How To Disable Safari Suggestions On IPhone, IPad, And Mac

Learn how to turn off Safari suggestions on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac that appear as content previews when typing search terms in the address bar.

Apple’s Safari browser on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac includes a content recommendation feature, called Safari Suggestions, which is different from optional search suggestions that pop up when typing your query into the address field.

Safari suggestions appear as nicely designed interactive content previews for iTunes media, news articles, Wikipedia entries, weather forecasts, apps from the App Store, film showtimes, locations nearby, and more. If you type the search phrase “weather Cupertino,” for example, Safari will show an up-to-date interactive preview of the current weather conditions in Cupertino, California.

Sometimes, these suggestions are unrelated to your searches. Other times, they tend to make Safari respond more slowly as the content preview is loading in the background. Or maybe you just don’t care about them! Here’s how to turn off the Safari Suggestions feature if you find it distracting or unhelpful.

Table of Contents hide 1) Disable Safari content suggestions when searching 1.1) iPhone and iPad 1.2) Mac 2) Turning off location access for Safari suggestions 2.1) iPhone and iPad 2.2) Mac 3) Safari suggestions and privacy

Disable Safari content suggestions when searching

Safari suggestions run on-device. The state of this feature doesn’t sync across your other devices via iCloud. Instead, you must separately toggle Safari suggestions on each device by following the instructions below.

iPhone and iPad

1. Navigate to Settings > Apps > Safari.
2. Slide the Safari Suggestions toggle to the OFF position.
3. Close out the Settings app and switch to Safari to see the changes.

Mac

1. Launch Safari and click the Safari > Settings or Safari > Preferences menu.
2. Select the Search tab.
3. Tick the box next to Include Safari Suggestions.
4. Click Safari’s URL field and start typing to see the difference.

Turning off location access for Safari suggestions

Safari suggestions don’t require access to your location, but turning on location helps deliver more relevant recomednations to your current location. Peruse Apple’s Privacy Policy for details on these data-gathering practices.

You can opt out, but Apple will still use your IP address to match your approximate location to a geographic region to better tailor suggestions. Note that turning off location services for Safari suggestions also disables them for Spotlight suggestions.

iPhone and iPad

1. Navigate to  Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services.
2. Scroll to the bottom and tap System Services.
3. Turn off the switch next to Suggestions & Search.

Mac

1. Launch System Settings on your Mac.
2. Select Privacy & Security in the sidebar, then choose Location Services on the right.
3. Scroll to the bottom and click the Details button next to System Services.
4. Turn off the switch next to Suggestions & Search, authenticate with Touch ID or your macOS account password, and click Done.

Safari suggestions and privacy

You may see content previews for these items, among others:

• News stories from online publications
• Wikipedia articles
• iTunes media
• App Store apps
• Weather forecasts
• Professional sports team and player info
• Stock prices
• Help and support documents from Apple
• Points of interest and locations nearby
• Suggestions from your search engine
• Movie showtimes

If Safari Suggestions are turned on, your device will send non-identifiable data to Apple, including your search queries and any Safari suggestions you select, along with the device’s location and usage data, such as the names of the music and video subscription services you may be using and types of subscriptions.

Identifiable data like your Apple account name, contact details, or search results is not shared with Apple. Turning off Safari Suggestions will automatically stop the sharing of usage data and your search queries with Apple.

Other helpful Safari tips:

• How to turn off autofill suggestions in Safari
• Tips to customize Safari on iPhone and iPad
• How to update Safari, Chrome, and other browsers on iPhone and Mac