How to Clear Private Data, Caches, and Cookies on Mac

As you use the internet, it may fill up your device's memory with temporary files; you may also want to hide the sites you've been visiting. This article explains how to remove browsing history, cookies, caches, and other website data from the Safari web browser on macOS, OS X, and iOS devices.

Remove Browsing History, Cookies, and Caches in Safari on macOS

To remove your browsing history, cookies, caches, and other website data from Safari on your Mac and across any synchronized devices:

1. Select Safari > Clear History from the menu bar at the top of the Safari screen.

2. Select the Clear dropdown arrow and choose either the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all history.

   You are notified that the history is also removed on other devices that are signed in to your iCloud account.

3. Click Clear History.

You can also clear all history by selecting History > Clear History. You have the same options here: the last hour, today, today and yesterday, and all history. There is no confirmation, and the deletion is immediate.

From here, you also have options to view all history or to view history by specific days.

Clear Data (But Not History) for Specific Sites in Safari

Clearing data does not remove sites from your browsing history. You may want to clear your history in addition to deleting certain sites' data.

1. Select Safari > Preferences.

2. Select the Privacy tab.

3. Click Manage Website Data.

4. All sites you've visited that store data via cookies, database, or local storage (such as cookies or files) are listed here.

5. For each site whose data you want to remove, highlight the site in the list and click Remove. To remove all the sites, click Remove All.

   Removing the data of any particular site might log you out of it or change the site's behavior.

6. Click Done.

7. Close the Privacy preferences window.

Clear Private Data, Empty Caches, and Remove Cookies in Safari for iOS

To delete all Safari history entries, cookies, and data websites using your iOS mobile device:

1. Open Settings.

2. Go to Safari.

3. Tap Clear History and Website Data.

4. Tap Clear History and Data to confirm and delete all the entries.

View Sites and Selectively Delete Data on iOS Devices

To delete Safari history for a specific website on your iOS mobile device:

1. Open Settings.

2. Tap Safari.

3. Select Advanced at the bottom of the screen.

4. Tap Website Data.

5. Scroll through the list of entries. Swipe to the left on any entry and tap Delete to remove it. To remove all the entries, tap Remove All Website Data at the bottom of the entry list.