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Lost Safari Bookmarks After iOS 17 Update? Here's How to Recover Them

Updated By Amy On Feb 14, 2025, 5:39 pm

When I tried to upgrade my iPhone to iOS 17, all of my Safari bookmarks and carefully curated reading lists disappeared. I firmly believe that I have never deleted them, is there any effective way to find these Safari bookmarks that are important to me?

PART1 Reasons for Lost Bookmarks and Common Methods for Recovery

As a powerful web browser built into the iPhone, Safari's bookmarking feature is undoubtedly a useful addition to our daily browsing, improving our access to the websites we use most without the hassle of searching. However, errors, device problems, or accidents during system upgrades can result in the loss of bookmarks. In the face of such a situation, please don't lose heart, things often have a change. In most cases, you can recover lost Safari bookmarks with simple actions. Try closing Safari temporarily and reopening it to see if you can miraculously get them back. If that doesn't work, don't forget that we also have iCloud, which allows users to recover iPhone Safari bookmarks deleted within 30 days. Just log on to iCloud.com, go to "Settings," find and click "Restore Bookmarks" in the "Advanced" Settings for a chance to retrieve those precious bookmarks.

PART2 Recover Lost Safari Bookmarks Using iOS Data Recovery

If the above methods don't work, you still have a chance to retrieve your lost Safari bookmarks from your iPhone, whether you have a backup of your iPhone or not. Here, we recommend an efficient and user-friendly solution, which is to use iOS data recovery, a professional data recovery app.

Designed to rescue and recover all kinds of lost or deleted data from iPhone, iTunes backups, and iCloud backups, the app allows users to recover all types of data, including but not limited to WhatsApp messages, calendar events, notes, contacts, text messages, photos, and that much-needed Safari bookmark you need right now. Its advanced technology can deeply scan your iPhone, unearth existing or lost data, and easily export it to your computer's hard drive, where you can access it at any time, depending on your needs.

Let's take a look at the process of recovering a lost bookmark using iOS data recovery which is quick and easy.

Option 1 Restore Safari Bookmarks Directly from iPhone

Step 1 Connect the iPhone to the PC

First, download and install the iOS Data Recovery software on your computer, and then launch the program. In the left menu, select "Recover from iOS Device" mode and connect your iPhone to your computer via USB cable.

Step 2 Scan all iPhone data

Once connected, click the "Start Scanning" button. The app will run a full scan of your iPhone, listing all the files that have been sorted.

Step 3 Select the bookmark to be recovered

Once the scan is complete, find the "Safari Bookmarks" option under "Memos and Others" and click. Select individual or all bookmarks that you want to recover. In addition, you can more accurately locate missing bookmarks by filtering only deleted items.

Step 4 Perform restoration operations

After confirming the bookmark you want to recover, click the "Recover" button. Then, follow the prompts to select a folder as the save location for the bookmark and click "Recover" again. The program will immediately start the recovery process and save the lost Safari bookmark as an HTML file to the specified location.

After completing the above steps, you will be able to find these recovered bookmarks on your computer. You can then add them back to the iPhone's Safari browser as needed and continue to enjoy convenient web access.

Option 2 Restores iPhone Bookmarks Using iCloud and iTunes Backups

If you accidentally lose your iPhone, but luckily, iTunes and iCloud keep a backup for your iPhone. This means that even if your iPhone is not around, you still have a chance to retrieve those precious Safari bookmarks. iOS Data Recovery makes this process easy and secure. Unlike iTunes and iCloud's "full Recovery," iOS data recovery intelligently filters out the Safari bookmarks you need while ensuring that existing data on your iPhone is unaffected.

Let's take a look at how you can use iOS Data Recovery to retrieve your lost Safari bookmarks from your iCloud backup.

Step 1 Start the iTransfer program and select the mode for recovering iCloud backup files.

Step 2 Among the many iCloud backups, find the backup that contains your missing Safari bookmark and click the "Download" button.

Step 3 Check the bookmark you want to recover and click the "Recover" button.

Step 4 Select a location to save these recovery bookmarks and click "Recover" again. Before long, those precious bookmarks will reappear in your iPhone Safari favorites.

In addition, the process of restoring from an iTunes backup is much the same.

Summary

With iOS Data Recovery, it's a breeze to retrieve deleted or lost Safari bookmarks from your iPhone. Of course, just in case, we recommend backing up your iPhone regularly, whether it's a cloud service, local storage, or an external drive. In addition, once you discover data loss on your iPhone, remember not to do anything on the device to avoid overwriting files that may still be recovered. At this point, just take a moment and seek the help of a professional Recovery tool such as iOS data recovery.