How to Customise the Safari Start Page on Mac with Wallpapers and Widgets

Opening a new tab in Apple Safari presents the Start Page—a central launching pad for bookmarks, recent reading materials, and synced device tabs. While Apple configures standard default widgets out of the box, macOS provides comprehensive customisation controls that allow you to set personalized background wallpapers, curate your favourite site tiles, hide intrusive recommendation sections, and synchronise your start layout across all your Apple devices via iCloud.

Start Page Sections and Customisation Options

Safari’s Start Page is comprised of modular sections that can be individually toggled, reordered, or removed:

• Favourites: Grid tiles of your most frequently visited web bookmarks and bookmark folders.
• Frequently Visited: Automatically curated shortcuts based on your daily browsing habits.
• Shared with You: Articles, web links, and media sent to you by friends and family via the Messages app.
• Privacy Report: An interactive summary showing the number of cross-site trackers Safari actively blocked during the past 30 days.
• Siri Suggestions: Intelligent links detected in Mail, Calendar, or Notes that you may want to revisit.
• Reading List: Web pages you have saved for later reading, accessible offline.
• iCloud Tabs: Active tabs currently open on your connected iPhone, iPad, or secondary Mac computers.
• Background Image: A high-resolution wallpaper or custom personal photograph displayed behind your Start Page tiles.

How to Open the Start Page Customisation Menu

Accessing Start Page settings takes just one click from any new tab window:

1. Launch Safari on your Mac.
2. Open a new tab by clicking the + button in the tab bar (or press Cmd + T).
3. If a specific webpage opens instead of your Start Page, navigate to Safari > Settings > General in the menu bar and ensure “New tabs open with” is set to Start Page.
4. Look at the bottom right corner of the Start Page canvas. Locate and click the Options button (represented by three slider switches).
5. A pop-up menu will appear, displaying checkboxes for every modular section alongside a wallpaper preview carousel.

Adding Custom Wallpapers to the Safari Start Page

You can choose from Apple’s curated gallery of dynamic gradient backgrounds or upload your own high-resolution photography:

1. In the Start Page customisation menu, check the box labelled Background Image.
2. Scroll horizontally through the provided Apple wallpaper options and click any thumbnail to preview it instantly.
3. To upload a personal wallpaper, click the large square with the + (Plus) symbol at the start of the image list.
4. A Finder window will open. Navigate to your desired image file (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, or WebP), select it, and click Choose.
5. Safari immediately stretches and centres your chosen image behind the Start Page tiles with a subtle dark vignette to maintain text readability.
6. To remove a custom wallpaper at any time, hover over the thumbnail in the options menu and click the small circular X icon.

Reordering and Managing Start Page Sections

Tailor your workflow by placing the tools you need most at the top of the viewport:

1. Toggle off any sections you do not use (for example, unchecking Shared with You or Frequently Visited to maintain an uncluttered layout).
2. To rearrange the order of sections on your screen, click and drag any section header directly on the Start Page canvas (e.g., dragging iCloud Tabs above Privacy Report).
3. To clear individual tiles from the Frequently Visited grid without clearing your entire browser history, right-click the specific website icon and select Delete.

Syncing Start Page Layouts Across All Apple Devices

If you use Safari on both a Mac and an iPad or iPhone, you can synchronize your custom Start Page setup automatically:

1. Open the Start Page customisation panel on your Mac.
2. Check the box labelled Use Start Page on All Devices.
3. Ensure iCloud Safari syncing is active in System Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Saved to iCloud > Safari.
4. Your custom wallpaper, enabled sections, and tile hierarchy will automatically sync across all hardware logged into your Apple Account.

Personalising your Safari Start Page establishes a clean, productive workspace every time you open a new browsing session on your Mac.