How to Re-Open Recently Closed Tabs in Safari for Mac the Easy Way
Mac users have long been able to re-open a closed Safari tab by using a keyboard shortcut, but what if some time has passed, or what if you want to re-open a specific closed tab in Safari? It turns out the latest versions of Safari for Mac OS support a menu-based option to easily browse through a list of recently closed tabs, which you can then select any closed tab from to re-open.
Re-Open Recently Closed Safari Tabs on Mac
- From any active Safari browser window on the Mac, click and hold on the “+” plus button in the Safari tab bar
- Select the Safari tab you want to re-open
- Repeat with other recently closed Safari tabs you want to re-open if desired
This is a simple and effective way of re-opening recently closed tabs and browser windows in Safari for Mac. Perhaps the best part about this approach is that it allows you to select a specific browser tab to re-open, whereas the Command+Z keystroke to reopen tabs approach will just re-open the last closed Safari tabs in chronological order.
If this trick sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because it’s just like how you re-open closed tabs in Safari for iPhone and iPad in the iOS world.
Know of another way to reopen closed tabs in Safari for Mac? Is there a better approach? Let us know in the comments!
I have no idea how so many people seem to be convinced this does work. It definetely doesn’t on my mac…
I’ve always used history. Like this better!
Alternative on Step 1. If you right-click on the +, you do not need to click-hold. Oddly, I didn’t know about click-hold until now.
Good to know will be useful =) btw I always used the “reopen last closed window” command from the History menu, that’s because sometimes I close the wrong window so the specific menu item comes in handy and with the cmd-shift-T shortcut
Doesn’t work on my iMac !!
Mine either. Safari 9.1.2
You need Safari 10 or later, this is a new Safari feature on Mac.
I was about to say the same but then I realized I was in Firefox. Upon switching to Safari (10.0.3), it worked for me.
You need to update Safari if you don’t have this feature.
Been on Macs for 20+ years and embarrassed to say I did NOT know this and I have my own IT business :-/ Thanks for sharing it :)
This particular ability is fairly recent addition, the other option was to use the History menu and various submenus in there.
I’ve always used History>recently closed
I use the history menu in Safari mostly too but this is a nice trick since it’s the same on Mac what it is on iPad and iPhone.
Some things are good to merge features like that.