TUAW Tip: Safari's reset button

Actually, most Firefox users will be correctly aware that this has been present in Safari since Panther, and any "gentle lifting" happened the other way around.

buzweaver - You have a very strange definition of "critical".

As I recall, reset under earlier versions of Safari (that is, before 3.0) didn't have the fine control that reset under Safari 3.0 allows.

Safri still holds no particular interest to me. What respectable browser out there leaves out a critical element of the browser, that being the ability to sort your favorites ascending/descending? Unless I use either IE 7 or FF (to sort) I have no way of organizing my 1.5m worth of bookmarks in Safri.

Can someone confirm if Safari 2 or 3 in OS X now brings up a selection list as the post implies, or does it silently just wipe out your private data as it has before? I'm scared to try, because the last time I did it cleaned out all my Keychain password related to websites, which surprised and angered me (I entered them manually into Keyhain, they were not "owned" by Safari).

Also, as I'm sure most OS X users are aware, one can empty the cache easily enough without choosing the Reset Safari option, just browse the menus a bit!

Yeah, "reset safari" has been there forever. Check out one of TUAW's own post, http://www.tuaw.com/2005/05/02/porn-mode/ . Though about the "Private Browsing" option in the safari menu, it shows "Reset safari." And that was May 2005.


I really don't like the clunkiness of the Safari 3 dialogue box for "reset safari."

This has almost certainly been there since Safari v.1.0. The only difference is they've souped it up by adding more options. More research first please.

it's under the Safari Menu...

Ive also found a slight issue with this in the current version of Safari.

If you are logged into your Google Account (and your home page is iGoogle) and then click Reset.. and then you Quit Safari.. the next time you load Safari you will find youself logged back into Google! Not sure how this is the case, but it is true for my google account on my macbook pro and iMac G5.. This is the only site i can vouch that this happens on

What you have to do is, reset Safariand then refresh the page, then quit Safari.. This then seems to clear your cache!

Anyone else get this issue?

this has long been a feature of safari prior to 3 and possibly before FF built it in.