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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.

iOS 14 Public Beta 2

Apple released a public beta of iOS 14 last week. iOS 14 is scheduled for release this fall.

Here is a list of a few of my favorite new features and a link (below) to an extremely detailed (1.5 hours!) summary of the new features in iOS 14:

Favorite New Features:

  • Pin favorite conversations to the top of the list in Messages!!! (no more scrolling a huge list of text recipients to find someone you text regularly)
  • Name Mentions in Messages (get notified when someone mentions your name in a conversation, even if you have that conversation on “Do Not Disturb”)
  • “Now Typing” alert in Conversations list in Messages. (see the three little ‘someone is typing’ dots in the LIST of conversations in Messages)
  • Emoji search (no more scrolling all the emoji to find one)
  • Rename Bluetooth devices (i.e. car stereos, wireless headsets, etc.)
  • Sound Recognition (receive a visual alert if there is knocking, cats/dogs, smoke alarms, etc in an environment. Awesome for hearing impaired)
  • Back Tap controls (configure actions such as app switcher, screenshot, etc, when you double or triple tap on the *back* of your phone)
  • Cleaner/smaller interface for phone calls in progress and Siri (a call or Siri task doesn’t take up the entire screen!)
  • Dismiss/silence an incoming call with swipe up on the banner/notification at the top of the screen.

These are only a few of tons of new features. So far, I’m impressed with the functionality and stability of this beta release. I don’t recommend you update on your primary phone just yet, but *if* you choose to do so, MAKE SURE you make a backup of your phone to your computer first and ARCHIVE that backup before you update!

iOS 14 beta – 250+ Top Features/Changes:

iOS 13.5 is Looking GOOD

5/22/2020 Apple released a much anticipated update for iPhones and the initial reports look very positive.

In addition to important COVID-19 contact tracing support (off by default but can/should be enabled in Settings> Privacy > Health > COVID-19 Exposure Logging), Apple has apparently patched a Mail app security vulnerability that affected every iPhone on the planet.

Apple has also tweaked the Face ID algorithms so the passcode field is presented more readily when you are wearing a mask. You can also swipe up from the bottom of the Lock screen to bring up the passcode field when wearing a mask.

More details: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2020/05/21/apple-ios-135-release-should-you-upgrade-new-iphone-update/

I am updating my iPhone 11 Pro this morning (after running a BACKUP to my computer first!) and will update this post if I notice anything negative.

If you’re new to the concept of contract tracing, here’s a brief explanation: