Understanding Safari Browser Profiles

In macOS Sonoma you can use browser profiles to keep home and work separate while viewing web sites. You can log into different accounts in different profiles and have multiple profiles each open in its own window.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let's take a look at using Safari Profiles.
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Safari Profiles are a new feature in macOS Sonoma that allow you to separate browsing, say, between personal things and work things, or if you do multiple things for work separate those out into different profiles as well. To understand Profiles, first make sure you understand how private browsing windows work. 
So here in Safari I can have a regular Safari window here and I can be logged onto different websites with my accounts. Then I can go and create a new private window. That private window will be separate from my regular window. So while I'm logged into, say, a social media site here, in my private window I wouldn't be logged in. I can, in fact, logged in with a different account and then be logged in with one account on the private window and one account in my regular Safari window. 
Now with private browsing as soon as you close the window there everything that you were logged into in that private browsing window you're now logged out of. That private browsing window doesn't exist anymore. When you create a new one you're not logged into anything. So, now you would have to relog into sites, perhaps even using different accounts. You can have multiple private windows open but when you close any of those they are gone forever. The website data, also known as cookies, and the history are completely gone and if you were logged into something you now have to log into it again in a new private browsing window. Anything you do in a private window doesn't affect what you're doing in regular Safari windows. 
Now Profiles take this to another level. With private browsing windows as soon as you close it like that it's gone. But with Profiles you can actually bring it back. They are very similar to private browsing windows but they are persistent, still separate from your regular browsing window but persistent if you were to close it and reopen it. Here's an illustration of how it works. In a regular Safari window you might be logged into say three different sites. Maybe a social media site, maybe a banking site, maybe a shopping site. You may have a long history of what pages that you visit. If you were to close that window, it's gone. But if you were to Open it again everything returns. You're still logged into the those various sites. You still have the same history. That doesn't go away just because you closed the window or even quit Safari. As a matter of fact the amount of time you're logged in is determined by the website itself. 
For instance a website, like a social media site, might keep you logged in for about two weeks before it asks you for your password again. A shopping site maybe two months. But a banking site may have a really short time limit, like five or fifteen minutes before it automatically logs you out. But otherwise you'll stay logged in even if you close the window or quit Safari and launch it again. 
Now if you were to open a private window while you're logged into these sites, in the private window you're not logged into any of those sites at all. Now you can go and log in with different accounts on the same sites. So on my regular Safari window I can be logged into Site A with one ID and on the private window I'm logged into Site A with a different ID. Notice also that Private windows don't keep a history. So the history is not really there. You can actually go back. You can use the back button so there is some history there. But that is completely gone once you close the window. So if I were to close this browsing window and open it again you could see that I'm not logged into those sites anymore. The entire history and all the details of that previous window are gone when you close it. So your main window, that you're using normally, and you can actually have multiple windows open, that's your personal profile. That's basically how you would think of just regularly using Safari. It is just called your Personal Profile now because everything is in the Profile. 
You can use your Personal Profile as you used before. Here I've logged into a bunch of sites and I've got some sort of history going on. Now if I were to open a new window with a new Profile, I'll call this Profile X, at the beginning I'm not logged into anything. But I can login to different sites or maybe not log into sites as a want. This could be different than my Personal Profile. Very similar to a regular browsing window and using a private window except that now I actually have got a history. A separate history for this profile than I do for the Personal Profile. 
If I were to close the window with this profile it's gone. But if I were to open it again I'm still logged into those sites. I still have that same history. It doesn't go away like it does with a private window. So it is separate, like a private window, but it is not temporary unlike a private window. In fact I can open up another profile. Here I've got Profile Y and I start off not logged into anything there. I can log into sites with even a different account and have a different history there as well. I could close one profile, close the other profile, open one up, open the other one up. It remembers. It's like having three separate browsers. But they are all in Safari, just different windows. So let's look at how to use it. 
To create a Profile you need to go to Safari Settings. Then go to Profiles. Then click Start using Profiles. Now your first profiles are Personal Profile. So you're creating your second one here. I'll call this one Work. I'll give it another icon. Maybe a different color. I can also choose what I want to use for favorites. This would appear at the Favorites Bar on the top if I have it turned on. So I can create a new bookmarks folder to use as favorites just for this profile or I can use an existing folder. So I can have the same bookmarks as my Favorites or multiple Profiles, that's no problem. Or I can have a separate one for each if I go to different websites for work as I do for my Personal Profile. It may be handy to actually have Favorites pointing to a different folder. 
Now I click Create Profile. You can see I have two profiles here. I've got Personal, the default. I can rename that if I want and change the symbol and color, and the work one. I can change the things that I setup before. I can even change what happens when I open up this work profile with what happens with a new window and what happens with a new Tab in that window. I can even change which extensions are active for each profile. So if there is a profile I only use for work and not other things, I can have it On in one profile and Off in another. You can see I can add new Profiles here with the Play Button and create as many as I need. 
So now I've got two different windows open and you could see them identified here at the top. This is the personal profile window. This is the work profile window. If I were to create new one like, all I need to do id go to File. You can see I create a new personal window, the initial profile that is there at the top,. but I can also create other windows for other profiles. So a new work window.and I've got the work profile. Now these world be separate. Anything I would log into in my Personal Profile I would not be logged into on my work profile. So I can log into separate accounts or maybe on my personal profile I'm not logged in, say, to Goggle at all but on my work profile I am. 
You could click this button here at the top of any window and switch profiles if you want. Note that you can have multiple windows open with the same profile. So I create a new work window and you could see I've got two work windows. So these would be like two browser windows in Safari. They both would be logged into the same websites, have the same website data, cookies, and the same history. But these two windows would be separate than from this one which is using the personal profile.
So as I mentioned before you could use this to log into different accounts in different websites depending upon which profile you are using. Another way to use it would be to not be logged into things. You could also use it like this where with your personal profile you're logged into one website, say a social media website, but really nothing else. Nothing for work. Then you've got a second profile and that is for work. So you're not logged into your social media website but you are logged into a specific work web site. Then you have a third one where you are not logged into either your social media website or your work website but maybe another website that is for something else. So as you switch between these profiles you have greater privacy in browsing each of these websites in three different situations. 
There are a lot of different uses for this but not everybody needs to use Profiles. I think most Mac users can just use Safari as before. Just without Profiles. Just browsing the web as normal. But if you do find that you switch modes between a home or personal mode and a work mode, or maybe you have several different jobs that you use your computer for then you can use Profiles to keep those separate as you browse the web with Safari. 
So I hope you found this useful if you've been wondering what Safari Profiles are and whether or not they can be useful for you. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 7 Responses to “Understanding Safari Browser Profiles”

Sheldon

1 year ago

Thanks bunches

John

Thanks, I've used Firefox for 20 years and am a Mac home user and PC work user. So FF has worked flawlessly between the two for years but I'm wanting to bring all things in to the Mac world to downsize and manage less including subscriptions. So Safari, might be my next big hurtle.

Question, can you put a password on a profile? Thanks Gary

Gary Rosenzweig

John: No, profiles aren't something you password protect. Your whole account should be protected with your Mac user account password.

Charles

9 months ago

Before Profiles, I used two Safari windows for similar purposes and cycled between them with Cmd-~ but that no longer keeps me inside Safari, it cycles through other apps rather than other Safari windows. That used to be a very big issue for me but now, using Profiles gets me to the same places without a keyboard shortcut. That is good.

Charles: Using Command+` (~) should still cycle you through windows of the same app. If it doesn't, check in System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts (Button), under "Keyboard" on the left. Look at Move Focus To Next Window.

Michael

2 months ago

Thanks for the informative video. Is it possible to configure links clicked within Outlook to automatically open in a Safari work profile?

Michael: No, I don't think there is any way for Outlook to communicate that intention to Safari.

Comments Closed.

Understanding Safari Browser Profiles

Comments: 7 Responses to “Understanding Safari Browser Profiles”

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