I had a lot of open tabs in Safari on my iPhone 6s, which I had to backup and restore to an SE (2nd Gen) recently due to breaking the screen.
I restored from backup today, and there are no tabs on Safari, it is completely empty. Why were the tabs not included in the backup? Is there a way to restore them?
iPhone SE, iOS 16
HI UTBadger,
I didn't use iCloud to sync my tabs and bookmarks. I just did a backup from phone to laptop, and then restored the new handset from the backup.
I have done this in the past and the tabs have copied across.
HI UTBadger,
I didn't use iCloud to sync my tabs and bookmarks. I just did a backup from phone to laptop, and then restored the new handset from the backup.
I have done this in the past and the tabs have copied across.
Hey They Actually Taste Like Lager,
We’d be happy to help out. Sounds like you were expecting Safari tabs to move over to your new iPhone, but aren’t seeing them.
If you used iCloud to sync your Safari tabs and bookmarks, they wouldn’t be included in your backup. Instead, you need to go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Show All and make sure Safari is enabled here and that you’re connected to Wi-Fi with Low Power Mode disabled so syncing can go through.
We hope this helps out, but if they don’t sync, check out: If your iCloud or Safari bookmarks aren’t syncing - Apple Support
Take care!
Hello They Actually Taste Like Lage,
Did you have a recent backup of your old iPhone? If not, this may explain why they didn't come over.
If you still have access to the old device, you may want to create a new backup and then restore it to the new phone again to see if that brings them over:
How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup
We hope that helps.
Take care.
And what if it was enabled at time of backup and restore and it still didn’t pop up? How can we get them back? Cause I know I backed them up with safari enabled.
My open Safari tabs didn't copy across during a backup/restore
