How to Automatically Close Safari Tabs in iPhone and iPad

BY Khamosh Pathak

Published 19 Jul 2019

How to Automatically Close Safari Tabs

Did you know that Safari has a 500 tab limit? It will remember up to 500 tabs without slowing down your iPhone or iPad. Of course, it won’t cache all of those web pages and managing those hundreds of tabs can be quite difficult too. I’m one of those people who do not like closing tabs, even though there’s a quick shortcut for it (tap and hold the tab switcher). It seems like the designers at Cupertino empathize with me as there’s a new way to automatically close Safari tabs in iOS 13.

Close Safari Tabs in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 on iPhone and iPad

Safari iOS 13 Automatically Close Tabs

When you try to close all tabs in Safari in iOS 13 or iPadOS 13 (using the tap and hold gesture on the tab switcher), you’ll see a new popup. This will only appear the first time you do this. It will ask you if you’re interested in automatically closing Safari tabs in the future. You can ask Safari to do this for you every day, every week or every month. I think for most people, the month timeframe is the best option.

How to Enable This Feature

If you missed that popup once, you don’t need to worry. You can go back and enable it or disable it at any time.

Step 1: Open Settings app.

Step 2: Tap on Safari.

Step 3: Go to the Close Tab section.

Step 4: From here, you can choose between the following options: Manually, After One Day, After One Week, and After One Month, depending on your needs.

iOS 13 Safari Automatically Close Tabs

If you choose the After One Day option, you can start using Safari with a clean slate every morning.

More iOS 13 How-tos

We’re working on bringing you more detailed guides for how to use the new and awesome features in iOS 13. Once you’ve read our iOS 13 tips and tricks article, read our how-tos below.