• PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
  • EDIT Edit this Article
  • EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
  • Browse Articles
  • Learn Something New
  • Quizzes Hot
  • This Or That Game New
  • Train Your Brain
  • Explore More
  • Support wikiHow
  • About wikiHow
  • Log in / Sign up
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Internet Browsers
  • Safari Browser

How to Delete Cookies Using the Safari Web Browser

Last Updated: August 2, 2023 Tested

iPhone and iPad

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Jack Lloyd . Jack Lloyd is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. He has over two years of experience writing and editing technology-related articles. He is technology enthusiast and an English teacher. The wikiHow Tech Team also followed the article's instructions and verified that they work. This article has been viewed 578,561 times. Learn more...

This wikiHow teaches you how to delete cookies in your Safari browser on a Mac or an iPhone. Cookies are bits of website data that help Safari remember your preferences, passwords, usernames, and more. Since cookies are downloaded onto your computer each time you open a new web page, you may wish to block cookies entirely to prevent them from being downloaded in the future.

Step 1 Open Safari.

  • If you don't see this option, make sure that Safari is the front window by clicking it.

Step 3 Click Preferences….

  • You may be prompted to confirm this action.
  • Keep in mind that some websites require cookies in order to load some features. Blocking all cookies will prevent some websites from working correctly.

Step 1 Open your iPhone's icon Settings.

  • Unfortunately, you can't delete only cookies in Safari on an iPhone.

Step 5 Block cookies in the future.

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • Cookies help websites remember who you are and what your preferences are. If you delete all of your cookies, you will need to log back in to any websites which previously had stored passwords or other account information. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1

delete cookies in safari

  • Blocking cookies will result in some websites not functioning properly, while a few websites may cease to load or work altogether. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

Clear Google Search History

  • ↑ https://www.imore.com/how-enable-cookies-safari-macos-high-sierra

About This Article

Jack Lloyd

  • Send fan mail to authors

Is this article up to date?

Am I a Narcissist or an Empath Quiz

Featured Articles

Enjoy Your Early Teen Years

Trending Articles

What is Golden Child Syndrome? 7 Signs You Were the Golden Child

Watch Articles

Wrap a Round Gift

  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Info
  • Not Selling Info

wikiHow Tech Help Pro:

Level up your tech skills and stay ahead of the curve

  • Apple Watch
  • Accessories
  • Digital Magazine – Subscribe
  • Digital Magazine – Log In
  • Smart Answers
  • M3 MacBook Air
  • New iPad Air
  • iPad mini 7
  • Next Mac Pro
  • Best Mac antivirus
  • Best Mac VPN

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn't affect our editorial independence .

How to clear Safari’s cache and cookies on Mac

delete cookies in safari

There are a handful of situations when clearing Safari’s cookies or cache–one of the places where Safari stores website data to avoid having to download it afresh each time you access a site–can help improve your browsing experience.

The first is when websites simply stop working when you access them on Safari. Perhaps Facebook stops updating with new posts, for example, or the images on a site don’t appear as they should. If this happens, it’s likely the cache has become corrupted.

Alternatively, if you find that personal info automatically completed on sites isn’t correct, deleting cookies can help. These are small files that sites use to save data about you and what you do on the site.

Even if none of these problems affect you, periodically cleaning browser data can help protect your privacy from snoops who want to discover what you’ve been up to online. In this article, therefore, we explain how to clear Safari’s cache and cookies on Mac.

We also have an article that explains How to clear cache on a Mac.

How to clear Safari cookies and cache for websites

Cleaning cookies and the cache data for individual sites can be done via Safari’s Settings/Preferences.

  • Open Safari
  • Click on Safari in the menu at the top of the screen.
  • Click on Settings or Preferences (depending on the version of macOS you are running).
  • Go to the Privacy tab.
  • Click on Manage Website Data…
  • Choose Remove All or select websites individually to remove.

After the data is loaded you’ll probably see a long list of websites. You can choose to Remove All or just select individual websites you want to remove from this list. If you want to select a number of different sites you can click on one and then press and hold the Command key to select a second, third or fourth and so on. We recommend that you don’t select hundreds this way – it’s better to delete in batches just in case you have to start over.

If you would prefer to select all and then deselect the ones you want to keep you can do so. Use Command + A to select all, then press and hold Command while clicking on any website you are happy to keep in this list. Just click Remove afterwards, not Done, as that will just undo all your hard work.

There’s a search field you can use to track down individual sites.

Bear in mind that deleting cookies might remove autocompleted login usernames and passwords for sites, and will almost certainly log you out of that site if you’ve configured it to automatically log in each time you visit.

How to clear Safari's cache and history on Mac: Privacy

How to clear Safari cache

The hidden Safari Developer menu can be used to clear just the cache, leaving cookies and the browser history in place. This is a very useful diagnostic step to take before removing those two items if a website behaves badly.

If you just want to clear all your cache you can do so by following these steps:

  • Open Safari.
  • Click on Safari in menu bar at top of screen.
  • Click on Settings/Preferences (depending on the version of macOS you are running).
  • Click on the Advanced tab.
  • Check the box beside Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar.
  • Now there will be a new Develop tab in the menu at the top of your screen. Click on this.
  • Click on Empty Caches.

Alternatively click on Option/Alt + Command + E.

Close any open Safari windows and select Empty Caches on the Develop menu. Then click File > New Window to start Safari with a clean cache.

How to clear Safari's cache and history on Mac: Empty caches

How to remove autocomplete data from AutoFill

Safari’s AutoFill tool can fill in username and password details on websites as well as credit card details and other elements like your address and email details.

This can be really useful, but it can also be annoying if the data it fills in is incorrect or out of context. It’s also a problem when AutoFill helpfully enters old or incorrect passwords or emails and addresses.

You can change this data, or delete it by following these steps:

  • Click on Safari.
  • Click on Settings/Preferences.
  • Choose the AutoFill tab.
  • Here you can edit contact information, usernames and passwords, credit cards and other data. Click on Edit beside the category you want access to.
  • You’ll need to enter your password or use Touch ID to gain access.

Delete incorrect data: If you are finding that Safari is autofilling incorrect data about you–your address, for example–click Edit beside Using information from my contacts. This will open up your Contacts app. Your card will be at the top or under My Card. You can add and amend data about you here.

How to clear Safari's cache and history on Mac: Autofill

Delete incorrect passwords and site logins: If you wanted to delete incorrect passwords, for example, you can just click on the Passwords tab. If you know which password you want to remove search for the website or service and then find the older password option (if there is more than one) and select it and then click on the – below the column to remove it. You can then select Delete Password. If that means there is no password saved for that website, you can then recreate the entry for the site by clicking the Add button. You’ll first need to provide the URL of the site (that is, something like https://facebook.com ), and then type the username and password alongside (hit the Tab key to move from field to field).

See: How to autofill passwords, bank cards, names and addresses for more.

How to clear Safari's cache and history on Mac: Site logins

Delete logins and passwords system-wide

Pruning site logins can also be done via the Keychain Access app, which you’ll find in the Utilities folder of the Applications list in Finder, although you should be very careful using this app because it pretty much controls the entire security operation of your Mac! However, by removing errant username and password entries here you’ll stop virtually all of your Mac apps using them, and not just Safari.

Just type the name of the site into the Search field, and look in the list of results for entries of the kind Web Form Password. Right-click the entry and select Delete.

Changing password keychain Mac

If you want to delete your Chrome or Firefox cache, cookies or browsing history read: How to delete your Mac browsing history . For alternative web browsers take a look at: Best web browser for Mac.

How to Delete Cookies and Stored Website Data in Safari

Websites and advertisers use cookies to identify you and follow you around the internet, and they might also save other website data to remember you by. In Safari, you can delete these cookies and other data. Let's head to Safari's privacy settings.

Stored content can include a history of your site visits or information you provided the site, such as your name and email address. You can delete all of the website data at once or for individual sites.

Delete Cookies and Saved Data on the Mac

1. Select Preferences from the Safari menu or hold down the Command key and the comma key at the same time (Command+,).

2. Go to the Privacy tab.

3. Click the Remove All Website Data button to remove all stored website data, or skip to step 5 to remove data on a site-by-site basis.

4. Click Remove Now to confirm. Note, as Safari warns you, this could log you out of sites and perhaps also change how they function. For example, instead of getting tailored ads on the site, you'll be served generic ones.

5. To remove stored data by site, click the Details button.  

6. Select the sites with stored data you want to remov e. Hold down the Command key to select multiple sites.

7. Click Remove.

8. Click Done.

Alternatively, you can click the Remove All button to delete all of the sites' cookies and stored data. Safari will ask you to confirm your choice:

Delete Cookies and Web History in Safari in iOS

Clear your history, cookies, and browsing data from Safari on your iPad or iPhone .

1. Open the Settings app and tap Safari.

2. Tap Clear History and Website Data. If you're using iOS 7 or earlier, the menu is slightly different: Tap "Clear History" and "Clear Cookies and Data".

3. Tap Clear to confirm.

4. Tap Advanced back in the Safari Settings window to clear other stored website data.

5. Tap Website Data.

6. Tap Remove All Website Data . Alternatively, you can click the Edit link at the top right and then delete individual sites' data by tapping the minus sign next to the site names.

Doing this will not only help protect your privacy. It can also clear out precious space on your device.

Looking to learn more about your Mac — or buy a new one? Check out our how to reset a MacBook guide for more details about what to do before you sell your laptop (or other macOS machine) and our MacBook Pro 2019 rumors roundup for details on what to expect in next year's model.

  • How to Search for Text Within a Web Page in Safari
  • How to Restore Recently Closed Tabs and Windows in Safari
  • How to Block Cookies in Safari

Stay in the know with Laptop Mag

Get our in-depth reviews, helpful tips, great deals, and the biggest news stories delivered to your inbox.

How to convert PDF to JPG, PNG, or TIFF

How to add Outlook Calendar to Google Calendar

The Apple products releasing this month: MacBooks, iPads, and more

Most Popular

By Sarah Chaney 1 March 2024

By Madeline Ricchiuto 29 February 2024

By Mark Anthony Ramirez 29 February 2024

By Rael Hornby 29 February 2024

By Sarah Chaney 28 February 2024

By Hilda Scott 28 February 2024

By Mark Anthony Ramirez 28 February 2024

  • 2 Razer Huntsman V3 Pro TKL review: Clicky, comfortable, customizable
  • 3 Razer Seiren V3 Mini mic review: Crisp audio doesn’t have to break the bank
  • 4 How to enable Secure Boot in Windows 11
  • 5 I never understood who would want a foldable laptop, until I had to review one
  • a. Send us an email
  • b. Anonymous form
  • Buyer's Guide
  • Upcoming Products
  • Tips / Contact Us
  • Podcast Instagram Facebook Twitter Mastodon YouTube Notifications RSS Newsletter

How to Delete Cookies in Safari

When you browse the web on your devices, websites will often leave cookies on your system so that they can remember you and what your preferences are.

safari macos icon banner

However, for the same reason, cookies can pose a privacy risk because of the information they hold about you, which is why you may want to remove them from your computer every so often.

The following steps show you how to delete cookies from Apple's Safari browser on Mac, iPhone , and iPad .

How to Delete Cookies in Safari on iOS

Note that the following steps clear all history, cookies and website data on your device, regardless of when the sites were accessed.

  • Launch the Settings app on your iOS device.
  • Scroll down and select Safari .
  • Scroll down and select Clear History and Website Data .

settings

How to Delete Cookies in Safari on macOS

  • Launch Safari browser on your Mac.

safari

Note that you can opt to block all cookies in future by selecting Block all cookies in Safari's settings ( Settings -> Safari on iOS, and in the Privacy tab of Safari's Preferences on macOS). However, bear in mind that some websites use cookies to improve your browsing experience – by remembering your login details, for example – so think twice before you select this option.

Get weekly top MacRumors stories in your inbox.

Popular Stories

Apple Logo Spotlight

Source: Apple to Announce New Products This Week

Apple Maps vs Google Maps Feature

Apple Maps vs. Google Maps: Which Is Better?

apple tv plus banner

Apple TV+ Gains Over 50 Movies for a Limited Time

Apple MacBook Air 2 up hero 240304

Apple Announces New MacBook Air Models With M3 Chip

iPad Air 12

Gurman: No Apple Event Planned for Upcoming iPads and Macs

airpods pro 2 pink

Apple Releases New Beta Firmware for AirPods Pro 2

Next article.

homepod blue green

Our comprehensive guide highlighting every major new addition in iOS 17, plus how-tos that walk you through using the new features.

ios 17 3 sidebar square

Stolen Device Protection, collaborative Apple Music playlists, AirPlay to hotel TVs, and more.

iphone 15 series

Get the most out your iPhone 15 with our complete guide to all the new features.

sonoma icon upcoming square

A deep dive into new features in macOS Sonoma, big and small.

macbook air m2 square

Updated M3 models in 13.6" and 15.3" sizes.

ipad pro 2022 square upcoming

Revamped models with OLED displays, M3 chip, and redesigned Magic Keyboard accessory.

Apple iPad Air hero color lineup 220308

Updated 10.9-inch model and new 12.9-inch model, M2 chip expected.

ios 18 upcoming square

Expected to see new AI-focused features and more. Preview coming at WWDC in June with public release in September.

Other Stories

iOS 17

15 hours ago by Tim Hardwick

iOS 18 Mock Siri Feature Baubles

22 hours ago by MacRumors Staff

iOS 17

3 days ago by Tim Hardwick

airpods pro 2 purple

4 days ago by Tim Hardwick

Clear the history, cache and cookies from Safari on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

Find out how to delete your history, cookies and cache in Settings.

Delete your history, cache and cookies

Clear your cookies and the cache, but keep your history

Delete a website from your history, block cookies, use content blockers, delete history, cache and cookies.

Go to Settings > Safari.

Tap Clear History and Website Data.

ios-17-iphone-14-pro-settings-safari-clear-history-and-website-data

Clearing your history, cookies and browsing data from Safari won't change your AutoFill information.

When there’s no history or website data to be cleared, the button to clear it will turn grey. The button may also be grey if you have web content restrictions set up under Content & Privacy Restrictions in Screen Time .

To visit sites without leaving history, turn Private Browsing on .

Go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data.

Tap Remove All Website Data.

When there’s no website data to be cleared, the button to clear it will turn grey. The button may also be grey if you have web content restrictions set up under Content & Privacy Restrictions in Screen Time .

Open the Safari app.

Bookmarks button

Tap the Edit button, then select the website(s) that you want to delete from your history.

Tap the Delete button.

A cookie is a piece of data that a site puts on your device so that site can remember you when you visit again.

To block cookies:

Go to Settings > Safari > Advanced.

Turn on Block All Cookies.

ios-17-iphone-14-pro-settings-safari-block-all-cookies

If you block cookies, some web pages may not work. Here are some examples:

You'll likely not be able to sign in to a site even when using your correct user name and password.

You may see a message that cookies are required or that your browser's cookies are turned off.

Some features on a site may not work.

Content blockers are third-party apps and extensions that let Safari block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups and other content.

To get a content blocker:

Download a content blocking app from the App Store.

Tap Settings > Safari > Extensions.

Tap to turn on a listed content blocker.

You can use more than one content blocker. If you need help, contact the app developer .

Information about products not manufactured by Apple, or independent websites not controlled or tested by Apple, is provided without recommendation or endorsement. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the selection, performance or use of third-party websites or products. Apple makes no representations regarding third-party website accuracy or reliability. Contact the vendor for additional information.

delete cookies in safari

Related topics

delete cookies in safari

Contact Apple Support

Need more help? Save time by starting your support request online and we'll connect you to an expert.

How-To Geek

How to clear safari's browsing history and cookies on macos.

To clear your history on Safari, click the "History" button at the top, then select "Clear History.

Quick Links

How to delete your browsing history in safari, how to automatically delete your browsing history on safari, how to clear your cookies on safari, key takeaways.

To clear your history on Safari, click the "History" button at the top, then select "Clear History." You can also set Safari to clear your browsing history automatically by going to Preferences > General, then set "Remove History Items" to the time frame you want.

You may not have anything to hide when we surf the Internet, but you still may want to clear your history every now and then. Here's how you can clear your browsing history in Safari on MacOS.

On Safari, all you do is click the "History" button at the top of the screen then select "Clear History" at the bottom of the list.

Click "History, then click "Clear History."

Once you do this, you will be given a choice: you can select "the last hour," "today," "today and yesterday," and "all history" from a drop-down menu. Once you've decided, click the "Clear History" button and the history will be clear per your preference.

Click "Clear History."

If you simply want to clear part of your history, you can click "Show History" ("Command + Y").

Click the "History" button, then click "Click History."

Click on the site or use the "Command" key to select several sites, then press the "Delete" key. You can also click "Clear History" in the upper right corner to remove everything all at once.

You can also right-click a history entry to delete it.

Select the items you want to delete from your history.

Related: How to Clear History, Cache, and Cookies in Safari on iPhone or iPad

You can also set Safari to automatically clear your history every so often. When you open up the Safari preference ("Command + ,"), click the "General" tab, and select the "Remove History items" option.

Open Safari preferences, select the "General" tab, then set the time for "Remove History Items."

You can decide when or if your history is automatically deleted after one day, one week, two weeks, one month, one year, or you can keep your history indefinitely by selecting the manual option.

You can pick multiple options ranging from one day to one year.

To clear cookies in Safari, while you're in Safari's preferences, click on the "Privacy" tab and click "Manage Website Data."

Click on the "Privacy" tab, then click "Manage Website Data."

On this page, you will see all the cookies stored on your Mac. You can right-click a specific cookie and select "Delete" to remove it, or you can hold the "Command" button and select several at once.

If you want to remove all of your cookies, click "Remove All" at the bottom of the window.

Right-click a cookie or click "Remove All."

You will be asked to confirm you want to "remove all data stored by websites on your computer."

Click "Remove Now" to delete your cookies.

Keep in mind that, if you do this, any websites you might have personalized will be removed, and you will be logged out of all websites (though it should be easy to log back in if you've saved your username and password).

Related: How to Block Third-Party Cookies in Every Web Browser

Clearing your history and cookies isn't necessarily sneaky. It's good to be privacy-conscious because there are often times when someone will ask to use your computer for a minute. You may not be looking at anything untoward or scandalous, but then again, you don't necessarily want just anyone knowing what you've been looking at or reading.

delete cookies in safari

Manage cookies and website data

Websites often store cookies and other data on your Mac. This data may include information that you have provided, such as your name, email address, and preferences. This data helps websites identify you when you return so the site can provide services for you and show information that might be of interest to you.

By default, Safari accepts cookies and website data only from websites you visit. This helps prevent certain advertisers from storing data on your Mac. You can change options in Safari preferences so that Safari always accepts or always blocks cookies and other website data.

Open Safari for me

Important:   Changing your cookie preferences or removing cookies and website data in Safari may change or remove them in other apps, including Dashboard.

Choose Safari > Preferences, click Privacy, then do any of the following:

Change which cookies and website data are accepted: Select a “Cookies and website data” option:

Always block: Safari doesn’t let any websites, third parties, or advertisers store cookies and other data on your Mac. This may prevent some websites from working properly.

Allow from current website only: Safari accepts cookies and website data only from the website you’re currently visiting. Websites often have embedded content from other sources. Safari does not allow these third parties to store or access cookies or other data.

Allow from websites I visit: Safari accepts cookies and website data only from websites you visit. Safari uses your existing cookies to determine whether you have visited a website before. Selecting this option helps prevent websites that have embedded content in other websites you browse from storing cookies and data on your Mac.

Always allow: Safari lets all websites, third parties, and advertisers store cookies and other data on your Mac.

Remove stored cookies and data: Click Remove All Website Data, or click Details, select one or more websites, then click Remove.

Removing the data may reduce tracking, but may also log you out of websites or change website behavior.

See which websites store cookies or data: Click Details.

Ask websites not to track you: Some websites keep track of your browsing activities when they serve you content, which enables them to tailor what they present to you. You can have Safari ask sites and their third party content providers (including advertisers) not to track you.

With this option turned on, each time Safari fetches content from a website, Safari adds a request not to track you, but it’s up to the website to honor this request.

Clear Cache, Cookies and History on Safari

Updated at: Feb 26, 2022

Here are instructions to help you clear your browsing history, cookies & cache in Safari on macOS.

There's a few guides here, what would you like to do:

  • Clear the entire Cache, Cookies, and History in Safari on macOS
  • Clear the Cache, Cookies, and Local Storage Data (but not the history) in Safari on macOS
  • Clear saved Form Data and Passwords

Clear the entire Cache, Cookies, and History in Safari

Click the "safari" menu.

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

The location of the Safari menu - in the top left of the screen

Click the "Clear History..." item

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

The Safari menu showing the Clear History item.

Choose the time range to delete and then "Clear History"

Safari now gives you a very simple interface for clearing your browsing cache, history, and cookies. When you click Clear History your cache, browser history, and cookies will be deleted for the specified time range.

The Safari dialog for showing the time range to clear your browsing data for

If you choose the default option of " all history " then the entire historical record of your browsing on this computer will be deleted. At the top of the prompt, you'll see "Clear: all history" - you can click on this Select field and choose a time range to clear instead.

So instead of deleting all your history, you can choose to just delete Today's browsing history, or just the past hour's history.

Once you have decided how much you want to delete, click the Clear History button.

Congratulations, you have now cleared your selected browsing data from your computer. You can simply close this window and continue to use Safari.

Clear the Cache, Cookies, and Local Storage Data in Safari

These steps will remove Safari's automatic cache of temporary data it has stored while you browse the internet; these steps won't delete your browsing history .

Click the "Preferences" menu item

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

The expanded Safari menu, showing the the Preferences item

The Safari Preferences screen will now appear.

Click the "Privacy" tab

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

The Preferences window, showing the Privacy tab

Click "Manage Website Data...

On the privacy tab, click the Manage Website Data button to show a list of all the sites Safari has collected data for.

The Privacy pane showing the Manage Website Data button.

Select the site/s you want to delete data from, and click "Remove"

On this screen you will see a list of all the domains Safari has collected data for. Find the ones you want to remove (you can search for a domain in the Search field in the top right of the window.

The Privacy pane showing the Manage Website Data button.

Delete one page from Safari's Cache

If you just want to delete the cache and cookies from one website, you can select the domain name here and press the Remove button. This will keep all the other data intact and just remove the one site's cookies and cache.

You can remove sites one at a time, you can hold down the ⌘ Command button and keep clicking to select more than one domain at a time.

When you have selected the domains you want to clear the data from, simply press the Remove button and Safari will clear the data for those sites.

If you remove data for any sites you are logged in to, you will probably have to re-log in to them again, but your browsing history will still be intact.

Clearing Form Data and Passwords in Safari

Follow these instructions to clear the form data and passwords that have been saved in Safari.

Click the "AutoFill" tab

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

The expanded Safari menu, showing the the Preferences item

Choose what to AutoFill, and edit/clear existing data

On the AutoFill screen, you will see a listing of types of data Safari can be configured to "remember" for you - that way, when you need to fill out some forms online, Safari will try to automatically put the correct data in for you. You can turn this feature on or off for different types of data, including contact information, credit cards, usernames & passwords, and so on.

Checkboxes to choose what Safari will AutoFill, and Edit buttons to clear existing data.

To review, edit, and delete the items that Safari has saved, click the corresponding Edit... button. Some of these items require you to enter the password for your computer - that is, the user you are currently logged in as on your Mac.

You can use these interfaces to review and optionally delete any information you've previously entered from your computer. Because some of it is sensitive (Passwords, Credit Card numbers etc) you will have to unlock various sections by entering your computer's password.

When you are finished, simply close Safari's Preferences by clicking the Red "close" button.

Safari Logo

More guides and help for Safari

Need more help with Safari? Read our other Safari guides .

Clear cache & history

Do i need to clear my cache.

Not sure why you've been asked to clear your cache? We can explain. Why you need to clear your cache

What is a cache?

Before you consider clearing your browser cache, you should know what it is! Learn a little bit about browser caches

Is it safe to clear my cache?

Are there any risks to clearing your cache? Find out if it's ok to clear your cache

Update my web browser

Do i need to update my browser.

Find out if your browser is out of date Is my browser out of date?

Why should I update my browser?

There are very good reasons to, find out here! Why update your browser?

Is it free to update Chrome?

Find out about the cost of updating Chrome... Does Chrome cost anything?

What does "Update browser" mean?

What does it actually mean? What does it mean to update your browser

Get help with our guides

How to enable javascript.

Change your JavaScript settings Guide to enabling Javascript

How to enable Cookies

Configure your cookie settings for privacy Guide to enabling cookies

Related articles

I can't log in to a website..

We've got a detailed guide to help you solve login problems How to fix website log in problems

Why do websites use cookies?

Why are cookies useful? Do you need them? What's the deal with cookies?

How to update your browser

Old software puts you at risk. Keep your browser fresh and up to date

Clear Cache, Cookies and History

How to reset your browsing history How to reset your browser

Try a different web browser

Different web browsers have different features - try a different one to see if you prefer it. Experiment a bit!

Use a VPN to hide your IP address

We recommend NordVPN to hide your IP address or to unblock websites. Hide your IP Address

Clearing your cache, cookies, and browsing history - Frequently asked questions

How to clear cache.

Clear instructions to clear your cache, cookies, and history. follow the guides.

Learn how to clear your cache, cookies, and history

Before you consider clearing your browser cache, you should know what it is!

Learn a little bit about browser caches

What does "Clear your Cache" mean?

Have you heard the phrase "clear your cache" but aren't sure what it means?

What "clear cache" means

Not sure why you've been asked to clear your cache?

Why you (might) need to clear your cache

Clear the cache for just one page

Need to completely reload a page but don't want to clear your entire cache?

How to clear the cache for just one page

Should I clear my cookies?

Can clearing cookies help with problems or privacy? Here's some info.

Why you (might) need to clear your cookies

Are there any risks to clearing your cache?

Find out if it's ok to clear your cache

What happens when I clear my cache?

When I decide to clear my cache or cookies, what actually happens?

See what happens

Clear Cache in Chrome Shortcut

Don't bother clicking the menus, use the handy keyboard shortcut!

Keyboard shortcut to clear cache in Chrome

Clear Cache in Firefox Shortcut

Keyboard shortcut to clear cache in Firefox

Clear Cache in Edge Shortcut

Keyboard shortcut to clear cache in Edge

Clear Cache in Brave Shortcut

Keyboard shortcut to clear cache in Brave

Clear Cache in Safari Shortcut

Keyboard shortcut to clear cache in Safari

Does clearing cache in one browser affect the other browsers on my computer?

Are the different caches on my computer related to each other?

How big is Chrome's Cache?

Find out how much temporary space Chrome is using for your Cache

The size of Chrome's cache

  • Internet providers
  • How to Clear Cookies

How to clear your cookies in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari or Opera

how to clear your cookies

Navigating the world of internet cookies can feel like traversing a minefield, especially when user privacy seems to be at constant risk. While ensuring seamless online interactions and remembering your preferences, cookies also open the doors to intrusive advertisers and potentially unwarranted scrutiny.

Understanding the dilemma and discomfort of being under the watchful eye of the unseen, we’ve conducted exhaustive research and rigorous testing to demystify the complex world of cookies for you. We know you need privacy and control, and we are here to provide a comprehensive guide on how to clear cookies from any browser that you use.

This guide is not just a beacon of knowledge but a practical tool, allowing you to navigate the delicate balance between online convenience and privacy confidently. Explore, learn, and arm yourself with the strategies needed to secure your digital existence and experience the web with peace of mind. Welcome to a journey toward secure online interactions and how to clear your cookies from your device.

Note: Tests for Google Chrome, Edge, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox were all run on a Windows 10 desktop PC running the latest updates as of February 21, 2019.

How to clear your cookies on Chrome

(Version 72.0.3626.109)

To start your journey toward being free and clear of cookies once and for all (or at least to have a better grip on which ones get through), click the button with three dots in the top right hand corner of your browser window:

settings menu

From here, click on the Content settings button, shown above. That should bring you to the following window, which is where we’ll be handling everything related to Chrome’s  Cookies settings.

chrome cookies settings

There are a lot of different settings to work with here, but to start it helps to know exactly which sites have been keeping cookies on you, and how many each one has stored. To do this, click on the button that reads See all cookies and site data :

Chrome cookies view all

The length of the list that pops up will depend on how long you’ve been using your browser at the default cookie setting of Allow local data to be set .

To clear all your cookies in one swift go, simply click the Remove all  button that appears next to the search bar:

remove all cookies

There’s also an option to remove all the cookies associated with the searched domain at once, by clicking the Remove all shown  button seen above.

Note:   As of this time of writing , Chrome currently has an issue where the browser will crash if you attempt to clear individual cookies. This is a known issue that has been around for several months and is currently unresolved. Possible workarounds include restarting your computer and waiting a few minutes after loading the cookies page before attempting to delete individual cookies.

Clear your cookies in Chrome (the quick way)

An alternate (and faster) method of clearing your cookies can be found back at the original Advanced Settings menu. Under the Privacy and security section there is a button labeled Clear browsing data , seen below: Once you click this you’ll be taken to a window where all the individual pieces of your browsing history are laid out in a checklist:

chrome clear cookie data

To clear your cookies from here, only tick the box for Cookies and other site and plugin data , making sure to uncheck any other data that you’re not willing to lose at the end of this process.

Once the cookies box is selected, you can specify how far back the deletion should go by clicking the drop-down menu above. Here you’ll find the choices of anything recorded in the past hour, the past day, the past week, the last 4 weeks, and All time , (which is really just since the first time you installed the browser or ran a hard reset on the previous settings).

chrome cookies all time

Managing your cookies in Chrome

Lastly, if you’re tired of constantly having to go back into your settings menu to carefully pick out pesky cookies that have overstayed their welcome, you can set your Chrome up to automatically manage cookies in a way that better suits your preferred privacy level.

To do this, start back at the Privacy section, and click on the button labeled Content settings, and then Cookies :

chrome cookie save data

While that example sounds relatively innocuous on the surface, some third-party advertisers will take advantage of certain platforms in order to get more malicious cookies delivered to your computer. This option helps to mitigate that threat, while still making it easier to manage the rest of your first-party cookies from more reputable online destinations.

How to clear your cookies in Firefox

(Version 65.0.1)

Clearing your cookies in the Firefox browser is a fairly similar process to what you’ll find with Chrome, with a few key differences.

To start, click on the button in the top-right corner with three horizontal lines:

options menu firefox

Once you’re in the options menu, look to the far left of the window and scroll down to the  Privacy and Security tab:

remove firefox cookies

Managing cookies in Firefox

If you want to change how Firefox handles cookie requests in the future, this can be done from back at the original Privacy window. Under the History  section, you’ll find a drop-down menu. Click on this and choose the option to  Use custom settings for history . From here a new set of options will appear under the  History tab, each of which controls a different piece of the overall cookie pie. First, there’s the option to toggle cookies entirely:

firefox block cookies

The last option –  Never – does exactly what it sounds like, and prevents any third-party cookies from ever being stored on the machine.

There’s also another choice to make here, one which decides how long those specific cookies are kept on your system. The two options here are  Keep until they expire , and  Keep until I close Firefox :

firefox cookie management

Keep until they expire is the riskier way to go, because sometimes the license for a cookie can be several years long, meaning they won’t leave your desktop until that time period runs up.

The other choice is  Keep until I close Firefox , which is what we recommend for the more privacy-conscious users out there. As it sounds, this will only store third-party cookies until each browser session ends.

Clear cookies Firefox exceptions

Clearing your cookies in Edge

(Version 42.17134.1.0)

Edge Cookies

Managing your cookies in Edge

Edge cookie advanced settings

Every choice is a catch-all for all sites you visit, so make sure you know how you want Edge to operate before making any final decisions with it!

Clearing your cookies in Safari

(Version 11.1.2)

safari cookies preferences

This is where all your cookie data and preferences can be configured. To clear your cookies completely, first click on the  Manage Website Data… button to get to the screen below:

safari coookies remove all

As was the case with other browsers, from here you’ll see a full list of all the cookies that are currently stored as a part of your browsing session.

To delete all cookies kept on the system, click on the button at the bottom of the window labeled  Remove All :

cookies search bar

Managing cookies in Safari

Safari has simplified how users manage cookies. In the same  Privacy tab mentioned above, you get two settings, each with two options.

The first is  Website tracking , which by default prevents cross-site tracking. That includes those pesky persistent tracking cookies. You can opt into Do Not Track by checking the box for  Ask websites not to track me.

Next  Cookies and website data , you can opt to go for the nuclear option and  Block all cookies , but note this may cause issues on many websites.

Clearing your cookies in Opera

(Version 58.0.3135.65)

Because the Opera browser is based off the same underlying Chromium architecture that the standard Google Chrome browser is, almost everything about how to clear and manage your cookies is just about identical in process and implementation.

open opera cookies menu

You’ll also get an option for “Basic” data removal or “Advanced”. The “Advanced” menu increase the data categories, but for cookies, all you need is to use the “Basic” menu.

If you need any additional help on how to handle things beyond this point, refer back to the Chrome section to find out everything you need to know.

Finally, managing cookies in Opera will take a few more steps. If you hit Cancel from the Clear browser data screen, you’ll be at the main settings menu. If not done already, click on Advanced on the left to expand your options, then click on  Privacy & security.  From there, click on  Content settings .

opera cookies

Next, select  Cookies from the content screen.

opera cookies

From there, you can choose to adjust your cookie settings more specifically. Opera allows you to turn off autosaving cookies, as well as other options such as blocking third-party cookies, and managing site-by-site coookies.

opera cookies

If you click on See all cookies and site data , you can delete specific coookie from individyual websites.

Clearing cookies on iOS

To clear cookies on an iOS device, start by opening up the Settings app, and then scroll down to the Safari button and tap it:

ios safari cookies

From here, scroll down to the button labeled Clear History and Website Data:

safari ios cookies clear

Tapping this will clear all the cookies from your Safari browser. That’s it, you’re done!

Managing cookies on iOS

Right now there is only one cookie management tool in Safari on iOS, and that’s to block all cookie storage outright.

To do this, scroll down in the same Safari tab mentioned above, and then toggle the option to Block all cookies:

ios safari block all cookies

Once this is toggled Safari will be prevented from storing any new cookies on your iOS device.

Clearing cookies on Android

To clear cookies on Android, start by opening up the Chrome browser from your home screen. Next, tap the three buttons in the top right corner of your screen:

From here, scroll down to the tab labeled Privacy:

privacy android cookies

Next, scroll all the way down to the tab labeled Clear all cookies and browsing data and tap it:

android clear cookies data

From here you’ll be able to see what cookies Chrome has stored on your Android device, as well as the option to clear them:

android time cookies

Managing cookies on Android

To manage your cookie behavior, scroll down to the tab labeled Site settings from your Chrome settings window:

android site settings clear

Next, tap into Cookies:

android cookies mobile

From here you’ll have one of two options, either to Allow third-party cookies , or to disable Cookies altogether by switching the toggle off:

android cookie management

Clearing cookies on Windows 10 Mobile

To clear your cookies on Windows 10 Mobile, start by tapping the Internet Explorer/Edge icon on your home screen:

windows 10 mobile clear coookies

Next, tap the three dots located in the bottom-right corner of your screen:

clear cookies windows 10 menu

From the menu that pops up, tap Settings :

settings clear cookies windows 10 mobile

Under Clear Browsing Data , tap Choose what to clear from the section highlighted below:

choose clear cookies windows mobile

From the menu shown below, check only the box labeled Cookies and saved website data:

saved website data clear cookies windows mobile

Tap Clear at the bottom of the page to clear the cookies:

clear cookies windows 10 mobile

Then tap All clear! To be taken back to your home page. All done!

windows 10 mobile all clear

How to clear supercookies

“Supercookies”, or Unique Identifier Headers, are tracking cookies that remain on your system even after you’ve cleared all other cookies using the steps above. They can be placed on your system by by your internet service provider at the network level, making them impossible to prevent from the user end.

Supercookies are browser-agnostic, so it doesn’t matter which browser you’re using or if you switch browsers—they will still be used to track you.

Supercookies require unencrypted connections to work, so even though you can’t prevent them wholesale, you can diminish their effectiveness by using the HTTPS Everywhere browser plugin from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This plugin for Firefox and Chrome always opts for an encrypted HTTPS version of a website if one is available.

Not all websites use HTTPS, however, so the alternative is to connect to a VPN . This will encrypt your internet connection no matter what website you visit, rendering the supercookies useless.

How to clear flash cookies (LSO)

Flash cookies, also known as local shared objects (LSO), are cookies used by Adobe Flash applications that exist on some websites. They can’t be removed like normal cookies, so they are sometimes categorized as supercookies.

In the past, users would have to install a third-party extension like Better Privacy to prevent LSOs from being saved on their systems. Today, however, all major browsers prevent Flash applications from loading unless you explicitly tell them to do so.

Still, you might have accidentally picked up a Flash cookie by clicking on a Flash object in a web page, or you might have some left over from a time before browser makers set Flash to click-to-activate by default.

If Adobe Flash isn’t installed, you can skip this section and move on.

Here’s how to delete them:

  • Open this link in a new tab

flash player settings manager

  • Click the padlock icon in your address bar and click Site Settings .
  • Set Flash to Allow
  • Go back and refresh the page
  • In the Websites section, you can see which sites you’ve granted permission to use Flash and that are storing data on your device. Click Delete website to remove them one at a time or Delete all sites to wipe all of them.

Note that if you play Flash games or use other Flash applications, you might lose saved data.

See also: Compare internet providers in your area (US only)

“ Chocolate Chip Cookies ” by Wikimedia Foundation licensed under CC BY 2.0

1 Comment Leave a comment

What about “Handlers” on Chrome? Allow sites to ask to become Default Handlers for Protocols (recommended)? What does that mean? Should it Be On or Off? From Safari, Firefox, and Chrome browsers, which is the Best safest browser to use? I’ve noticed Even if I select “Always Block” on Safari, Cookies still get through?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

How to clear cache on Mac in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox

Avatar for Michael Potuck

Looking to tidy up the browser on your Mac or fix some issues you’re seeing with websites? Read on for how to clear cache on Mac, as well as history, and cookies in Safari , Chrome, and Firefox.

It’s a straightforward process to clear cache on Mac in Safari as well as third-party browsers like Chrome and Firefox. While the button in the menu bar for Safari is labeled “Clear History,” it also clears cookies and your cache.

For Chrome and Firefox, you get more detailed control of what data you’re deleting.

Whether you’re just wanting to do some regular maintenance or having some issues with browsing that you want to clear up, follow along below…

For how to clear your cache, history, and website data on iPhone and iPad, check out our tutorial here .

Table of contents

Google chrome, how to clear cache on mac.

  • Open Safari
  • In the menu bar (top left of your screen) click History
  • You can also choose Safari > Clear History…
  • Use the drop-down menu to pick what timeframe you want to clear history and cookies from Safari
  • One last time, click  Clear History
  • Keep in mind that means you may be logged out of websites, etc.

Site default logo image

Now look at the bottom of the menu and click “Clear History…”

To fully clear your history, cache, and cookies, click the drop-down and select “all history.”

  • For Google Chrome on Mac, click Chrome in the menu bar (top left corner)
  • Choose “Clear Browsing Data”
  • Pick a time range, or “All time”
  • Choose what data to clear with the checkboxes
  • Click Clear data
  • For Firefox on Mac, click History in the menu bar (top left of your screen)
  • Click Clear Recent History…
  • Change the timeframe to what you’d like
  • Choose what data to remove

Read more 9to5Mac tutorials: 

  • Best USB-C and Thunderbolt displays for Mac
  • Here’s how the new 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pro compare to other MacBook models
  • Find the battery percentage of your iPhone 13 (and earlier iPhones too )
  • Here’s how Background Sounds work in iOS 15

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Roborock Q5+ robot vacuum

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

Mac

Apple’s Mac lineup consists of MacBook, MacBoo…

How To

A collection of tutorials, tips, and tricks from…

Avatar for Michael Potuck

Michael is an editor for 9to5Mac. Since joining in 2016 he has written more than 3,000 articles including breaking news, reviews, and detailed comparisons and tutorials.

Michael Potuck's favorite gear

Satechi USB-C Charger (4 ports)

Satechi USB-C Charger (4 ports)

Really useful USB-C + USB-A charger for home/work and travel.

Apple Leather MagSafe Wallet

Apple Leather MagSafe Wallet

My slim wallet of choice for iPhone 12

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

How can I quickly clear cookies for a specific site using Safari for Mac?

I know I can "Reset Safari". I know I can go to Cookies from Preferences and search for a site's cookies and delete those. But is there a faster/easier way to just clear cookies for one site (preferably one that I'm already navigated to)?

Frank Krueger's user avatar

6 Answers 6

There you go!

Clearing a Specific Cookie on Safari: Safari makes you do a little more mousework to get to the listing of cookies in the system, and you have to specify which you want to remove. To get started, go to the preferences menu, and open the “Security” Options. Partway down the page is a button labeled “Show Cookies.” Click this.

alt text

Once you have clicked the “Show Cookies” button, you will be shown a listing of all of the cookies your browser has stored, along with a handy search box. Type the current domain name into this search to see a listing of cookies set by the current site. From here, you can select and delete the cookies.

alt text

  • 1 Darn I realize you're looking for something simpler probably... –  Ivo Flipse Jul 30, 2009 at 13:14
  • 1 Nothing bad with a complete answer, really. :) –  Isxek Jul 30, 2009 at 13:16
  • 1 Oh Safari doesn't support plugins, that's going to make it hard... –  Ivo Flipse Jul 30, 2009 at 13:16
  • 1 Note, the Remove All button will do the same thing, once you've entered the domain into the search box. –  jtbandes Aug 2, 2009 at 6:42
  • 4 Safari 9 on El Capitan (OS X 10.11) no longer has this feature in the same place or the same way. Now you go to Safari / Preferences / Privacy and under the Remove All Website Data... button there's a small Details... button. When you click on that you can see the list of all domain names for which there are Cache, Cookies, and/or Local Storage saved. When you select that domain you can clear all of that data at once or not. There's no way to see individual cookies from Preferences any more, nor a way to remove only one. But at least you can still do this for a single site. –  user6297 Jan 20, 2016 at 12:21

As @user6297 says in his comment, the above answer no longer works as of El Capitan. You now need to go to Preferences > Privacy > Details as shown in the image. Note that the Details button might take a moment to appear.

enter image description here

Then enter the domain in the Search box, select the item you want to remove, and click Remove .

Simon Woodside's user avatar

use Safari Cookies Tool

joe's user avatar

  • the Safari Cookies tool is apparently dead. –  allanberry Apr 21, 2021 at 15:00

To clear all cookies, you can setup a keyboard shortcut (Option-Cmd-R) to Safari → Reset Safari

Go to the preferences menu, and open the “Security” Options. Part way down the page is a button labeled “Show Cookies.” Click this.

alt text

http://www.ehow.com/how_4839198_cookies-safari-mac-computer-beginners.html

source : http://www.vertster.com/blog/2009/07/4-ways-to-quickly-clear-the-cookies-for-just-one-site-or-domain.html

If someone using OS X or later comes across this post then you know that clearing cookies for a specific site has become much harder now.

Here are the steps as of Dec. 2023:

Image of safari settings privacy window

  • There you can select an individual site and click on Remove on the bottom-left of the window.

Destroy666's user avatar

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged browser safari web cookies ..

  • The Overflow Blog
  • It’s RAG time for LLMs that need a source of truth
  • In Rust we trust? White House Office urges memory safety
  • Featured on Meta
  • Changing how community leadership works on Stack Exchange: a proposal and...
  • Our partnership with Google and commitment to socially responsible AI

Hot Network Questions

  • What does it mean when Faramir says "I would not snare even an orc with a falsehood"?
  • Vector potential of position field
  • Basic command with indefined parameters
  • Can mountains form in rings?
  • Does doing 4 vs 3 substantive chapters in a US PhD come across as a "higher quality" dissertation?
  • Is using the shield in a CAT cable for return current a bad idea?
  • Quasars to a galaxy
  • Great battles in the history of mathematics
  • The total pressure / total mass of earth's atmosphere on geological time scales
  • Size of the certificate as a property of the problem
  • Reconstruct a list of strings from its prefixes
  • How to use uBlock Origin to block the Reddit user avatar hover tooltip?
  • Chromatic number of the infinite Erdős–Hajnal shift-graph
  • How should I properly terminate a loose live cable?
  • Can a spell cast from a Spellwrought Tattoo be counterspelled?
  • Are there any Scriptures that describe Maha-Sadashiva, The 25-headed form of Shiva?
  • graphic design is my passion so you are(is it true?)
  • Why doesn't Washington want to enact a law to punish all currency manipulators, including China?
  • How do NPC Clerics use their own cursed gear without penalty?
  • Do 1.5% of lithium-ion batteries overheat, explode, or catch fire each year?
  • A class both derives from and its first member has type deriving from the same base class. Is the class standard-layout?
  • Can I use Web Serial API to send G-code to my Ender 5 Pro?
  • How can I set up a proper turn-based ambush in BG3?
  • Deviation between Mean and Median

delete cookies in safari

How to Delete Cookies from Safari on Your iPhone & iPad

delete cookies in safari

When you delete cookies from Safari on your iPhone or iPad, you free up storage space and improve your device's performance speeds. Clearing the cache and deleting cookies can also help safeguard your online privacy! We'll show you how to clear your cache and cookies, plus how to disable cookies for future browsing if you choose to do so.

iPhone Life

What Are Cookies on the iPhone or iPad?

  • How to Delete Cookies from Safari on iPhone or iPad

How to Clear Cookies & History on iPhone or iPad

How to disable cookies on iphone or ipad.

Cookies are pieces of data placed on your iPhone or iPad (or any other device on which you browse the internet) by the websites you visit in order to enhance your browsing experience and collect your data. From helping you retain login information to tracking what sites you typically visit or what items you are interested in on Amazon, cookies and their associated data can make your web experience quicker, smoother, and more intuitive. They can also be used to track you in ways you don't want, though, and after a while, cookies and their saved data can take up valuable storage space on your iPhone or iPad and diminish overall performance. To learn other ways to improve your Apple devices' performance, sign up for our free Tip of the Day newsletter.

Keep in mind, though, that clearing cookies on your iPhone will delete saved logins and other website information.

How to Delete Cookies from Safari on iPhone or iPad

If you're ready to clear cookies from Safari, here's what to do:

delete cookies in safari

When you clear cookies along with your Safari browsing history, you'll be able to save additional storage space. Also, if you ever have issues with Safari, clearing the cookies and history is beneficial in helping you troubleshoot. If you're ready to free up storage space on your iPhone by deleting cookies and clearing your Safari browsing history, here's how to go about it:

Tap Safari

And that's it! Remember that after you delete cookies on your iPhone or iPad, you will be logged out of any accounts you were signed into.

You can also permanently disable cookies on iPhone or iPad if you wish. Keep in mind that permanently disabling cookies may prevent websites from working properly. For example, you will likely be unable to log in to a website when entering your correct username and password. You might receive messages that will tell you to enable cookies or that cookies are turned off. Plus, some features may not work on a website. A good alternative to permanently disabling cookies on iPhone or iPad, if you want to prevent cookies from accumulating, is to  turn on Private Browsing from within your Safari browser. But if you'd like to try disabling all cookie collection, here's how:

Block all cookies

Now that you know why cookies matter and how to clear storage space by deleting saved cookies and your Safari browsing history, you might also like to learn  how to hide apps on your iPhone .

Author Details

Dig Om's picture

As Senior Gear Editor at iPhone Life, Dig reports on the latest and greatest accessories built for the iOS ecosystem. From rugged gear and Bluetooth speakers, to headphones, unique iDevice cases, and iOS remote controlled vehicles, Dig's articles cover a wide range of great gear for the iPhone and iPad. A core gamer for over three decades, Dig also writes iPhone Life's Game Centered column, which focuses on the best iOS games and game related news. Additionally, Dig's company, iDoc Tech Support, offers web design and administration services as well as iPhone and iPad repairs. When not at his work desk, Dig loves spending time with family and enjoying the wonders of nature. You can follow him on Twitter @idoctech

Master iOS 17 with our latest in-depth guide!

Article Spotlight

Master the notes app.

delete cookies in safari

This is your last chance  to get our in-depth Notes Guide — 2024 Edition and take advantage of our  exclusive 30% discount on your iPhone Life Insider subscription!  We are also proud to offer an additional 10% discount for seniors, veterans, and service personnel.

Featured Products

delete cookies in safari

Most Popular

How to Know If Someone Blocked You on iMessage

6 Ways To Know if Someone Blocked You on iMessage

How to fix Find My not working

Why Is Find My iPhone Not Working? Here’s the Real Fix

How to Find a Hidden Spy Camera with Your iPhone

How to Find a Hidden Spy Camera with Your iPhone

What is SOS on iPhone

What Is SOS on iPhone? Learn This Key Emergency Feature!

How to See Steps on Apple Watch Face

Step Counter: How To Show Steps on Apple Watch Face

Why Is My iPhone Battery Draining So Fast?

10 Simple Tips To Fix iPhone Battery Drain

How to Put Two Pictures Side-by-Side on iPhone (iOS 17)

How To Put Two Pictures Together on iPhone

How to Tell If Your iPhone or iPad Is Charging When Off or On (iOS 16)

How to Tell If a Dead iPhone Is Charging

How to Set Up Apple’s Authenticator App

How to Set Up Apple’s Authenticator App

Hide Apps on iPhone So Only You Can Find Them

How To Hide an App on Your iPhone

How to Turn Off Flashlight On iPhone: 3 Easy Ways (2023)

How To Turn Off Flashlight on iPhone (Without Swiping Up!)

How to Schedule a Text on Your iPhone

How to Schedule a Text Message on iPhone

Featured articles.

how to find a lost iPhone without find my iPhone

How to Find a Lost iPhone, Even If It's Dead or Offline

Create a Contact Group on iPhone—the Easy Way! (iOS 17)

Create a Contact Group on iPhone—the Easy Way! (iOS 17)

add driver's license to Apple Wallet

How to Add a Driver's License to Apple Wallet (2024)

How to Cast Apple TV to Chromecast for Easy Viewing

How to Cast Apple TV to Chromecast for Easy Viewing

Fix Photos Not Uploading to iCloud Once & for All

Fix Photos Not Uploading to iCloud Once & for All (iOS 17)

Apple ID Login: 9 Ways to Fix the Error Connecting to Apple ID Server Message (iOS 16)

There Was an Error Connecting to the Apple ID Server: Fixed

CarPlay Not Working? How to Fix Apple CarPlay Today (iOS 17)

CarPlay Not Working? 4 Ways to Fix Apple CarPlay Today

Check out our sponsors.

delete cookies in safari

  • Each email reveals new things you can do with your phone (and other devices) with easy-to-follow screenshots.
  • Enter your email to get your first tip immediately!

delete cookies in safari

  • iPhone 15 Plus vs. Pro Max
  • 3 Key Tech Trends to Watch in 2024

How to Delete Cookies in Every Major Browser

Clear cookies in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and more

delete cookies in safari

  • Emporia State University

In This Article

Jump to a Section

How to Clear Cookies

  • Why You Should Delete Cookies

What to Know

  • To clear cookies, select the Settings or Options menu in your browser, then go to either the Privacy or History section.
  • In most browsers, use the Ctrl+Shift+Del keyboard shortcut or Command+Shift+Del on a Mac.
  • Specific browser instructions are might vary; look for your browser below to find removal details.

The steps involved in deleting cookies are different depending on the web browser. Below are some browser-specific cookie clearing tutorials.

How to Clear Browsing Data in Chrome

To delete cookies in Google Chrome:

Select the 3 vertical dots in the upper-right corner of the Chrome screen.

Select More Tools > Clear browsing data .

Select the Cookies and other site data checkbox.

To delete the saved passwords in Chrome, select Passwords and other sign-in data .

Select the Time range drop-down arrow and choose a time period. For example, to delete all the cookies or passwords in Chrome, no matter how long ago they were saved, select All time .

Select Clear data .

If you want more control over cookies, learn how to delete cookies from a specific website, how to allow or deny websites from leaving cookies, and how to clear cookies when Chrome is closed.

To clear the cookies from the Chrome mobile browser, tap the menu button (the icon with three stacked dots), and choose Settings . Go to Privacy and security > Clear browsing data , and then open the Advanced tab. Tap each area you want to erase, for example, Cookies and site data , or Saved passwords . Delete the selection with the Clear data button.

How to Clear Browsing Data in Firefox

To delete cookies in the Mozilla Firefox browser:

Select the menu (the 3 horizontal bars in the upper-right corner of Firefox).

Select Settings .

Select Privacy & Security .

In the Cookies and Site Data section, select Clear Data .

Select the Cookies and Site Data checkbox, then select Clear .

You can also delete cookies in Firefox for the current site displayed in the web browser, delete cookies for an individual website, and clear all cookies along with the cache.

To delete cookies on the mobile Firefox browser, tap the menu button and go to Settings > Delete browsing data . Choose Cookies (and anything else you want to delete, such as the browsing history or cache), then tap Delete browsing data .

How to Clear Browsing Data in Microsoft Edge

Here's how to delete cookies and browsing history in Microsoft Edge.

Select the three horizontal dots located in the upper-right corner. Or, press Alt+F .

Select Privacy, search, and services from the left pane. If you don't see the left pane, select the three-lined menu button at the top left.

Select Choose what to clear from the Clear browsing data section.

Make sure Cookies and other site data is checked. You can also delete passwords, download history, browsing history, cached images and files, and more.

Change the Time range value to pick how far back the cookies and other data should be erased. There's even an All time option to delete everything ever stored.

Select Clear now .

Microsoft Edge stores more than cookies. Learn what data is collected in Edge, how to clear collected data, and how to stop Edge from collecting information.

To delete cookies in the mobile Edge app, tap the menu button at the bottom, go to  Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data , and choose the items to remove. Then, tap  Clear data .

How to Remove Cookie and Website Data in Safari

To delete cookies in the Apple Safari web browser:

On a Mac, select Safari > Preferences . In Windows, select Action > Preferences .

Select Privacy .

On a Mac, select Manage Website Data . On Windows, select Remove All Website Data .

Choose which cookies to delete, then select Remove . Or, select Remove All to clear all cookies.

Select Remove Now to confirm that you want to delete the cookies.

Select Done .

To delete cookies on the mobile Safari browser, open the Settings app for your device (not the browser). Scroll down and tap the Safari link, then scroll down and tap Clear History and Website Data . Confirm with Clear .

How to Clear Browsing Data in Opera

To delete cookies in Opera:

Select the menu button at the top right.

In the Privacy & Security section, select Clear .

Select Cookies and other site data , and then choose Clear data .

To remove all cookies from every website, select the Time range drop-down arrow and choose All time .

Close the Settings window and continue browsing the web.

Customize cookies in Opera . Set site-specific preferences for cookies, block third-party cookies, and clear browsing data when the browser is closed.

To delete cookies from the mobile Opera browser, tap the profile button at the bottom, and then choose the settings/gear icon. Scroll to the bottom and tap Clear data , and then choose Cookies and site data , as well as whatever else you want to delete. Select CLEAR DATA .

Why Should I Delete Cookies?

Internet cookies are small files stored on a computer hard drive by a web browser that contains information about your visit to a particular website. This information may include your login status, personalization, and advertising preferences. If you don't want this information stored on your computer, delete the cookies.

Most of the time, cookies make browsing more enjoyable by keeping you logged in to a site you visit frequently or remembering the questions you answered at your favorite polling site.

Sometimes, however, a cookie may remember something you'd rather it didn't, or become corrupt, resulting in a browsing experience that's less than enjoyable. This is when deleting cookies may be a good idea.

You might also want to delete cookies if you're experiencing issues such as 500 Internal Server or 502 Bad Gateway errors (among others), which are sometimes indications that one or more cookies for a particular site are corrupted and should be removed.

More About Deleting Cookies in Web Browsers

Most browsers also find and delete cookies from individual websites. Since few issues require that you delete all the cookies stored by the browser, locating and removing specific cookies allows you to retain customizations and stay logged in to your favorite, non-offending websites.

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

  • How to Clear Cookies and Cache in Chrome
  • How to Clear Cookies on Android Mobile Browsers
  • How to Clear Cookies for a Specific Site
  • How to Clear Cache on Samsung S10
  • How to Clear Internet Cache in Every Major Browser
  • How to Clear Your Search Bar History
  • How to Delete and Clear Cookies on an iPhone
  • 3 Ways to Clear Cache on an iPad
  • How to Enable Cookies on Android
  • How to Clear Private Data in Google Chrome for Windows
  • How to Enable Cookies in Your Browser
  • How to Clear Search History on iPhone
  • Search History: How to View or Delete It
  • How to Enable Cookies on an iPad
  • Manage and Delete Browsing Data in Microsoft Edge
  • How to Clear the Browsing History in Chrome for iPad
  • Clear Safari cache on Mac
  • Clear Safari cache on iPhone or iPad
  • How to save passwords when clearing your cache

How to clear your Safari browser cache on a Mac, iPhone, or iPad

  • You can clear your cache on Safari in just a few steps on a Mac, iPhone, or iPad.
  • Clearing your cache, as well as history and cookies, can help resolve your device's performance issues.
  • Clearing your cookies will clear your passwords as well, unless you save them with keychain.

A cache is a store of data. When you visit a website on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, the Safari browser keeps a snapshot of the pages you view.

If you go back to that website, Safari loads the cached page in an instant, instead of taking the time to retrieve the page from the internet again.

But an overloaded cache can take up storage space and cause your device to run inefficiently — and it could use a periodic clearing.

Here's what you need to know to clear your cache on Safari, as well as your cookies and browsing history.

How to clear Safari cache on Mac

You can either clear just your cache or your cache, history, and cookies. 

Clear your cache

1. Click on the Safari tab at the top left of your screen and choose Preferences from the dropdown menu.

2.  Click the Advanced tab of the menu that pops up.

3.  At the end of the tab, select the Show Develop menu in menu bar box and close the Preferences menu.

4. Click the Develop tab from the Safari menu at the top of the page.

5. Click Empty Caches from the dropdown menu.

Clear your cache, history, and cookies

You may also want to clear your browsing history and cookies in addition to emptying your cache. Here's how to do that.

1. Choose the History tab at the top of your screen.

2. At the very bottom of the dropdown menu, choose Clear History.

3.  A box pops up with a choice to clear the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all history. Choose your time frame and click the Clear History button.  

Once you clear the history, it will also clear the cache and cookies associated with that time period.

How to clear Safari cache on iPhone or iPad

To clear your cache and browsing history:

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Tap Safari .

3. Tap Clear History and Website Data .

4. On the screen that pops up, choose Clear History and Data .

To clear your cache but not your browsing history:

3. Tap Advanced .

4. Tap Website Data .

5. Choose Remove All Website Data .

What happens to saved passwords when you clear your cache

When you clear your cache, history, and cookies, you may discover that Safari has logged you out of your favorite websites.

While clearing Safari's cache alone will not delete your passwords, clearing your history and cookies can. That's because when you empty your cookies, you will lose their password data saved in Safari as well. And keep in mind that clearing your history also clears its associated cookies.

Luckily, Apple has a solution to this problem. If you use iCloud, check your iCloud settings on your phone or computer.

Make sure that you've checked the box for Safari. As long as this box is checked, any passwords you save through your browser will stay safe in your keychain .

delete cookies in safari

  • Main content

IMAGES

  1. 4 Ways to Delete Cookies Using the Safari Web Browser

    delete cookies in safari

  2. Clear Cookies in Safari on a Mac

    delete cookies in safari

  3. How to Manage and Remove Browser Cookies on Mac and iOS

    delete cookies in safari

  4. Clear the history and cookies from Safari on your iPhone, iPad or iPod

    delete cookies in safari

  5. How to clear cookies and cache from safari

    delete cookies in safari

  6. How to Clear Safari/Chrome/Firefox Cookies, Cache, and History on

    delete cookies in safari

VIDEO

  1. Clear Safari cache history and cookies on iPhone

  2. How to Enable Cookies in Safari on iPhone

  3. How to Remove Cookies From iPhone

  4. How to delete cookies

  5. How to Manage Cookies in Safari

  6. How to Clear Safari Cache on iPhone

COMMENTS

  1. Clear the history, cache, and cookies from Safari on your iPhone, iPad

    Delete history, cache, and cookies. Clear cookies and cache, but keep your history. Delete a website from your history. Block cookies. Use content blockers. Delete history, cache, and cookies. Go to Settings > Safari. Tap Clear History and Website Data. Clearing your history, cookies, and browsing data from Safari won't change your AutoFill ...

  2. How to Delete Cookies Using the Safari Web Browser: 13 Steps

    Unfortunately, you can't delete only cookies in Safari on an iPhone. 5. Block cookies in the future. If you want to prevent all cookies going forward, scroll up to the "PRIVACY & SECURITY" section on the Safari page, tap the white "Block All Cookies" switch , and tap Block All when prompted. This switch will turn green ...

  3. How to clear Safari cache and cookies on a Mac

    Cleaning cookies and the cache data for individual sites can be done via Safari's Settings/Preferences. Open Safari. Click on Safari in the menu at the top of the screen. Click on Settings or ...

  4. Manage cookies and website data in Safari on Mac

    Always allow cookies: Deselect "Block all cookies.". Websites, third parties, and advertisers can store cookies and other data on your Mac. Remove stored cookies and data: Click Manage Website Data, select one or more websites, then click Remove or Remove All. Removing the data may reduce tracking, but may also log you out of websites or ...

  5. How to Delete Cookies and Stored Website Data in Safari

    Delete Cookies and Saved Data on the Mac 1. Select Preferences from the Safari menu or hold down the Command key and the comma key at the same time (Command+,).

  6. How to Delete Cookies in Safari

    The following steps show you how to delete cookies from Apple's Safari browser on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. How to Delete Cookies in Safari on iOS.

  7. Clear the history, cache and cookies from Safari on your iPhone, iPad

    Delete a website from your history. Open the Safari app. Tap the Show Bookmarks button, then tap the History button. Tap the Edit button, then select the website(s) that you want to delete from your history. Tap the Delete button. Block cookies. A cookie is a piece of data that a site puts on your device so that site can remember you when you ...

  8. How to Clear Safari's Browsing History and Cookies on macOS

    Learn how to delete your browsing history and cookies in Safari on MacOS with simple steps and screenshots. You can also set Safari to automatically clear your history or cookies at a certain time or frequency.

  9. Clear Cookies on Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge

    How to clear cookies on Mac in Safari. Open Safari and in the dropdown menu bar click Preferences. To manage your cookies, go to Safari's Preferences.

  10. How to Manage Cookies in the Safari Browser

    Launch Safari, go to the Safari menu, then select Preferences . In the Cookies and website data section, select Manage Website Data to open an alphabetical list of the websites for which your computer is storing data, including cookies and caches. To delete a single website, scroll through the alphabetical list, or use the search field.

  11. Manage cookies and website data using Safari

    Always allow: Safari lets all websites, third parties, and advertisers store cookies and other data on your Mac. Remove stored cookies and data: Click Remove All Website Data, or click Details, select one or more websites, then click Remove. Removing the data may reduce tracking, but may also log you out of websites or change website behavior.

  12. Clear Cache, Cookies and History on Safari

    Choose the time range to delete and then "Clear History". Safari now gives you a very simple interface for clearing your browsing cache, history, and cookies. When you click Clear History your cache, browser history, and cookies will be deleted for the specified time range. If you choose the default option of " all history " then the entire ...

  13. How to Enable and Disable Cookies on Safari

    How to clear cookies on Safari. You'll be glad to learn it's a simple process to manage computer cookies on Apple Safari. The steps may vary depending on your device, but we'll walk you through how to manage Safari cookies on macOS or an OS device. How to clear cookies on Safari on a Mac. 1.

  14. How To Clear Cookies in Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox

    After you clear your recent browser data, you can also set Chrome to automatically clear cookies by going to Third-party cookies and checking the box next to Block third-party cookies. However, Google is planning to remove third-party cookies from Chrome soon .

  15. How to clear your cookies in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari or Opera

    Clearing your cookies in Safari (Version 11.1.2) To clear your cookies in Safari in OSX, start by opening up the settings menu by clicking Safari in the top menu, and then Preferences from the drop-down shown below: From here you should get to your main settings window.

  16. How to clear cache on Mac in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox

    Open Safari. In the menu bar (top left of your screen) click History. At the bottom of the menu, choose Clear History…. You can also choose Safari > Clear History…. Use the drop-down menu to ...

  17. How can I quickly clear cookies for a specific site using Safari for Mac?

    the Safari Cookies tool is apparently dead. To clear all cookies, you can setup a keyboard shortcut (Option-Cmd-R) to Safari → Reset Safari. Go to the preferences menu, and open the "Security" Options. Part way down the page is a button labeled "Show Cookies.".

  18. How to Delete Cookies from Safari on Your iPhone & iPad

    Open Settings. Tap Safari. Scroll down and tap Advanced. Tap Website Data. If you want to delete cookies for particular sites, tap Edit. Then, tap the minus sign to the left of a website's name. Tap Delete. Tap Done. If you want to delete all cookies, tap Remove All Website Data.

  19. How to Delete Cookies in Every Major Browser

    To delete cookies on the mobile Safari browser, open the Settings app for your device (not the browser). Scroll down and tap the Safari link, then scroll down and tap Clear History and Website Data. Confirm with Clear. How to Clear Browsing Data in Opera . To delete cookies in Opera:

  20. How to Control and Delete Cookies on Your Browser

    Under Cookies and Site Data, click Clear Data > Cookies and Site Data > Clear to remove your entire cookie history. Back to Cookies and Site Data, select Manage Data if you want to choose the ...

  21. How to Clear Safari Browser Cache on Mac, iPhone, or iPad

    Tap "Clear History and Website Data" in the Safari settings. Stefan Ionescu/Insider. 4. On the screen that pops up, choose Clear History and Data. Quick tip: If the steps above don't empty your ...

  22. How can I delete cookies for one site in Safari, without deleting local

    If you want to delete cookies for one site in Safari, but keep the local data such as passwords and preferences, you can follow the steps in this question. You will learn how to use the developer tools to inspect and remove the cookies you don't want, without affecting the rest of your browsing data.

  23. How do I delete a specific cookie by name in Safari?

    Go to "Safari-->Preferences-->Advanced" and enable "Show Develop menu in menu bar". Navigate to the webpage that holds the cookie you are looking to remove. Go to Develop in the menu bar and " Show web inspector ". On the left hand side there will be a folder "Cookies" that holds the data from that site. You can right click them and delete ...