To restart Safari on a Mac, you can either do a simple quit and reopen or do a deeper “soft reset” if it’s being buggy.

Quick Scoop

If you just want to restart Safari (like restarting an app), follow these steps.

1. Normal restart

  1. Save anything important in any open tabs.
  2. In the top-left of your screen, click Safari in the menu bar.
  3. Click Quit Safari.
  4. Click the Safari icon in the Dock again to reopen it.

2. Force-quit if Safari is frozen

If Safari won’t respond:

  1. Press Option + Command + Esc.
  2. In the window that appears, select Safari.
  3. Click Force Quit.
  4. Open Safari again from the Dock or Launchpad.

3. Restart Safari “cleaner” (helpful if it keeps misbehaving)

If Safari keeps reopening old pages or acting weird, this gives you a more “fresh” restart without fully resettings everything.

  1. Quit Safari.
  2. Hold down the Shift key.
  3. While still holding Shift , click the Safari icon to open it.
  4. Safari will start without automatically reopening the last session’s tabs and windows.

You can then optionally clear history and website data from Safari > Settings > Privacy > Manage Website Data… if you want an even cleaner experience.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.