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Safari’s sidebar control depends on your device: on Mac, click the Sidebar button in the toolbar; on iPad, tap Show Sidebar; on iPhone, open bookmarks through More > Bookmarks or the layout-specific Show Bookmarks control. Choose the device-specific steps below to get to bookmarks or Reading List.
Find the sidebar on a Mac
- Open Safari and look for the Sidebar button in the toolbar.
- Click the button to show the sidebar. Click it again to hide the sidebar.
- Select Bookmarks or Reading List in the sidebar. To open bookmarks without using the sidebar, choose Bookmarks > Show Bookmarks from the menu bar. Apple’s Safari guide for Mac describes the menu route, and its Reading List instructions direct users to click the toolbar’s Sidebar button and then Reading List.
Find the sidebar on an iPad
- Open Safari and tap Show Sidebar.
- Choose Bookmarks or Reading List.
- If the section you need is not visible, tap Back at the top of the sidebar. Apple’s iPad instructions cover this navigation.
Open bookmarks and Reading List on an iPhone
The cited iPhone instructions do not describe a Mac-style toolbar sidebar button. Instead, open Safari’s bookmark view:
- Tap More, then tap Bookmarks.
- If Safari uses the Top or Bottom tab layout, tap Show Bookmarks instead.
- To see saved pages, choose Reading List from the bookmarks view. See Apple’s iPhone guidance, which applies to iOS 26.
Why the control may look different
Safari’s labels and routes are not identical across Mac, iPad, and iPhone: the Mac uses a toolbar button, the iPad offers Show Sidebar, and the cited iPhone route uses bookmarks controls. The iPhone instructions cited here are for iOS 26; Apple’s Mac and iPad support pages describe their current interfaces but do not specify every older operating-system version or customized toolbar. If a Mac toolbar button is missing, the menu-bar route Bookmarks > Show Bookmarks is an alternative for bookmarks.
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