2023 Guide: How to Turn Off Private Browsing Mode on iPhone Safari

Apple allows iOS users to take advantage of anonymous browsing by using Private tabs on Safari on iOS. When you browse in private mode, the Safari app doesn't store the addresses of websites you visit, store your search history, or recall your Autocomplete information.

If you frequently use private browsing mode on Safari, you may already be aware that this mode behaves differently than other browsers. This article will explain what happens when you close Safari with Private Browsing mode enabled, and how to disable it in Safari.

What happens when you close Safari with a Private tab open?

Unlike other browser apps like Chrome or Brave, Safari doesn't completely close your Private tabs when you terminate the app on iOS. This means that when you close a Safari app by swiping from the Recent Apps screen, the Private tab that was open before you closed the app will reappear when you launch Safari again on your iPhone.

Although you will be asked to "unlock" Private Browsing using Face ID or your device passcode, you may accidentally unlock this mode when unlocking your iPhone . When you forget to switch out of private mode during your last browsing session, this can put you in the awkward position of re-opening Safari to load all the web pages you might have open as private tabs again.

In contrast, when you close Chrome or the Brave app during private browsing, all private tabs are closed forever and there's no way to get them back. This way, your private browsing sessions will remain private and anonymous, even if you can't close tabs that you may have open.

Sadly, Safari on iOS has no such feature. Therefore, the only real way to avoid any future humiliation is to manually disable Private Browsing every time you finish browsing a web page on Safari anonymously.

How to Disable Private Browsing Mode on Safari on iOS 17

When your iPhone is running the latest instance of iOS, which is iOS 17 (at the time of writing this article), you may notice that Safari There have been some changes to the way things work on the device. If you may have somehow found a way to enable and use private browsing in Safari on iOS 17 but are having trouble trying to disable it, the following instructions should help.

To switch from private browsing to normal browsing, click the tab button in the lower right corner or swipe up on the bottom navigation bar.

#Once you do this, you will be able to see all the tabs currently open in Private Browsing on Safari. To disable private browsing, you can switch to the regular tab by clicking the "x"tab option at the bottom. Here, "x" is the number of tabs currently open in regular browsing mode.

When Safari switches to the General tab, you can click Finish in the lower right corner, which will open the last one loaded in normal browsing mode tab, or you can click on any tab at the top to open it.

#Another way to disable private browsing on your device is to access the tab group menu in Safari. To do this,

click the tab button in the lower right corner or swipe up on the bottom navigation bar.

#Once you do this, you will be able to see all the tabs currently open in Private Browsing on Safari. To disable private browsing, click the item symbol list icon in the bottom center.

This will open the tab group menu on your screen. Here, click on one of the click groups you created (in this case, "Random Browse" is such an option) orclickthe"x"tab option## in this menu #To open one of the normal browsing tabs.

From here, you can tap any tab at the top to open or tap Done in the lower right corner to open the last visible tab on the screen.

How to disable Private Browsing Mode on Safari on iOS 16 or earlier

Since Safari does not close private tabs on its own on iOS, You can disable private browsing mode on an app by switching from a private tab to a regular active tab. This can be done in two ways - switching to an open tab in the tab group or using the shortcut in the Safari tab bar at the bottom.

Method #1: From Tab Group

To disable private browsing mode on Safari using Tab Group, click the tab icon in the lower right corner.

When the tab overview screen appears, click on the "Private" section at the bottom.

You will now see the tab group popping up from the bottom. Here, select the "x" tab just above the "Private" group. "x" is the number of tabs that can be opened from the last active session.

#You will now switch to the non-private tab that was active before you switched to private browsing on Safari. When you do this, private browsing mode will be disabled.

Method #2: From the Tab Bar

Another quick way to disable private browsing mode is to switch to a non-private tab from the tab bar. To do this, click and hold the tab icon in the lower right corner.

In the overflow menu that appears, select the "x" tab, where "x" is the one that may currently be open in a non-private browsing session Number of tabs.

#When you do this, Safari disables private browsing mode and displays the non-private tab you last visited.

How to quickly close private tabs on Safari

Contrary to what you might expect, disabling private browsing mode on Safari does not necessarily close the tabs open in it. When you switch back to Private tabs from normal tabs, all tabs that were previously loaded in Private Browsing mode will reload on the screen again. This might put you in an awkward position, as turning private browsing mode back on after a few days might cause all the tabs you might have had open before.

To ensure that no one can access your private tabs in the future, it is important to close all private tabs. To do this, make sure you're in private browsing mode in Safari, then click and hold the tab icon in the lower right corner.

In the overflow menu that appears, select "Close all 'x' tabs".

Now you will see a prompt on the screen asking if you want to continue with the selected action. Here, click to close all "x" tabs.

#All tabs opened privately on Safari will be deleted and you will only see the start page on the screen.

# You may still have to disable private browsing mode from here yourself, but you can rest assured that any private tabs you have open won't reappear.

How to Enable Face ID to Unlock Private Browsing on Safari

As we explained above, closing a Safari app with Private Browsing enabled will not reset it the next time you open it Its disabled. To prevent yourself from embarrassing yourself and prevent others from accessing your active tabs in private browsing, iOS lets you lock private browsing mode with Face ID on iOS 17. With this extra level of privacy, no one but you will be able to open or see which tabs are open in Safari’s private browsing mode.

To enable Face ID to unlock private browsing, open the Settings app on your iPhone.

In Settings, scroll down and tap Safari.

On the Safari screen, scroll down and find the "Privacy & Security" section, then turn on the "Require Face ID to Unlock Private Browsing" toggle switch.

#When you do this, your private browsing session will be locked when you close the Safari app. After opening Safari again, you can switch away from private browsing or access your private tabs by clicking "Unlock".

Before entering private browsing, you will be asked to verify your identity using Face ID or your device passcode so others cannot access it without your knowledge it.

The above is the detailed content of 2023 Guide: How to Turn Off Private Browsing Mode on iPhone Safari. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!