MacOS 26 Safari Tabs missing functionality

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Level 1

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MacOS 26 Safari Tabs missing functionality

I know everyone is upset about missing compact mode. This isn't what I'm asking about. On MacOS In Safari 18.6 and earlier, you could close a tab if you hovered over the tab, the close button would appear and you could click to close the tab, whether it was the foreground tab or not. Similarly you could right click a tab and a menu would appear with options to close the tab, duplicate it, move windows, etc.

In Safari 26 this functionality is gone. The only way I can find to close a tab is to click on it to bring it to the foreground, then then close button will appear, and you can close it with command-W or clicking the box.

I've check the tab settings, and there doesn't seem to be a relevant setting to control this. Is my system broken, or is the functionality truly gone? If so, this seems to be a huge oversight.

This is on Safari 26 on MacOS 26 on an M4 MacBook Air

Thanks,

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Oct 3, 2025 10:13 AM

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Answer 1

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ptoastie Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 3, 2025 11:31 AM in response to Phil0124

Thanks for the reply. Something is definitely broken on my system then. I tried a mouse, and right click brought up the tab menu, and hover displayed the close-box, but not consistently. Then switching back to the trackpad, right click started to work. I have multiple Safari Windows, say on monitor 1 and monitor 2, with the window on 1 with the focus. I can hover over the tabs on Monitor 2, and the close box appears for each one as I move. However if I just hover over a tab on Monitor 1, the close box won't appear over a background tab. But if I put the pointer on a tab, and swipe with two fingers, the mouse pointer doesn't move, and the close button appears. And weirdly enough, now I can move the pointer and hover over other tabs, and the close buttons appear as they should. But if I then switch back to another app, and back to safari, the close buttons won't appear until I do the two finger swipe on the tab again.

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Answer 2

Phil0124

Level 10

216,842 points

Oct 3, 2025 10:47 AM in response to ptoastie

Not gone. I can still see the x on any tabs when I hover over them and right clicking on a tab will bring up the menu just fine.

The x is quite faint, but it is there.

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