How to Remove “Frequently Visited” on Safari (iPhone and Mac)
Key Takeaways
- iPhone, iPad, and Mac users have a total of three ways to get rid of Safari’s “Frequently Visited” section.
- Choose between hiding the entire section or deleting specific sites if you wish to keep using the feature but want to clear certain websites.
- Deleting your Safari history is a better option to ensure complete privacy and prevent others from seeing your web history and top-searched sites.
The “Frequently Visited” section on Safari’s start page makes it easy to access top-searched websites quickly. However, someone who borrows your device for a moment can easily see what these sites are. So, here’s how to remove “Frequently Visited” from Safari.
How to Remove Safari’s Frequently Visited Section on an iPhone
First, let’s look at removing the Frequently Visited section from the Safari start page. Follow the steps below to learn what you need to do:
- Launch Safari. If there’s already a webpage loaded, tap the Tabs icon (two squares, overlapped) in the toolbar.
- Then, tap the Add (+) icon in the bottom-left corner to open a new tab and access the start page.
- On the start page, scroll down to the bottom and tap Edit.
- Now, toggle off Frequently Visited.
That’s it. After toggling off Frequently Visited, you can also opt to toggle on Use Start Page on All Devices as an additional setting to improve your Safari experience. This will remove the Frequently Visited section from Safari across your other Apple devices, as long as you’re signed in to them with the same Apple ID.
How to Get Rid of Frequently Visited Sites in Safari on an iPhone
If you want to continue using the Frequently Visited section but wish to clear one or more of the existing sites listed there, you have two options: delete a specific site or delete your Safari history.
To remove a specific site, long-press on the website icon under the Frequently Visited section and tap Delete from the context.
Deleting your Safari history is the better option if you want to ensure that people won’t find out which websites you’ve visited. That’s because removing the Frequently Visited section and deleting specific sites only hides them from view. Those sites still remain in your Safari history.
So, if someone types certain letters or keywords into the search field, the website link will naturally appear as part of your web history.
To delete your Safari history and get rid of all frequently visited sites at once, tap the Bookmark icon in the toolbar, head to the History tab (clock icon), and tap Clear > All History > Clear History.
How to Remove Safari’s Frequently Visited Section on a Mac
Let’s move on to the instructions for Mac. First, open Safari to view the start page. If you’re already on a webpage in Safari, you can access the start page by clicking Bookmarks > Show Start Page from the menu bar.
To customize the Safari start page on your Mac, click Options (icon shows three sliders) at the bottom and uncheck Frequently Visited. This section will now disappear from the start page in Safari.
How to Get Rid of Frequently Visited Sites in Safari on a Mac
Like on an iPhone, you can choose to keep the Frequently Visited section but delete a specific site from the list. In Safari, Control-click on the website under Frequently Visited and choose Delete.
To get rid of frequently visited websites from your web history and prevent them from showing up at the top of your search suggestions, you’ll need to delete your Safari history on macOS.
With the browser open, click Safari in the menu bar and choose Clear History. Click the dropdown arrow in the pop-up menu and select All History. Then, click Clear History to confirm your action.
Safari’s Frequently Visited Section Doesn’t Have to Compromise Your Privacy
As you can see, iPhone, iPad, and Mac users have three options if they wish to remove frequently visited sites from Safari.
If your aim is to simply remove the whole list of sites from plain view, you can hide the entire Frequently Visited section. However, if you want to continue using the feature for convenience, you can either delete specific sites or clear your Safari history completely.