How-To

How to Open Recently Closed Tabs in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox on iOS

By Lori Kaufman

Published December 12, 2017

Have you ever accidentally closed a tab in your browser on your iPhone or iPad? Learn how to reopen closed tabs in browsers in iOS.

I tend to open a lot of tabs when browsing the web, both on my PC and on my phone. I’ve had hundreds of tabs open in Safari on my phone before. It gets difficult to find tabs with that many tabs open. So, I start closing tabs, sometimes ones I don’t mean to close.

Luckily, it’s easy to reopen tabs in Safari for iOS. Reopening closed tabs in Chrome and Firefox for iOS is also easy. Today, I’ll show you how to reopen closed tabs in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox for iOS.

Safari for iPhone

In Safari on your iPhone, tap the tabs icon in the lower-right corner of the screen.

Tap and hold the plus icon in the bottom-center of the screen.

The Recently Closed Tabs screen displays. Tap on a webpage you want to open again.

Safari for iPad

Reopening a closed tab in Safari on an iPad is slightly different than on an iPhone, but it’s quicker.

In Safari on your iPad, tap and hold on the plus icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. A popup displays showing a list of recently closed tabs.

Swipe up to scroll through the list. Then, tap on a webpage to reopen it in a new tab.

Chrome for iPhone and iPad

The method for reopening closed tabs in Chrome is the same for iPhone and iPad.

Open Chrome and tap the menu icon (three vertical dots) in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Tap Recent Tabs on the menu.

Under Recently closed, on the Recent Tabs screen, tap a webpage to reopen it in a new tab.

Firefox for iPhone and iPad

Reopening closed tabs in Firefox for iOS is the mostly the same on iPhone and iPad. I’ll show you the procedure on iPhone and mention the differences on iPad.

In Firefox, tap the address bar to highlight the URL. Then, tap the clock icon below the address bar.

The History screen displays. You can open previously visited webpages here. Or, tap Recently Closed.

All your Recently Closed tabs are listed. Tap a webpage to reopen it. The selected webpage opens on the currently active tab, replacing the webpage previously open on that tab.

You can also access the History screen by tapping on the menu button (three horizontal bars) in the lower-right corner of the screen on your iPhone, or in the upper-right corner of the screen on your iPad.

Then, tap History on the menu. The menu on the iPad drops down from the menu button.

What’s your favorite browser for iOS? Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments below.