What to Know
- Reopen closed tabs in Safari to quickly revisit pages you thought you were done with.
- To open recently closed tabs, open Safari, tap the Tabs icon, then long-press the plus icon.
* This post is part of iPhone Life's Tip of the Day newsletter. Sign Up. *
If you're an avid user of Safari, you've probably accidentally closed a tab before when you were still in the middle of reading. As a result, you wished you had a way to open closed tabs so you could get it back. Luckily, there are two simple ways to reopen closed tabs in Safari on your iPhone! We'll show you how.
Jump To:
How to Reopen a Closed Tab in Safari on iPhone
In the steps below, we'll show you how to reopen recently closed Safari tabs. To learn more about cool Safari features, check out our free Tip of the Day newsletter.
- Open the Safari app.
![how to restore tabs]()
- Tap on the tabs icon in the lower-right corner of the screen.
![how to reopen closed tabs]()
- Long-press (don't just tap) the + icon.
![how to reopen closed tabs]()
- This will show a list of your recently closed tabs that you can scroll through to find the page you're looking for.
![reopen closed tab]()
- Tap a page on the list to reopen that page in a new tab.
![how to reopen closed tab]()
Your recently closed tab will open in a new Safari tab, and you can pick up where you left off.
Related: How to Quickly Close All Tabs in Safari on iPhone
Reopening Closed Tabs from Safari's History
Another way to restore closed tabs is to go to the History tab in Safari. The History tab lists the recent and past pages that you've browsed. Here's how to reopen tabs from History.
- Open Safari.
![reopening closed tabs]()
- Tap the Book icon.
![open tabs]()
- Tap the History tab.
![how to open closed tabs]()
- Tap on the link you want to reopen.
![recently closed tabs]()
If you currently have no tabs open, the steps are the same! You'll simply be starting from a blank page instead of a current tab. Safari can hold a fairly long list of recently closed tabs, so even if your child is playing around and deletes all open Safari tabs, you should be able to recover them quickly.
FAQ:
- How do I find recently closed tabs on Safari iPhone? When you go to open a new tab, unless you have already changed Safari's settings, you will open to the new tab page. From there, simply scroll down. You'll find a list of all your recently closed tabs at the bottom.
- Why did my Safari tabs disappear on iPhone? Sometimes, if the app crashes or accidentally gets deleted you can lose all your open tabs in the Safari app. This can also occur due to a software update. Follow the steps above to go above getting them back.
- How do I get my Safari back to normal? In 2022, Apple released an update to Safari that altered where the search address bar and other small changes appeared. You can adjust this by going into Safari Settings.
If you're frustrated with the Safari layout, you may be interested in learning how to get the Safari search bar back to the top and how to stop the status bar from hiding your icons. If you ever find your Safari tabs disappearing, find out how to get them back.
