how to close safari tabs all at once

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Too many safari tabs open on your iphone close them all with this trick.

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Key Takeaways

• Set a time frame (one day, one week, or one month) for Safari to automatically close tabs that are older, preventing tab clutter.
• Organize Safari tabs on iPhone with Tab Groups. Create tab groups to categorize and easily find open web pages based on topics or interests.
• Close Safari tabs open on your Mac from your iPhone.

Safari on your iPhone tends to be a bit overzealous at opening new tabs, resulting in a web browser that's more crowded than a Taylor Swift concert. Thankfully, iOS and iPadOS make it possible to close all but one tab at once -- it's one of our favorite tricks for iPhone .

If robot vacuums can automatically clean your house, why shouldn't your phone automatically clean up tabs for you? The iPhone can automatically close tabs that are older than a week or a month, keeping your Safari tab count from creeping to embarrassing numbers. You only have to arrange your settings once, then Safari will do the cleanup for you, set it and forget it.

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Safari has a few other hidden organization features, like tab groups and even the ability to close your MacBook's open tabs from your iPhone. We're sharing our favorite tricks for keeping your Safari tabs under control, starting with how to close all tabs on your iPhone or iPad.

How to close all tabs on iPhone or iPad Safari

If you're like us, and you end up with multiple Safari tabs open, closing them all down individually can take a very long time. We had 246 open at one point.

If you have tabs you want to keep open, you'll still need to close all of your tabs individually, pin them, or you can save a bookmark and reopen them afterward. Another option is to move those favorite tabs to a new Tab Group, as this process only deletes the tabs in the group. If you want to clear out the Safari clutter, you can close all but one tab with just a few taps. Here's how:

• Open the Safari app on your iPhone.
• Tap the icon with two squares in the lower right corner to view all your open tabs.
• Optional: If you have any tabs that you want to keep open, press and hold on that tab and select Move to Tab Group , as this process only does one tab group at a time.
• Long press on the thumbnail for an open tab . Pro tip: Use a tab you would like to keep open, as this will be the only tab remaining at the end of the process.
• Tap on Close Other Tabs.

Alternatively, you can long-press the tab button in the bottom-right corner of Safari and then select Close All Tabs to quickly close everything that's open, including the tab you're currently viewing.

How to automatically close old Safari tabs on your iPhone

Whenever you open a link from another app, odds are it opens in Safari and creates yet another new tab, making it fairly easy for your tab count to grow without you even realizing it. But you don't have to go through and close all your tabs on a regular basis. Instead, you can have your iPhone automatically close old tabs after one day, one week, or one month.

This is a great option if you have a tendency to rack up open tabs quickly. If you turn on this feature, remember to use the bookmark tool or reading list to easily recall any important websites to revisit later, which tends to be easier than searching through your Safari history.

• Open the Settings app.
• Scroll down and select Safari.
• Under Tabs, find the Close Tabs option and tap on it -- it should be set to 'manually' by default.
• On the next screen, tap the time frame that you would like Safari to close old tabs after -- either one day, one week, or one month.

How to organize Safari tabs on iPhone with Tab Groups

Maybe you like having 217 tabs open at once (I won't judge, I've been there) but you want to be able to find what you need a bit more easily. Safari allows you to use tab groups to organize your open web pages. For example, you could have a tab group for online shopping and another for housing your favorite news websites that you want to leave open to easily read every morning. Tab Groups allow you to organize your web browsing and are especially helpful if you have lots of tabs open at once.

• Open the Safari app on iPhone.
• Tap on the tab icon in the lower right corner -- it's the one with the two squares.
• Tap the menu icon at the bottom center.
• Select New Empty Tab Group or use the New Tab Group with # Tabs to create a group with the tabs already opened.
• Name the new tab group and tap Save.

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How to close open Safari tabs on your Mac from your iPhone

If you have a MacBook or iPad signed onto the same Apple ID as your iPhone , when you open the Safari app, and you tap on the two squares in the bottom right corner, you will see a list of the pages open on your MacBook below those open on your iPhone. It isn't possible to close them all down at once from your iPhone, but you can close them out one by one from your iPhone, so they are no longer open on your Mac.

• Make sure that you have Safari enabled under the iCloud settings first . Head to the Settings App.
• Tap your name , then iCloud .
• In Apps using iCloud , make sure the Safari toggle is green .
• Open Safari on your iPhone.
• Tap the tabs icon.
• Tap the plus to open a new tab.
• Scroll down on the new tab until you see "From [Your MacBook's Name]."
• There are two ways to close out these tabs -- you can tap and hold the entry to close, then select close. Or, you can click "Show All" then swipe left and tap close.

How to use picture-in-picture mode in Safari on Mac

This handy setting can be so useful.

How to open a private browsing tab in Safari on iPhone

Private Browsing Mode on Safari allows you to visit websites without Safari remembering what pages you've visited, your search history or your Autofill information when you close the tab.

To open a Private Browsing Tab in Safari on your iPhone, follow these steps:

• Press and hold the squares in the bottom right corner.
• Select 'New Private Tab.'

You can also tap the squares once, tap 'Private' in the left corner to highlight it, and tap the '+' in the middle to open a new Private Browsing Tab.

More Safari organization tricks

Did you know that you could create different browsing profiles to keep your work and personal browsing separate? It's a new feature on iOS 17, but it's not the only Safari trick that can help keep your browser organized. You can also bookmark multiple tabs at once, or even alphabetize that long list of open Safari tabs. You can even swipe left on the address bar to quickly open a new tab. Find the step-by-step details for these tricks in our guide to Safari tips and tricks .

How to Close All the Tabs in Safari at Once

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Whether you use Safari on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or any combination of these devices, it's very likely you have a lot of tabs open in it right now. This is far from a call-out—I'm guilty of it myself. It feels great to close a bunch of them when you finish a project or finish reading everything, but it's annoying to close them one by one.

Thankfully, there are ways to quickly close all of your Safari tabs at once on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. So, read on to see how you do it on each device!

How to Close All Safari Tabs on an iPhone or iPad

As you can see in our guide for using Safari on iPhone and iPad , Safari runs the same on both devices. So, you can follow the same steps for closing all of your Safari tabs on an iPhone or iPad.

These steps start with opening Safari on your device. Once Safari is open, find the Tabs icon in the bottom menu (it looks like two overlapping squares). If you don't see this bottom menu, scroll up on your screen to make it visible.

Long-press on the Tabs icon. A menu should appear, giving you options to open new tabs and close existing ones. Tap Close All [Number] Tabs to close all tabs you have open in Safari at once. It's that easy.

You can also close or delete all of your Safari tabs on an iPhone or iPad if you only tap the Tabs icon once. This shows all of the tabs you have open on your device, gives you an exact count of them, and lets you close them individually.

To close all of your Safari tabs at once from here, long-press on Done and select Close All [Number] Tabs . All of your Safari tabs will be deleted immediately.

How to Close All Your Safari Tabs on a Mac

There are many great ways to manage your tabs and bookmarks in Safari on a Mac , but sometimes you just need to close them all. Unlike on an iPhone and iPad, you can't close all the open Safari tabs at once on your Mac with a single click. It instead takes a menu selection and an additional click.

To find the appropriate menu, open Safari on your Mac. Then, Control -click (or right-click) on any tab in the Safari window. A menu will appear with options to pin, duplicate, and close tabs. Select the Close Other Tabs option. This will close all the tabs open in Safari, leaving only the one you opened the menu on.

You can now hit the Close (X) button in the window of your one open tab or press Cmd + W to close or delete the last tab. Either way, you'll have closed all open Safari tabs on your Mac pretty much all at once!

Close All Your Safari Tabs for Peace of Mind

It can be deeply satisfying to close all your open tabs in your Safari browser simultaneously. Your Mac, iPhone, and iPad can run a little quicker after, and your mind can feel a little less cluttered too.

Safari makes closing all of your tabs easy, no matter which Apple device you're using. Hopefully, the above steps illustrated that and helped you close all your tabs for a bit of digital decluttering and peace of mind.

How to close all Safari tabs on iPhone

There's a super-simple way to close down every tab in Safari

Whether you've just picked up an iPhone 13 or have been using iOS for a while, iPhones and iPads have a whole bunch of features that you may not know about. But here's one particularly handy trick that everyone should be aware of — being able to close all of your Safari tabs at once.

Quickly racking up browser tabs and forgetting about them is something we're all guilty of. And while iOS 15 is a highly optimized and efficient operating system, it's probably not a good idea to have endless tabs sitting around in the background.

Thankfully, there's a quick and easy way to close down every tab in Safari on your iPhone or iPad . Here's how to do it.

How to close every tab in Safari on iPhone or iPad

1. To instantly close every tab in Safari on your iPhone or iPad, simply tap and hold the tab icon, then tap " Close all [X] tabs ."

2. To confirm, tap " Close all [X] tabs ."

3. Safari also has the option to automatically close unused tabs after a set period of time. To do this, tap one of the time periods that appears, or tap " Don't Close Automatically " if you don't want Safari to shut your tabs automatically.

Now you know how to shut all your tabs in Safari, you might also want to find out how to move the Safari address bar back to the top on iOS 15 . You could also check out another hidden iPhone trick that will save you a ton of time, and find out how to recover deleted messages on iPhone , how to zoom with one hand in Apple Maps or a trick that boosts your headphone volume instantly .

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How to close all tabs on iPhone and iPad at once (iOS 17)

Having too many tabs open in Safari can affect its performance and lead to an inefficient browsing experience. While you can close tabs individually in Safari, depending on the number of open tabs, it can become quite tedious and time-consuming.

Fortunately, you can close all tabs on your iPhone or iPad in one go. In this article, I will show you all the possible ways to do it.

Table of Content

How to close all Safari tabs on iPhone and iPad

It’s pretty easy to close all your Safari tabs on iPhone and iPad. Here are the steps you need to follow:

• Launch Safari on your iPhone and long-press the tab switcher icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen. On an iPad, this icon will be in the top-right corner.
• Select Close All [number] Tabs .

How to close all Safari tabs on iPhone from the tab switcher screen

Another way to close all your Safari tabs at once is to use the Tab Switcher screen. This view shows you all your open tabs in a grid, making it easy to take a quick look and close them all at once.

• Inside Safari, tap the tab switcher icon.
• Take a look at the tabs if needed.

• Tap Close All [number] Tabs .

How to close Safari tabs automatically on iPhone and iPad

If you have the habit of leaving a lot of Safari tabs open, you can set your iPhone or iPad to automatically close tabs after a certain amount of time. This way, you won’t have to worry about too many tabs slowing down your browser.

• Open the Settings app.
• Scroll down and select Safari .
• Tap Close Tabs .

Safari will now automatically close your tabs based on your chosen time frame.

How to close similar Safari tabs at once on iPhone

When you’re researching something, you may end up opening a bunch of tabs related to the same topic. In such a situation, you can close them all at once using a handy feature in Safari. This ensures your other important tabs remain intact.

• Open the tab switcher screen in Safari.
• Tap the top of the screen to reveal the search bar .
• Type a word you think would be common on all the tabs you want to close, and you’ll see all the open tabs that match this word.

How to close all Safari tabs on iPhone with Tab Groups

Tab Groups is a Safari feature that lets you keep your tabs organized using folders. If you’ve used it to keep all similar tabs organized in one Tab Group, deleting that Tab Group will close all open tabs inside it. Here’s how:

• Go to the tab switcher screen in Safari.
• Long-press one of the tab thumbnails.

Signing off…

That’s it. The above methods should help you declutter Safari on your iPhone or iPad and give you a clean slate to start fresh.

Moving forward, be sure to use Tab Groups or profiles in Safari to keep your tabs organized and avoid having an overcrowded stack of tabs again.

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How to Close All of Your Safari Tabs at Once on iPhone or iPad

There are some iOS gestures and tricks that have been around forever, but remain relatively hidden because they're hard to find unless you know about them.

Closing all of the tabs in your Safari browser on an iOS device is one such trick -- it's simple if you know how to do it, but it's a gesture you might not know exists.

play Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Here's how to do it:

• Open up Safari.
• Long press on the "Tabs" icon denoted by two squares. On iPhones, it's at the bottom of the browser in portrait mode or at the top in landscape mode. On the iPad, it's at the top.
• Select Close All Tabs.

Alternatively, you can single tap on the Tabs icon to bring up the browser window view, and then long press on "Done" to bring up the same "Close All Tabs" interface.

That's all there is to it. Safari will let you know how many tabs are currently open, and it will close each and every one after the Close All Tabs option is tapped.

Because it's so easy to open a new tab when browsing without meaning to on an iOS device, the Close All Tabs option is super handy for getting rid of all those open browser windows in one quick go.

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Are there really MacRumors readers that don’t know this?

Thanks for sharing the shortcut. It will be real helpful to me in the future. Especially when I am cleaning up my wife’s iPhone. She usually has 20 to 30 tabs open.

Why doesn’t this use force touch? iOS has more and more UX inconsistencies.

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How To Close All Safari Tabs on iPhone

If you don't want to have to close each Safari tab one at a time, you'll need to learn how to close all Safari tabs at once! It's a simple, three-step process that's easy to overlook if you don't already know it. We'll show you the fastest way to close all open Safari tabs.

Related:  How to Selectively Clear Your Browsing History in Safari iPhone & iPad

Why You'll Love This Tip

• Save time by closing all Safari tabs at once instead of one at a time.
• Save battery life by closing all Safari tabs when you're done.

How to Clear All Safari Tabs on iPhone: Close All Safari Tabs

What if, instead of going through and closing each Safari tab individually, you’d prefer to just close out all open tabs and start fresh? We already went over the quickest way to open a new tab in Safari , but you can also close all Safari tabs on your iPhone in three easy steps! For more great Safari tabs tutorials, check out our free Tip of the Day . Here's how to close Safari tabs all at once:

See how simple that was? Keep in mind, if you accidentally close Safari tabs you meant to keep open, here's how to reopen closed Safari tabs . Not everyone knows how to use the Safari tabs menu this way, so you may just have to share your newfound knowledge with other iPhone users you know! If you 

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How to close all of the open tabs on your iPhone's Safari browser at once

• The iPhone's Safari browser allows you to have many websites open in different tabs, and there's a way to close all the tabs on your iPhone at once. 
• You can close all tabs on your iPhone 's Safari app in just one step that takes a few seconds to complete. 
• You will lose all unsaved links or data in all closed Safari tabs, so make sure you're not closing anything important.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

These days, we're glued to our phones. From scrolling through our social media feeds to reading the news, there's not much our devices can't do to hold our attention. 

And if you use an iPhone , chances are your Safari web browser has multiple tabs open with different websites you've visited over the past days, weeks, or even months — guilty as charged over here! 

If you've lost track of what tabs you have open, and simply want to start from scratch, it's possible to close all open Safari tabs on your iPhone at once. Doing so is quick and easy—here's how.

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Iphone xs (from $999.99 at best buy), how to close all tabs on your iphone's safari browser .

1. On your iPhone's home screen, tap the Safari icon to open the app. 

2. In the lower right-hand corner of your screen, tap the tabs icon, which appears as two overlapping squares. 

3. Once the tab carousel appears, press and hold the "Done" option in the lower right corner of the screen for two to three seconds to launch an additional menu. 

4. An option will appear to close all tabs. Tap this to close all tabs immediately and return to a blank home screen in Safari, which will display your bookmarked sites as small squares. 

From here, you can either choose one of these bookmarks to navigate to, or use the toolbar at the top to type in the URL of the site you wish to visit, or a search term. 

It should be noted that unless you've bookmarked the particular tabs you closed, you'll only be able to find them again via your History menu. Any unsaved form data or other submissions in the tabs will also be lost, unless you've saved them.

Read more coverage from  How To Do Everything: Tech :

How to add link shortcuts to business insider and insider on your iphone or ipad, how to stop pop-ups from appearing on your iphone's safari browser, how to add bookmarks and favorites on an iphone's safari browser for quick access to your preferred webpages, how to delete or edit the saved bookmarks on your iphone's safari browser.

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Watch: Top 9 features coming to the iPhone in iOS 12

• Main content

How to Close All Open Tabs at Once in Safari on iPhone 12

Got a cluttered Safari with too many tabs open on your iPhone 12? No worries! I’ll show you the quick and easy way to close all those open tabs at once. Trust me, it’s a real game-changer for browsing efficiency.

Step by Step Tutorial to Close All Open Tabs in Safari on an iPhone 12

Before we dive into the steps, let’s talk about what we’re going to achieve here. Closing all open Safari tabs at once will help declutter your browser, making it easier and faster to navigate. Plus, it can help your iPhone run a bit smoother. So, let’s get to it!

Step 1: Open Safari

Open the Safari app on your iPhone 12. You’ll see all your open tabs displayed as mini windows in a grid or carousel, depending on your settings.

Step 2: Long-press the Tabs button

Find the Tabs button, which looks like two overlapping squares, and long-press it. This button is usually located at the bottom right corner of your screen. A long-press means to press and hold the button for a couple of seconds.

Step 3: Select ‘Close All [number] Tabs’

A menu will pop up with several options. Tap the ‘Close All [number] Tabs’ to close all your tabs. The number will vary depending on how many tabs you have open. For instance, if you have 10 tabs open, it will say ‘Close All 10 Tabs’.

Once you’ve completed the action, all the open tabs in your Safari browser will close simultaneously. You’ll be left with a fresh, single new tab to start your browsing anew.

Tips for Closing All Open Tabs in Safari on an iPhone 12

• Get into the habit of closing tabs regularly to maintain a clutter-free browser.
• Remember, closing all tabs means you’ll lose any unsaved information on those pages, so make sure to bookmark or save any necessary information.
• If you accidentally close all tabs, don’t panic! You can quickly reopen the last closed tab by pressing the Tabs button and then selecting ‘Reopen Last Closed Tab.’
• Keep in mind that closing all tabs can also log you out of websites where you were signed in.
• Use the ‘Private’ browsing feature if you want certain tabs to not be saved in your history.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can i undo closing all tabs in safari on my iphone 12.

If you’ve closed all tabs and want to recover them, you can press the Tabs button, then select ‘Reopen Last Closed Tab.’ Unfortunately, this will only reopen the last tab you were on, not all of them.

Will closing all my tabs log me out of websites?

Yes, it’s likely that you will be logged out of most websites once you close all tabs since Safari will clear your session information.

Is there a way to close all tabs automatically?

No, as of now, Safari does not have a feature to close all tabs automatically after a certain period. You have to do it manually.

Can I close all tabs on other models of iPhone?

Yes, this method works on other models of the iPhone as long as they are running a version of iOS that supports this feature.

Does closing all tabs save battery life?

It can help a bit, as having fewer tabs open can reduce the load on your iPhone’s processor, potentially saving battery life.

• Open Safari.
• Long-press the Tabs button.
• Select ‘Close All [number] Tabs’.

Closing all open tabs in Safari on your iPhone 12 is a nifty trick to master. Not only does it declutter your browser and save you the headache of flipping through countless pages, but it also helps your device run a tad smoother. Remember, though, while closing tabs can feel liberating, be sure to save any important work first!

Let’s face it, in this digital age, tab management is a real skill. By following the steps I’ve outlined, you’re on your way to becoming a pro at it. Are you ready to embrace the clean slate that comes with a tab-less Safari? Go ahead, give it a try. And next time you find yourself drowning in a sea of tabs, you’ll know exactly what to do. Happy browsing!

Matt Jacobs has been working as an IT consultant for small businesses since receiving his Master’s degree in 2003. While he still does some consulting work, his primary focus now is on creating technology support content for SupportYourTech.com.

His work can be found on many websites and focuses on topics such as Microsoft Office, Apple devices, Android devices, Photoshop, and more.

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How to Close All Tabs in Safari on the iPhone or iPad

Long-press the Tab icon or go to Settings > Safari to clear the history and force the tabs to close

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What to Know

• Press and hold the Tab button at the top right. Choose Close All [#] Tabs , and then tap it again to confirm.
• To close unresponsive tabs, go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data > Clear > Close Tabs .

This article explains how to close all your Safari tabs at once. These directions work for iOS 12 and up, including iPadOS.

How to Close All Tabs in the Safari Browser

Use the Tab menu to close all open tabs simultaneously.

Tap and hold the Tab button, which looks like two stacked squares.

Tap Close All [#] Tabs .

Tap the same button once more to confirm. This will close all tabs immediately.

The Tab menu is also how you launch a private browsing session .

How to Close All Tabs Without Opening Safari

Another way to close all tabs on iPhone or iPad is through the Settings app. This is helpful if you can't close the tabs within Safari, like if the browser won't open.

When you clear all tabs this way, you're also erasing the Safari cache , which includes your browsing history, cookies, and other browsing data. That means you'll need to log back into any websites that normally log in automatically when you visit them.

Open the Settings app and tap Safari .

Scroll down and choose Clear History and Website Data > Clear .

To close all tabs at the same time, choose Close Tabs .

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How to Close All Safari Tabs at Once on iPhone

Apple has always done things its own way and at its own pace. More often than not, certain features that Android users have enjoyed for a long time are found missing on the iPhone. Case in point is the ability to close all tabs at once in Safari browser on iPhone. In fact, the UI is pretty consistent which is why you can’t close all open apps at once either. You have to swipe them one at a time which can be frustrating if there are too many apps open. The same is true for open Safari tabs and you have to close them individually.

Surprisingly, there is a way to close all open Safari tabs at once, however, it’s not easy to find. That’s why I’ll be showing you a step-by-step guide on how to close all Safari tabs at once on the iPhone. Let’s begin.

Close All Safari Tabs at Once

The way to close all open Safari tabs is fairly simple and similar on all iOS versions but I have installed iOS 15 developer beta so the interface may look a little different. The usual way to close Safari tabs is to swipe a tab left but if you have hundreds of tabs open then it doesn’t make any sense.

1. Start by opening the Safari browser on your iPhone. You can list all the tabs by tapping the tabs button on the bottom bar. To close all the tabs at once, tap and hold the Tab button to bring up the popup menu.

If you just tap the Tabs button then it won’t show you option to close all tabs.

2. Now, you would see an option to close the current tab, all the tabs, etc. Tap Close All Tabs and that’s it.

Final Words: Close All Tabs in iPhone

This is how you can empty the tabs grid in the Safari browser. It looks easy once you figure it out but if you didn’t know then it can leave you scratching your head. What do you think of this method? Let me know on Twitter.

Works as an in-house Writer at TechWiser and focuses on the latest smart consumer electronics. Closely follows the latest trends in consumer IoT and how it affects our daily lives. You can follow him on Twitter. Yes, he sometimes speaks in Third Person.

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How to close all Safari tabs at once on iPhone and iPad

By Charlie Sorrel • 1:00 am, July 26, 2018

• Top stories

You probably know the trick for closing lots of tabs in Safari on your iPhone. You enter the tab overview aka Rolodex view, and then swipe those tabs off the screen one by one. It’s even kind of fun, but if you have lots and lots of tabs open, then the fun wears off pretty fast. So you’ll be happy to hear that there is a better way. A much better way, in fact, that lets you close all your open tabs with one tap.

The bad old days

The last time we ran a tip on closing all your tabs at once was in 2014 . Back then, this simple task required that you enter iOS 7’s Private Browsing mode, in order to trigger a prompt to close all the open tabs before proceeding. In the modern day, things have gotten a lot easier.

How to close all Safari tabs at once

To close up all your open Safari tabs in 2018 and beyond, you don’t even have to enter the tab overview screen, the one where your open tabs are stacked like playing cards (iPhone) or laid out in a grid (iPad). All you have to do is long-press the tab button when looking at any Safari page, and you’ll get the popover menu seen in the screenshot above. The one we want is at the top of the list: Close All x Tabs , where x equals the number of open tabs. Go ahead and tap it to close everything.

Be careful, though, because there is no warning. The tabs are dumped with no further confirmation. However, there is a trick to reopen recently-closed tabs .

How to reopen recently-closed tabs in Safari

If you long-press the + button in either iPad or iPhone’s version of Safari, you’ll get a list of recently-closed tabs. This will include all the tabs you just viciously killed in one go, so if you do realize that a super-important tab was somewhere in that mass of pages, you can easily retrieve and reload it. On iPad, the + icon is right there in Safari’s main view, at the top right of the screen. On the iPhone, you need to tap the tab overview button first to reveal it.

And that’s it for today. No longer do you have to swipe at multiple tab thumbnails like a maniac. Instead, you can take care of destroying everything with a single swipe.

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Home » Tech Tips » iPhone » How to Close All Open Tabs at Once in iPhone Safari?

How to Close All Open Tabs at Once in iPhone Safari?

It is common to work with multiple tabs in iPhone Safari browser. However, most of us close the open tabs one by one by tapping on the “Tabs” icon and selecting the close icon on the tabs. If you want to close all the tabs at once, here are some options for you.

iPhone Safari Tabs

Safari has multiple options to keep your tabs open.

• Private mode
• Normal mode

Tabs are also maintained for each profile . So, you need to follow the appropriate steps for each profile if you are using multiple profiles.

1. Close All Tabs in Normal Mode

This option will close tabs only opened in a normal mode and will NOT close tabs under Private section and Tab Groups.

• Open Safari browser app and long press on the Tabs icon showing on lower right corner.
• Select “Close All x Tabs” option.
• You will see a prompt and confirm it by tapping on “Close All x Tabs” option.

2. Close Tabs Along in Normal and Private Modes

Use this option to close all tabs in normal mode as well as in Private section. However, items in Tab Groups will not be closed.

• Open Safari and tap on the Bookmarks icon at the bottom.
• Go to “History” tab and tap on “Clear” link showing on bottom right corner.

• Select the “Clear Timeframe” as “Last hour” or any other option.
• Turn on “Close All Tabs” button under “Additional Options” heading.
• Tap on “Clear History” button to close all tabs and delete history for the selected time frame.

2.1. Close Tabs from Safari Settings

This is same as previous method with the difference that you can follow the steps from Settings instead of Safari app.

• Open Settings app and go to “Safari” section.

• Scroll down and tap on “Clear History and Website Data” option.

• Select the timeframe and turn on “Close All Tabs” button.
• Tap on “ Clear History ” button.

3. Close All Tabs in a Tab Group

• Open Safari and tap on the “Tabs” icon.
• Select the “Tab Group” to view all open tabs.
• Long press on the “Done” link showing on bottom right corner.
• Select “Close All Tabs” option.
• Follow the same steps for each Tab Group.

Final Words

If you are only using normal mode of browsing, then the first option is the ideal for closing all tabs without deleting browsing history. You need to use other options for closing tabs under Private mode and Tab Groups.

About Nagasundaram Arumugham

Naga is the founder and chief content editor of WebNots. He has over 20 years of experience in technology field and published more than 2000 articles.

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In iOS 10, Safari supports an unlimited number of tabs. However, if you find yourself with too many tabs open and want to start fresh, there's a shortcut to close all your tabs at once.

Prior to iOS 10, you had to close each tab separately. If you have tons of tabs open, that can be very time consuming. We’ll show you how you can now close all your open tabs in Safari at once in iOS 10.

Tap on the Safari icon on the Home screen.

There are two places you can close all your tabs. While viewing a webpage or the Favorites page, tap and hold on the tabs button in the lower-right corner of the screen.

To close all the tabs, tap “Close X Tabs” on the dialog box that displays, where “X” is the number of tabs you currently have open.

If you tap the tabs button, the tab view interface displays. You can close all the tabs by tapping and holding on “Done”.

The same dialog box displays as when you tap and hold on the tabs button, as we mentioned above. Tap “Close X Tabs” to close all the tabs.

No matter which way you close all the tabs, you are returned to the Favorites page after the tabs are closed.

You can also easily clear your browsing history in Safari on iOS , and open and close your iPhone’s Safari Tabs from Your Mac (and Vice Versa) .

Related: How to Open or Close Your iPhone's Safari Tabs from Your Mac (and Vice Versa)

It’s about time this feature was added, and it will be useful for those of us who are tab-happy when we surf the web.

• Web Browsers

How to Close All Open Tabs at Once in Safari on an iPhone

Having too many open tabs in the Safari iPhone Web browser can make it challenging to find a specific one that you need.

While you might already know how ot close individual tabs from the tabs page, you might be looking for a quicker way to close everything.

Fortunately, there is a way to do this, which you can read about in our tutorial below.

How to Close All Safari Tabs on iPhone

• Open Safari .
• Touch and hold the Tabs icon.
• Choose Close All Tabs .
• Tap Close All Tabs to confirm.

Our guide continues below with additional information about closing all of your open tabs in Safari on an iPhone , including pictures of these steps.

Many of the apps on your iPhone can interact with the Safari Web browser on the device. If you click a Web page link from an email or a text message, then it will open in Safari. But that page doesn’t just open in the current tab; it will open a new tab. if you don’t use the tabs feature in Safari very often, or don’t regularly close them, then you might be shocked to see how many tabs are currently open on your iPhone.

You can close Safari tabs by swiping them to the left of the screen or by tapping the x at the top corner of that tab, but this can be tedious if there are a lot of them. Fortunately, iOS 10 offers the ability to quickly close all of the open Web page tabs at once. Our guide below will show you how.

Video About Closing iPhone Safari Tabs

Closing All Open Tabs on an iPhone in iOS 10

The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 5, in iOS 10. This will close all of the tabs that are currently open in the Safari browser on your iPhone . It will not affect any other browsers that you might use, such as Chrome or Firefox.

Additionally, this will not also close any private browsing tabs that might be open. You will need to enter Private mode and repeat these steps to close those tabs. Click here to learn more about identifying which browsing mode you are in.

Step 1: Open the Safari Web browser.

Step 2: Tap and hold on the Tab icon at the bottom-right corner of the screen.

If you don’t see the menu at the bottom of the screen, swipe down on the screen to make it appear.

Step 3: Tap the Close x Tabs button, where x is the number of tabs that are currently open on your device.

Note that this does not clear your history or delete any cookies . It will only close the Web page tabs that are currently open. You can read this article if you would like to learn how to delete your history, as well as your cookies and other stored browsing data.

Now that you know how to close all open tabs in Safari on an iPhone , you will be able to do this anytime it feels like you have too many open tabs, or if Safari is running slowly.

Related: How to Enable Javascript on an iPhone

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.

After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.

His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.

Read his full bio here.

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Safari User Guide

• Get started
• Go to a website
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• See your favorite websites
• Use tabs for webpages
• Import bookmarks and passwords
• Pay with Apple Pay
• Autofill credit card info
• View links from friends
• Keep a Reading List
• Hide ads when reading
• Translate a webpage
• Download items from the web
• Add passes to Wallet
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• See who tried to track you
• Change Safari settings
• Keyboard and other shortcuts

Group tabs in Safari on Mac

You can organize tabs into groups that make it easy to quickly switch between groups of related websites.

Open Safari for me

Create a Tab Group from the tabs in the current window

Choose New Tab Group with [ number ] Tabs.

Enter a name for the Tab Group, then press Return.

Create a Tab Group by selecting tabs

Choose New Empty Tab Group.

Control-click a tab in the tab bar, choose Move to Tab Group, then choose the Tab Group.

You can also drag tabs from the tab bar into a Tab Group.

Open a Tab Group

Choose a Tab Group.

If the sidebar is open, click a Tab Group in the sidebar.

To preview thumbnails of the websites in a Tab Group, Control-click the Tab Group in the sidebar, then choose Show Tab Overview.

Tip: To quickly email the links in a Tab Group to others, drag the Tab Group from the Safari sidebar to an email message.

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Safari tab closing problem

• Thread starter awshucks
• Start date Yesterday at 7:29 AM
• Tags macos safari
• Sort by reaction score
• macOS Sonoma (14)

macrumors member

• Yesterday at 7:29 AM

macrumors newbie

• Yesterday at 8:30 PM

Multiple tabs are apparently somehow being selected without your being aware of it (should be more obvious if you have your tabs displayed in Safari's open sidebar). I wonder if one of your mouse shortcuts might be triggering the key combination (⌘ or shift + click) that selects multiple tabs. Or perhaps it's just a bug. Besides the workaround you mention, you could of course also just "X" out of any individual open tab.  

macrumors 6502

• Yesterday at 8:41 PM

awshucks said: Whenever I use Command W on my Mac mini M1 to close a tab on Safari, this shows up. It also does this when I use the shortcut on my MX Master 3 mouse thumb button to close a tab. However, if I click the scroll wheel on a tab it is not a problem; it only closes 1 tab. Any suggestions? View attachment 2391547 Click to expand...

Safari duplicates, triplecates, quadruples and more, my open tabs every time I shut down, restart or sleep my MacBook M3 Max running MacOS Sonoma 14.5

I use Safari regularly for my research work. I have.a number of tabs open each session and often multiple windows but the windows are grouped by topic names. I want the windows to reopen after shutdown, restart, or sleep, with the same tabs open unless I close them during the session. However, Safari on my system (MacBook M3 Max running MacOS Sonoma 14.5 and Safari Version 17.5 (19618.2.12.11.6)) not only reopens the tabs I closed with - it opens with the same sets of tabs doubled, tripled, quadrupled (and often more although always the tabs specific to each group name). Why is this happening? It eats up resources on my Mac and is very annoying as I have to manually delete tons of tabs in every window. Can someone explain how I need to configure Safari to stop this replication happening?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.5

Posted on Jun 25, 2024 1:31 PM

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Spring cleaning: Make your iPhone feel new again

T here are two types of iPhone users: those whose unread emails are non-existent, and those whose mail app shows a four-digit red number. If you find yourself in the latter camp, your smartphone is probably housing more than just unopened messages but unnecessary apps and outdated files. A cluttered iPhone doesn't just make it hard to find the right app, a smartphone with storage near capacity can have reduced performance.

A cluttered iPhone doesn't just make it hard to find the right app, a smartphone with storage near capacity can have reduced performance.

But, when it comes time to clean up an iPhone, there are a few tricks that can make the process faster. And, frankly, who doesn't love a way to simplify their spring-cleaning chore list? Here are a few tips and tricks to clean up your iPhone quickly, from opening up storage to physically disinfecting your device.

How to clean and disinfect your AirPods and AirPods Max

How to clear memory on an iphone by deleting unused apps, photos, and files.

Once your iPhone's storage is full, you can't take any more photos or download any apps -- ideally, you should clear out unused data before your smartphone becomes perilously full.

How to quickly remove apps from an iPhone

The easiest place to start is by deleting unused apps. To delete an app from your home screen, follow these steps:

• Tap and hold on the app until a small menu pops up.
• To delete several apps quickly, tap Edit Home Screen . In this mode, all the app icons start to wiggle.
• You do not need to exit the wiggly app mode to navigate to different home pages, you can simply swipe over to the other pages.
• Tap Done once finished.

Tricks to quickly delete photos and videos from an iPhone

One of the biggest culprits that triggers a "storage full" message on the iPhone is photos and videos. The first step is to save the photos that you want to keep in another location -- and there are a few different ways to do this. You can plug your iPhone into a MacBook and use the Photos app to transfer the files over to your MacBook. Or, you can transfer photos to a portable hard drive plugged into your iPhone. Cloud storage is another option as well, if you have the space.

Before you start, be sure you have the photos in another location besides the iCloud, as deleting images from your iPhone will also remove them from the iCloud.

Once you've saved the memories that you don't want to lose, it's time to mass delete large quantities of photos . If you don't need any of those old photos, you can follow this guide to quickly delete all iPhone photos. If you have a few photos that you pull up on occasion, there are still some shortcuts that you can use to delete large amounts of photos without removing everything.

The fastest way to clear out unnecessary photos is to use the iPhone's built-in utility that finds and merges duplicate images, keeping only one version.

• Open the Photos app and tap Albums.
• Scroll down to Utilities .
• Select Duplicates .
• Tap Select in the upper right corner.
• Tap Select All .
• At the bottom, tap Merge .
• In the pop-up, choose whether you want to merge only exact copies, or similar copies as well.

How to hide a photo and create a hidden album on iPhone

While removing duplicate photos is great, the iPhone, unfortunately, doesn't have an option to automatically remove all your unflattering selfies. But, you can quickly select large groupings of images.

• If you scroll down on the album page, you can also see folders organized into media types. This is a great shortcut for, say, deleting all of your screenshots at once.
• Next, tap the first photo in the grouping to delete, then drag your finger across the screen and photos until you've selected every image in that section. Skip over any images that you want to keep and repeat until you've selected everything that you want to remove.
• Tap the trashcan icon in the lower right corner and confirm your deletion in the pop-up window.

How to organize your iPhone's home screen and add widgets

Once you've cleared out the storage space, your iPhone home screen may look a bit bare. Organizing your home screen allows you to access your most frequently used apps the fastest, while making other apps easier to find. I like to put my most-used apps on the first page, then arrange subsequent pages by category, so everything is easy to find, but you can use whatever organization strategy fits your lifestyle.

• Tap and hold the background of the home screen until the apps start to wiggle.
• To move an app, tap and drag the icon to its new position. Drag to the side of the screen to jump to a new page.
• To create a folder of apps, drag one app and drop it on top of another app that you want to group it with. Type in a folder name at the top. Tap outside the folder to exit. Any subsequent apps to be added can be dragged to the new folder rather than dragging on top of another app.
• To add a new Widget, tap the plus icon. On the next screen, select a Smart Stack for a group of Widgets, or choose a Widget from the list.
• Widgets can be dragged and dropped to new home screen locations just like app icons can. Or, you can leave your home screen Widget-free and access Widgets by swiping from the left, then tapping the edit button on the bottom to customize.

How to customize your iPhone home screen aesthetic

Clean up safari by closing old tabs and deleting bookmarks.

Another culprit for forgetting data-hogging iPhone space is Safari. Opening new tabs with each link can lead to hundreds of forgotten tabs. Thankfully, iOS has a few tricks that make cleaning up those old tabs take just a few taps.

• Clean up old Safari tabs by following this guide . The gist: Open the tab view, long press one thumbnail and select Close Other Tabs.
• Set Safari to automatically delete unused tabs, so you don't get another backlog. Head to Settings > Safari > Close Tabs and choose to close old tabs after either a day, a week, or a month.
• Clear out unneeded bookmarks. Open Safari > Bookmarks icon > Edit . Then, tap the red minus icon to quickly remove items from your bookmarks or reading list.

Too many Safari tabs open on your iPhone? Close them all with this trick

Clean up old emails and texts.

I'm guilty of letting my unread email count creep well past the hundreds, but I now try to delete all the junk on a weekly basis to avoid missing an important message. iOS has a few tools to clean up the communication clutter without deleting one email at a time. And, if you download an app for mass unsubscribing junk mail, you can keep those numbers from quickly creeping back up.

• Delete lots of emails quickly by opening up the email app, then tap Edit > Select All . Go through and unselect any emails that you want to save, then hit the trash button.
• Consider downloading an app to unsubscribe from junk mail. I use Unroll.Me to quickly unsubscribe from any mass email lists. It's much simpler than unsubscribing the manual by clicking the link at the bottom of each email.
• Delete old text messages that you no longer need. You can do this in a similar process to deleting emails -- open the Messages app, tap on Edit > Select Messages . Then, select the ones you no longer need and tap Delete.
• Use iOS 17's new tool to automatically delete two-factor authentication messages by following this guide .

Perform a privacy check-up

The annual spring clean-up is a good time to double-check your privacy settings and ensure that no unnecessary apps are using your information. iOS has a built-in tool for this called Safety Check. Head to Settings > Privacy & Security > Safety Check . Your iPhone will walk you through the process.

Physically clean the outside of your phone

Scrubbing your iPhone clean of old apps and emails feels great -- but what about the physical exterior of your phone? As often as our phones are in our hands, the devices can get dirty pretty quickly. In fact, you probably want to clean your phone more than once a year during spring cleaning. The question is, how do you disinfect an iPhone without destroying it? Thankfully, Apple lists just what's safe to use when cleaning an iPhone.

First, remove any cases and wash them separately. Dirt build-up inside a case can lead to scratches on your device, so it's a good idea to clean the case both inside and out. Silicon and plastic cases can be soaked in warm water with dish soap and scrubbed with a clean toothbrush. Leather and wood should never be soaked and instead should be cleaned with a slightly camp cloth. Make sure the case, including the microfiber lining, is fully dry before putting it back on your iPhone.

For the phone itself, Apple recommends wiping clean with a lint-free cloth such as a lens cloth used for glasses and screens. This works well for regular cleaning.

For a deeper clean, or, if you did the unthinkable and let your iPhone slip right out of your pocket and into a toilet, disinfecting is in order. Apple recommends using a 70 percent isopropyl alcohol wipe -- you can usually find these in the first aid section at a grocery store or pharmacy. Or, Apple says Clorox disinfecting wipes are also okay, but be sure to get the kind without the abrasive scrubbing materials embedded into the cloth.

Never put moisture in the iPhone's ports or speaker openings. If you have a build-up in these openings, follow our guide to clean an iPhone speaker or clear out an iPhone port .

This article may contain affiliate links that Microsoft and/or the publisher may receive a commission from if you buy a product or service through those links.

Need to reopen closed tabs? Here's how to restore closed tabs on any browser.

Have you ever accidentally closed a tab on your computer even though you actually meant to quit a different one? Maybe the browser randomly closed your tabs, leaving you to lose your spot on certain sites or misplace important information. 

Whether you have one or 75 tabs open, it can be frustrating when they get closed by accident. But restoring them to normal is not too hard of a process. 

Here is what you need to do to reopen closed tabs on a Mac or PC for any browser, including Google Chrome and Safari. 

How to reopen closed tabs?

The easiest and quickest way to restore closed tabs on a Mac for any browser is reopen the browser and hold the "shift+command+T" keys. If you have a PC, to reopen a browser, hold the "shift+control+T" keys. 

This will restore the most recently closed tabs, whether it's just one or multiple. However, if you had multiple windows of several tabs open, you will need to do the key function for however many windows you had open. 

Just Curious: Your everyday questions, answered

How to reopen closed tabs on Chrome

If you are looking for a more in-depth process breakdown, here is how to restore closed tabs on Google Chrome: 

• Open Google Chrome.
• Click "History" in the top bar of your screen on a Mac. If you are on a PC, select the three vertical dots in the top right of the window and go to "History." This will give a drop menu. 
• Go to "Recently Closed" and you will see all your previously visited sites. 
• If you had only one tab, select the site and it will be restored. 
• If you had multiple tabs, there will be an option that says "[Number] Tabs."  Choose this. It will show the group of tabs closed at the same time. Select "Restore All Tabs" or "Restore Window."

How to reopen closed tabs on Safari

Here is how to restore closed tabs on Safari: 

• Open Safari.
• Click "History" in the top bar of your screen. This will give a drop menu. 
• From here you have two options: "Recently Opened" or "Reopen Last Closed Window." 
• For "Recently Opened," you get a clearer breakdown of which tabs you had open, including the name of the site. For "Reopen Last Closed Window," it simply restores the tab without specifying the details until it is reopened. 
• If you had multiple tabs, there will be an option under "Recently Opened," that says the name of the first site "and [Number] more tabs." Choose this. It will restore all tabs closed at the same time. 

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