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How To Restore Deleted iPhone Safari Bookmarks
Accidentally deleted your Safari bookmarks? You can restore them if you’re fast…
Bookmarks are an integral part of the web browsing experience. Also known as “favorites” bookmarks allow you to save a ULR to your browser so you can quickly access the site again.
And modern browsers have really increased the visibility of your bookmarks. Back in the day, bookmarks were only accessible from a drop-down menu item, but today they are front and center, with the ability to have your most popular ones appear in a browser toolbar or even the start page of the browser itself.
Bookmarks have become all the more critical in recent years as we’ve moved from just using one computing device in our daily lives (our desktop computer) to using many, including our laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Thanks to syncing solutions, like Apple’s iCloud, your Safari bookmarks will effortlessly sync between your iCloud devices.
But what happens if you accidentally delete a single bookmark–or all of them? Thankfully, Apple has a way you can restore your Safari bookmarks if you’ve deleted one or many (or all of them). Here’s what you need to know…
Why Do People Delete Bookmarks?
Some people have thousands or even tens of thousands of bookmarks saved on their computers. These may be bookmarks going back decades now. An excessive amount of bookmarks can make navigating your web browser cumbersome–which is why it’s a good idea to do some digital maintenance from time to time to delete your unneeded bookmarks.
It’s also a good idea to prune bookmarks from time to time because the older ones may link to a site that no longer exists anymore. In that case, why have a bookmark for it?
Also, if you have a shared computer, you might not want some people seeing the sites you’ve saved in the past. Your bookmarks can tell someone a lot about it: they can tell them where you like to shop, where you have your credit cards from, and even what medical conditions you have.
(Of course in the above cases, you’ll want to restrict access to those important bookmarks – not delete them…unless you don’t need them anymore).
How Are Bookmarks Synced?
Bookmarks are usually synced by the browser owner’s services. For example, Chrome will keep your bookmarks synced across devices via your Google account. And Firefox will sync your bookmarks across devices via your Firefox account.
Safari users will also see their bookmarks synced via their iCloud account–ie their Apple account.
How To Restore Deleted iPhone Safari Bookmarks
No matter if you deleted a Safari bookmark (or bookmarks) on your iPhone, Mac, or iPad, those bookmarks will soon (nearly instantaneously) be removed from ALL of your Apple devices that are signed in to your iCloud account.
But don’t panic! There is a way to get them back – if you act quickly. But in order to get your deleted Safari bookmarks back, you’ll need the following:
- Access to a computer with an Internet connection. This does NOT need to be a Mac. It can be a Windows PC.
- Any web browser on the computer.
- Your iCloud ID and password.
If you have the above, you can easily get your Safari bookmarks back. Here’s how:
- On any computer, open any web browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc) and go to www.icloud.com.
- Log into iCloud.com with your iCloud username and password. This is also known as your Apple ID. Your Apple ID is usually your email address.
- After you have logged in, click your name in the upper lefthand corner of iCloud.com.
- Click Account Settings from the dropdown menu.
- On the Account Settings page, scroll all the way to the bottom until you see the “Advanced” header. Below that, click “Restore Bookmarks.”
- The Restore Bookmarks window will appear. It will show ALL the bookmarks you have deleted. Scroll through them and click the box next to each one you want to restore. When you click the box a checkmark will appear in it. Alternately, you can click the “Select All” command to select all deleted bookmarks.
- Once you’ve made your selection, click the Restore button.
Your deleted bookmarks will now be restored. You’ll see them back in your Safari browser on every device signed in to your iCloud account in a few moments.
Keep in mind that in order to restore your deleted iPhone Safari bookmarks, you need to act relatively quickly. They’ll only be accessible from the Restore feature above for 30 days after you’ve deleted them at which point they will be deleted forever.
And check out How To Bookmark Websites On iPhone!