upgraded from a 16 PM to the 17PM and safari on iOS 26 is stuck in compact mode, exclusively on my 17PM. It fixed for a week with 26.0.1 but reverted back and fixed again with 26.1 but reverted back after 2 days.
The tabs settings in safari are set to TOP but it seemingly has no effect on how safari actually performs. Restart, force restart and factory restoration have not fixed the issue.
iPhone 17 Pro Max, iOS 26
Try iPhone, Settings, [tap your name], iCloud, see all, Safari, turn off the icloud sync. Select Delete from my iPhone.
Power the phone off, then on again.
Set the compact setting to Top.
Turn iCloud sync back on, did the setting stick or change back again?
Try iPhone, Settings, [tap your name], iCloud, see all, Safari, turn off the icloud sync. Select Delete from my iPhone.
Power the phone off, then on again.
Set the compact setting to Top.
Turn iCloud sync back on, did the setting stick or change back again?
When you say the top settings do you mean the settings for safari in the settings app? If you haven’t try there.
Yes in: settings > Safari > Tabs
I have it set to “TOP” so the url bar etc should be at the top. Safari however, is stuck in compact mode with the bar at the bottom and does not change regardless of how I adjust the settings for safari.
That’s exactly what happened on my 15 pro max too. On 26.0.1 I realized that tabs were stuck in compact mode, although I have them set to ‘top’.
With 26.1 they were ‘fixed’ for a few days, and reverted back after a few days.
Your procedure assumes that setting the compact setting to top works after turning off iCloud sync and the phone. (It’s already set to top, and switching to any mode doesn’t work whether before this procedure or after. At least not on my phone.)
Out of interest do you have another phone on ios26 with the compact setting?
I have this issue with no other iPhones. I do have a Mac with safari set to separate tabs. The phone stuck on compact is getting infuriating.
Safari stuck in compact tab mode, iOS 26
