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Mi_ka

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2020
9
6
Been opening multiple tabs in web browsers forever, long before I got into the Apple ecosystem in 2008 on Macs and eventually on iPhone and since 2015 on the iPad as my main platform. This is how I work, sometimes really many tabs, in the hundreds number and never had a problem besides browser slowdown. Even with Safari under all versions of MacOS or iOS until September 2019.

I repeat, I NEVER had a problem even hitting the 500 tabs limit of Safari on 2017 iPad 12.9’’ under iOS 12.
NEVER!
500 tabs open for months and the iOS 12 Safari was rock steady! (... severe health troubles at home caused the tabs accumulation over multiple months).

Until this new shiny iPadOS 13 came along.
And then .1 and .2 etc until the current .4 updates have not yet fixed this devastating to my workflow bug (not to mention other bugs crawling unfixed).
Bravo Apple, thank you very much!

Now, whenever it wants, Safari reopens with a blank page or just 4 tabs open or 3 or 2 tabs open etc and GONE ARE ALL the 15 or 23 etc tabs I had opened the night before with information pending to be consumed when I felt like it in the next day.

POOF, browsing work gone in thin smoke. Bravo Apple!

Most times it is impractical to go through the inconsistent “history” or the crippled “recently closed” list to try to recover what I think was dimmed as interesting to look into so I just give up and start over and gone are possible useful tech updates or scientific articles.

Most of the time time NO SEPARATE window exists to “Merge” all tabs and recover what seemed as “tabs gone” but just resting in some still open Safari window in the background.

Most of the times Safari just snubs you the paying user trashing the browsing hours you invested from your day.

Bravo Apple, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Now, could this be a Handoff or shared browsing history bug?
 

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
5,791
4,387
tabs I had opened the night before with information pending to be consumed when I felt like it in the next day

Or... add them to Safari's Reading List?

But, yes, Safari has some sort of memory management issue going on. Will see similar and "something went wrong" messages after a few days. Reboot clears things up for a few days, rinse, repeat.
 

bmac89

macrumors 65816
Aug 3, 2014
1,388
467
I have the same issue with disappearing tabs... but for me it started with iOS 11 on my iPad Pro 9.7”.

Or... add them to Safari's Reading List?

Unfortunately this is not an option for me because the entire reading list disappears multiple times a day with no way to get the items back. I add something and minutes later the entire list is gone. I have tried with safari iCloud on and off but it makes no difference. It happens without fail every time and there is no way to get the items back.
 

Mi_ka

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2020
9
6
I have the same issue with disappearing tabs... but for me it started with iOS 11 on my iPad Pro 9.7”.
since iOS 11 !!

I am now switching browsers until iOS14 comes out - I am fed up with Apple, they surely have seen the multiple similar reports floating around and yet they either do not care or have no good control on their code to fix this
 

Mi_ka

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2020
9
6
Still happening on IOS14, not only on my iPad Pro 12,9 2nd gen but also on much less used mother’s-in-law ipad 5th gen so she is loosing 20-30 tabs worth of recipes each time...

iPhone X with 300+ tabs open for 12+ months now as a test, rock steady, never lost a single tab...

Firefox now selected as the default browser, thank you Apple...
 

VaruLV

macrumors 6502a
Mar 25, 2019
627
554
Chiming in just to say that this has been happening to my Pro 10.5 since Ive owned it with iOS 12 and up unti now, with iOS 14.2 it just happened literally 10 minutes ago. Filled bug report on Apples page, but, seeing as this is common issue that has persisted for such long period of time makes me wonder whether my report was useless.
 
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Mi_ka

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2020
9
6
Chiming in just to say that this has been happening to my Pro 10.5 since Ive owned it with iOS 12 and up unti now, with iOS 14.2 it just happened literally 10 minutes ago. Filled bug report on Apples page, but, seeing as this is common issue that has persisted for such long period of time makes me wonder whether my report was useless.
Don’t expect anything: My guess is that this is a deep down bug and not affecting many users so I am convinced the guys at Apple just turn the blind eye on our sparse and inconsistent reports on the issue.

What bugs me even more is that Safari on my iPhoneX has been rock steady for 12+ months with hundreds of tabs open - a few days ago I had to close many of these tabs since I had been hitting the tab limit (500?) over the past month and I could not open any more tabs... yes, I was testing the Safari behavior on iPhoneX and it has been rock steady indeed all these months while Safari on iPad 12,9 2nd gen misbehaves whenever it wants...
 
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Reactions: VaruLV
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