Our iPhones hold our memories, connections, and interests. But just like cleaning our rooms, it’s essential to tidy up our digital space too. If you want to keep your browsing private, free up space, or just organize your iPhone, knowing how to clear history is vital. Don’t worry; it’s not complicated. In this article, we’ll show you the easy steps to clear your history on iPhone. Let’s get started and make your iPhone sleek and fast again!
Also Read: How to Use Do Not Disturb on iPhone
Top 8 Ways to Clear History on iPhone
While you won’t be able to clear history on your iPhone in one go, there are actually multiple ways to free up storage space. In this section, we will be discussing how to clear history on your iPhone, without compromising the documents and app data.
1. Clear Safari History and Cookies on iPhone
Safari is known to save your browsing history to access your frequently visited websites. While it can significantly enhance your browsing experience, the built-up history and cache data can take significant storage on your iPhone. Follow the steps below to clear your history and cookies on your iPhone:
Step 1: To clear your history and cookies on your iPhone, go to Settings and select Safari.
Step 2: Next, tap Clear History and Website Data.
Step 3: If you want to clear the cookies, go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data, then tap Remove All Website Data.
Head to the Edit section at the top-right corner, if you want to clear cache for specific sites.
Alternatively, you can also read our detailed article on How to Clear Cookies on iPhone.
2. Clear Browsing History in Google Chrome on iPhone
Similar to Safari, Google Chrome is also known to save your browsing history along with cached data to offer a personalized experience. So, in order to clear space, you can delete your browsing history and cookies right from the app. Here’s how you can do it:
Step 1: Launch Google Chrome on your device.
Step 2: Next, tap the ellipsis menu, located at the lower-right corner of the screen, and select History.
Step 3: Now, tap on Clear Browsing Data. You can also choose your preferred time range like the last 24 hours, the last 7 days, and more.
But if you want to remove browsing history on one go select Saved Passwords and Auto-fill Data. At last, hit Clear Browsing Data to confirm the action.
3. Clear Browsing History in Mozilla Firefox on iPhone
Step 1: Open Firefox on your iOS device.
Step 2: Next, tap on the hamburger menu bar and select History.
Step 3: Now, click Clear Recent History. Like in Chrome, you can also choose the preferred time range like the last hour, today, and more.
4. Free Up Space by Deleting Spotify Cache
With Spotify, you can actually have a clear idea of the actual space taken up by the cache and cookies. Furthermore, clearing cache and cookies wouldn’t affect your downloads in any way whatsoever.
Step 1: Open Spotify on your device.
Step 2: Next, go to Settings at the top right corner and scroll down to select Storage > Delete Cache.
5. Clear Snapchat History to Free Up Space
You can easily delete history on Snapchat in one go. Bear in mind, that clearing your Snapchat history won’t affect your memories backup.
Step 1: Open Snapchat on your iOS device tap the profile icon at the top left and navigate to Settings.
Step 2: Now, scroll down to the Account Actions section and tap on “Clear Cache”. A pop-up asking for your confirmation would appear. Tap Clear to confirm the action.
You can also clear your search history, and voice scan history on Snapchat.
6. Delete Google Maps History on iPhone
Step 1: On your iOS device, open Google Maps.
Step 2: Tap your profile picture at the top right corner.
Step 3: Next, tap on “Your Data in Maps”. Under this section, you will find See and Delete History, tap on that.
7. Delete Apps and Reinstall to Clear History
If you think that your device is slow and you want to get rid of junk files, then deleting apps and reinstalling them would be a good idea. Unlike some apps we mentioned, many iPhone apps don’t offer a dedicated ‘clear history’ feature.
Step 1: Touch and hold the app on the Home Screen and then tap Remove App.
8. Restore Your iOS Device
Last but not least, if you still find your iPhone to be sluggish, or simply make room for more storage, you can always resort to restoring your device. This is by far one of the best ways to optimize your device to get the optimal result.
Bear in mind, that restoring your device will wipe out all data and media from your iPhone. So, make sure that you have created a backup for your iPhone. Now, in order to restore, follow the steps mentioned below:
Step 1: To set up your device as brand new, head over to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is it good to clear the history of the iPhone?
Clearing cookies and history is likely to affect your iPhone’s overall performance. So, if your device is running slow, we recommend that you clear cookies, cache, and history.
2. How do you hide internet activity?
You can opt for private browsing mode on Safari to hide your internet activity.
The other most effective method is to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network).
3. How do I hide my history on my iPhone using private mode?
It is always a good choice to turn on private browsing in Safari. Here’s how it’s done,
1. Open Safari on your iOS device.
2. Next, tap the Tabs button.
3. Now, tap [number] Tabs or Start Page to show the Tab Groups list.
4. Lastly, Tap Private, then again tap Done to confirm.
4. How secure is iPhone private mode?
When you use Safari Private Browsing, the details of your browsing are not saved, and the websites you visit can’t be tracked down. Private Browsing does provide a certain level of privacy but unfortunately, that doesn’t make it 100% private.
Related: How to Delete Browsing History in Chrome, Firefox & Edge
Wrapping Up
It is always a good idea to clear out your cache, or browser history, and clear cookies routinely to protect your privacy. Removing browsing history, and cookies helps to troubleshoot, plus it increases the loading time of websites.
Hopefully, this article helps you to clear the history on your iOS device. Still have more questions, feel free to leave your comments down below.
