others. I had every flavor of this issue and I tried the various fixes. My portrait screen was of confidential work webmail. Just ridiculous.


I did find a different way to remove the current screenshots (below). I'm no coder/developer, so I can't speak to the bug itself. I presume new screenshots will be taken at some random point and I might have to repeat this again. So, Apple still needs to do work on this.


If there is something compromising your privacy right now, it can be removed by following this procedure.


1. Download a iPhone file browser to your Mac/PC. I used iBrowse. It's free.

2. Navigate to the PhotoData/Thumbnails sub-folder.

3. Delete the four large *.ithmb files. These are clearly not the typical thumbnails of pictures and such, since they are very large files. They ranged from 22 to 38MB on my iPhone 6 Plus.


These are the only four files in this subfolder. They are large (screenshots), and afterwards the screen flashes immediately are blank pages in all four orientations.


It works. It caused no issues with my phone. Just be careful - you're in the file structure - so don't mess with other files. Good luck.

Jan 2, 2015 6:37 PM in response to capo163

This fix does not work for me. NONE of the fixes described in this post fix the problem.

I found a way to keep the bug showing every time. Open safari tilt phone and go to home by clicking home button. Keep phone tilted and open safari back again. Go to home back again, so repeat first step. Now if phone is still tilted and you press home twice you get the saved flash screen.. Have no solution at all, tried everything on this post..

Jan 4, 2015 1:04 AM in response to JustMamI

Tested on iPad Air & iPhone 6:

I Managed to repeat the error with this description from JustMaml (thanx).


-Obviously the "double click home button screen" saves snapshots of safari, every time the homescreen button is pressed, and in all four orientations. -And emptying logg and internettdata under general/safari does not remove these snapshots.


All four snapshots are possible to view even after deleting internett data, and even after closing safari, by dragging it out of the taskbar. Restarting IPad Air does not clear the snapshots.


Only possible sulution i can come up with, is opening safari to neutral pages, and blanking out the snapshot manually by pressing home button, reopening safari, changing orientation, and repressing home button, -for all four orientations.


edit: iPhone does not support as many orientations for snapshots as iPad (not up-side-down) but the problem still percists for normal and landscaping directions.

Jan 5, 2015 12:16 PM in response to uncledamfee

I ended up locking the orientation and opening a brand new misc webpage in each orientation. Then double clicking the home button to see all open apps including safari, then I click home button again to go to home screen. I then rotated to next orientation and opened safari, then repeated step in bold for all orientations even though orientation is locked and it appears to have worked. Seems like the double clicking is saving the webpage image as you move into the app switching feature. Just my two cents, but it worked for me, may have to keep doing this when pages get cached.

Jan 5, 2015 12:21 PM in response to JustMamI

This worked on my Iphone 5, and I was doing it the exact way JustMaml described. Now all I get after the rotation is a blank Safari screen. I ended up locking the orientation and opening a brand new misc webpage in each orientation. Then double clicking the home button to see all open apps including safari, then I click home button again to go to home screen. I then rotated to next orientation and opened safari, then repeated step in bold for all orientations even though orientation is locked and it appears to have worked. Seems like the double clicking is saving the webpage image as you move into the app switching feature. Just my two cents, but it worked for me, may have to keep doing this when pages get cached.

Jan 6, 2015 1:47 AM in response to dtsavant

Hi guys

i suffred also from this in my iphone 6 plus , trying your tricks with 4 orientations , wasnt susccesull until i revealed that only if you are in private mode

this old snapshot appears again . when you turn off the private mode , i have never seen old snapshot !!!!!!! turning back the private , and turining to switch mode several time - this old snap returned !!

so simaple advise i havent seen till now - dont work with safary in private mode......... use other browsing apps for private , as chrome , which there i havent seen this issue.

hope this worked out for you...

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Safari iOS 7 keeps flashing previously closed tabs upon reopen? Security Problem

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