How to show the Favorites bar in Safari on Mac and iPad

Updated 18 October 2026

Safari calls its bookmarks bar the Favorites bar. On a Mac, choose View > Show Favorites Bar and it appears below the toolbar. On an iPad, go to Settings > Apps > Safari and turn on Show Favorites Bar. Apple’s iPhone guide has no Favorites bar; on iPhone your Favorites show on the start page.

Show the Favorites bar on a Mac

1. Open Safari.
2. Choose View > Show Favorites Bar.

The bar shows the bookmarks in your Favorites folder. When angle brackets appear at its right end, the window is too narrow for everything: click them to see the rest, or widen the window.

Is there a keyboard shortcut?

Apple’s list of Safari shortcuts doesn’t include one for the Favorites bar. Its advice is to check the menus, where shortcuts appear as symbols next to each command, so look beside Show Favorites Bar in the View menu. To set your own:

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Keyboard, then click Keyboard Shortcuts.
2. Select App Shortcuts, click the Add button and choose Safari in the Application pop-up menu.
3. In Menu title, type View->Show Favorites Bar exactly as shown.
4. Click in Keyboard shortcut, press the keys you want, then click Done.

Pick keys nothing else uses: Apple notes that a shortcut already taken by another command won’t work.

Choose what’s on the bar

• Add a site: click in the Smart Search field and drag the address onto the bar, or choose Bookmarks > Add Bookmark and pick Favorites.
• Rearrange: drag items left or right.
• Remove: drag an item off the top of the bar, or Control-click it and choose Delete.
• Icons only: Control-click between items and choose Show Icons Only. For a single item, Control-click it and deselect Show Title.
• Folders: Command-click a folder on the bar to open all its bookmarks in tabs.

Favorites bar disappeared?

• It’s switched off: View > Show Favorites Bar brings it back.
• It’s there but empty: the bar mirrors the Favorites folder, so an empty folder means an empty bar. Open the sidebar with Control+Cmd+1 and look in Favorites. If the bookmarks were deleted, recover them from iCloud.com or Time Machine.
• You’re in another profile: each Safari profile gets its own bookmarks folder for favorites, chosen when the profile is made, so a window in another profile can show different favorites. Check under Safari > Settings > Profiles.
• Sites are missing at the end: look for the angle brackets at the right, or make the window wider.
• A device stopped matching: Favorites sync through iCloud, so a change on one device reaches the others. When one falls out of step, Apple’s checklist is to turn Safari off in iCloud settings, wait a few minutes, turn it back on, check the date and time, and restart.

On iPad

1. Open Settings and tap Apps, then Safari.
2. Turn on Show Favorites Bar, below General.

On iPadOS 17 and earlier, the switch is in Settings > Safari. For icons only, tap Favorites Bar Appearance in the same list and choose Show Icons Only. To add the page you’re on, tap the Share button, tap View More, then Add to Favorites.

On iPhone

Apple’s iPhone guide has no Favorites bar setting. Your Favorites live on the start page, which appears when you open Safari or tap the Tabs button and then the Add button. If they’re missing, scroll to the bottom of the start page, tap Edit and turn on Favorites. To add a site, tap the Page Menu button, tap Add Bookmark to, choose Favorites as the location and tap Save.

Also use Chrome or Brave on a computer? Their version is the bookmarks bar (Chrome, Brave), and Stackboard can put your bookmarks on their new tab page as a board of tiles.