Safari new tab not default in address bar

Try to disable "Include Safari Suggestions" Under Search Tab In preferences.

That worked for me.

Try a restart.

Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode - About El Capitan

Safe Mode Startup – El Capitan.

Try to reset Safari settings:

1.Open Safari

2. Click on Safari menu at the top(to the right from the Apple logo)

3. Select preferences/privacy tab

4. Click on Remove all website data

5. Close Safari.

Delete Safari cache files:

1. Click on finder

2. Look for GO menu at the top

3. click on GO and hold down the option key. This will show user library folder.

4. Click on Library and look for Caches folder

5. In caches folder open com.apple.Safari folder

6. Move to trash Cache.db file.

If it will not help try to turn off all Safari extentions

1.Open Safari

2. Click on Safari menu at the top(to the right from the Apple logo)

3. Select preferences

4. Find extentions tab

5. Turn off all the extentions

6. Relauch Safari

I'm having the same problem And tried all of the above. This just began happening yesterday. I'm not aware of downloading any updates. It's driving me nuts. I keep opening tabs and beginning to type as I've always done, and I find that nothing I've typed shows up because I didn't manually place the cursor in the search bar. Thought I was going crazy. How could this just happen one day?

Safari Version 9.1 (11601.5.17.1)

Quick follow-up with pertinent info: I tried logging into my wife's user account on my home iMac, and same thing: Open a tab, start typing, and the cursor is not automatically in the search bar. So, this does not appear to have to do with preferences, cache, etc. related to a single user. One more thing: I started noticing this yesterday on my office iMac; didn't do anything to try to solve it until I got home and it had started doing it on my home iMac. I'm afraid to try it on my MacBook Air ...

Same here, the issue started on May 11th for no apparent reason (no update nor new install). I was under Yosemite and I've upgraded to El Capitan hoping that it would solve the issue but the problem persists.

Thanks for sharing the fix Apple_Juices!

Does anyone has any idea about why this bug showed up all of a sudden?

Is it date related? Or did any update happen in the background without us noticing?

Anyway,

thanks again for the useful tip!

Cheers,

Mat

This solution by @polodot from a similar Q also worked for me... I am not sure what it does, but it works like a charm. Just putting it out there.

Quit Safari, open terminal and write:

defaults write com.apple.Safari UniversalSearchFeatureNotificationHasBeenDisplayed YES

Try to launch Safari while holding down the shift key. Check if it works.

I have same problems as you have at the same day. Safari just suddenly not auto set cursor on URL bar when open new tabs.

I had try to reinstall El Capitan but not working.

I am having the same issue.

Same problem here. Really annoying, hope someone can find the fix for this soon.

Have same issue from last days, in guest login same issue. Last updated software was XCode.