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Limit the number of safari tabs

Pagemakers

Pagemakers

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Mar 28, 2008
2,911
1,203
Manchester UK
is there any way to limit the number of tabs safari opens?

When you turn the phone from portrait to landscape mode there a stupid amount open.

I only want about 6 at max.

Problem only exists on iPhone 6 Plus
 
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Pagemakers said:
As you well know that's kind of impossible when you click links etc from emails or links from within websites that open in new tabs.

What am I supposed to do, spend half my time closing tabs?
Click to expand...
I open links from lots of places but somehow don't have tons of tabs. If I'm done with a tab I close it out, as I've and most other people have been doing on a computer for years and years now.
 
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C DM said:
I open links from lots of places but somehow don't have tons of tabs. If I'm done with a tab I close it out, as I've and most other people have been doing on a computer for years and years now.
Click to expand...
I always end up with 30-40 tabs. Stupid
 
Pagemakers said:
I always end up with 30-40 tabs. Stupid
Click to expand...

I can understand having choice of a limit. But managing tabs isn't that difficult. Just slide them to the left and they close. I never have more than 10 tabs open and thats pushing it.
 
I should reiterate the problem only exists on the iPhone 6 Plus and is only really noticeable when you turn the screen into landscape mode.

For example in this screenshot there are about 30 open tabs. I zeroed them this morning.
 

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Pagemakers said:
I should reiterate the problem only exists on the iPhone 6 Plus and is only really noticeable when you turn the screen into landscape mode.

For example in this screenshot there are about 30 open tabs. I zeroed them this morning.
Click to expand...
So in the span of one morning you have 30 open tabs from somewhere? And tabs somehow don't open and/or stay open when using another device or not using landscape mode on the iPhone 6 Plus (or you are saying they just become more visible even though they are still there basically)?
 
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C DM said:
So in the span of one morning you have 30 open tabs from somewhere? And tabs somehow don't open and/or stay open when using another device or not using landscape mode on the iPhone 6 Plus (or you are saying they just become more visible even though they are still there basically)?
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I am saying this....

On the iPhone 6 or below, you open a website and click on a link and it opens in a new tab. Somebody sends you an email or an iMessage and you click the link and another tab is opened. No problem because the tabs are always hidden in that cascade thing. Turn your phone into landscape mode and nothing much happens. Again no problem.

On the iPhone 6 Plus in landscape mode you have tabbed browsing, now you suddenly get 30-40 tabs appear at the top of the page. 80% of the tabs being unreadable because so many are open. You have no idea what will open when you click on a tab because the tab has no text on it. See my previous screenshot. Yes I can turn tabs off but they are useful when you only have half a dozen open or I can close them ONE BY ONE, but my point is Safari needs a setting to limit tabs to say 6 or whatever you set it to be.

I've had iPhones for years and this is never really been a problem until I've just upgraded to a 6 Plus and the issue is very evident.

Yes I have 30 tabs open since this morning. I do a lot of work based browsing on my iOS device.
 
I don’t particularly see the problem. You can still use the “show all tabs” view in landscape mode and navigate through your tabs from there. Or you simply swipe horizontally over the tab bar to reveal the labels (without actually tapping).

How do you expect your solution to work? When you reach the limit, automatically close the tab you haven’t used the longest? Prompt you whenever you attempt to open tab number 7? It seems such an unnecessary hassle to deal with tabs like that. Maybe you should get in the habit of closing tabs more frequently, particularly when you’re done interacting with them.

Also consider reading list and bookmarks as alternatives for opening each and every tab. When you tap and hold on a link in Mail or Messages, you can add it to your reading list instead.
 
Let's agree to disagree. I don't want to spend my time closing tabs. I'd be happy if I set a max of 10 tabs that my oldest tab was overwritten with the newest. That exactly what happens now when you reach something like 50 tabs.

Why anybody would need 50 tabs open on a 5" device is beyond me.
 
Pagemakers said:
Let's agree to disagree. I don't want to spend my time closing tabs. I'd be happy if I set a max of 10 tabs that my oldest tab was overwritten with the newest. That exactly what happens now when you reach something like 50 tabs.

Why anybody would need 50 tabs open on a 5" device is beyond me.
Click to expand...
Most people typically wouldn't. They just basically close them out when they don't need them and/or clear out the ones they don't need every once in a while. Kind of similar to how the recently used apps list works, and various other things.
 
Pagemakers said:
As you well know that's kind of impossible when you click links etc from emails or links from within websites that open in new tabs.

What am I supposed to do, spend half my time closing tabs?
Click to expand...

So you would rather click on a link and that link not open because you've already reached your maximum number of browser tabs?
Just do some housekeeping man.
 
Pagemakers said:
No. That not what I said. Read my reply again man.
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Well, I feel a change in behavior as you suggest, that is, Safari should stop opening links as new tabs after a certain number of tabs has been opened and instead overwrite opened ones, would be far more confusing to the average user if you ask me. What I mean is that that way sometimes you would have to close a tab or actually change tabs to return, and other times you'd have to just go back, that is, hit the back button.

And what's so difficult about actually closing a tab yourself when you are done with it? You have to do some tapping to return to your original webpage anyway, so you might as well just close the done-with tab in the process.
 
In defense of the OP, didn't iOS 1 - 6 all limit Safari to something like 8 tabs? Didn't it used to work exactly like the OP is asking for 6 years without any of us getting confused by it?

I have no problem closing tabs, but I do think it's funny that in 3 years we've gone from having Safari working this exact way to now having people literally unable to understand how it's possible.
 
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Closing a tab in landscape in fine but in portrait mode it's a couple of clicks away. A total pain to have to click the tabs button and then slide to close a tab every time I use safari - which in my case is serveral times an hour (for work).

Seriously, all I'm asking for is an option. Then you'll be happy and so will I.
 
Small White Car said:
In defense of the OP, didn't iOS 1 - 6 all limit Safari to something like 8 tabs? Didn't it used to work exactly like the OP is asking for 6 years without any of us getting confused by it?

I have no problem closing tabs, but I do think it's funny that in 3 years we've gone from having Safari working this exact way to now having people literally unable to understand how it's possible.
Click to expand...
Well said.
 
And for you to truly see this problem you need a 6 plus that shows the tabs in landscape view. If you don't have such a device you can't really comment because you can't see the problem.
 
Pagemakers said:
Closing a tab in landscape in fine but in portrait mode it's a couple of clicks away. A total pain to have to click the tabs button and then slide to close a tab every time I use safari - which in my case is serveral times an hour (for work).

Seriously, all I'm asking for is an option. Then you'll be happy and so will I.
Click to expand...
You can select safari to open links in the same browser tab if you wish, and that way you could just go back to where you were when done.
 
sunking101 said:
You can select safari to open links in the same browser tab if you wish, and that way you could just go back to where you were when done.
Click to expand...
I realise that and just thought I'd give it a go. Closed all tabs in safari and had a click around the web. While it's better. Within a few minutes I have 7 tabs open again so it's hardly a fix.
 
Small White Car said:
I have no problem closing tabs, but I do think it's funny that in 3 years we've gone from having Safari working this exact way to now having people literally unable to understand how it's possible.
Click to expand...

But that isn't the case, is it? I know how it works and the OP, too, understands it perfectly fine. All I say is that a sudden change in behavior would be (and, as actually was like that before iOS 7, used to be) harder to understand for the average person. That's probably why Apple changed it in the first place, isn't it?
 
Small White Car said:
In defense of the OP, didn't iOS 1 - 6 all limit Safari to something like 8 tabs? Didn't it used to work exactly like the OP is asking for 6 years without any of us getting confused by it?

I have no problem closing tabs, but I do think it's funny that in 3 years we've gone from having Safari working this exact way to now having people literally unable to understand how it's possible.
Click to expand...
To be fair many people found that to be a strange limitation and were fine with it only so far as they basically had to accept it as how it was and were happy when that limitation was finally gone.
 
this is a dumb argument. how is safari suppose to know which tabs you want open when you turn your phone on it's side?
 
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