To get Safari back on your iPhone’s Home Screen, swipe left past your last Home Screen page to open the App Library, type Safari in the search field, then touch and hold the Safari icon and tap Add to Home Screen. If you don’t see that option, keep holding the icon and drag it onto a Home Screen page instead.
Safari almost never disappears for real. On most iPhones it can’t be deleted, so a missing icon usually means it was removed from the Home Screen, tucked into a folder, or hidden on a Home Screen page. If Safari doesn’t show up in the App Library search either, a Screen Time restriction is the most likely cause. In the European Union and Japan, Safari can be deleted, and you can download it again from the App Store.
How to put Safari back on the Home Screen from the App Library
These steps work on any iPhone running iOS 14 or later, including iOS 26 and iOS 27.
- Go to your Home Screen and swipe left until you pass your last page. The App Library opens.
- Tap the search field at the top (it says App Library) and type Safari.
- Touch and hold the Safari icon in the results until a menu appears.
- Tap Add to Home Screen. Safari is placed on the first Home Screen page with free space.
- Swipe back through your pages to find the icon, then tap it to check that Safari opens.
Note: Add to Home Screen only appears when Safari isn’t already on a Home Screen page. If the menu doesn’t include it, Safari is still on your Home Screen somewhere, most likely inside a folder or on a hidden page. The next two sections show how to find it.
If you’d rather choose the exact spot yourself, touch and hold the icon in the App Library a little longer, without lifting your finger, until the Home Screen appears behind it. Then drag it where you want it and let go.
Find Safari if it’s already on the Home Screen
A quick way to see where Safari lives is to swipe down from the middle of the Home Screen to open Search and type Safari. You can tap the result to open the browser right away, even if you can’t find the icon.
If Safari ended up in a folder, open each folder and look for it. When you find it, touch and hold the Safari icon, drag it out of the folder, and drop it on a Home Screen page. Our guide to moving and arranging apps on the Home Screen covers dragging icons between pages and into the Dock.
If Safari went missing along with other apps you used to see together, the whole page they were on is probably hidden. Showing it again brings everything back in its old layout.
- Touch and hold an empty area of the Home Screen until the icons start to jiggle.
- Tap the row of dots near the bottom of the screen. You’ll see small previews of all your pages.
- Tap the empty circle under the page that holds Safari. A checkmark means the page will show.
- Tap Done at the top right, then tap Done again to stop editing.
Why isn’t Safari in the App Library at all?
If searching the App Library doesn’t find Safari, one of two things has happened: it’s blocked by Screen Time, or (in the EU or Japan only) it was deleted.
Allow Safari in Screen Time
Screen Time can hide Safari completely. It’s a common setting on a child’s iPhone, and on phones that once had parental controls turned on. On your own iPhone:
- Open Settings and tap Screen Time.
- Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. Enter the Screen Time passcode if you’re asked.
- Tap Allowed Apps & Features.
- Turn on the switch next to Safari.
Go back to the Home Screen. Safari should reappear, often on its original page. If it doesn’t, repeat the App Library steps above.
If the iPhone belongs to a child in a Family Sharing group, the parent or guardian may need to make the change from their own device. Apple’s guide to parental controls on a child’s iPhone explains the current options. A work or school iPhone may have Safari blocked by the organization, and only its IT team can change that.
Reinstall Safari if you deleted it (EU and Japan)
According to Apple’s list of deletable built-in apps, iPhone users in the European Union and Japan can delete Safari after setting another browser as the default. If that’s you, it can be downloaded again:
- Open the App Store.
- Tap Search and type Safari.
- Tap the download button next to Safari by Apple.
If the button says Open, Safari is already installed and the problem is its icon or a restriction instead. Keep in mind that deleting Safari removed its browsing history and website data stored on the iPhone, so reinstalling won’t bring that back. Our walkthrough on restoring deleted apps covers re-downloads in more detail.
Last resort: reset the Home Screen layout
If Safari is installed and allowed but you still can’t get the icon where you want it, you can put every app back in Apple’s default arrangement. Safari returns to the Dock.
Warning: This undoes all your custom arrangement. Folders you made are removed, apps are sorted alphabetically after the built-in ones, and widgets you added go back to the defaults. Your apps and data aren’t deleted.
- Open Settings and tap General.
- Scroll down and tap Transfer or Reset iPhone.
- Tap Reset, then tap Reset Home Screen Layout.
- Confirm when asked.
Be careful to tap the Home Screen option only. Erase All Content and Settings on the previous screen wipes the whole phone and isn’t needed here.
Put Safari in the Dock so it’s always there
Once Safari is back, dragging it into the Dock at the bottom of the screen keeps it visible on every Home Screen page and makes it harder to lose again. Touch and hold an empty spot until the icons jiggle, then drag Safari into the Dock. The Dock holds up to four apps, so you may need to drag another app out first.
Common questions
I’m missing a website icon, not the Safari app. How do I get it back?
A website icon on the Home Screen is a shortcut you make from inside Safari, separate from the Safari app. You’ll need to add it again from the site’s page. See how to pin Safari websites to your Home Screen.
Will getting Safari back change my default browser?
No. Restoring the icon doesn’t change which browser opens links. That choice is under Settings > Apps > Default Apps > Browser App on iOS 18 and later.
Can I stop new apps from landing on the Home Screen instead?
Yes. Go to Settings > Home Screen & App Library and choose App Library Only for newly downloaded apps. This doesn’t affect Safari or apps that are already on your Home Screen.
Matthew Roberts is the founder and editor of ARS Digitech. He started the site to answer the iPhone questions his friends and family kept asking him, and it has grown into a library of iPhone and iOS how-to guides. Matthew writes and maintains every tutorial on the site, checking steps and menu names against Apple’s official support documentation and updating guides when an iOS release moves a setting.