Restoring full previous Safari tabs on iPad

I just don’t understand why Apple won’t ad Restore All Tabs for Previous Session to Safari on iPad and iPhone iOS when you accidentally close all tabs . Especially now that the 500 tab limit has been removed. And why is the close all tabs button even there or in such an easy to press location. Firefox, Chrome,DuckDuckGo,Opera all have this… chrome can even backup to email notes. As a heavy apple user. This has to be the biggest frustration feature in my user experience. Please resolve this. Unless anyone else has a solution.

iPad Pro, iPadOS 18

Posted on Jan 28, 2025 05:16 AM

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Posted on Jan 28, 2025 06:12 AM

If you closed a Safari Window - and all associated tabs - you can reopen a Recently Closed Window for a limited period of time…


Starting from a Home Screen, assuming that Safari is visible in the Dock, touch-and-hold (i.e., long touch) the Safari icon; an Action Menu will appear. 


From the menu, select Show All Windows; you will now see a screen that closely resembles the Task Switcher - but you will only see preview windows for your open Safari Windows. At top-right (iPadOS15) or top-left (iPadOS16/17/18) you will see the Reopen Closed Window(s) button.




You should note that the Reopen Closed Window(s) button allows you to reopen a window for a limited period of time. If left too long, you may have lost the opportunity to recover the closed window - and with it the tabs and related tab history.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 28, 2025 06:12 AM in response to alltj

If you closed a Safari Window - and all associated tabs - you can reopen a Recently Closed Window for a limited period of time…


Starting from a Home Screen, assuming that Safari is visible in the Dock, touch-and-hold (i.e., long touch) the Safari icon; an Action Menu will appear. 


From the menu, select Show All Windows; you will now see a screen that closely resembles the Task Switcher - but you will only see preview windows for your open Safari Windows. At top-right (iPadOS15) or top-left (iPadOS16/17/18) you will see the Reopen Closed Window(s) button.




You should note that the Reopen Closed Window(s) button allows you to reopen a window for a limited period of time. If left too long, you may have lost the opportunity to recover the closed window - and with it the tabs and related tab history.

Feb 6, 2025 03:09 AM in response to LotusPilot

Thank you… done this wi the desktop. But my issue is with iOS/iPadOS… which has never allowed us to restore a full session of tabs… just one at a time. And is limited to just over 200 . And this will also incorporate history tabs from all logged in devices, and it’s in some weird sort order that is not chronological or alphabetical… meaning most of your recent tabs are gone unless you book mark all current tabs before having lost them.

it literally looks like Apple(software company) totally ignored developing this areas an an unnecessary customer need… just like the lack of useful/any updates to iWorks apps

Feb 6, 2025 08:49 AM in response to alltj

The above recovery description applies explicitly to iPadOS/iOS. I have tested this more than once (usually having accidentally closed an entire Safari window) with excess of 500+ open tabs. All tabs (with associated history) were successfully recovered.


The "200" limit that you describe will be encountered if you attempt to individually recover closed tabs from the Recently Closed Tabs menu (accessed using a long-touch of the "+" icon at top right of an open Safari window).


Re-opening closed tabs from within an open Safari window is an entirely different function to re-opening a recent closed Safari window along with its previously opened tabs.


Try the procedure that I have outlined; it works. To test, open a fresh Safari window (remember, iPadOS multitasking allows you to have multiple instances of the same App - such as Safari - open at any one time. Open multiple tabs within your "test" Safari window - then deliberately close the window using the App Switcher page, or using the "..." multitasking button at top centre of the Safari window. When the Safari window has been closed, follow my original process to re-open the closed Safari window.


There is a time limit within which the option to reopen the closed window is available. I have never tried to ascertain precisely how long the closed window remain available, but the option is many minutes. The option will not survive a restart of the device.

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Restoring full previous Safari tabs on iPad

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