Unclickable Leave Page/Stay on Page popup when navigating away from one page to another with a popup.

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Unclickable Leave Page/Stay on Page popup when navigating away from one page to another with a popup.

In MacOS26 26.1 (25B78), Safari Version 26.1 (and presumably earlier), we get an unclickable popup from the "Stay on Page" "Leave Page" dialog if you have text fields filled in one site and decide to navigate away to another page that begins with a popup (like a GPS location request).

In some instances, like mine, I had in-progress critical financial pages open for my business, and couldn't just nuke the entire process. After some investigation, it looks like you're able to work around by force closing WebKits. In this case, it's the bottom one.

Apple: when navigating away from a page producing BeforeUnload Confirmation Sheet, navigating into a page producing Geolocation Permission Prompt, it causes the entire Safari process to become unclickable. You can't allow a takeover if you're not going to properly bug test these workflows.

I hope this helps someone.

Posted on Nov 19, 2025 5:58 AM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

155,060 points

Nov 19, 2025 8:34 AM in response to AlexSonne81

👍

Most people don't. Apple reads all Feedback and they actually implemented a couple of my suggestions in the past. I'm sure I wasn't the only one though.

Safari sort of went full circle on that feature. Previous versions didn't complain if you closed a webpage with data entered. Other browsers would though, people thought it was a good idea, and Apple followed suit. Then, they changed things again manifesting in the inconvenience you reported, and the inconvenient (IMO) workaround required. If you describe a more workable solution in your Feedback, a simple preference perhaps, Apple will certainly consider it and probably implement it in some future version.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

155,060 points

Nov 19, 2025 6:09 AM in response to AlexSonne81

Thanks for that information. Posting it here is likely to help your fellow Apple product users. However, Apple will not see it because they do not use this site for that purpose because its SNR is too low. To let Apple know you need to use their Feedback page, here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Scroll down to and tap Safari.

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Answer 3

AlexSonne81 Author

Level 1

20 points

Nov 19, 2025 9:34 AM in response to John Galt

Interesting. I'm not sure if I'm proficient enough in OS design to know what has been tried or what needs backwards compatibility for old code timing (or why that really needs to be protected). Maybe converting BeforeUnload into tab-modal with a guaranteed chrome-level escape hatch. (I have no clue how this actually operates in practice at scale or what other considerations are)

beforeunload fires normally, but Safari surfaces it as a tab-scoped intent card anchored to the TAB vice app-modal.

The card then, if ignored, defaults to user-configured policy and defaults.

A chrome-only "Force close" remains clickable and will terminate the tab's webcontent process.

Maybe this maintains trust boundaries but removes giant single points of failure.

I think an expert would need to brainstorm it to be safe for whatever the original use case intents were...

🤷‍♂️

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Answer 4

AlexSonne81 Author

Level 1

20 points

Nov 19, 2025 7:41 AM in response to John Galt

Thank you! Didn't know

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

155,060 points

Nov 19, 2025 9:53 AM in response to AlexSonne81

Let the Apple brainiacs sit around a conference room table for hours on end obsessing the minutia. It's what they do.

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