Closed a tab by accident, and now you’re scrambling to find the tab — or the page — again? Wish you could quickly jump back to something you worked on last week? Find out here how to restore recently closed tabs in Safari on an iPhone ⤓ (and even those closed not quite so recently).
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How to Restore Recently Closed Tabs in Safari on iPhone
Time needed: 1 minute
To open recently closed tabs again in Safari on an iPhone or iPad:
- Tap the tab button in Safari to see the tab overview.
Landscape view: You can also rotate the iPhone into landscape mode.
Private browsing mode: You cannot revisit tabs in Private Browsing Mode; Safari keeps no record of past tabs here to preserve privacy.
iPadOS: On an iPad, you can also just open or go to any browser tab. - Tap and hold ➕.
No menu: The list of recent tabs does not appear in a menu or the Bookmarks sheet; on that sheet, you can see the history of individual visited pages, of course, but not a list of recently closed tabs.
- Now tap the closed tab you want to reopen
More recent tabs: Scroll up to find a long list of recently closed Safari browser tabs.
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Restore Closed Safari Tabs Using the Browser History
You can also go back to a previously visited but closed page using the browsing history, of course:
- Tap the bookmarks button in any browser window.
- Now go to the History tab.
- Tap and hold the page you would like to visit again.
Search: Tap Search History and type any part of the site’s title or URL to find past pages. - Select Open in Background from the context menu or page preview.
Just the opposite:
How to Close All Safari Tabs on iPhone in Seconds
How to Restore Recently Closed Tabs in Safari on iPhone: FAQ
Can I reopen a tab from private browsing mode?
No.
Safari keeps no record of tabs open in Private Browsing Mode. You will not find the pages in Safari’s browsing history, and closed tabs do not show up in Recently Closed Tabs.
Can I use Siri to re-open a tab?
No, not directly.
While you cannot ask Siri to undo closing a tab, you can always ask to open a page from your history (“Open ladedu.com”, for instance).
Does opening work for tabs closed automatically by Safari?
Yes.
Tabs automatically closed by Safari after a certain time of inactivity do appear in the list of recently closed tabs, and you can restore them from it using the steps above.
(Tested with iOS 14–18 and 26 as well as iPadOS 14–17; first published August 2021, last updated June 2026)