Safari - Cannot delete Tab Groups

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Level 1

18 points

Safari - Cannot delete Tab Groups

Hello,

I was doing some clean up on my bookmarks and folders. I accidentally created another Tab Group named Favorites. When I tried to delete (right-clicking) it in Safari bookmarks editor it will not allow it. I tried to drag and drop it back into the favorites and it just duplicated it. I was able to rename one from the books marks editor, but it still won't allow the ability to delete any of them now.

Then I thought since Safari syncs to my iPhone as well I would be able to just edit and delete them from there, but it will not offer the delete option in iOS Safari editing mode either. It's almost as if the tab group inherited the attributes of *Favorites and is now no longer deletable.

This is highly frustrating and my OCD bookmarks management mind will not let me get past it. Is this another bug in safari that I have found? Is anyone else experiencing this as well? I have added screenshots from both bookmarks sidebar on my MacBook Pro and one from my iPhone as well.

Posted on Sep 25, 2022 06:51 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

lucaseverini

Level 1

8 points

Nov 13, 2022 04:06 PM in response to Menzoberranzan

Safari is dead.

Between Mail and Safari is difficult to decide what is worse.

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Answer 2

tdormady23 Author

Level 1

18 points

Sep 26, 2022 09:35 PM in response to MichaelB2019

Unfortunately, this is a bug I believe. It was copy of a group tab of some favorites websites that I had open. I don’t ever use group tabs it created it by accident. I would expect that you wouldn’t be able to delete the parent, but this would technically be a copy and it should be able to be deleted IMO. I see that this might be affecting others as well. It really bothers me that I may have to live with seeing this in my bookmarks for who knows how long. I did take your advice and submitted this to the safari product team.

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Answer 3

Nov 2, 2022 01:27 AM in response to tdormady23

I am a new Mac user and have been exploring the OS and this ridiculous Tab Group Favourites issue where it cannot be deleted or even renamed is insane.

Am I missing something? Because this would be a piece of cake to fix on Windows.

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Answer 4

tdormady23 Author

Level 1

18 points

Oct 1, 2022 11:28 AM in response to SnickZ.

Hello,

Just wanted to follow up. I spoke to Apple support hoping for some terminal shell wizardry that would just yoke that Tab Group right out, but no luck. I see some others are dealing with this as well so hopefully Safari team will see my ticket and screenshots that I submitted to them and address it in the coming updates to safari. I believe this is still a bug in the Bookmarks and creation the ability to manage them. I hope the Safari Team resolves it at some point. It's just a minor annoyance at this point.

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Answer 5

clayhalo

Level 1

28 points

Nov 27, 2022 12:32 PM in response to SnickZ.

tdormady23 did not say that they created the group tab. They said "it" was created by accident.

After recently updating to Monterey 12.6.1, the Group Tab folder was automatically created by Safari, with only an empty untitled folder inside it. I did not create it, accidentally or otherwise. I've reported it as a bug to Apple.

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Answer 6

Sep 26, 2022 04:35 PM in response to tdormady23

Hi tdormady23,

Thanks for coming to Apple Support Communities for help today.

This is a folder like Favorites. It won't be able to be removed. This would be expected.

You can leave Product Feedback and the right team will be able to see it.

Have a fantastic day!

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Answer 7

SnickZ.

Community Specialist

Sep 27, 2022 08:37 AM in response to tdormady23

Thanks for getting back to us, tdormady23. It's appreciated.

Since this is a copy you’ve added, we’re still unsure if it can be deleted or not. We recommend contacting Apple Support to look into this further with you: Get Support

All the best.

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Answer 8

Sep 27, 2022 04:32 PM in response to tdormady23

Hi Tdormandy23,

I just updated my computer today and was exploring the "new" tab groups. It is very frustrating trying to figure out what's going on. I too, copied a folder of bookmarks into the "tab group favorites" and it was a nightmare trying to remove it. I discovered if I drag each link back into the bookmarks then immediately after dragging it there I could delete the link in the tabs group. Once all the links were finally deleted I was able to delete the tab groups by selecting the 3 dots (...) to the right of the group and selecting delete.

I hope this might work for you.

I'll be sure to never drag a bookmark into a tab group again. I still don't understand the purpose of tab groups... though it appears it might be useful if you open the same sites all the time for a specific task, such as several news sites, or all of your social media sites.

Even more confusing is the "Tab Groups Favorites" that is under Bookmarks. I haven't found a way to "favorite" a tab group, but at least I know not to drag a Bookmark folder to it.

Good luck.

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Answer 9

tdormady23 Author

Level 1

18 points

Sep 29, 2022 07:56 PM in response to free2worship

Unfortunately, moving websites into the folder didn't help, nor offer up the option to delete it, nor am I now able to delete the websites from the copy (accidentally) made Tab Group Favorites. I still have the *Favorites parent folder that sits in the Bookmarks folder with all my faves and some folders of others. This is really frustrating that I cannot have control over editing bookmarks or this Tab Group. Think I might just entertain switching to Chrome or Firefox at this point. I can't get rid of them from the phone, or the browser. I has to be a bug or something that wasn't tested properly before update and the addition of these tab groups.

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Answer 10

tdormady23 Author

Level 1

18 points

Nov 3, 2022 07:08 AM in response to Menzoberranzan

At this point I have just started moving away from safari. I got no slick fixes from apple support nor a response back from safari team on the bug submission. As this is IMO a design flaw. It’s pretty annoying to see these accidental tab group favorites in my bookmarks folder. Like you said, a trivial fix for windows and MS edge.

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Safari - Cannot delete Tab Groups

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