safari delete selected history

How to clear Safari browsing history on iPhone and iPad

Clear Safari browsing history on iPhone and iPad in a few simple steps

You'll definitely want to know how to clear Safari browsing history on iPhone and iPad . Know how to delete browsing history is part of basic user operation on all your devices, and is especially if you share devices with others. 

Luckily, deleting browsing history on Safari is easy and can be done in just a few taps, and is the same on iOS and iPadOS, so whether you're using an iPhone 15 Pro or an iPad Air , these steps will apply.

Remember, though, that deleting your browsing history only stops your activity being visible on that device. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will still be able to see the webpages you have visited. If you want to stop that, for ultimate privacy, you'll need to use one of the best VPN services .

The following screenshots were taken on an iPhone running iOS 17 . If you aren't running the latest version of your device's OS, we can show you how to update an iPhone or how to update an iPad .

• In Safari, tap the book icon
• Go to the history tab (clock)
• Select how far back to clear

Read on to see full illustrated instructions.

1. In Safari, tap the book icon

Firstly, open Safari and tap the book icon in the bottom bar.

2. Select the history tab (clock icon) and tap Clear

Now select the history tab (clock icon) and tap Clear at the bottom.

3. Select how far back to clear and tap Delete

Now choose how far back you'd like to delete : last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all time.

If you like, you can toggle on Close All Tabs , which will close every open tab that isn't in a tab group (we can show you how to use tab groups if you aren't sure).

Finally, when you're happy, hit Delete .

As you can see in the screenshot above, if you now go back to the history tab, your history will have been deleted.

For more iPhone tutorials, check out our guides on how to transfer data from iPhone to iPhone , how to clear RAM on iPhone , how to delete multiple contacts on iPhone and how to rearrange the iOS 17 Messages '+' menu .

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Tips & Tricks

Troubleshooting, how to delete specific safari history on mac.

Did you know that you can delete any specific Safari history item from the web browsers history stored on a Mac? While many Mac Safari users likely already know they can clear Safari history for the past hour, day, two days, or clear all history from the browser , far fewer users know that it’s possible to selectively delete specific browser history items from Safari on the Mac.

Removing items from Safari history is useful for many obvious reasons, whether you’d like to remove a secret from browser history, delete an embarrassing webpage visit or browsing session, or even if you want to correct an

The ability to delete specific items and history from Safari History is fairly easy, and is largely version agnostic, so as long as the Mac is vaguely new and running anything other than an ultra antiquated version of software, the version of Safari and Mac OS or Mac OS X should support specific history removal.

Do note deleting an item from Safari history on the Mac is permanent, at least until that site(s) or webpage(s) have either been visited again, or unless a backup of the Mac has been restored to the computer. You can not undo removal of Safari history items.

How to Delete Specific History from Safari on Mac

You can selectively remove any item found within Safari history on a Mac by following these instructions:

• Open the Safari web browser if you haven’t already
• Pull down the “History” menu, then select “Show All History”

• Locate the specific Safari browser history item you want to remove (either through the list view or by searching Safari history for word matches )
• Select the item you want to delete from Safari history
• Hit the “Delete” key on the Mac keyboard, or right-click and choose “Delete” from the pop-up menu

• Repeat with other items you want to remove from Safari history on the Mac

You can delete any individual search history from Safari this way.

This tip is particularly useful when combined with the Safari History Search feature, since you can find specific keywords, terms, webpages, websites, and topics within History if you want to selectively delete the history within the browser for any found occurrences.

You can also go for the drastic option of clearing all web history data in Safari from the Mac , though obviously wiping everything clean isn’t going to be targeted in the same way that deleting particular items from Safari History would be.

If you find yourself frequently wanting to delete specific Safari history items, you may be better off preemptively using Private Browsing mode in Safari for Mac , which does not leave any browser history when active.

It’s worth mentioning that whether you delete Safari history or use private browsing mode or not, your browsing sessions are not going to be truly anonymous or private because of the nature of how browsers, DNS, ISPs, and the internet in general work. While removing local history will remove traces of a website visit from a particular computer and perhaps hide the visit from yourself or another person, that local data removal has no impact on the various remote servers or the underlying infrastructure used to access websites or the internet in the first place, which separately will track all internet data like website visits and browsing sessions (and they may sell that data too). If you do want to attempt a more anonymized web browsing experience, you’d need to turn to anonymous web browsing apps like TOR or a privacy-conscious VPN service, though even those are not infallible nor perfect.

As usual, iOS users are not left out either, as you can delete specific history items from Safari on iPhone and iPad too using a similar method. And it’s worth mentioning these browser history tricks apply to most other browsers like Chrome and Firefox too, though we’re obviously focused on Safari here.

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Related articles:

• How to Recover Deleted Safari History on Mac
• View Browsing History on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch from Safari
• How to Turn off & Delete Google Location History on iPhone & iPad
• How to Automatically Delete Google Maps Search History on iPhone & iPad

» Comments RSS Feed

If you don’t have the time to delete every item individually just hit

fn + arrow pointing to the left under the start/close button

I have one website (Shutterfly) that will not delete from History. Whether I’ve use all history or tried to get rid of it individually. yes, I’ve done what is listed here. Can you advise me? Thanks!

Hi Paul, Thanks for sharing your great tips again. I use Safari always in private Modus, it’s a best way to get my Browser like invisible, I open in tabs every using Website and if it’s to much, just delete all in Settings. Thanks again and have a great day! Friendly Greetings from 🇳🇿

This stuff, even with a step by step guide is way too complicated for me!

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How to clear recent history in safari on iphone and ipad.

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Mid-range android vs. old iphone: you should buy the iphone, satechi’s new passport cover has find my tracking and rfid blocking, quick links, how to erase single entries in safari's history list.

Normally, Safari on iPhone and iPad keeps track of which sites you visit in a special History list. While it's possible to completely wipe your history in Settings , you can also erase only more recent history if you'd like. Here's how.

First, open Safari on your iPhone or iPad. Tap the "Bookmarks" button (which looks like an open book). On the iPad, you'll find it in the upper-left corner of the screen beside the address bar. On an iPhone, it's at the bottom of the screen.

In the pop-up that appears (on the left side of the screen on iPad and over the whole screen on iPhone), tap the History tab (which looks like a clock face), and then tap the "Clear" button.

(Don't worry. It won't clear anything yet.)

After you tap "Clear," another pop-up will give you yet another choice. You can select "All time," "Today and yesterday," "Today," or "The last hour."

Choosing one of these options will remove your browsing history, cookies, and other browsing data from the point you select until now. For example, if you click "Today," all the browsing history from sites you visited today will disappear, but everything earlier than that will remain on the list.

Tap the option you'd prefer (or you can tap outside the pop-up box to cancel).

If you made a selection from the pop-up list, your browsing history will be cleared accordingly. It's all very quick and handy.

Oh, and one more thing before you go: In Safari's History list, you can also delete individual entries by swiping to the left on them with your finger. When a red "Delete" button appears on the right, tap it.

Using this method, only the single entry you just swiped will be zapped. This can be a nice, laser-focused way of erasing certain history items without having to clear everything at once. Happy browsing!

Related: How to Clear Your Browsing History in Safari for iOS

• iPhone & iPad

How to Clear Safari History on iPhone

If you share an iPhone or iPad with others, you may wish to keep parts of your Safari web browsing history private. You can clear your entire Safari browsing history, or you can clear your browsing history on iPhone selectively. Here's how to do both on your iPhone or iPad.

Why You'll Love This Tip:

• Quickly delete individual websites from your Safari browsing history.
• Delete all your Safari browsing history from a customizable period of time.

How to Clear Safari Browsing History on iPhone

The Safari app makes it really simple to clear your browsing history, whether you just want to delete individual links or clear out all your history. If you know in advance you want to keep your Safari history private, you can also   turn on Private Browsing .  If you like learning tips about using your Apple devices, be sure to sign up for our free Tip of the Day ! Here's how to clear Safari history on your iPhone.

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Sarah Kingsbury

As the Editorial Director at  iPhone Life , Sarah Kingsbury manages the online editorial team and oversees all website content. She is a long-time Apple enthusiast who never goes anywhere without her Apple Watch and owns way too many HomePods. Since joining iPhone Life in 2013, Sarah has done everything from writing hundreds of how-to articles to founding the Daily Tip newsletter. She even co-hosted the early episodes of the iPhone Life Podcast. When not at work, Sarah can be found hiking in the mountains and canyons around Las Vegas, where she lives with her partner and dogs.

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• Safari Browser

2 Simple Ways to Clear Safari Search History

Last Updated: November 28, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Gonzalo Martinez and by wikiHow staff writer, Rain Kengly . Gonzalo Martinez is the President of CleverTech, a tech repair business in San Jose, California founded in 2014. CleverTech LLC specializes in repairing Apple products. CleverTech pursues environmental responsibility by recycling aluminum, display assemblies, and the micro components on motherboards to reuse for future repairs. On average, they save 2 lbs - 3 lbs more electronic waste daily than the average computer repair store. 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 515,275 times.

Do you need to delete searches that pop up when you click Safari's URL bar? Whether you want to delete Safari history on your Mac computer or iPhone, you can do this in a few simple steps.

• This will remove all history, cookies, and other browsing data from Safari.

• If you choose to leave this on, Safari will suggest searches more often as your browser history builds.

• You can choose: the last hour , today , today and yesterday , or all history .

Troubleshooting Safari History Data

• Go to Settings → Screen Time → Turn Off Screen Time .
• You can turn Screen Time back on after you have successfully cleared your history.

• For iOS, go to Settings , then click your Apple ID . Click iCloud and toggle Safari off.
• For Mac, go to System Preferences → iCloud . Uncheck the box for Safari .
• Clear your Safari history following the steps above.

• To restart an iPhone without a home button, press and hold the lock button and top volume button for at least five seconds. Slide to power off. After a few minutes, hold the power button to turn it on.
• To restart an iPhone with a home button, press and hold the lock button and home button for at least five seconds. Slide to power off. After a few minutes, hold the power button to turn it on.
• To restart a Mac , click the Apple icon in the top left. In the drop-down menu, click Restart… . It will power on again automatically.

Community Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201265
• ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/clear-your-browsing-history-sfri47acf5d6/mac
• ↑ https://support.apple.com/lv-lv/guide/safari/ibrwe75c2a3c/mac
• ↑ https://appletoolbox.com/cant-delete-safari-history-on-iphone-ipad-fix/#Why_cant_I_clear_Safari_history_and_website_data_on_my_iPhone_or_iPad

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1. Open Safari. 2. Click the URL bar. 3. Delete anything in the bar. 4. Click Clear Recent Searches . Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Level up your tech skills and stay ahead of the curve

Clear your browsing history

You can remove all records that Safari keeps of where you’ve browsed during a period of time you choose. If your Mac and your other devices have Safari turned on in iCloud preferences , your browsing history is removed from all of them. Clearing your browsing history in Safari doesn’t clear any browsing histories kept independently by websites you visited.

Open Safari for me

Choose History > Clear History, click the pop-up menu, then choose how far back you want your browsing history cleared.

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

History of webpages you visited

The back and forward list for open webpages

Top Sites that aren’t marked as permanent

Frequently visited site list

Recent searches

Icons for webpages

Snapshots saved for open webpages

List of items you downloaded (downloaded files aren’t removed)

Websites added for Quick Website Search

Websites that asked to use your location

Websites that asked to send you notifications

Websites with plug-in content you started by clicking a Safari Power Saver notice

Responses to requests to let websites use WebGL

• Services & Software

How to delete some or all of your Safari browsing history on iOS

Learn how to clear a portion of your browsing history in mobile Safari or all of it.

Yesterday, I showed you how to cover your holiday-shopping tracks on Amazon . If you use Safari to shop for gifts on an iOS device, then you wouldn't want your browsing history to spoil a holiday surprise. Thankfully, it's easy to delete individual sites or larger time blocks from your Safari history. Or you can use the nuclear option and delete all of it.

Let's take it slow and start with deleting an individual site from your browsing history. Open Safari and tap the bookmark button -- the open-book icon at the bottom of your screen. From the Bookmarks menu, tap History. Here you'll see a list of recently visited sites. Swipe left on a listing and tap the resulting Delete button to remove it from your browsing history.

If you've been on an online holiday shopping spree, it's faster to cover your tracks by deleting a block of time than to go line by line. To do so, head to the History page as mentioned above but instead of swiping to delete a single line from the list, tap the Clear button in the lower-right corner. You will be presented with four options for deleting your browsing history: The last hour, Today, Today and yesterday, and All time.

It should be noted that your browsing history -- all website data and cookies -- will be erased from your local device as well as any iCloud devices that use the same Apple ID.

Of course, you can save yourself the step of erasing your browsing history by turning on private browsing when holiday shopping for those within reach of your iOS devices. To enable private browsing, tap the pages button in the lower-right corner and then tap Private in the lower-left corner.

In related news, there is a faster way to perform a search in Safari on iOS 9 .

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How to delete your Safari history on Mac, iPhone, or iPad

• Clearing your Safari history removes cookies and reduces online tracking.
• The process for deleting web history is different for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
• You can use Private Browsing Mode to prevent web history from being saved.

From accessing your bank account on a shared computer to Googling embarrassing queries, there are a number of reasons to want to clear out your search history. Deleting your history on Safari removes your trail of web browsing, but the process also does more than clear out potentially embarrassing websites.

Clearing your history will also remove associated cookies from the web browser, reducing the number of ways you are being tracked online. While clearing your web history only removes cookies from Safari and not third-party websites that already have your data, it can still be helpful to reduce online tracking. Clearing the related cache can also sometimes fix bugs.

Deleting a web history from Safari isn't a terribly complicated process, but the steps are a bit different if you are using a MacBook , iPad , or iPhone . The steps for clearing several web pages and a single website are also different. Some privacy settings can also prevent you from deleting any web history, leaving the buttons you need grayed out.

How to close all Safari tabs on iPhone at the same time

There are also a few tricks that can make the process simpler. For example, if you turn on iCloud for Safari, when you delete the history from your Mac, it will automatically be deleted from your phone and tablet too. If you know you want to delete your web history before you make a single click, you can use Private Browsing Mode instead.

Whether you are a murder mystery writer looking to eliminate search queries that would raise the eyebrows of any detective, or you want to reduce the number of cookies tracking you, this guide will tell you how to delete Safari history in a few simple steps.

How to delete Safari history on a Mac

Safari allows you to delete a lot of web history from a Mac or MacBook at once by allowing you to choose the dates for which you would like to erase. If you want to clear websites from the last hour, last day, last two days or all of your web history, this is the process to use.

• Open Safari
• From the top toolbar, click on History , then click Clear History.
• In the pop-up window, use the drop-down menu to select the time period you want to clear from your history.
• Click Clear History .

How to delete Safari history on an iPhone or iPad

The steps for clearing out your Safari history on an iPhone is quite different from using a Safari browser on a Mac. But, the process is the same across both iPhones and iPads, so these steps below work for both your phone and tablet.

• Open the Settings app.
• Select Safari.
• Scroll down to the Privacy & Security section and select Clear History and Website Data.
• On the next page, tap the time frame that you would like to delete the history for.
• Optional: If you also want to close out of all open websites, tap the toggle for Close All Tabs.
• Tap Clear History.

How to delete a single website from Safari history

Safari allows you to easily delete websites from the last hour, day, two days, or your entire web history easily. But, if you only want to remove a single website, you'll instead have to access your history, and then select the individual page to remove.

• Open a Safari browser.
• From the top toolbar, select History > Show All History. Or, you can use the keyboard shortcut Command + Y.
• Select the website entry that you wish to delete. If that site was not visited today, you will need to tap on the date that you visited the website to find it or use the search bar at the top.
• Right-click on the website entry and select delete.

On an iPhone or iPad:

• Tap the Bookmark icon on the bottom (it looks like an open book).
• Tap the Clock or History icon at the top of the page.
• Locate the website that you wish to delete from your history -- your history is organized by the date you visited.
• On the website you wish to delete, swipe left, then tap on the red trash icon.

How to use Bing Chat on Safari

How to use private mode in safari.

If you know that you'll want to delete the website that you are about to visit from your history, try using Private Browsing Mode instead. This mode does not save any website history, including search history and autofill information. That means you can do your online banking without going back and deleting your web history when you are done.

To use Private Browsing Mode on a Mac:

• Open Safari.
• On the top toolbar, go to File > New Private Window.
• Use this new private window for browsing. You can quickly see if a Safari browser is Private because the field to type in the URL is dark gray instead of white.

To use Private Browsing Mode on iOS:

• Tap the tab icon in the bottom left corner.
• At the bottom of the screen, tap Private (swipe to see all the toppings in this toolbar if you do not see the Private option.)
• Private browsing will have a dark gray URL field instead of white. To return to regular browsing, repeat the steps but this time swipe back to your open tabs.

How to use picture-in-picture mode in Safari on Mac

How to instantly clear your web history from multiple devices.

With iCloud , Safari can save your web browsing across all the devices that you use with your Apple ID. While that's helpful for quickly recalling a website no matter what device you first opened it with, it also syncs any deletions to the web history across your devices . That means if you delete a web page from your history on a Mac, it will automatically be deleted from your iPhone too -- as long as both devices are logged into the same Apple ID and iCloud for Safari is enabled.

iCloud for Safari can be enabled during the setup process for a new device, but it can also be turned on and off from the Settings app:

• Tap on your Apple ID or name at the top.
• Tap on iCloud.
• Under Apps Using iCloud, select Show All . (If you are running iOS 15 or earlier, you may not see the full list already instead of the Show All option, in which case you can jump to the next step.)
• Toggle on Safari from the list.

Why can't I clear my Safari history?

In some cases, the buttons that you need to tap to clear your Safari history are gray. But why can't you delete your Safari history, and how do you fix it? Here are a few common reasons why the Safari history options are grayed out:

• You've already deleted your history and there are no more websites to clear out.
• Web content restrictions are turned on. Some parental control settings prevent kids and teens from deleting their web history, while other content restrictions can also prevent you from deleting. To access the content restriction options, open the Settings app and go to Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions.
• You are using Private Browsing Mode. This mode does not save your web history, so you have nothing to delete.

14 Safari tips and tricks you absolutely need to know

Can you permanently delete safari history.

Deleting your Safari history makes it difficult for the average person to recover the past websites that you have visited. However, if you are connected to your work or school network, in some cases the network administrator can still see your website access. Deleting your website history also may not fool a trained digital forensics expert during an investigation.

• PC & Mobile

How To Automatically Delete Browsing History in Safari

Evan Gower With over a decade of experience in digital publishing. Evan leads our team with a keen eye for emerging tech trends. Read more May 28, 2019

Browsing history in Safari is there to help you quickly navigate to a specific page. In addition, Safari can remember the pages you frequently visit and display them in the main window as top sites. However, there is one downside to the browsing history.

The more pages you visit, the more data gets cached in the browser. This might slow down the overall browser performance and affect your user experience. On the other hand, browsing history is easily accessible to anyone using your Mac. So you might want to set the browser to automatically delete the history after some time.

Whatever the reason, it’s pretty straightforward to do, even if you are not tech-savvy. Check out the methods below.

Deleting the Browsing History

Launch Safari and press Cmd + Comma to access “Preferences”. You can also do it by selecting Safari, then Preferences in the menu bar.

Click or tap on the “General” button and select the pop-up menu next to “Remove history items”. By default, the history automatically gets deleted after a year. You can change the settings to after a day, week, two weeks, or a month. Of course, there is also an option to do it manually.

How to Manually Remove Safari History

Select “History” from the menu bar and click on “Clear history” at the bottom of the drop-down window. A pop-up window appears in Safari, and again, you get to choose the time frame – last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all history. Once you make the selection hit “Clear History” to confirm.

Safari Preferences Tips and Tricks

Aside from automatic history removal, you can customize the new window’s behavior and change the homepage. To change the homepage, click on the bar and insert a link http://www.techjunkie.com/ , for example. Then confirm by tapping/clicking on “Set to Current Page”.

By default, the files you download go to the Downloads folder, but you can change it to any destination of your liking. The downloaded files are automatically removed after day, but you can also change it to “manually”, “after quitting”, or “upon successful download”.

The “Tabs” button reveals a menu with a few options to tweak Safari tab performance. There are also a few useful shortcuts that can make your browsing experience faster. If you want to block all cookies, click or tap the “Privacy” button and check the box next to Cookies and website data.

Can You Do It on Your iPhone?

Sure you can, and the same method applies for your iPad and iPod Touch. That said, iOS on mobile devices doesn’t feature automatic scheduling and there is no option to select the time frame. In other words, you need to do it manually and the action deletes all the history and website data.

Tap on the Settings app, swipe up and select Safari. Once inside the Safari menu, navigate to “Clear History and Website data” and tap on it.

Tap “Clear History and Data” in the pop-up window to confirm and you’re good to go.

Note: Deleting Safari history via a mobile device affects all other devices signed into the same iCloud account. On the other hand, this action doesn’t affect the AutoFill data, so you’ll be able to easily log into websites you frequently use.

Can You Automatically Delete History in Chrome?

Unfortunately, there is still no way to automatically remove browsing history and cache in Chrome. However, you can delete cookies automatically. Take the following path to access the option:

Chrome > Settings > Advanced > Content settings (under Privacy and Security) > Cookies

Toggle on the button next to “Keep local data only until you quit your browser”. If you are really annoyed by cookies, you can also toggle the button next to “Block third-party cookies”.

How to Delete History in Chrome

To access your browsing history, press “Cmd + Y” on your keyboard and select the “Clear browsing data” option. The pop-up window allows you to select the time frame and type of data. It’s advisable to keep Passwords, Autofill, Hosted apps, and Media licenses unchecked.

Once you are done with the selection, click/ tap the “Clear Browsing Data” button to confirm This process is very similar on your iPhone.

Launch Chrome and tap the three dots to access the “More” menu. Select “History” and tap “Clear Browsing Data” at the bottom of the window. You can choose the type of data to delete – tapping on “Edit” allows you to pick the websites you want to delete or keep.

Unleash the Cookie Monster

By now, you know how easy it is to set automatic history removal in Safari on your Mac or PC. The automatic removal is not possible on your iPhone/iPad. However, it shouldn’t take you more than 10 seconds to reach the “Clear History and Website Data” section.

Whichever method you prefer, it’s advisable to get rid of the browsing history at least once a week to make sure your browser run smoothly.

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Why Can’t I Clear My History on Safari? Solutions and Answers

• Safari allows you to clear your history for a certain length of time, or you can clear the whole thing.
• You may just need to restart your device to clear your history.
• Remember that the steps for iPhone and iPad will be roughly the same. 

If you’re having issues because you can’t clear your Safari history, know that a solution isn’t too far behind. I love using Safari for a great browsing experience, but I was recently unable to clear my history, which was giving me some problems. Fortunately, I discovered a solution to my problem. Let’s take a look at some troubleshooting steps and solutions. 

Why Is My Clear History Button Grey?

If your Clear History button is grey, the most likely reason is that you do not have any History to clear. However, you may also be experiencing a grey Clear History button due to certain Content & Privacy Restrictions within Screen Time being enabled. You can check on iPhone via Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps and ensure that Safari is enabled. Note, however, that this will require your password.

On Mac, you can disable Screen Time via System Settings > Screen Time>  Content & Privacy > Content Restrictions . Ensure Access to Web Content is set to  Unrestricted.  Of course, if you didn’t set up Screen Time in the first place, this likely isn’t your issue. Keep reading for further solutions.

How Do I Clear My Safari History and Cache?

1. how to clear your safari browser history.

If you need to clear your Safari history, you can check out our full guide here . However, note that on iOS, clearing your history is as easy as going to Settings >  Safari > Clear History and Website Data . For Mac, all you need to do is open Safari and select History > Clear History from the menu bar. With both Mac and iOS you are able to choose how much of your history you delete based on time. 

2. Disable iCloud Sync for Safari

If you’re still having issues clearing your Safari browsing history, it may just be that you need to disable iCloud sync for Safari. This default option shares your history and your reading lists across all your Apple devices. It may be the case that some history or content did not sync properly. 

Disable iCloud Sync iOS

Time needed:  2 minutes

If you need to disable iCloud Sync on iOS, follow these steps.

Disable iCloud Sync macOS

• From the Apple Menu, go to System Settings .
• Select [Your Name] .

3. Reset Network Settings (iOS Only)

If you are still looking for an effective solution to your clear history issue, you may want to consider resetting your network settings. 

• Go to the Settings app. 

4. Delete History Manually (Mac Only)

If you need to clear your Safari history on Mac and are having problems, remember you can delete your history manually. 

• While holding down the Command key, select the following items: History.db , History.db-lock , History.db.shm and History.db.wal . 

• Empty your Trash. 

Why Can’t I Clear History in Safari?

The most likely reason that you’re unable to clear your Safari history is that there is no history left to clear. However, if you’re having issues, look at basic things, such as restarting your Apple device or ensuring that Screen Time restrictions are not preventing you from clearing your history. You may also want to consider that iCloud Sync may prevent you from properly clearing your history. 

Being able to clear your entire history from Safari is incredibly useful. However, it’s only useful if it’s working correctly. Fortunately, solutions for your history clearing problems are rather easy, so there’s little to worry about. Not clearing your history can be a common issue for many users. However, a comprehensive solution is available.

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• Nick deCourville

How to Clear Your Browser History - Delete Your Browsing History in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari

Have you ever tried to view your browsing history? Maybe you want to check that restaurant you looked up last night (but forgot its name), or you want to revisit a travel site you browsed a couple days ago. It can be super useful.

But, on the other hand, what if you don't want a record of sites you've visited left on your computer? Perhaps your spouse or partner will discover you've been searching for their birthday gift (last minute, too!), or you've visited a site that you'd rather keep private and personal.

You could also be using a public computer, and just don't want strangers viewing your history. Fair enough.

Whatever the reason, it's a good idea to know how to view - and clear, or delete - your browsing history. And it's pretty easy to do so in various different browsers. So let's have a look.

How to clear your history in Chrome

Chrome stores the sites you've visited over the last 90 days in your browsing history. If you're using incognito mode (which you can read more about here) it won't store those sites. But anything you browsed in a regular Chrome browser will appear there.

Also, something to note : if you've synced up all your devices (laptop, iPhone, tablet, and so on), that history will be visible across all devices. Likewise, when you clear it, it will be cleared from all of the devices.

Clearing all your browsing history

On your computer, open the Chrome browser. In the upper right corner, you'll see three vertical dots. Click them to open that menu, and select the "History" tab from the options there.

Once you click that option, you'll be brought to a summary of your recent browsing history. If you just want to check it out, great.

If you want to clear it, just click the "Clear browsing data" tab on the left. You'll be brought to this screen (below), where you have the option to clear the data for the last hour, 24 hours, 7 days, 4 weeks, or all time. Choose your time frame, and the categories you'd like to clear:

As you can see from the screenshot above, Chrome stores not only your browsing history, but also cookies from sites you visit and cached files.

Once you clear that data, it won't show up in your history. Chrome also won't autocomplete those sites for you if you start typing them in the address bar.

Clearing part of your history

What if you just want to clear a few sites, but want to keep the rest? That's possible, too.

Open Chrome, click on those three vertical dots, choose "History". Same process so far. Now, on that first page of history, instead of clicking "Clear browsing data" on the left, just select/check boxes for what you want to delete:

Once you've selected all the sites you'd like to clear, just click "Delete" in the upper right corner. Only those sites will be removed from your history.

How to clear your history in Firefox

To clear your history in Firefox, the process is fairly similar to Chrome - the buttons just look a little different.

Clearing all browsing history

Open your Firefox browser, and click the library tab at the upper right (it looks like a few books leaning together):

Select the "History" tab, then the "Clear recent history" option from the menu that will replace the previous one.

You'll see this box pop up:

And you'll notice that there's a "Time range to clear" dropdown. You can clear your history from the last hour, two hours, four hours, today, or all time.

You can also select what information you'd like to clear, similar to Chrome.

Now, be prepared: if you just select "Clear Now" at the bottom right, it'll clear all your history, no questions asked.

If you'd like to select which bits to clear, the process is a bit different. Click that same library tab, select "History" and then "Show all history" down at the bottom.

This box will pop up:

Then you'll see your history. If you only have a few sites there, you can just ctrl click (or right click) on the site you want to delete.

When you hold down the ctrl key and click on the site, a menu will pop up. Just select "forget about this site" from that menu and Firefox will delete it from your history.

All history associated with that site (cookies, cache, browsing and logins, and so on) will be removed. Hooray!

How to clear your history in Safari

Last but not least, let's see how to clear your history in Safari.

Clearing all of your browsing history

Once again, the process is fairly similar to Chrome and Firefox. But in Safari, you just click the "History" tab at the top of your browser menu. From the dropdown, select "Clear History":

A box will pop up that will ask you whether you'd like to clear all your history (which includes caches, etc) and for what time frame (last hour, today, today and yesterday, all history).

Select the appropriate option, and click "Clear History". Boom, history cleared for that period of time (or all time).

Again, you might not want to clear everything. Just one site. Totally doable.

Click the "History" tab and select "Show all history" at the top of the dropdown. All the sites you've browsed will be listed by day.

If you want to choose one specific site to delete, just ctrl click (or right click) on that site, and select "Delete" from the drop down:

Just that site will be deleted from your browsing history.

Now you know how to delete your browsing history - all or part of it - from some of the major browsers in use today.

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Safari User Guide

• Get started
• Go to a website
• Bookmark web pages to revisit
• See your favourite websites
• Use tabs for web pages
• Import bookmarks and passwords
• Pay with Apple Pay
• Autofill credit card info
• View links from friends
• Keep a Reading List
• Hide ads when reading
• Translate a web page
• Download items from the web
• Add passes to Wallet
• Save part or all of a web page
• Print or create a PDF of a web page
• Interact with text in a picture
• Change your home page
• Customise a start page
• Create a profile
• Block pop-ups
• Make Safari your default web browser
• Hide your email address
• Manage cookies
• Clear your browsing history
• Browse privately
• Prevent cross-site tracking
• See who tried to track you
• Change Safari settings
• Keyboard and other shortcuts

Clear your browsing history in Safari on Mac

You can remove all records that Safari keeps of where you’ve browsed during a period of time you choose. If your Mac and your other Apple devices have iCloud set up for Safari , your browsing history is removed from all of them. Clearing your browsing history in Safari doesn’t clear any browsing histories kept independently by websites you visited.

Open Safari for me

Choose how far back you want your browsing history cleared.

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

History of web pages you visited

The back and forward list for open web pages

Frequently visited site list

Recent searches

Icons for web pages

Snapshots saved for open web pages

List of items you downloaded (downloaded files aren’t removed)

Websites added for Quick Website Search

Websites that asked to use your location

Websites that asked to send you notifications