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“Top Sites” Missing in Safari 14

Apple released Safari 14 on September 16, 2020 and introduced a new “Start Page”, replacing the previous “Top Sites” feature.

For users who used the “Top Sites” feature (a collection of up to 12 frequently used sites), the websites previously configured in Top Sites are simply gone.

For example, here is how Safari 13 looked on my laptop. These are 12 sites/tools I visit several times a day:

Here is what Safari 14 looks like now – (note ALL of the frequently visited “Top Sites” are nowhere to be found):

The website addresses are not saved anywhere in Safari 14. This can be very disconcerting for users who are used to seeing their Top Sites and even more concerning that Apple hasn’t saved the URLs for any of the sites listed in Top Sites. Most people don’t have their Top Sites addresses saved elsewhere.

If Apple’s fail with the Safari 14 upgrade impacts you, here is a way to recover the website URLs which were previously stored in Top Sites:

  1. Click on the Desktop (switches you to the Finder application)
  2. Hold down the Option key and click on the Go menu. With the Option key down, the “Library” item appears in the Go menu.
  3. Scroll through the Library folder and find the Safari folder
  4. Inside the Safari folder is a file named “TopSites.plist”.

The TopSites.plist file contains the URLs of the sites you had stored in Top Sites before upgrading to Safari 14. Copy/paste these addresses as needed and bookmark or favorite them as needed.

Just Say No to Desktop & Documents folders in iCloud Drive!

In a recent set of software updates, Apple has begun asking users if they would like to store the contents of their Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive (Apple’s Dropbox-like repository for files and folders “in the cloud”).

I’m not a fan.

The idea here is to upload everything in these two folders to your iCloud account and keep it all in sync, across multiple computers. While this seems like it might be a good idea, the current implementation has some drawbacks and things to consider before simply checking the box:

  1. If you have lots of files and folders (i.e. Gigabytes) on your Desktop or in your Documents folders, enabling this feature will require you to pay for extra storage space in your iCloud account. Uploading that much data over your internet connection could take days/weeks. This isn’t clear in the initial setup dialog.
  2. Enabling this feature means you have to pay attention to whether a document is stored “locally” or “in the Cloud”. For files/folders which are only stored in iCloud, you must be connected to the internet to work with them.
  3. Disabling the feature isn’t as simple as unchecking the box – there isn’t a simple ‘undo’ command which puts things back they way they were previously. This can be scary because unchecking the box makes everything disappear from your Desktop and Documents folders. The process of disabling the “Documents and Desktop in iCloud Drive” feature requires multiple manual steps to restore the files and folders to their original locations. Here are the instructions:

http://osxdaily.com/2017/07/06/disable-icloud-desktop-documents-mac/

I recommend against enabling this feature in the first place:

Fake Tech Support Scams

Fake tech support scams are more and more popular these days. These ploys typically happen when browsing and have a very convincing look, along with a phone number to reach “helpful” staff. In some cases you may also receive an unsolicited call from “Technical Support”, offering to fix your computer.

DO NOT give these people access to your computer.
DO NOT provide usernames, passwords or any other personal information.
DO NOT give these people your credit card number.

More information here:
http://www.thesafemac.com/tech-support-scam-pop-ups/