Why doesn't Safari iOS remember where I was last reading?

April 21, 2012 8:22 PM

I just got an iPad (the 3rd gen/newest one, if it matters). In Safari, when I hit the back button from a MeFi post to the main page, I am always taken to the top of the page, instead of where I was last reading. Am I doing something wrong? I don't have this problem on my iPhone.
posted by radioamy to Bugs at 8:22 PM (14 comments total)

We were just talking about this. See here.. It's a iOS5 bug that pb can't do anything about.
posted by Mitheral at 8:26 PM on April 21, 2012

Weirdly, I don't have this problem in my iPhone, any idea why?

(I know, I know, first world problems and I have too many Apple devices!)
posted by radioamy at 8:29 PM on April 21, 2012

If you're not running iOS5 on your iPhone it won't do this.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:30 PM on April 21, 2012

This sounds like a different issue from that last one, Mitheral. This one is talking about page positioning, right? Not a stale cache.
posted by kmz at 8:31 PM on April 21, 2012

I believe what you're seeing is happening because the device runs low on memory and dumps the cached renderings of your browser history. It will happen less frequently the fewer other apps you're running and the fewer tabs you have open, but it's not something you have direct control over beyond that sort of parsimony. This happened constantly to me when I used Google Reader as my window into MeFi and was the primary reason why I ditched the iPad for an Air for that sort of casual browsing.
posted by feloniousmonk at 8:47 PM on April 21, 2012

For what it's worth, I'm also on Safari/3rd gen iPad and I don't think I've ever had this happen. (And this doesn't sound like the same thing as the bug in the other thread - that went to an older cached page, not the top of the current one.)
posted by ella wren at 8:53 PM on April 21, 2012

You wanna know the shittiest thing about the iPad Safari? It opens recent search activity every time you open a new tab. Even if you don't have any sensitive search history it's still damned annoying.

I've never had this happen with me, and I use tabbed browsing like it's a drug.

What exactly happens for you when you do this? When I hit the + to open a new tab, I get a blank tab. When I hold down on a link and select "open in new tab" I get whatever I've selected open in a new tab.

I'm not even sure what recent search history is in iOS Safari. I get suggested results when I start to type in the Google search bar, but that's about the closest thing that I can think of to what I think you mean.
posted by hippybear at 9:20 PM on April 21, 2012

It sounds like a memory issue. I know if I have ten zillion tabs open in an iPad, when I hit back, I get erratic behavior (half the time it goes back where I was reading on a page, the other half of the time it goes to the top)
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:44 PM on April 21, 2012

kmz writes "This one is talking about page positioning, right? "

Aha, I see the difference now.
posted by Mitheral at 12:42 AM on April 22, 2012

What exactly happens for you when you do this?

I'm on my iPad 1 right now. Hitting the + opens a blank tab and puts the cursor in the search box, causing recent search history to display below it.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:56 AM on April 22, 2012

Same recent search pop up here, on iPad 2.
posted by beagle at 5:28 AM on April 22, 2012

Okay it seems to be a memory issue, because once I closed out all the other programs (and rebooted for good measure) it solved the problem. Thanks, hive!
posted by radioamy at 8:10 AM on April 22, 2012

I have a similar problem on Android. Whenever I follow a link in a discussion, say, and then use the back button to come back to the thread I usually (but not always) find myself in a random part of the thread that is neither the top of the page nor the place where I was last reading. I have always just assumed that it was a bug in the browser. Perhaps it's a similar memory issue to what Matt is describing. It's bloody irritating though, that's for certain.
posted by Scientist at 8:55 AM on April 22, 2012

Burhanistan: There's an easy fix for that. If you turn on "private browsing" in your iPad's Safari settings, recent searches won't appear under the search box.
posted by Cortes at 9:32 AM on April 22, 2012