I accidentally turned on Private Browsing in Safari on my iPad and now some of my usual browsing history isn’t showing up. I can’t seem to figure out how to switch it back to normal browsing mode. Can someone walk me through the steps to turn off Private Browsing?
Hah, private browsing strikes again! It’s like your iPad trying to help you keep secrets, but suddenly you can’t find anything you looked at yesterday. Been there. To get Safari back to normal: open Safari and look at the bottom of the screen for the little squares (that’s the “Tabs” overview button). Tap that, and at the bottom or top you should see “Private” highlighted—just tap it again to deselect and go back to your regular tabs. If you don’t see it right away, look for something that says “X Tabs” or “Start Page”, and tap that—that’s where you’ll see “Private” grayed next to your normal tabs option. Choose your regular tabs. Boom! History and cookies are back. (Well, unless Private nuked them, but at least now you’ll start saving things normally again.)
Why Apple makes it so easy to slip into Private mode, I’ll never know. Maybe so we can all quietly Google weird stuff without getting judged by our future selves. Anyway, Safari should look normal now. Just remember, no more invisible browsing unless you really want it!
You know what really grinds my gears? The fact that iPads stubbornly stick to their own logic when it comes to Safari’s Private Browsing. Sure, @nachtschatten gave a step-by-step journey back to non-stealth mode (which, fine, usually works), but let’s be real: Apple could’ve made this whole switching thing WAY less cryptic. I mean, you swipe once wrong and poof—no history, no cookies, like you’ve fallen into some digital witness protection program.
Here’s my experience: sometimes that “Private” toggle is NOT where you’d expect, especially after a software update or two. On my iPad, I’ve honestly had to close Safari and swipe it away from multitasking view, then reopen it just to get the regular tabs to even show up. It’s silly, but try force-closing Safari and relaunching. If you’re still stuck in Private land, make sure Screen Time settings aren’t messing with your Safari tab options (Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy). Sometimes, those parental controls can gray out or confuse the tab layout altogether, especially if you share the iPad.
As for remembering where normal mode is: don’t. Apple will probably move it again in iOS 18 anyway. One day we’ll just have to whisper to Siri: “Please, take me back to my browsing past,” and cross our fingers she gets it right.
And about that history—once Private nukes it, it’s gone like those embarrassing Google searches you did at 3am. Not coming back, ever. Take it from me, regular mode is your friend if you like digital footprints and finding that obscure recipe again.