How to Use Safari Profiles on macOS Sonoma

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Apple has added a new Profiles feature to Safari in macOS Sonoma that aims to be a quick way to separate work and home. viewing, and help with concentration and privacy. Here's how to use it.

Safari's new Profiles feature includes a private browsing element, but it's really more of an evolution of the ideas behind tab groups and focus modes. It's about eliminating distractions so you can focus on what you want to do right now.

This way, you can create a profile for work only. In this case, you can have a whole set of tab groups and even extensions that are not visible in any other profile.

How to set up Safari profiles in macOS Sonoma

Launch Safari on Mac
Select the Safari menu and then System settings
In the window that appears, click Profiles in the top row
On the information page that appears, click New profile

The New Profile dialog box offers several options, but only one is important – — you need to give the profile a name.

In addition, you have the opportunity to:

Select an icon for your profile
Select a color for it
Create a new bookmarks folder or
Use your existing Favorites folder.
Finally, click Create Profile

Color is more important than it seems . The next time you open Safari after this, it will open in your new profile — and the background will be this color.

What looks good as a small colored thumbnail in a dialog box may seem downright unpleasant when it's displayed across the entire Safari window.

You can quickly add a second or subsequent profile

How to set up a second Safari profile

Having only one Safari profile is almost useless. You'll get enhanced private browsing with this feature, but the real benefit of profiles is the ability to switch between them.

The process of creating a second, third, or any other profile is slightly different from the first.

Launch Safari on your Mac.
Select the Safari menu and then System Preferences
In the window that appears, click Profiles in the top row.
Your first new profile now appears on the left
Click the plus sign at the bottom. All you have to do is create one more profile
Fill out the same form indicating your name, choosing an icon, and so on.

Interestingly, there are two more options that are only available when you have already created a Profile. If you click on the name of one of them, you will again see the original form with a name and icon, but now it also has options for windows and tabs.

As with regular Safari, you can choose to automatically open new tabs or windows, for example, on the Start page.

Note, however, that here you can also choose to manage Safari extensions that come with any profile.

You create a new window in a specific profile via the Dock

How to use Safari profiles in macOS Sonoma

Once you've set up two or more profiles, you'll want to switch between them. If you have separate Safari windows open for each profile, you simply click between them.

But it's a little illogical how to open these separate windows. Let's say you have a home and work profile, and then to open a new window in one of them you need to:

Right-click the Safari icon in the Dock
Select New main window or New working window

As long as you're in a Safari window in a Safari profile, everything you do stays in that profile. So you can add extensions, you can add bookmarks, and they won't show up on any other profile.

In this way, Safari Profiles are similar to tab groups and focus modes. As with focus mode, you can go to profile and not see anything else.

Tab groups already allow you to divide your work into parts. With the Work tab group, Safari already only shows you the tabs you have set to work and nothing else.

But while this is great for switching between tasks, it is very easy to switch back. With two clicks in the Tab Group menu in the top left corner, you can immediately switch to any group you want.

There is no need to quickly change settings in profiles. There's a new label in the top left corner of the Safari screen that shows the name of the profile you're using.

However, the only way to switch is to right-click the Safari icon in the dock.