In the early 26.n releases there was an intermittent failure on the iPad to link back to the application where one clicked a link. This was fixed a couple updates ago but with 26.5 is back, except it is not intermittent. With this bug it is cumbersome to read a newsletter with multiple links to either an app or a browser. The iPhone still works correctly; as near as I could tell the original bug was associated with the new iPad windowing feature. Now, full screen or not, there is no way to return to the app where one clicked on a link. The back-arrow on browsers still works as expected. I can’t tell if the back-link is lost or the link symbol is not displayed.
I haven’t installed 26.5 yet, but there is always the general gesture to swipe left on the home bar to go back to the previous app.
A similar thing happens to me with iPadOS 26.4.2 if I click on a PDF attachment to an email. Preview opens with the attachment and there is no obvious way to close it and return to the email. Eventually I found out that clicking on the down arrow next to the PDF name shows a dialog with “Shared with you”. Clicking on that option returns to the email.
BTW I don’t seem to be able to get the swipe left gesture to work with Preview.
It should. See “Switch between open apps”
It even works with windowed apps. And this, of course, also works on the iPhone. I use it very often.
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One of the endearing features of Apple software even before Mac OS 10 has been that there is usually more than one way to do almost anything. It never occurred to me that the purpose might be to provide an alternative when the normal action fails.
“Home bar” — new to me; I’ll be using the swipe left until the bug is fixed.
Thanks for the help.
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Ah - I see. In full screen (classic) mode there no “home bar”, but swiping at the bottom of the screen works. Thank you.
I tried the swipe left bit on my iPhone and see that it works there as well.
It disappears after a brief appearance. These days the home bar disappears even on the iPhone on iOS 26 after some time. On iPad, I’m frequently trying to swipe up from where the home bar is supposed to be but it doesn’t swipe. I think it’s mostly when I am holding the iPad Air “upside-down” with the camera at the bottom, but it’s still been annoying. Personally I would prefer it if the home bar was persistent.
I did run the 26.5 update overnight and, so far, that back-to-the-calling-app indicator on the top-left has always appeared, so this is a bug that hasn’t affected me so far this morning.
Update: I said the original iPad (link-back) bug was intermittent, then fixed, and then with 26.5 it became a permanent bug. With no restart of my iPad, the link-back has suddenly reappeared. I clicked on a notification and was taken to the notifying app — the link back was at the top of the screen! AND, now when I click on a link in mail, the link-back is there. To add to the confusion, I can no longer get the swipe-left operation to work consistently. Onward to 27.0!