how to check search history safari

How to view and clear your web browsing history in Safari on iPhone or iPad

Easily wipe your browsing history in Apple's Safari web browser in seconds.

How to find your web-browsing history

How to clear your web browsing history.

Clearing your browsing history on iPhone and iPad in Safari has been a straightforward affair for years now.

Sometimes, you may want a fresh start with your web browsing — perhaps to get rid of some history that may bring up a memory you'd rather forget as you type in a website URL in the address bar.

Apple makes this feature very easy to access on both the iPhone and iPad by offering two ways to clear your history. So with this in mind, here's how you can do just that and make a fresh start in Safari .

Viewing your web history in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 is very easy to do — and it's all done from Safari.

• In Safari, tap the Bookmarks button in the toolbar that's below the address bar.
• Tap the History icon in the upper right corner. Here, you can view your entire web history.

• Use the History search bar to find previously viewed pages.

If the time calls to wipe most or all of your web browsing history in Safari, here's how to do it on both iPhone and iPad.

To note, the below steps will be the same if you attempt to wipe your web browsing history on an iPhone 15 Pro Max , and an iPad Mini 6 for example.

• In Safari, tap the Bookmarks button.
• Select the History icon in the upper right corner.
• Tap Clear and select how much history you'd like to clear: the last hour, the last day, 48 hours' worth, or all recorded history.

One more thing… A feature no one talks about

Privacy on the web matters more than ever in these modern times. Websites store the pages you click on, especially when you sign into a page that can contain personal information about you.

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It's great to have a feature like this in Safari — but it would be good to have this automated. To tell Apple's web browser to automatically clear history after 24 hours would be very useful, as you wouldn't leave a trail behind.

Regardless, it's still a good feature, and one you should use every week.

Daryl is iMore's Features Editor, overseeing long-form and in-depth articles and op-eds. Daryl loves using his experience as both a journalist and Apple fan to tell stories about Apple's products and its community, from the apps we use everyday to the products that have been long forgotten in the Cupertino archives.

Previously Software & Downloads Writer at TechRadar, and Deputy Editor at StealthOptional, he's also written a book, ' The Making of Tomb Raider ', which tells the story of the beginnings of Lara Croft and the series' early development. He's also written for many other publications including WIRED, MacFormat, Bloody Disgusting, VGC, GamesRadar, Nintendo Life, VRV Blog, The Loop Magazine, SUPER JUMP, Gizmodo, Film Stories, TopTenReviews, Miketendo64 and Daily Star.

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How to search your browsing history on an iPhone, in Safari or Google Chrome

• It's easy to search the history on your iPhone's web browser to return to a specific webpage you've visited previously. 
• You can search the history on your iPhone in the Safari or Google Chrome browsers with these steps. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The search history on your iPhone's web browser can be helpful in taking you back to a site you want to see again, but scrolling through the whole list can be time consuming and annoying. 

Luckily, there's a search tool to help you get back to websites you may have visited a while ago — without going through the trouble of trying to remember the date you visited it. 

This feature is available on both the Safari and Google Chrome browsers. Here's how to use it to search your web history on an iPhone . 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Iphone 11 (from $699.99 at best buy), how to search the history on your iphone in safari .

1. Open the Safari app.

2. Tap the book icon at the bottom of your screen. It is the second icon from the right. This will bring up your search history.

3. Pull down on this History menu to reveal a bar at the top labeled "Search History" with a magnifying glass to the left of it.

4. Tap the search bar you just revealed to bring up the keypad, and type your search query. The query doesn't have to be exact to bring up results.

5. The result you are looking for should appear. Tap it to return to the website you visited.

How to search history on your iPhone in Google Chrome

1. Open the Google Chrome app.

2. Tap the three dots in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. This will bring up an options menu.

3. Tap "History," which is the second to last option on the list of items in blue. The icon looks like a clock with an arrow around the outside pointing counterclockwise.

4. On the new History page, tap the search bar at the top to bring up your keyboard.

5. Type your search query into the search bar. 

6. Tap the name of the site you were looking for. This will bring you back to the page.

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How To View History in Safari on a PC, Tablet, or Mobile Device

Lee Stanton Lee Stanton is a versatile writer with a concentration on the software landscape, covering both mobile and desktop applications as well as online technologies. Read more July 19, 2022

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Safari for iOS provides a convenient way to keep track of your browsing history. You can use it to call up web pages quickly you’ve visited. You can easily go down the rabbit hole when performing searches online. This makes it difficult to remember exactly where you found a valuable piece of information. Reviewing your browsing history can retrace your steps, saving you the arduous task of finding the data from scratch. This article covers how to see your history in Safari. Check out how to do that below.

How to View History in Safari on an iPhone

Safari stores your browser activity, making it possible to revisit sites at a later date. You could either view your most recent history or check out the entire list of previously visited websites. This is how to do that.

You have now accessed your recent history on Safari.

If you would like to view your complete Safari browsing history, here’s how to do that.

You’ve now accessed your Safari browsing history.

How to View History in Safari on an iPad

Safari allows users to keep track of their browsing history. This feature can then be used to revisit sites that might be of interest. You could either view recent history or peruse all your browsing data. The steps listed here detail how to do that.

You have now viewed the recent history on your iPad.

To view your complete browsing data, follow the steps outlined here.

How to View History in Safari on a Mac

Your Safari browsing history allows you to revisit sites you viewed in the past. You can even use the search tool so that you don’t have to scroll through the entire list of results to find what you are looking for. Here’s how to view your browsing history on an iPhone.

• Click on it to open the page in your browser.

You can now see your history in Safari. If you signed in to your device using the same Apple ID that you use on your other Apple devices, that history would also be displayed on your Mac.

Can You View History From Private Browsing?

Private Browsing is a feature that prevents Safari from storing information on sites you have visited. It ensures there’s no record of your online activity, including passwords or autofill information. It also prevents iCloud from storing data on any tabs that you open. To provide an additional layer of privacy, Safari prevents sites and content providers from tracking you. Any cookies you might have picked up are deleted once you close the tab.

This means that Safari doesn’t store your browsing history when you activate Private Browsing. You will therefore be unable to view it in the future.

How to Clear History in Safari

If your Apple device is lagging or otherwise misbehaving, you might consider clearing your browsing data. This is how to do that.

Your browsing data will now be removed from your device.

Retracing Your Steps

Like many web browsers, Safari stores information on websites you’ve visited. This data can come in handy when you want to go back to a particular site. This guide shows you how to retrieve the browsing history stored on your Apple devices.

Have you viewed your browsing history on Safari? What did you think of the process? Let us know in the comments below.

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Tips & Tricks

Troubleshooting, how to access & search safari history on mac.

Just about all modern web browsers default to maintaining a history log of your web browsing activity, and Safari for Mac is no different. This article will focus on how to access your Safari history on the Mac, and also how to search Safari browsing history for specific words, terms, and matches.

Accessing and searching through Safari browser history can be helpful for tracking down websites or articles that were previously visited on a particular topic but that you’ve since forgotten, retrieving previously visited websites, looking for a particular match, amongst many other valid uses for individual users, parents, public computers, information security, systems administrators, and much more.

Searching Safari web browsing history on a Mac is easy, here’s how it works:

How to Search Safari History on Mac

• Open the Safari web browser on the Mac if you have not done so already
• Pull down the “History” menu and choose “Show All History”

• You’ll now be presented with all stored Safari History of web browsing activity, with each browsing history session separated by date
• Click into the search box seen in the upper right corner of the History screen

• Type in any word, term, or phrase to search the Safari History for, any matches will be shown on screen

In the example here, we searched for the term “Chromebook” and Safari returned all matches for that term.

Safari History Search will find matches as far back as possible, searching through all Safari history for the current Mac user. Anything matching will be returned as a search result.

Searching browser history can be helpful for many reasons, whether you’re trying to recall something you were looking at some time ago, or you want to find a website or article about a particular topic you know you have visited before. Of course searching through web browser history can also be useful for forensic purposes and data auditing too, for those involved in fields where that can be necessary or relevant.

Safari will store browser history for as long as you have been using Safari, unless it has been cleared specifically. There are multiple options for clearing Safari history, and if you want to completely clear all history in Safari on the Mac that is possible. You can also prevent browser history from being stored in the first place by choosing to use Private Browsing mode in Safari for Mac , which doesn’t store local browsing session data or cookies.

Do keep in mind if you (or the target Mac) run multiple different versions of Safari, like Safari alongside Safari Tech Preview, then you’d need to check history in both Safari browsers, and likewise you’d want to clear history in both of them too if you were wanting to clear our history for whatever reason.

The capability to find and look through past browsing data is not unique to the Mac, you can also search Safari browsing history on the iPhone and iPad too, and virtually every other modern web browser also has the same capability, except for most TOR browsers and privacy centric apps like Firefox Focus.

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Related articles:

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My safari on my MacBook Pro is getting buggy and a lot of things aren’t working, like I can’t click on an email address to start an email from the mail program, I click and nothing happens. Now I am trying to find a web page from a few days ago, so I try to go to ‘show all history’ but nothing happens. I can’t get my history to show in the browser!! It does have recent history, it’s just that I can’t access my whole history like I should be able to. What gives?

I used to use history a lot when I created a search in Safari. After going to a website that lead to further exploration it would sometimes take clicking the back arrow several times to get back to the original search and it was quicker to go to history and just click on the original search. Since one of the recent updates I have been unable to find the original searches any more. I don’t know if I am just not seeing it or if it isn’t there. Anyone else have this problem?

I have asked this before but I’m asking it again. It is possible to make a guide on how to go to root and _delete_ the option “new private window” from the File dropdown menu? How to edit the nib file etc…

You can Enable Parental Controls on Mac and that can be used to disable Safari Private Mode.

Or this below, which I found on the web and would not recommend to anyone:

If logging isn’t practical or you want to be more proactive and prevent Private Browsing from being accessible in the first place, it is possible (though not a short process) to disable Private Browsing if you are willing to mess with Safari’s internal files.

Note that macOS 10.12+ will not allow you to modify, overwrite, or delete Safari. You can make the following modifications to a copy of Safari and put that version in the Dock, but the original Safari will still need to exist in the Applications folder.

Install the necessary files

Install Xcode (available in the App Store) Download a zip file of Nib-Decompiler from GitHub (or clone the repository if you know how to do that) Open the NibDecompiler.xcodeproj Xcode project in Xcode Compile the project. This will produce a file named NibDecompiler.action. You can now close the project. Copy NibDecompiler.action into ~/Library/Automator* From your download, copy NibDecompiler.workflow into ~/Library/Services* Remove the “New Private Window” option from the menu bar

Note that this involves editing the Safari internal files. You will need to redo these steps every time you update Safari.

Go to Safari in the Finder and right-click “Show Package Contents” This will open the app as if it were a folder. Go to Contents, then Resources, then Base.lproj folder. Find MainMenu.nib. Copy it outside of the package somewhere (like the Desktop). Right-click on the file and choose “NibDecompiler”. The file will be made editable. Open the file in Xcode (should be double-clickable) In the window with the Safari menu, choose “Safari” to expand it. Click on the “New Private Window” menu item. Hit the delete key to see it disappear. Save the file. Back in the Base.lproj folder of the Safari app, make a copy MainMenu.nib just in case something goes wrong and you need to restore it. Copy your edited MainMenu.nib to Base.lproj, overwriting the existing one. Open Safari to make sure that it still opens (if it doesn’t, restore your original MainMenu.nib file). (Optional) If everything works, you may delete the backup MainMenu.nib if you so choose. By removing the “New Private Window” menu item from the menu bar, they will not be able to enter private browsing. Additionally, keyboard shortcuts are tied to menu items, so that’s disabled too.

* ~ means your user home directory. Library is a hidden folder that isn’t visible when you navigate to the home directory. You can get to this folder in the Finder by going to the “Go” menu and choosing “Connect to Folder…”, then typing in ~/Library. You will then see the folders you need to copy files to.

Instructions copied from this MacRumors forum thread ( https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-disable-private-browsing-in-safari.175238/page-3#post-23387488 )

You can see things you wish you didn’t see by doing this on someone elses computer!

You can find cold things in their refrigerators, too, genius.

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How To Check Browsing History in Safari

Sometimes there are instances where you need to go back and check browsing history in Safari. Maybe you are trying to remember some information you saw on the Internet. Perhaps you want to go back and bookmark a website in your Safari browser .

Whatever the reason may be, you can easily check your Safari history in just a few steps.

Let’s take a look at how to do that.

Check Browsing History in Safari

Launch the Safari browser on your desktop. It’s a blue and white icon with a compass.

Once the Safari browser is up and running select “History” from the menu on the top left and click on it. When the drop down menu appears, highlight and click on “Show All History.”

Once you have selected “Show All History” a separate window will appear with a full list of all the websites you have visited. These will be combined by dates with a drop down of each day being made available.

Note: If you are logged into your Apple ID on your desktop, you will be able to see websites you have visited on your iPhone and/or iPad as well.

You can scroll through this list and find what you need. You can use the drop downs to find sites you visited on specific dates.

Furthermore, you can use the “Search” box on the upper right side of the screen to search specific sites and pull them up in your Safari history.

You can also clear your entire Safari history or portions of it if you need.

That’s it! It is very simple and easy to check browsing history in Safari whenever the need arises.

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How To Check Safari History on iPhone and Mac [2024]

Recently a man in the EU discovered that his Safari browsing history was included in his Apple data download. After I discussed the issue with him and compared my data download, it turns out he received a lot more information than I did.

After this experience, I decided to research and learn different ways to manage your Safari browser history on your Mac and iPhone. But before we dive into this, what exactly is the Safari Browsing History and why is it so important?

How To Check Safari Search History on iPhone?

1.  Open Safari .

2.  In the Menu bar, look at the lower right corner of the screen and tap the History icon.

A Pop-up window showing the list of all the websites you have visited in Safari will appear. Also, If you want to, you can search the history for particular websites, and do this:

3. Enter a phrase into the search bar at the top of the screen.

This filters just the websites with that particular keyword or phrase. It is also important to know how to clear your Safari Browsing History.

To do this, follow these simple steps below.

How To Check Safari Search History on Mac?

There are a number of ways you can manage your browser history for Safari on both your macOS and iOS. Here are different techniques and how you can do it. First, let´s consider how to view your browsing history.

Time needed:  1 minute

View Your Safari Browsing History on Mac

Follow the simple steps below to view your browsing history on your iPhone as well.

Delete Your Safari Browsing History on your Mac

To clear your browser history on Mac, follow these straightforward steps:

1.  Open Safari.

2. Open the  History Bar  at the top of the screen.

3.  Click the Show All History tab in the Menu bar or press Command (⌘) + Y in Safari, which will take you to the history view.

4.  Select Clear History .

A pop-up menu will come up and it will allow you to choose how far back you want to clear the existing history. This option lets you choose if you want to clear your history from the last hour, day, week, two weeks, a month, or even for all time.

5.  Choose your preferred option and click Clear History .

Great! You have successfully cleared your Safari browsing history on Mac. Now, Let´s see how we can do this for iPhone as well.

Delete Your Safari Browsing History on iPhone

Clearing your browsing history on your iPhone is also easy. Follow these simple steps too:

1.  Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

2.  Scroll through the options and click on Safari .

3.  Again, scroll and find the Clear History and Website Data option.

4. Tap Clear History and Data .

Yes! You have successfully cleared all Browsing History on Mac and iPhone.

Following these next easy steps to remove all the records of the web pages or sites you have visited over the selected period.

You can also prevent Safari from tracking your browsing history. Let us quickly dive into this too.

Prevent Safari From Tracking Your Browsing History on Mac

Suppose you prevent Safari from tracking the history of the websites you visited. In that case, it means that Safari cannot save any record of the searches you perform or the websites you visit. How can you do this?

2.  Navigate to click Safari in the Menu Ba r .

3.  Select Preferences from the Menu Ba r .

4.  Next, Click on the Privacy tab.

5. You´ll see a box that is next to Prevent cross-site tracking, Check the box.

Let me also walk you through how to do this on your iPhone.

Prevent Safari From Tracking Your Browsing History on iPhone

1.  Open the Settings  app.

2.  Scroll down to the bottom and tap Safari .

3.  On this page as well, scroll down to the Privacy and Security section .

4.  Toggle on the switch that is next to the Prevent Cross-Site Tracking .

You have successfully prevented Safari from tracking your browsing history both on your Mac and iPhone!

If you prefer additional protection for your browsing activity and for your iPhone and Mac overall, we recommend a dedicated antivirus like Intego Internet Security that can block malicious websites from accessing your data.

That is not all. Sometimes, you might not want your Safari Browser to save your browsing history, website data, or even cookies. Using the private browsing mode is the solution to this.

Keep Your Browsing History Private on Mac

To keep your browsing history private on Mac, you need to use the private browsing mode. Follow these very easy and straightforward steps to do this:

2. Look at the top of your screen, select File , and click New Private Window .

A new window will be opened and this will disallow Safari from saving your Browsing or search history.

This would also restrict Safari from sending auto-fill information to any website you visit while using the window. You can also do the same on your iPhone.

Keep Your Browsing History Private on iPhone

2.  Tap the Page tab in the bottom right corner of the Safari screen.

3. Switch the page option to Private .

4. Finally, Click the ‘+’ sign at the bottom left corner to open a new private browser.

Keeping your browsing history private is very important, but in some situations, you may have visited a website by mistake or you don´t want another person to see that you visited the website. In this situation, the best thing you should do is delete the individual website from your Browsing history. Let me quickly show you how to do this:

Delete Individual Websites From Your Browsing History for Mac

To delete individual items or websites from your Safari Browsing history, follow these very easy steps:

1.  Open your Safari Browser .

2.  Click on the History tab in the Menu bar

3.  Select the Show All History tab

4.  Find the website you want to remove and Right-click   on it.

5.  Select the Delete from History option.

Let me quickly walk you through how to do this on iPhone as well.

Delete Individual Websites From Your Browsing History for iPhone

1.  Open the Safari app.

2.  Click the history tab at the bottom right corner of the screen of the browser.

3.  Look for the website you want to delete from your history and swipe left on it.

4.  Finally, Tap the Delete  option.

Yeah! You have successfully deleted individual websites from your browsing history. But if you use Safari on multiple devices of yours such as iPhone, Mac, and maybe your iPad, iCloud sync can help you to keep all your history synchronized across all the devices you own. This means that you can start browsing on your iPhone and continue later on your Mac. Let me quickly show you how to set this up.

Manage Your Safari Browsing History Across Multiple Devices Using iCloud Sync

To use the iCloud sync feature, you must have iCloud enabled on all the devices you own and they all need to be signed in to the iCloud with the same Apple ID.

If you have Safari iCloud syncing turned on and you clear your history, it will also be cleared from all of your other Apple devices with iCloud sync enabled. How can you enable and disable iCloud sync for your Safari browsing history on your Mac and iPhone?

Manage Your Safari Browsing History Across Multiple Devices Using iCloud Sync on Mac

2. Select Safari > Preferences > iCloud Option

4. Check the checkbox next to Safari to make sure that it syncs across all your devices

To sync your browsing history across certain devices, do this:

5. Click on the Manage Devices Button and select the devices you want to sync with.

6. Click Done  

Manage Your Safari Browsing History Across Multiple Devices Using iCloud Sync on iPhone

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

2.  Click on your name at the top of the settings screen.

3.  Tap the iCloud option.

4.  Under Apps Using iCloud , select Safari.

5.  Finally, toggle on the switch next to Safari.

Great! You have successfully enabled iCloud sync for Safari browsing history and it will be updated on all your devices using the same Apple ID when you visit new websites or close an existing Safari tab.

Suppose you’ve carefully followed the methods and steps I’ve provided in this step-by-step guide. In that case, you will have a great edge over efficiently managing your Safari browsing history on one or even multiple devices.

Which of these methods worked for you?  Feel free to share your thoughts here in the comment section. Also, if you are having problems with iCloud syncing on your devices, check out our guide for effective solutions.

One thought on “ How To Check Safari History on iPhone and Mac [2024] ”

I like to use imymac——Browser Cleaner to clean up browser traces, historical records, etc.Browser Cleanup lets you clean up junk files, cookies, and history, eliminate deceleration reasons, clear privacy traces to protect your confidential data and more. It is performed on Mac OS and Mac OS X.

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How to Manage Browsing History on Safari for iPad

Protect your privacy on your mobile device

What to Know

• Open Safari . Select the Bookmarks icon.
• Choose the Clock icon to open the History pane displaying the list of sites visited during the past month.
• Select Clear and indicate which entries to delete using one of the four options: The last hour, Today, Today and yesterday, and All Time.

This article explains how to manage browsing history on Safari for iPad, including how to view and delete the iPad Safari history, cookies, and stored website data. This article applies to all iPad devices with iOS 10 or iPadOS 13 or later. The process for managing browser history in Safari on an iPhone is slightly different.

How to View and Delete Your iPad Browser History in Safari

Reviewing your iPad browser history is a straightforward process. Safari stores a log of websites you visit along with other related components, such as the cache and cookies. These elements enhance your browsing experience, but you may want to delete your browsing history for privacy reasons.

You can manage your web browsing history on the iPad in two ways. The easiest option is to do it directly in Safari:

Open the Safari web browser.

Select the Bookmarks icon (it looks like an open book) at the top of the screen. 

Select the clock icon to open the History pane. A list of sites visited over the past month appears.

To delete a single website from the browser history, swipe left on its name.

Select  Clear at the bottom of the panel to reveal four options: The last hour, Today, Today and yesterday, and All time.

Select your preferred option to remove the browsing history from your iPad and all connected iCloud devices.

How to Delete History and Cookies From the iPad Settings App

Deleting the browser history through Safari doesn't remove all the data it stores. For a thorough cleaning, go to the iPad Settings app. You can also delete the browsing history and cookies from the Settings app. Clearing the history this way deletes everything Safari saved.

Select the gear icon on the Home screen to open the iPad Settings .

Scroll down and select Safari .

Scroll through the list of settings and select  Clear History and Website Data to delete the browsing history, cookies, and other cached website data.

Select  Clear to confirm, or select Cancel to return to the Safari settings without removing any data.

How to Delete Stored Website Data on iPad

Safari sometimes stores additional website data on top of a list of web pages you visited. For example, it can save passwords and preferences for frequently visited sites. If you want to delete this data but don't want to clear the browsing history or cookies, selectively delete specific data saved by Safari using the iPad Settings app.

Open the iPad Settings app.

Scroll to the bottom of the Safari settings screen and select Advanced .

Select  Website Data to display a breakdown of the data each website currently stores on the iPad.

Select Show All Sites to display the expanded list if necessary.

Select  Remove All Website Data  at the bottom of the screen to delete the site data at once, or swipe left on individual items to clear items one at a time.

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• How to Delete Cookies in Every Major Browser

How to View Safari History on iPhone

The Safari Web browser on your iPhone keeps a record of the websites you visit.

This can be a useful tool, especially if you’ve already read something and want to go back to it.

Our tutorial below will show you how to view Safari history on iPhone by completing just a few steps.

You can also visit ashevilleatc.com for additional iPhone tutorial topics.

How to See Safari History on iPhone 11

• Launch Safari.
• At the bottom of the screen, tap the book icon.
• To examine your history, tap the clock symbol.

Our explanation continues below with further information on seeing your iPhone’s Safari history, as well as screenshots of these procedures.

When you use your computer or smartphone’s Web browser without using a private browsing session, the browser saves your browsing history.

When iPhone users are concerned about their phone’s browsing history, they frequently want to delete it. That history, though, can be valuable.

It can assist you with locating an intriguing article that you read earlier but can’t remember the address for, or it can assist you in determining which store had the greatest pricing on a product that you were looking at from a range of various retailers.

When you use the Safari Web browser on your iPhone, it saves a history of all the pages you visit.

Possessing this history makes it much easier to return to a previously visited page, as you can access that history and simply tap on the page that you want to visit.

Our article below will show you how to quickly discover and use your Safari iPhone history.

Related: Find out what that delivered message means that shows up under some of your iPhone texts.

How to Locate Safari History on Your iPhone (Guide with Pictures)

The procedures in this post were carried out using an iPhone 11 running iOS 13.6.1. The same methods will work on most other iOS versions and iPhone models.

If you’ve updated to iOS 15, your address bar may now be at the bottom of the screen. If this is the case, your screen may differ from the examples in the guide below. Yet, the buttons for accessing the history remain in the same locations.

Step 1: Launch the Safari browser.

Step 2: Tap the icon that looks like an open book at the bottom of the screen.

Step 3: Click the clock-shaped tab at the top of the screen.

Now that you know how to discover your Safari history iPhone data, you may utilize it to find information that you previously saw and either wanted to double-check or share with someone else.

You should now be able to see your browsing history. You can navigate to the page by tapping on an item in the list. Individual Web pages in this history can be deleted by swiping to the left and hitting the Delete button.

Your browser’s search history will be mixed in with the pages you’ve visited. This implies that the terms you entered in the search field at the top or bottom of the screen will be visible as well. Depending on your selected search engine, your search phrases will appear beside domains such as “google.com” or “bing.com.”

Continue reading our tutorial below for more information on locating and using history data in your iPhone’s Safari browser.

Further Details about Checking Safari History on iPhone

It is important to note that Safari does not save your history for pages visited while using Private Browsing. Toggling between ordinary and private browsing is as simple as touching the Tabs icon (two overlapping squares) at the bottom of the screen and selecting the Private option.

Safari also does not save browsing history for other iPhone browsers, such as Google Chrome or Firefox. Instead, you’d have to open those browsers to see their history.

Also, deleting the browsing history for Safari will only affect the browsing history for the Safari app. Other browsers’ history menus will remain accessible on your iOS device unless you opt to delete the existing data for those browsers as well.

Go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data to remove your Safari history. This will also clear your cookies and log you out of any accounts you are presently signed into.

When you remove Safari’s browser history, you won’t be able to view Safari history for any browsing sessions that occurred before the deletion. Safari will only display your Online surfing history when that information has been removed.

If you haven’t erased Safari history previously, your browser history can be quite large. Normally, the device’s full history will be available for 30 days.

How to Lookup Safari History on an iPhone

Searching through your iPhone Safari history is another intriguing thing you can do with it.

When you open Safari, press the book symbol at the bottom of the screen, then select the History tab at the top of the screen, you’ll notice a “Search History” area.

When you tap inside that field and type a search query, you’ll see a list of pages from your history that contain those search terms.

This is especially useful if you recall a single word or term but don’t remember where you saw it or the name of the website where you saw it.

If you have another browser installed on your iPhone, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, those browsers will also retain history, which you may search through in the same way.

Commonly Asked Questions About iPhone History in Safari

How can i view my iphone’s safari history.

By opening Safari and clicking the book symbol at the bottom of the screen, you may access the history of all Web pages you’ve visited in the iPhone Safari Web browser.

Then, at the top of the window, select the tab with the clock on it. This is your browsing history, arranged chronologically. You may either search through it or scroll down to see everything. Touching on a location in your past will take you there.

How can I view my whole Safari history?

When you pick the book symbol, and then the History tab in the Safari browser on your iPhone , the full Safari history that is available is displayed.

To view your whole history in the Safari app on a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air, go to the History tab and then click on Show All History.

How long does the iPhone Safari history last?

The Web sites you visit in your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch’s Safari browser are saved for one month.

Safari history on a Mac is retained for one year.

How can you check your iPhone’s history?

On your iPhone, you can view your history at any moment by launching Safari, selecting the open book button, and then pressing on the History symbol to see a list of Web pages that you have viewed.

Pages viewed in Private tabs, as well as pages viewed in other Web browsers such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, are not included in this history.

To view the history in Chrome, open the browser, hit the three dots in the bottom-right corner, and then tap the History button.

To view the history in Firefox, launch the Firefox iPhone app, tap the three lines in the bottom-right corner, and then select the History option.

It is important to note that the history displayed in the Safari browser on your iPhone is distinct from the history displayed in other phone browsers such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

Also, clearing the history in Safari does not remove the history in the other browsers, and vice versa.

Video on Safari History iPhone

Matt Jacobs has been working as an IT consultant for small businesses since receiving his Master’s degree in 2003. While he still does some consulting work, his primary focus now is on creating technology support content for SupportYourTech.com.

His work can be found on many websites and focuses on topics such as Microsoft Office, Apple devices, Android devices, Photoshop, and more.

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How to View Your Internet Browsing History

Last Updated: November 20, 2022 Fact Checked

This article was written by Luigi Oppido and by wikiHow staff writer, Rain Kengly . Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,610,263 times.

If you want to view your search history to delete or manage certain websites, you can easily do so by navigating to your browser's History settings. The steps may vary slightly depending on the platform you're using, such as Windows and Mac or iPhone and Android. This wikiHow will teach you how to view your Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari history on both desktop and mobile platforms.

Things You Should Know

• Your browsing history will be stored in your browser's "History" settings.
• You can delete specific websites or all browsing history within a certain timeframe.
• Deleting browsing history from one item that is synchronized with another (e.g., an iPad and a Mac) won't usually remove the history from the other item.

Google Chrome on Desktop

• If needed, you can download Google Chrome .

• To clear your browsing history, click Clear browsing data on the left side of the page, make sure "Browsing history" is checked, and click Clear data .

Safari on Desktop

• If needed, you can update Safari.

• To clear your Mac's Safari history, click Safari , click Clear History... , select a time frame, and click Clear History .
• You can also change Safari's start page .

Firefox on Desktop

• If needed, you can download Mozilla Firefox .

• Alternatively, you can press CTRL + H to reach History .

• You can delete history items (e.g., specific sites or entire folders) by right-clicking and clicking Delete Page(s) .

Google Chrome on Mobile

• To clear your browsing history, tap Clear Browsing Data... in the bottom-left corner (or at the top of the page on Android), make sure "Browsing History" is checked, and tap Clear Browsing Data (or CLEAR DATA on Android) twice.

Safari on Mobile

• To remove items from your browsing history, tap Clear in the bottom-right corner of the screen, then select a time frame when prompted.

Microsoft Edge

• Microsoft Edge is the default browser for Windows.
• If needed, you can download Microsoft Edge .

• You'll be able to see your most recent history in the drop-down menu.

• You can use the search bar to find specific websites or Filter by date .
• To clear your browsing history, click Clear browsing data above your listed history. Check off all options you want cleared, then click Clear now .

Firefox on Mobile

• On Android, tap ⋮ in the top-right corner of the screen to prompt a drop-down menu.

• To clear your entire Firefox history, tap the trash can icon in the bottom left corner. You can choose to delete: Today , Today and Yesterday , or Everything .

Community Q&A

• Browser activity from Incognito Mode (or InPrivate Mode) will not show up in your search history. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95589?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop
• ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/search-your-web-browsing-history-ibrw1114/mac#:~:text=You%20can%20search%20your%20browsing%20history%20to%20quickly%20find%20webpages%20you%20visited.&text=In%20the%20Safari%20app%20on,right%20corner%20of%20the%20window .
• ↑ https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/browsing-history-firefox
• ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/view-and-delete-browser-history-in-microsoft-edge-00cf7943-a9e1-975a-a33d-ac10ce454ca4

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How to Check History on Safari [2023 Complete Guide]

If you’re wondering how to check history on Safari , the browser offers a useful feature that allows you to keep track of your browsing activity on iOS devices. By accessing your browsing history, you can easily retrieve previously visited web pages and retrace your online journey.

This is especially helpful when conducting extensive research and you need to recall a valuable piece of information that you previously accessed. To view your browsing history in Safari, follow the steps outlined in this article. Discover how to check your history on Safari by reading below.

Quick Navigation:

Part 1: Why You Need to Turn Search Browser History off

Part 2: how to check history on safari, part 3: can you view history from private browsing, part 4: how to clear google chrome history manually, part 5: how to clear firefox history manually.

• Part 6: How to Ccheck History on Safari With Mac Cleaner

Search browser history refers to the record of websites and web pages that a user has visited on their browser. This information is usually stored on the user’s computer or device and can be accessed by anyone who has physical or remote access to the device.

While search browser history can be useful for some purposes, such as helping users find previously visited sites, it also poses several risks to privacy and security. Here are a few reasons why you might consider turning off your search browser history:

• Privacy concerns : Your search history contains information about your browsing habits, interests, and potentially sensitive information such as your login credentials, credit card information, or personal conversations. This information can be used by hackers, advertisers, or malicious actors to track your activities, steal your identity, or carry out phishing attacks.
• Security risks : If your device is shared with other people, they can easily access your search history and use it to impersonate you or gain unauthorized access to your accounts. This is especially true if you use autofill features that store your passwords and other sensitive data.
• Embarrassment or reputational damage : Sometimes, we may visit sites that we don’t want others to know about. This can include adult content, medical information, or other sensitive topics. If your search history is exposed, it can lead to embarrassment or even reputational damage.
• Improved performance : Turning off your search browser history can also help improve the performance of your browser, especially if you have limited storage space on your device.

Overall, while searching browser history can be convenient, it can also pose several risks to your privacy and security. To reduce these risks, consider turning off your search history or using privacy-focused browsers that do not store your search history by default.

To check your browsing history on Safari for Mac , you can use the Show All History feature. This allows you to easily search through your web browsing history and quickly find previously visited web pages. Simply open the Safari app on your Mac and navigate to History  > Show All History . Once you’re in the history view, you can use the Search field to look up specific pages or keywords. This is a quick and convenient way to check your history on Safari.

Another way to check history on Safari

To check your browsing history in Safari , you can follow these steps:

• Open Safari on your Mac or iOS device.
• On a Mac, click on the “History ” menu in the top menu bar. On an iOS device, tap the book icon at the bottom of the screen.
• Select “Show All History ” on a Mac, or “History ” on an iOS device.
• This will bring up a list of all the websites you have visited recently. You can click or tap on any of these items to revisit the corresponding page.
• On a Mac, you can also use the keyboard shortcut “Command + Y ” to quickly open the History tab. Additionally, Safari allows you to search your browsing history using the search bar at the top of the history page.

Are you wondering how to check history on Safari  when using Private Browsing? Unfortunately, it is not possible to view your browsing history as Safari does not store it while in Private Browsing mode.

This feature is designed to protect your privacy by preventing the browser from retaining any data on the sites you visit. Additionally, Safari also prevents tracking by sites and content providers. As a result, any cookies acquired during your session are erased upon tab closure.

To clear your Google Chrome browsing history manually, follow these steps:

• Open  Google Chrome  on your computer.
• Click on the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the screen to open the Chrome menu.
• Select “History ” from the drop-down menu.
• Click on “History ” again in the new menu that appears.
• You will see a list of all the websites you’ve visited recently. You can either click on the three vertical dots next to each individual website to delete it from your history or click on “Clear browsing data ” at the top of the screen.
• In the “Clear browsing data ” pop-up window, choose the time range for which you want to delete the history.
• Check the boxes next to the types of data you want to clear. You can choose to clear your browsing history , cookies, cache , download history, and more.
• Click on “Clear data ” to delete the selected items.

To clear your Firefox browsing history manually, follow these steps:

• Open Firefox on your computer.
• Click on the three horizontal lines in the top right corner of the screen to open the Firefox menu.
• Select “Library ” from the drop-down menu.
• Click on “History ” from the new menu that appears.
• You will see a list of all the websites you’ve visited recently. You can either right-click on an individual website and select “Forget About This Site ” to delete it from your history or click on “Clear Recent History ” at the top of the screen.
• In the “Clear Recent History ” pop-up window, choose the time range for which you want to delete the history.
• Check the boxes next to the types of data you want to clear. You can choose to clear your browsing history, cookies, cache, download history, and more.
• Click on “Clear Now ” to delete the selected items.

Part 6: H ow to Check H istory on S afari   With Mac Cleaner

Checking your browsing history on Safari is an important step in ensuring that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Here’s how you can use this software:

Try it Free

Step #1: Download, Install, and Launch Mac Cleaner

To start using Mac Cleaner, you’ll need to follow these steps. First, visit the Mac Cleaner download site by clicking on the provided link. Then, click on the “Download Now ” button to initiate the download of a DMG file.

After downloading, open the file and run the installer, following the onscreen instructions. Once the installation is complete, the software should automatically open and be ready to use. This is the first step in the process of using Mac Cleaner.

Step #2: Select a Cleaner Module

After launching Mac Cleaner, you’ll notice a sidebar on the left-hand side of the interface. It contains six modules, which are Clean Up Junk , Delete Large Files , Delete Duplicate Files , Erase Private Data , Speed Up Your Mac , and Manage Apps & Extensions . For the purposes of this guide, we’ll focus on the first three modules, which we refer to as the cleaner modules. Here’s a brief overview of each module:

• Clean Up Junk  scans and removes files that the system considers as junk, including System Junk, App Junk, iOS Junk, iTunes Junk, Unused Disk Images, Downloads, and Trash Bin, among other things.
• Delete Large Files  searches for files on your computer that exceed 50MB in size and removes only those files that the system considers unnecessary.
• Delete Duplicate Files  checks for duplicate files across your entire computer and presents a list of files that have a copy. You can then choose to delete the duplicates.

To use any of these modules, simply click on the corresponding option in the sidebar.

Step #3: Scan Your Mac for Files

Once you launch Mac Cleaner, a sidebar will appear on the left-hand side of the interface, containing six modules: Clean Up Junk, Delete Large Files, Delete Duplicate Files, Erase Private Data, Speed Up Your Mac, and Manage Apps & Extensions. For the purpose of this guide, we will focus on the first three modules, which are commonly known as the cleaner modules. Here is a quick overview of each module:

• Clean Up Junk  scans and removes files that the system considers as junk, such as System Junk, App Junk, iOS Junk, iTunes Junk, Unused Disk Images, Downloads, and Trash Bin, among others.
• Delete Large Files  searches your computer for files that exceed 50MB in size and removes only those files that the system considers unnecessary.
• Delete Duplicate Files  checks for duplicate files across your entire computer and displays a list of files that have a copy. You can choose to delete the duplicates as needed.

To access any of these modules, simply click on the corresponding option in the sidebar.

Step #4: Choose a File/s

you need to choose the file or files you want to delete. The process for selecting files will depend on the module you are using. It is much simpler for the Delete Large Files and Deletes Duplicate Files modules as you just need to choose an item from the list which includes folders and files like images, videos, documents, songs, etc.

However, in the case of the Clean Up Junk module, you will first need to select a file category from the list on the left side of the interface. The options you will see include System Junk, Downloads, iOS Junk, iTunes Junk, Trash Bin, Unused Disk Images, and more. Once you select a category, a new list will appear on the right side of the interface containing actual files. You can select the files you want to delete by clicking their checkboxes, or you can choose to delete all of them by clicking the Select All  button.

Step #5: Delete the File/s

To complete the process, the final step is to click on the blue button located in the upper right corner of the window, which will either say  Clean  or Delete  depending on the module you are using. Once you click on the button, you may need to wait for a few seconds or minutes while the software deletes the selected files.

In addition to learning how to manually erase browsing history from Safari, Firefox, and Chrome, you may want to know how to check history on Safari . Using a browser history removal tool can clear associated data, listed pages, cookies, and broken caches, saving you time. It’s important to clean up your browsing history once in a while if you want to stop spies dead in their tracks.

If you’ve backed up your browsing history in iCloud, you can still manage your Safari browsing history. In today’s data-driven world, companies like Google and Facebook collect massive amounts of information online to gain a competitive advantage.

However, not everyone is comfortable sharing their browsing history, data downloads, or privacy with these profit-driven giants. To browse without intrusion, try our hacks and tricks to clear your browser history items.

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How Can I find search history a year ago from safari?

Posted on Aug 15, 2022 6:22 PM

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Aug 15, 2022 6:50 PM in response to Maryamamo

Safari on iPhone and iPad doesn’t keep history anywhere near that far back.

On iPad, it keeps ~two weeks.

Which means you need old backups, and a willingness to restore those backups.

Which erases all existing contents.

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5 Ways to View & Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone/iPad

“I've cleared my Safari history recently but now I need find back one website I visited previously. I was just wondering whether there's any chance to recover deleted Safar history so I can access these sites again?”

Safari is the built-in web browser for iOS devices and Mac computers, which is widely used among Apple users. While searching the internet with Safari, it usually keeps the browsing history and bookmarks for picking up what has been read.

The Safari history is very important and helpful. What if you have accidentally deleted your browsing history or it is suddenly gone without a record?

Don't worry. You still have chances to get back the deleted Safari history. Keep reading to find out how you can recover deleted Safari history on iPhone without or without backup.

Can You Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone?

Are you wondering if it's possible to recover deleted Safari history on your iPhone? The good news is that it's YES. Even if you've deleted your browsing history on Safari, it's not permanently gone from your iPhone. It may still be stored on your phone for a limited period and inaccessible. And with the right steps, you can recover the deleted Safari history on iPhone.

Check iPhone Settings for Deleted Safari History

Before you try any other methods listed below, first check your iPhone itself. The most accessible and simple way of recovering your browsing history is to find them in Safari Website Data under Settings. Here's how to do it:

• On your iPhone, open the Settings app. Scroll down to find Safari and tap on it.
• On the next screen, scroll to the bottom and tap on the " Advanced " option.
• Choose the " Website Data " and you'll view the domain of the deleted browsing history.

Drawback of this method:

This method will only show you the root domain of your visited sites. You won't be able to find a specific page you've viewed before. Also, this method only works as long as you don't clear cookies and history from Safari.

Recover Safari History on iPhone without Backup (Recommend)

If there is no backup of your deleted Safari history, FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery is highly recommended to you. As the World's 1st iPhone and iPad data recovery software, it has helped tens of thousands iOS users find the deleted or lost data. What makes it become so popular? The answer is its reliability and function.

It provides 3 recovery modes for users: Recover from iOS Device, Recover from iTunes Backup, Recover from iCloud Backup, which means that it is powerful enough to scan deleted iOS data, preview almost all the content of iTunes/iCloud backup and download them on computer.

And the data types this tool supports to recover include messages, contacts, photos , videos, Safari history, notes , WhatsApp messages, Viber, etc. This tool works well on the latest iPhone 15/14/13 and iOS 17/16.

Follow the steps below to recover deleted safari history on iPhone without backup :

Step 1. Connect iPhone to Computer

To start with, install the program on your Windows PC or Mac and launch it. Choose " Recover from iOS Device " and then connect your iPhone to the computer using USB cable.

Step 2. Select Safari History to Scan

Once yoru iPhone is detected by the program, choose " Safari History " of any other type of files you would like to recover and then click " Scan " to begin scanning.

Step 2. Recover Deleted Safari History

After the scan, click " Safari History " from the category list to preview the recoverable safari history. Then select the ones you need and click " Recover " button to save the deleted safari history to your computer.

Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone from Backup

Recover safari history from icloud web.

You are allowed to recover only Safari history from iCloud official site as long as you have turned on iCloud Auto Syncing on your iPhone. Follow these simple steps:

• Sign into iCloud official site from any browser using your iCloud account.
• Navigate to the " Advanced " option and scroll down to click " Restore Bookmarks " .
• Choose an archive of bookmarks you want and click on " Restore ".

Only the deleted Safari hisoty within the last 30 days can be retrieved. Also, the existing Safari bookmarks on your iPhone will be replaced and erased, which might cause new data loss.

Restore iPhone Safari History from iCloud Backup

If you have backed up your iPhone to iCloud, restoring iPhone from the iCloud backup is also one of the feasible choice you can try. Doing this will get back all the app data, including the deleted Safari history. But you need to factory reset the iPhone before performing the restore.

• Open Settings and click on " General ", scroll down to tap on " Reset " and select " Erase All Content and Settings ".
• Follow the instructions to set up your iPhone until you reach the page of " Apps & Data ". Then choose " Restore from iCloud Backup ".
• Sign in to iCloud and choose a backup to restore the device. All data in the backup file including the deleted Safari history will come back.

You're not allowed to preview the deleted files and selectively recover what you need only. What's worse, all the existing data on your iPhone will be erased and you'll lose your latest data that are not included in the iCloud backup.

Selectively Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone from iCloud Backup

With FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery, you're able to preview and selectively recover deleted Safari history from iCloud backup.

• Run FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery and switch to " Recover from iCloud ".
• Sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID and password. Then select the data types you want to restore and click on " Scan ".
• After you've downloaded the iCloud data, preview and select the data you need, then click on " Recover ".

Recover Deleted Safari History from iTunes Backup

If you have made an iTunes/Finder backup before you deleted the Safari history, you can also recover the deleted browsing history by restoring iPhone from iTunes backup. However, to restore the backed-up data, you will have to erase the existing data on your iPhone.

• Connect your iPhone to computer and launch iTunes or Finder.
• Click on the iPhone icon when it shows up and then choose " Restore Backup ".
• Select the backup file that contains your deleted Safari history and click on " Restore ".

Same as iCloud, preview and selectively recovery is not supported. Restoring from iTunes backup might also lead to data loss since any new files added to your iPhone since the backup will be replaced and overwritten.

Selectively Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone from iTunes Backup

And again, we recommend you using FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery to recover deleted Safari history from iTunes backup without erasing any data.

• Launch FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery and choose the option of " Recover from iTunes Backup ".
• Select the iTunes backup file you want and click " Next ". Then select " Safari history " and click on " Scan ".
• After the scan, you can preview the Safari history and selectively recover those you need by clicking on " Recover ".

FAQs about iPhone Safari History Recovery

Q1. How long does Safari keep your browsing history?

This question has confused a lot of iPhone users. Actually, there is a definite answer of this question: your Mac can keep your browsing history for as long as a year, while some iPhone, iPad and iPod touch models keep browsing history for a month. This is what demonstrated on Apple’s official site.

Q2. How to recover deleted Safari history on iPad?

There are different methods for recovering deleted Safari history on your iPhone, most of which apply to iPads. You can try using FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery, which is compatible with major iOS devices, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Q3. Where is Safari history stored on your Mac?

All the Safari history you can see on your Mac is stored in the ~/Library/Safari/ folder.

• Just click on Finder > Go > Go to Folder .
• Then enter the path in the textbox and click on OK to open  the History.db file.

Q4. How to avoid losing Safari history?

To avoid the possible loss of Safari history, we can enable Safari in iCloud preferences. In this way, the Safari data will be backed up to cloud automatically.

Besides that, we can also use some tools such as FoneGeek iOS Backup & Restore to back up iPhone data to computer selectively or fully.

This article has outlined all feasible solutions to recover deleted Safari history on your iPhone. You can pick the one that works best for you. We strongly recommended FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery for its easy-to-use interface and allowing us to recover Safari history without data loss.

Joan J. Mims is interested in researching all tips about iPhone, iPad and Android. He loves to share useful ideas with all users.

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Table of Content

• 1 Can You Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone?
• 2 Check iPhone Settings for Deleted Safari History
• 3 Recover Safari History on iPhone without Backup (Recommend) Hot
• 4 Recover Deleted Safari History on iPhone from Backup
• 5 FAQs about iPhone Safari History Recovery
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Personal Safety User Guide for Apple devices

• Personal safety at a glance
• What’s new in personal safety
• Use Safety Check to stop sharing
• How Safety Check works
• Additional considerations when using Safety Check
• Intro to review and take action
• Secure AirDrop and NameDrop
• Securely control whom you share content with from iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch
• Securely control whom you share content with from Mac
• Share or stop sharing your location
• Manage automatic ETA sharing in Maps
• Manage Location Services settings
• Stop and remove location metadata in Photos
• Stay safe with AirTag
• Safely manage how you forward content
• Reject unknown sign-in attempts
• Record suspicious activity
• Store your data securely in iCloud
• Delete suspicious content
• Manage Family Sharing settings
• Avoid fraudulent requests to share info
• Securely control your Home accessories
• How to erase all content and settings
• Restore the data you backed up
• Intro to privacy and safety tools
• Update your Apple software
• Set a unique passcode or password
• Secure your iPhone or iPad with Face ID
• Secure your devices with Touch ID
• Delete unknown fingerprints from iPhone or iPad
• Add or delete fingerprints on your Mac
• Keep your Apple ID secure
• Use two-factor authentication
• Help prevent being locked out of your device
• Keep your device, app, and website passwords secure on iPhone and iPad
• Manage shared password and passkeys
• App privacy features in Apple products
• Harden your devices against mercenary spyware
• Manage safety settings in Messages
• Use Check In for Messages
• Block calls and messages
• Receive warnings about sensitive images and videos on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
• Keep your browsing history private
• Make an emergency call or text on iPhone or Apple Watch
• Obtain evidence related to another person’s account
• See who has access to your iPhone or iPad
• How to stop sharing your iPhone or iPad content
• How to stop sharing your iPhone or iPad location

Keep your browsing history private in Safari and Maps

Reviewing and clearing search history and caches for browsers and other apps may be a good practice if you’re concerned someone has access to your device. Many apps store information about what you’ve searched for and what you’ve looked at so that it’s easy for you to rediscover it in the future. For example, when you use the Maps app, having a history of locations you’ve searched for or navigated to can make it easier to navigate back to a place you recently visited.

If you’re in an unsafe personal situation and need to look up safety strategies online but don’t want Safari to keep a record of what you’ve viewed, you can open a Private Browsing window on iPhone , iPad , and Mac . When you use Private Browsing, the details of your browsing aren’t saved, and they aren’t shared across your devices. Additionally, if you’ve updated your devices to iOS 17 , iPadOS 17 , or macOS Sonoma 14 , Safari locks Private Browsing tabs after a period of inactivity so that they can be opened only with your password, passcode, Face ID or Touch ID , protecting your privacy when you’re away from your device. You can clear your browsing history and open a Private Browsing window on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Clear your browsing history in Safari

If you’ve been looking up information about safety strategies online and are concerned someone may see your browsing history, you can remove all records that Safari keeps about where you’ve browsed.

When you clear your history, Safari removes data it saves as a result of your browsing, including:

A history of the webpages you visited

The back and forward list for open webpages

A list of frequently visited sites

Recent searches

Icons for webpages

Snapshots saved for open webpages

A list of items you downloaded (downloaded files aren’t removed)

Websites you added for a Quick Website Search

Websites that asked to use your location

Websites that asked to send you notifications

Clear recent directions and favorites in Maps on iPhone and iPad

Do one of the following:

Swipe a recent route left.

Tap More directly above the list, then swipe a recent route left; or to delete a group of routes, tap Clear above the group.

Clear recent directions and favorites in Maps on Mac

Below Recents, click Clear Recents.

If you want to remove a Favorite location, Control-click a location (in the sidebar below Favorites), then choose Remove from Favorites.

Open a Private Browsing window on iPhone

Open the Safari app.

The tab is automatically added to a Tab Group called Private. You can open multiple private tabs in the group.

You can easily confirm that you’re in Private Browsing Mode by checking that the search field bar is gray or that it displays the word Private.

Open a Private Browsing window on iPad

While Private Browsing Mode is on, the search field background is black instead of white and sites you visit don’t appear in History on iPad or in the list of tabs on your other devices. You can open multiple private tabs in the Private Tab Group.

Open a Private Browsing window on Mac

A window using Private Browsing has a dark Smart Search field with white text.

Browse as you normally would.

If you want to always open windows with Private Browsing on Mac

Click the “Safari opens with” pop-up menu, then choose “A new private window.”

If you don’t see this option, do one of the following:

To further enhance Safari privacy

In your Downloads folder, delete any items that were downloaded while you were using Private Browsing windows.

Close any other Private Browsing windows that are still open, to prevent other people from using the Back and Forward buttons to see pages you visited.

Download this guide as a PDF

• Help Center
• Google Search
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• Submit feedback
• Announcements

If you want to request removal of search results from Google, go to Remove web results from Google Search .

Manage & delete your Search history

When you search on Google with Web & App Activity turned on, Google saves activity like your Search history to your Google Account. Web & App Activity saves data about the things you do across Google services, including associated info like locations, in your account to make your experience more personalized. We use your saved activity to give you more personalized experiences, like app and content recommendations.

In My Activity , you can:

• Delete Search history saved to your Google Account.
• Manage Search settings like what activity Google saves and when Google auto-deletes your history.

Your Search history can also be saved to your device, like when you use the Google app while signed out of your Google Account. Learn how to manage your on-device Search history .

Manage & delete Search history

Manage Search history saved to your Google Account

Delete search history.

Important: If you delete Search history that’s saved to your Google Account, you can’t get it back.

You can delete a specific activity, or delete your Search history from a specific day, a custom date range, or all time.

• On your computer, go to your Search history in My Activity .

Control your Search history

• On the left or at the top, click Controls .
• If you find “Auto-delete (On), ” Google automatically deletes your Web & App Activity, which includes your Search history, after a specific time period. To change the time period or turn it off, click Auto-delete (On) .
• Follow the on-screen instructions.

To pause saving your history:

• Under "Web & App Activity," click Turn off .
• Click Turn off or Turn off and delete activity .
• If you choose “Turn off and delete activity,” to select and confirm what activity you want to delete, follow the additional steps.

Manage Search history saved on your device

Even if your Search history isn’t saved to your Google Account, or you delete it from My Activity, your browser might still store it.

You can delete your browser history:

• In Chrome: Learn how to delete browsing history and other browsing data .
• In other browsers: Check your browser’s instructions.

If you’re signed out from your Google Account when you search on Google, you may find recommendations related to your recent search. If you don’t want to get these, turn off Search customization.

• On your computer, go to google.com .
• Turn off Search customization .

How Google deletes your history in your Google Account

When you choose to delete activity manually or activity is deleted automatically based on your auto-delete setting, we immediately start the process of removing it from the product and our systems.

First, we aim to immediately remove it from view and the data may no longer be used to personalize your Google experience.

We then begin a process designed to safely and completely delete the data from our storage systems. 

Related articles

• Delete your activity
• View & control your Web & App Activity
• Manage your audio recordings in your Web & App Activity
• Change your Google app settings
• Search & browse privately

How Search works with your activity

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How to clear the cache on your iPhone (and why you should)

How many tabs are open on your mobile browser right now? Go ahead, check -- you might be surprised by what you find.

Americans spend over five hours a day on their smartphones. That's over five hours of your phone potentially accessing, retrieving, and saving cache and cookies, which can negatively impact your iPhone's storage space .

What is cache?

Cache is the temporary storage of some data, like parts of a website from the last time you visited it, for example. Browser cache is content from a website that is stored on your phone during a browser session to help the browser execute faster the next time you visit that page.

Also:  How to clear Google search cache on Android

Cache data can slow down your phone's overall browsing performance, however, since it takes up storage space on your device, so it's good to clear it out regularly. In this article, we mainly focus on clearing web browser cache on an iPhone, but you should know that other types of cache include mobile app cache and CPU cache.

How to clear cache on iPhone

What you'll need: Everything you need to clear your browser cache is within the iPhone's settings app or the Safari app, so grab your iPhone to get started.

Keep in mind that clearing the cache can clear private data, which can close all open tabs in Safari. This is also likely to log you out of all your websites, prompting you to sign in again the next time you open them. 

How do I clear the cache from Chrome on iPhone?

If Google Chrome is your preferred browser, it may have a substantial amount of data stored on your device, which could also slow down performance. 

To clear the cache in Chrome, open the Google Chrome app and follow these steps:

• Tap  Settings .
• Go to  Privacy and Security .
• Select  Clear Browsing Data .
• Select the time from which to delete the data (if you want to delete all your browsing history, choose All Time ).
• Go through the items you'd like to delete, like your Browsing History, Cookies and Site Data, Cached Images and Files, Saved Passwords , and Autofill Data.
• Confirm by tapping  Clear Browsing Data  at the bottom of the screen.
• Tap Done when you've deleted the Chrome cache.

Also: Apple releases iOS 17.4 with podcast transcripts, new emojis, and EU app store changes

Clearing the browsing and cache data in Google Chrome doesn't close all open tabs, but it will refresh each tab and log you out of websites. Once you tap on one of the tabs you want to access, you'll have to log back in.

How can I browse on Safari without history?

If you're learning how to clear cache on an iPhone, you may also be wondering if there's a way to use Safari without saving any browsing history. You can turn on Private Browsing by following these steps:

• Open  Safari .
• Tap on  Tabs .
• Choose Private .

You can also enable private browsing by going to your iPhone Settings, finding Safari, and toggling on the private option. 

How do I clear my app cache on my iPhone?

To clear the app cache from your iPhone Settings app, you can either delete the app and reinstall it, offload it, or try to clear the cache from within the app. Unfortunately, iOS apps don't have consistent settings across the board that would allow you to clear the cache of every app.

Also: Apple warns: Don't put your wet iPhone in rice. Do this instead

Apps like TikTok and CapCut, for example, have options to Clear Cache within their respective settings. Amazon lets users delete their browsing history, while the Reddit app can clear local history. It all depends on what the app's settings let you do. 

Is "clear cache" the same as offloading?

Not exactly, though app offloading can help if your phone is slowed down by low storage. To offload an app  means to uninstall an app without deleting any documents or data associated with it. 

Also: Apple secures iMessage against threats from the future

To offload an app, go to  Settings , then  General , choose  iPhone Storage  and select the app to offload, then tap  Offload App . If you ever download it again, you'll pick up where you left off for that app.

Are cookies and cache the same thing?

Cookies and cache are not the same. Cookies are data files that websites send to your phone, including things like saved passwords to keep you logged into an account or even the website preferences from the previous time you visited. 

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Though they do sound harmless, cookies can also track how you browse the internet. They monitor patterns in your browsing and search history, even seeing what you clicked on or what your mouse hovered over. Ever made an innocuous search on Amazon only to find ads for it on all the apps you use? Cookies likely made that possible.

Can I block cookies on my iPhone?

While you can block cookies on Safari, the ranks are divided on whether you should. Blocking cookies entirely means that websites won't be able to get information from you, but it also means that some websites may not even work correctly on your browser. A lot of users actually enjoy a more personalized browsing experience, so cookies are a good thing for them.

 If you'd like to block cookies in Safari, follow these steps:

• Go to  Settings  and select  Safari .
• Tap on the toggle next to  Block All Cookies .

There are also third-party extensions that help you block cookies and trackers in Google Chrome, like Ghostery and Disconnect .

How do I check iPhone storage?

On an iPhone, Settings can show you what's taking up most of your media storage, like photos, videos, and music. You can also see what each particular app's storage consumption is, which includes temporary data. To view the details of your iPhone's storage space, follow these steps:

• Go to the iPhone Settings .
• Tap on General .
• Select iPhone Storage .
• Scroll through to find the app you're looking for.
• Tap on the app to view storage status and options.

Unfortunately, you can't clear your iPhone cache for third-party apps by going into your Settings app, but this gives you a visual of your iPhone's storage and the option to delete or offload apps.

Also: Here's the fastest way to declutter your iPhone and free up Gigabytes of space

When you look at your device's storage space, you'll probably see recommended steps you can take to optimize your iPhone's storage, like offloading unused apps.

• How to better organize text messages on your iPhone, thanks to iOS 17
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