When Apple released macOS Yosemite in 2014, it came packed with multiple features to improve the overall performance and usability of the operating system meant exclusively for Apple’s Mac devices.
Some of the noteworthy features of macOS Yosemite were Spotlight, Notification Center, Safari Mail and many other. It was a major macOS update that focused on adding new features and improving performance at the same time. However, one small change that landed with macOS Yosemite in Safari is that Apple started displaying only the root address on webpages instead of displaying the complete address.
For example, if you are on a page that has its URL as https://thetechhacker.com/2019/06/06/enable-disable-auto-ios-updates/ Apple Safari will display it as https://thetechhacker.com instead of displaying the complete web address.
The reason why Apple started showing this mini URL or smart URL is unknown. You can view the complete URL of a webpage by simply clicking on the address bar but you will have to click the address bar every time you want to view the complete web address of the page you are browsing.
Clearly, it is annoying and might be troublesome to developers, coders, and bloggers for whom the entire web address matters. It might also annoy regular internet users as there are chances that you might get confused between different web pages as the complete web URL is not displayed.
How to view full URL in Safari on macOS?
If you think this is a silly feature by Apple, you can change it in the macOS settings. If you want to view full URL on Safari in macOS, you need to follow the below-mentioned steps to turn off this annoying feature:
- Visit Safari Preferences by clicking on the Safari menu on the top. Alternatively, you can also use keyboard shortcut Command (⌘) + comma (,) to open Safari Preferences.
- Click on the “Advanced” option that will be displayed right next to the “Extensions” option on the top of the Safari Preferences window.
Safari Preferences - In the Advanced tab, you will see “Smart Search Field: Show full website address” as the very first option.
- You need to check this box by simply clicking on the box to enable full URL in Safari on macOS.
- Now close the preferences window and you will see that complete webpage URL will be displayed.
By tweaking the above-mentioned settings, you can view the complete URL of a website in Safari on macOS. This small setting allows you to navigate easily around websites and view full complete web address. This setting might also be useful for those who have migrated from Windows to Mac recently and are searching on how to view the complete address.
Apple’s choice to display a shortened version of URL makes the webpage visually appealing to look at but from a usability point of view, it is a not very right decision. Nonetheless, you can undo the settings that display the root URL of a website instead of displaying the complete name of a webpage.