Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone Is it possible to remove safari tabs?
- Thread starter Dan_999
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It's part of handoff connection. Just turn off handoff in iOS under General > Handoff & Suggested Apps.
It's not related to Safari iCloud syncing the guy above me posted. Safari syncing basically sync your bookmarks and reading list.
Sorry, but that's not correct. I have handoff turned off in both my Mac and iPhone and can still use iCloud tabs. If you try to access those tabs from your Mac they should be under "iCloud tabs".
If you disable that you also lose syncing of bookmarks and reading list.
Last edited:
NVM, I thought OP was asking about handoff icons on Mac. I never use Safari iCloud so I never encountered this.
It's actually quite confusing, because iCloud Tabs and Handoff are two different ways to do the same thing (access your current browser tab in any device)
iCloud tabs disappear after 7 days providing you don't open them again in the meantime. Switching off Safari in iCloud gets rid of synching Safari period. There will be no saving of history, bookmarks or anything; plus you won't be able to synch across devices. It's the nuclear option so why don't you just wait 7 days and they'll vanish.
I think it might be 14 days now based on the article I was reading about it not too long ago.
Also, I believe you can slide each tab to the left and there should be a close button that would appear on the right side which should allow for the tabs to be closed (and removed).
Ah, the 7 days was annoying enough so why did they increase it to 14?
Whenever I tried swiping to remove them it never worked, but I haven't encountered the issue since iOS7.
If what you refer is the tab list after all opened tabs on your phone, this is iCloud tabs. It can probably be turned off by disabling safari in iCloud setting. However this will also turn off bookmark syncing, saved password syncing and some other stuff.
Handoff accesses the current tab you are viewing. iCloud tab stores all tabs opened in safari for a period of time.
But it will also close that tab on corresponding device. It does work, sometimes though.
In my experience it never closed the tab in every device, and I think it never does. About the similarity with handoff I think that it's quite redundant, and eventually iCloud tabs will disappear. I may be wrong.
I have tried this once in an Apple Store, and when I close a tab showed on my Mac through iPhone, that tab on Mac is closed after a while.
Handoff is somewhat redundant but consider the time syncing tabs across devices, Handoff is faster to pick up where you left off, especially the last tab you are browsing.