If you’ve ever checked your iPhone’s storage, you’ve probably seen that documents and data from your browser, whether it’s Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or another browser, can take up several gigabytes. That’s because browsers save things like caches, browsing history, cookies, and site data.
A few gigs might not seem like a big deal at first. But once your storage starts filling up or your browser begins to lag (slow page loads, delays, and all that), you’ll want to clear your iPhone’s website cache and other web data. Never done it before, or not sure where to start? Don’t worry - this article walks you through every step.
Why Does Clearing Website Data on the iPhone Make Sense?
Before we jump into how to clear website data on your iPhone, let’s break down what this data includes. Your browser stores a few different things under 'website data':
- Cache - сopies of images, scripts, and style files saved to help pages load faster next time.
- Cookies - tiny files that remember site preferences, login info, and tracking details.
- Browsing history - a record of sites you’ve visited, including URLs and timestamps.
All of these bits help your browsing run smoothly. But why should you clear this data? There are several reasons.
- First, the stored data may become outdated. For example, if you searched for 'wedesign trends 2024' and never cleared your web data, the cached version of that page remains on your device. Meanwhile, the website could have updated the article with newer information. When you load the page again, your browser might attempt to display the outdated cached content before refreshing it, which can slow down page loading times and affect accuracy.
- Second, clearing website data also improves privacy by removing stored cookies and browsing history that track your online activity. This step reduces the risk of unwanted tracking and data leaks.
- Third, accumulated website data can consume significant storage space. While a few gigabytes might not seem problematic at first, this storage usage grows over time and can contribute to reduced device responsiveness. Clearing your iPhone’s cache helps free up space and keeps everything running more smoothly.
If you’re planning to clear web data to free up space on your iPhone, just know it won’t make a huge difference on its own. Cleaning up your iPhone’s storage usually takes a more thorough approach. Your photo gallery probably has tons of duplicates, lookalikes, and random screenshots that take up way more space than you think. Sorting through thousands of photos by hand wastes too much time, so it makes more sense to use a photo cleaner app like Clever Cleaner.
Clever Cleaner is a free app that clears out junk photos from your iPhone in just a few taps. It comes with four tools - Similars, Heavies, Screenshots, and Lives, and now it even has a new swipe-to-delete mode for fast cleanup. Want to see how some tool works (or how they all work together)? Check out the app’s website - it’s got a full review with step-by-step instructions.
After this, don’t forget to check app caches, downloads, and old messages while you’re at it. For a full cleanup, take a look at the other tips in this blog post.
How to Clear Website Data on iPhone
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into how to actually clear website data. While there are a bunch of browsers available on iPhone, the steps are pretty similar across the board. To keep things simple, we’ll walk you through the process for the three most popular ones - Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Just pick the one you use and follow along. If your browser isn’t listed, check out the steps anyway, as they’ll give you a good idea of what to look for in your settings.
1. Safari
Safari is the default browser on Apple devices and probably has the biggest user base on iPhone. It’s built specifically for iOS, so it runs smoothly, stays secure, and doesn’t drain your battery. Thanks to iCloud, Safari also syncs your browsing data across all your Apple devices - perfect if you bounce between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Since Safari is a system-level app, you’ll clear its web data through the main Settings app on your iPhone, not within Safari itself. That’s a bit different from other browsers, which handle data clearing directly in their own apps (we’ll cover those next).
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone. Scroll to the very bottom and tap Apps to view a list of all installed applications.
- Scroll through the list and find Safari. Tap it to open Safari’s settings.
- Locate Clear History and Website Data and tap on it. A new window will appear allowing you to select the timeframe for clearing web data: options include the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all history. You can also toggle on Close All Tabs, which helps close multiple open tabs at once - a handy move if you’ve got a ton of tabs open and don’t feel like closing them one by one.
- Then, just tap the red Clear History button and confirm. That’s it - you’re all set.
When you follow these steps, you’ll clear your iPhone’s browser history, website cache, cookies, and Safari web data - all at once, across every device connected through iCloud Safari Sync.
🔴 Just a heads-up: this will also log you out of any websites you’re signed into. So, make sure you’ve saved your passwords somewhere safe before you wipe the data.
Safari also gives you another option that lets you keep your browsing history. You can delete data from specific websites instead, which comes in handy if a particular site is acting up or loading slowly, without messing with Safari’s overall performance.
- Open the Settings of Safari as described earlier, then scroll down and tap Advanced.
- Next, tap Website Data to view a list of sites storing data on your device.
- Look through the list for any sites using a lot of storage or causing issues when loading.
- Swipe left on a site name and tap Delete to clear data just for that site.
- Or, if you want to wipe everything at once without touching your browsing history, tap Remove All Website Data at the bottom.
2. Chrome
If you don’t use Safari and prefer Chrome as your go-to browser on iPhone, the idea remains the same: clearing website data can boost performance and free up storage. But the process is a bit different since Chrome handles this through its own app settings, not your iPhone’s system settings.
Chrome gives you more control, too. You can clear your browsing history, cookies and site data, cached images and files, either one by one or all at once, depending on what you need.
- Open the Chrome app on your iPhone.
- Tap the three-dot menu icon in the bottom-right corner.
- Select Delete Browsing Data from the menu.
- On the next screen, select the types of data you want to remove -Browsing History, Cookies, Site Data, Cached Images and Files.
- Choose the timeframe for clearing data at the top (options include Last 15 minutes, Last Hour, Last 24 Hours, Last 7 Days, Last 4 Weeks, or All Time).
- Once everything’s set, tap Delete Data at the bottom, then confirm when asked.
3. Firefox
Next up is Firefox - the third most popular browser we’ll cover. Firefox is big on privacy and customization, and it gives you clear, built-in options to manage website data right in the app. Unlike Safari, which uses system settings, Firefox, like Chrome, offers a dedicated data management interface that allows precise control over cache, cookies, and browsing history.
- Open the Firefox app on your iPhone.
- Tap the menu icon, three horizontal lines, located in the bottom right corner. Select Settings from the menu.
- Scroll down to Privacy and tap Data Management.
- Pick what you want to clear by toggling Cache, Cookies, Browsing History, or any combo of those.
- Once you’ve made your selections, tap Clear Private Data at the bottom. Confirm when asked, and you’re all set.
Conclusion
Now you know how to clear website data on your iPhone, no matter which browser you use. Sure, we could walk you through steps for Opera, Edge, and others, but honestly, the names of settings and menu paths may vary slightly, but the core process remains consistent, so repeating those instructions would add little value.
One last reminder that clearing web data can log you out of your accounts - both your main ones and any you’re signed into on specific sites. So make sure you’ve got your passwords saved or remembered before you start. That’s a wrap! Just make it a habit to clear your web data once a month, and your iPhone will thank you for it.
