how to clear safari history

Safari User Guide

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

Clear your browsing history in Safari on Mac

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

Open Safari for me

Choose how far back you want your browsing history cleared.

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

History of webpages you visited

The back and forward list for open webpages

Frequently visited site list

Recent searches

Icons for webpages

Snapshots saved for open webpages

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

Websites added for Quick Website Search

Websites that asked to use your location

Websites that asked to send you notifications

How-To Geek

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• iPhone & iPad

How to clear Safari browsing history on iPhone and iPad

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read on to see full illustrated instructions.

1. In Safari, tap the book icon

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

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

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

3. Select how far back to clear and tap Delete

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

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

Finally, when you're happy, hit Delete .

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

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

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How to clear browsing history on Safari on iPhone or Mac

You can clear your Safari browsing history on both iOS and Mac

Last updated 3 years ago

As tracking goes, Safari keeping your browsing history is less about privacy-busting security and more about just being useful. It's your history that means Safari remembers where to go to when you choose forward and back within a site, for instance.

It's also how Safari is able to offer you a list of sites that you regularly go to, on account of how handy it is to be able to back to them with a click. History also does keep things you may not expect, though, such as a list of items you've downloaded.

If you don't want that, though, or you're just fed up of Safari going to site addresses you haven't looked at in years, you can wipe the whole browsing history.

On a Mac, you can also wipe, for instance, just the last hour's browsing history. So if you share Safari and it's someone's special birthday coming up, you can avoid them inadvertently finding out you plan to surprise them with dance lessons.

How to clear search history on Safari on Mac

• In Safari, choose the History menu
• Select Clear History from the very bottom of the menu
• In the dialog box that appears, choose from clearing the last hour , today , today and yesterday , or all history
• Click on Clear History

Alternatively, within Safari you can press Command-Y and the current page will be replaced by a history list. There's a Clear History... button toward the top right.

Clicking on that gives you exactly the same dialog about choosing how far back you want to clear your browsing history. But this page does also give you one extra option — the ability to delete one specific item.

How to clear one item from Safari search history on Mac

• In Safari, press Command-Y
• From the long list, click once on a history item to select it
• Right-click to bring up a menu, then choose Delete

Alternatively, if you select one, two, or more items in the history list, you can then press the Delete key to remove them all.

That kind of precision removal is only possible on your Mac, not on iOS . However, whether it's precision or wholesale clearing of your history, though, there is a way to replicate it on iOS.

If you have set iCloud to share your Safari history, then just doing this on your Mac also removes the history from your iPhone, and iPad.

Otherwise, you're stuck with going to your iOS device. And then with clearing the entire history.

How to clear search history on iPhone

• Go to Settings on your iOS device
• Tap on Safari
• Scroll down to Clear History and Website Data
• Tap that, then tap Clear History and Data to confirm

One important thing to note is that you can't selectively remove, say, today's browsing history on the iPhone or iPad . It's all or nothing, with iOS.

What you leave behind

Clearing your history like this does remove the list of sites and pages you've visited. It does mean you can't go back to that site you read last Tuesday, not without remembering what it was and going there yourself.

What it doesn't remove, though, is the information that gets used by something like AutoFill. If you have your address, for instance, and you're used to online forms being filled out with it, you've still got that feature.

You've also still got anything you downloaded. It's purely that Safari won't keep the list of downloads.

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

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

What you'll need

How to find your web-browsing history, how to clear your web browsing history.

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

Sometimes you want to clear your history to get rid of bloat and streamline your browsing experience. Other times, you're trying to hide a gift purchase from a loved one.

Apple makes it very easy to clear your browsing history on both the iPhone and iPad and we're here to show you how. Here's how you can make a fresh start in Safari and debloat your web browsing experience.

On the latest models, web browsing is smoother than ever before thanks to ProMotion in the iPhone 15 Pro and faster chipsets like the M2 found in the iPad Air 6 . If you're looking for a new Apple device, we highly recommend one of the following: 

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Viewing your web history in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 is very easy to do, here's how:

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

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

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

To note, the below steps will be the same if you attempt to wipe your web browsing history on an iPhone 15 Pro Max or an iPad Mini 6 , all Apple devices require the same steps.

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

One more thing… A feature no one talks about

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

It's great to have a feature like this in Safari — but it would be good to have this automated in iOS 18 . If Apple's web browser could automatically clear history after 24 hours it would be very useful, as you wouldn't leave a trail behind.

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

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

Previously Software & Downloads Writer at TechRadar, and Deputy Editor at StealthOptional, he's also written a book, ' The Making of Tomb Raider ', which tells the story of the beginnings of Lara Croft and the series' early development. His second book, ' 50 Years of Boss Fights ', came out in June 2024, and has a monthly newsletter called ' Springboard '. He's also written for many other publications including WIRED, MacFormat, Bloody Disgusting, VGC, GamesRadar, Nintendo Life, VRV Blog, The Loop Magazine, SUPER JUMP, Gizmodo, Film Stories, TopTenReviews, Miketendo64, and Daily Star.

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2 Simple Ways to Clear Safari Search History

Last Updated: November 28, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was written by Gonzalo Martinez and by wikiHow staff writer, Rain Kengly . Gonzalo Martinez is the President of CleverTech, a tech repair business in San Jose, California founded in 2014. CleverTech LLC specializes in repairing Apple products. CleverTech pursues environmental responsibility by recycling aluminum, display assemblies, and the micro components on motherboards to reuse for future repairs. On average, they save 2 lbs - 3 lbs more electronic waste daily than the average computer repair store. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 510,726 times.

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

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

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

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

Troubleshooting Safari History Data

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

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

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

Community Q&A

You Might Also Like

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

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

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Clear your browsing history

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

Open Safari for me

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

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

History of webpages you visited

The back and forward list for open webpages

Top Sites that aren’t marked as permanent

Frequently visited site list

Cookies and website data saved while visiting webpages

Recent searches

Icons for open webpages

Snapshots saved for open webpages

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

Websites added for Quick Website Search

Websites that asked to use your location

Websites that asked to send you notifications

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

Responses to requests to let websites use WebGL