How to enable the Develop menu in Safari

Updated at: Oct 21, 2024

Safari on macOS has some useful tools and settings built in to it for advanced users and software developers, but they are disabled by default (because they also let you change settings which most users probably don't need to touch).

To enable the Develop menu in Safari and get access to them, follow these steps:

1. Click the "Safari" menu

   Make sure you have a Safari window open and active; you will see the "Safari" menu in the top left of your screen. Click it and it will expand to show Safari specific options.

   

2. Click the "Preferences" menu item

   Now that you have expanded the Safari menu, you will see the Preferences item - click on it.

   

   The Safari Preferences screen will now appear.

3. Click on the "Advanced" tab

   The Safari Preferences screen has a number of sections, indicated by the various options along the top of the screen (General/Tabs/AutoFill etc). Click the Security item to see security related options.

   

4. Click the "Show features for web developers" checkbox

   If the checkbox has a tick symbol it means the Develop menu is already enabled; if the checkbox has no tick and is empty, it is not enabled yet. If you want to enable it, simply click the checkbox and you will see the Develop menu item appear in Safari at the top of the screen.

   

   You will now see the "Develop" menu appear at the top of the screen in Safari.

   

   The Develop menu gives you easy access to some advanced controls in Safari. Make sure you know what you're doing if you use any of the options in it. One of the things it gives you access to is the Empty Caches Safari Shortcut.