Safari Frequently Visited Disappeared On iPhone In iOS 16?
Safari frequently visited sites disappeared from iPhone after iOS 16 update? Option to Customize Start Page missing in the Safari new tab section? Or FVW is enabled in settings but the websites fail to show up when you open a new tab?
Safari Frequently Visited iOS 16 Issues?
This problem has been reported by Gary (iOS 16.1.2):
“Frequently visited web sites list has disappeared in Safari after update with no ability to re-enable.”
We couldn’t replicate the issue and did not find too many similar complaints. Most of them dating from one year ago on Reddit (1, 2 and 3) and the Apple Stack Exchange forums.
Are Safari frequently visited sites also missing from your iPhone or iPad? Please share it in the comments along with any other useful info that could help us find the trigger and provide an informed report to Apple!
How to Fix Safari Frequently Visited Not Showing
We don’t have too much info regarding this unexpected iOS 16 behavior. However, here are some of the troubleshooting options that you can try:
1. Reboot iPhone
First of all you should restart your device? This is the most basic solution, but it can often do miracles.
We recommend you to perform the force restart combo and check Safari for frequently visited websites after a fresh boot.
2. Re-Enable Frequently Visited Sites
If the problem persists, proceed as follows:
- Open Safari and tap on the tabs icon, available in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
- Tap ‘+’ in the lower-left corner.
- Go for Edit.
- Make sure that Frequently Visited is enabled in the Customize Start Page settings.
Tip: If it’s already active, turn it off and close the screen. Tap Edit again and turn Frequently Visited back ON. Are your popular sites showing up now?
3. Clean Install iOS 16
If nothing from the above helped, you can also try to reinstall the current iOS version using a computer and a Lightning to USB (USB-C) cable. Wired reinstall can flush glitches that could be carried-on via over-the-air updates.
How to: If you want to try this fix we have a step-by-step guide available here.
Have you managed to fix Safari frequently visited not showing in iOS 16, iPadOS 16? Do you have a better solution or another problem to report? Share your feedback in the comments.
Related: For more iOS 16.1.2 issues and the available workarounds please check our extended review available here.
iPadOS 16.2: I recently cleared Safari history, and the iPad is no longer updating frequently visited sites. The frequently visited section is visible, but the sites shown are those I visited on my Mac – nothing visited on my iPad is shown. I tried turning options off and on again, and restarting, but nothing works.
Thanks for sharing. Yes, this happened to us too. It seems to sort itself after a couple of days. Keep us updated please.