How to clear the cache on your iPhone (and why you should)

How many tabs are open on your mobile browser right now? Go ahead, check — you might be surprised by what you find. How about the number of apps that are running in your task manager? A swipe-up-and-hold from the home screen will get you the answer.

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Americans spend over five hours a day on their smartphones. That’s over five hours of your phone accessing, retrieving, and saving cache and cookies, which can negatively impact your iPhone’s storage space.

What is cache?

Cache — aka browser cache — refers to the temporary storage of certain data, including images, files, and scripts from websites you’ve visited. Such website content is stored — or cached — on your phone to help your browser execute faster the next time you visit that site.

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Cache data can slow down your phone’s overall browsing performance because it takes up storage space on your device. Therefore, it’s a good idea to clear out your cache regularly. In this article, we focus primarily on clearing the web browser cache on an iPhone, but other types of cache include mobile app cache and CPU cache.

What you’ll need: Everything you need to clear your browser cache is in the iPhone’s Settings app or the Safari app, so grab your iPhone to get started.

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Remember that clearing the cache can clear private data, which can close all open tabs in Safari. This action is also likely to log you out of all your websites. You will be prompted to sign in the next time you open these sites.

To delete Safari’s cached data, open the Settings app on your iPhone. You can also perform this task directly in the Safari app. We’ll show the process of getting an empty browser cache through iPhone Settings because this approach gives you more options.

iPhone's Settings — Tap Settings to begin clearing the iPhone cache.

Screenshot by Maria Diaz/ZDNET

Within Settings, scroll down through the list of options and apps until you see Safari. Then tap on Safari to access its settings.

Select Safari — Find Safari on the list.

Screenshot by Maria Diaz/ZDNET

To clear the app cache, scroll down through the Safari options until you find an option for Clear History and Website Data. Tap on this option to start clearing Safari’s cache.

A popup will appear. Select your preferred “Clear timeframe.” If you want to delete all your browsing history, choose “All history.”

Tap Clear History to confirm you want to delete Safari’s browsing history and cache.

After confirming, the browser cache and cookies in Safari will be deleted from your iPhone, but your autofill information should still be on your device. Cached images and browser history will also be deleted, and you’ll be logged out of any websites you were previously logged in to.

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Your iPhone presents the option to close all your open tabs or keep them open for when you reopen Safari, a feature that wasn’t available until recently.

Press Clear History and Data — Tap on this option again to confirm.

Screenshot by Maria Diaz/ZDNET

FAQ

How do I clear the cache from Chrome on an iPhone?

If Google Chrome is your preferred browser, a substantial amount of data could be stored on your device, which could slow down performance.

To clear browsing data and cache in Chrome, open the Google Chrome app and follow these steps:

Click the three-dot menu button in the lower-right corner.
Select Clear Browsing Data.
Select the time from which you want to delete the data. (If you want to delete all your browsing history, choose All Time.)
Go through the items you’d like to delete, like your Browsing History, Cookies and Site Data, Cached Images and Files, Saved Passwords, and Autofill Data.
Tap Clear Browsing Data at the bottom of the screen to confirm.
Tap Done when you’ve deleted the Chrome cache.

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Clearing the browsing and cache data in Google Chrome doesn’t close all open tabs, but the action will refresh each tab and log you out of websites. Once you tap on one of the tabs you want to access, you must log back in.

How can I browse on Safari without history?

If you’re learning how to clear the cache on an iPhone, you might wonder if there’s a way to use Safari without saving any browsing history. Yes! You can turn on Private Browsing by following these steps:

Open Safari.
Tap on Tabs.
Choose Private.

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You can also enable Private Browsing by going to your iPhone Settings, finding Safari, and toggling on the private option.

How do I clear my app cache on my iPhone?

To clear the app cache from your iPhone Settings app, you can either delete and reinstall it, offload it, or try to clear the cache from within the app. Unfortunately, iOS apps don’t have consistent settings across the board that would allow you to clear the cache of every app.

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Apps like TikTok and CapCut have options to Clear Cache within their respective settings. Amazon lets users delete their browsing history, while the Reddit app can clear local history. The results depend on what the app’s settings enable you to do.

Is ‘clear cache’ the same as offloading?

Not exactly, although app offloading can help boost phone performance if it’s slowed down by low storage. To offload an app means uninstalling it without deleting any associated documents or data.

To offload an app, go to Settings, then General, choose iPhone Storage, select the app to offload, and tap Offload App.

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If you ever download the app again, you’ll pick up where you left off. When you tap Offload App, you will delete the app cache.

Are cookies and cache the same thing?

Cookies and cache are not the same. Cookies are data files that websites send to your phone, including saved passwords to keep you logged in to an account or website preferences from the previous time you visited.

Can I block cookies on my iPhone?

While you can block cookies on Safari, the experts are divided on whether you should. Blocking cookies entirely means that websites won’t be able to get information from you, but it also means that some websites may not even work correctly on your browser. Many users enjoy a more personalized browsing experience so cookies can be useful for some people.

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If you’d like to block cookies in Safari, follow these steps:

Go to Settings and select Safari.
Tap on the toggle next to Block All Cookies.

There are also third-party extensions — such as Ghostery and Disconnect — that help you block cookies and trackers in Google Chrome.

How do I check my iPhone storage?

The iPhone’s Settings can show you what’s taking up most of your media storage, such as photos, videos, and music. You can also see each app’s storage consumption, including temporary data. To view the details of your iPhone’s storage space, follow these steps:

Go to the iPhone’s Settings.
Tap on General.
Select iPhone Storage.
Scroll through to find the app you’re looking for.
Tap on the app to view storage status and options.

Unfortunately, you can’t clear your iPhone cache for third-party apps by going into your Settings app, but this approach does give you a visual of your iPhone’s storage and the option to delete or offload apps.