How to Close All Tabs in Safari at Once on iPhone, by LaunchTimeMedia - Apple Tech on YouTube. 1 min 43 s.
- Video length
- 1 min 43 s
- Time to do it
- 2 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Open Safari on your iPhone and decide which set of tabs you want to clear: your regular browsing tabs or your Private tabs.
Tap the tabs button in the bottom right corner, the two overlapping squares that show how many pages are open.
The open pages appear as a grid of thumbnails. Tap and hold the Done button at the bottom of the screen until a small menu pops up.
Choose Close All Tabs from that menu. Safari closes every page and drops you back on the Start Page.
To remove just one page instead, swipe its thumbnail to the left and tap Close.
For Private tabs, tap the tabs button, switch to the Private group, then repeat the tap-and-hold on Done and pick Close All Tabs.
To stop tabs building up again, open Settings, scroll to Safari, tap Close Tabs and choose After One Day or After One Week.
If you also want your browsing history gone, go to Settings, Safari, then Clear History and Website Data and confirm. Closing tabs alone does not remove history.
Tips and common mistakes
Closing tabs does not delete your history, cookies or saved passwords, so use Clear History and Website Data if that is what you actually need.
Private tabs are counted separately, so run Close All Tabs once in the regular group and once in Private.
If your iOS version shows no Done button, look for a trash icon or a Close All Tabs option in the same bottom bar.
Closing tabs frees very little storage, so do not expect a big change in your iPhone's free space.
Questions
Does closing all tabs delete my Safari history?
No. Closing tabs only shuts the open pages. Your history stays until you go to Settings, Safari and tap Clear History and Website Data.
Can I get a tab back after closing it?
Yes, usually. Open a new tab, tap the book icon, go to the History tab and look for the page under Recently Closed, then tap it to reopen.
Why do my tabs keep coming back?
ICloud syncs tabs between devices signed in to the same Apple Account, and Safari may restore tabs after a restart. Check Settings, Safari, Close Tabs to set automatic removal.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
