What are iCloud Tabs?
Apple’s ecosystem relies heavily on iCloud to create a seamless experience across devices. In the Safari browser, this manifests as “iCloud Tabs.” If you open a new, blank tab in Safari on your Mac (the Start Page), you will likely see a section near the bottom listing all the web pages currently open on your iPhone, iPad, or other MacBooks associated with your Apple ID. While this is great for picking up an article right where you left off on your phone, it poses a significant privacy risk if you share your Mac with family members or frequently share your screen during Zoom presentations. If you don’t want your colleagues seeing the recipes, shopping carts, or news articles currently open on your personal iPhone, you should hide this section from the Start Page.
How to Hide the “From Your Devices” Section
You can customize the layout of the Safari Start Page directly from the browser window without needing to dive into complex system settings or disable iCloud syncing entirely.
- Open the Safari browser on your Mac.
- Open a new, blank tab (press Command + T) to view the Start Page. (Ensure you do not have Safari set to open new tabs to a blank white page; it must be the Start Page).
- Look at the very bottom right corner of the Safari window. You will see an Options icon (it looks like three sliders).
- Click the Options icon to open the Start Page customization menu.
- You will see a list of checkboxes for features like Favorites, Frequently Visited, and Privacy Report.
- Locate the checkbox labeled iCloud Tabs (in older versions of macOS, this was labeled From Your Devices).
- Uncheck the box.
The Result
As soon as you uncheck that box, the section detailing the browsing activity of your other Apple devices will instantly vanish from the Start Page. The setting is saved automatically. From now on, whenever you open a new tab to search for something during a presentation, your audience will only see your Favorites or a clean background image, ensuring your personal mobile browsing habits remain entirely private.