how to clear browser cookies safari mac

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

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.

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

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How to clear cookies on your Mac in Safari and other web browsers

• To clear cookies on a Mac, you need to delete cookies in all web browsers you use.
• You can clear all cookies, or choose to remove specific cookies.
• When you delete cookies, you erase information saved in your browser, including passwords and other settings.

HTTP cookies , also known as web cookies or browser cookies, serve an important role on the internet.

Cookies remember website configurations, login details, search history, products added to your shopping cart, and other browsing data — all with the practical purpose of storing your preferences so you can have a personalized browsing experience.

But cookies can also be used to track and identify you. They're the reason why some online ads seem eerily specific to you and only you, based on your past web history. These cookies are known as third-party cookies.

When you clear cookies on a Mac, you erase all that saved information from your browser. There are a few reasons why you should regularly clear your cookies:

• They can slow your browser down: Deleting your cookies frees up space on your device, so it can improve its overall performance, including browsing speed.
• They store your personal information: If privacy is a concern, you should regularly clear your cookies. This is especially important if you share your device with others. 
• They are susceptible to hackers: The fact that cookies store personal information makes them a prime target for hackers to steal your data. 

The good news is that clearing cookies is a straightforward process in Safari on a Mac, and other third-party browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Below, we'll show you how to clear cookies on all of them.

What happens when you clear cookies?

After you clear cookies, sites will take longer to load the next time you visit them, because content needs to load again. For some sites, you may also need to sign in again or re-enter your login information. If you were about to purchase an item, your shopping cart may be empty. Likewise, the ads you see online may no longer be catered to your interests.

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How to Delete Cookies Using the Safari Web Browser

Last Updated: August 2, 2023 Tested

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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 579,973 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.

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

• 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.

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

Community Q&A

• 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

• Blocking cookies will result in some websites not functioning properly, while a few websites may cease to load or work altogether. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0

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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.  

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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.

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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.

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How to Clear Cache and Cookies in Safari for Mac, iPhone, and iPad

Apple’s Safari browser brought several features and interface refresh in the past few years. You can now use tab groups on Safari for macOS and even Safari extensions on iPad . This makes the browser a good option compared to competitors like Microsoft Edge . When Safari is your go-to browser on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, you’d want to keep it spiffy and fast. You’ll need to purge all the website data and cookies it has accumulated over time.

When Safari takes a little more while to open web pages or shows up a mangled web page, it’s time to dump the old cache and cookies. Clearing this data is different for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. This guide will show you how to clear cache and cookies in Safari on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Why Should You Clear Cache and Cookies From Safari

Every browser stores website cache and cookies to make the experience of that particular site faster and more convenient – be it your favorite social media site or work portal. For instance, if you visit Facebook or Twitter often,  those sites would open quickly on Safari compared to a new site you’d visit for the first time.

That faster loading experience happens because Safari stores the cookies to log you in quickly and cache the website elements to load faster. That seems very helpful. Over time, Safari’s data of websites become old, and you might experience a delay or the site asking you to log in again. It may not even load properly till you clear the cache. While you may find it odd, cached data can also take up considerable storage on your phone and computer over time.

Cookies help websites keep a tab on your browsing patterns, store your preferences, and even help you to log into sites quickly. At times, you might see ads very specific to your browsing activity. Some may consider this to be a breach of their privacy. That’s why it’s a good idea to keep purging cookies regularly.

Remember that removing cache and cookies might make you feel that Safari has slowed down. When Safari collects enough fresh cache and data, it’ll deliver the usual browsing experience.

How to Clear Cache and Cookies in Safari on Mac

By default, many Mac users prefer Safari and often don’t want to clean up the cache and cookies. However, Apple makes it very easy to do that and also customize Safari on Mac to suit your usage. Here’s how to clear cache and cookies in Safari on Mac.

Step 1:  Open Safari on your Mac.

Step 2: Click on the Safari tab in the top-left corner of the menu bar to bring up the contextual menu.

Step 3:  Select the Preferences option.

Step 4:  Navigate to the Advanced tab in the Preferences window.

Step 5:  Tick the checkbox next to ‘Show Develop menu in the menu bar.’ Close the preferences window.

Step 6:  Click on the Develop option in the menu bar at the top.

Step 7:  Select the Empty Caches option.

That will immediately clear Safari’s cache from your Mac. Continue to clear up the cookies too.

Step 8: Click on the Safari tab at the top of the menu bar.

Step 9: Select the Preferences option.

Step 10: Navigate to the Privacy tab.

Step 11:  Click on Manage Website Data.

Here, you will see all the websites that have stored cookies while browsing.

Step 12: Select the Remove All option to clear all cookies from Safari.

Step 13:  Click on Remove Now when prompted.

The macOS will remove all the cookies in Safari on your Mac. Additionally, you can also select the Block all cookies option in Privacy Preferences if you don’t want any cookies to be stored in the future. However, that will make browsing inconvenient, and you’ll need to log in to your favorite sites manually.

If you also use another browser on your Mac, you can check our guides on how to clear the cache on Google Chrome and clear cache and cookies on Microsoft Edge .

How to Clear Cache and Cookies in Safari on iPhone and iPad

The steps to clear Safari cache and cookies on both an iPhone and an iPad are the same. While they both might offer different operating systems, Safari still follows the same routine for saving browser cache and cookies.

Step 1:  Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and scroll down to the Safari option.

Step 2:  Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and tap on Advanced.

Step 3:  Select Website Data.

Step 4:  You will see a list of website cache and cookies that Safari stores on your iPhone or iPad. Tap on ‘Remove All Website Data.’

Step 5:  Tap on Remove Now to confirm your action.

That will clear all the cache and cookies in Safari on your iPhone or iPad.

Additionally, you can enable the toggle next to Block All Cookies in the Safari Settings menu to prevent any cookies from being stored on your iPhone or iPad in the future. Again, that’ll only treat every website as new on Safari, and you might have to log into your favorite sites manually.

Clear Cache and Cookies for a Smooth Browsing Experience

While clearing cache and cookies regularly is important, you don’t need to do it every week. Once a month should be good enough. You can also perform these steps for issues like  Safari keeps crashing on your Mac .

Last updated on 19 February, 2024

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

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Sumukh has been simplifying tech for the masses and helping consumers pick the right gadgets with his in-depth insights and reviews. He decided to hide his engineering degree in the closet to pursue his passion for writing. Over the past 5 years, he has contributed with guides, reviews, and detailed opinions to notable publications like TechPP and XDA-Developers. When not jamming his fingers on thoccy mechanical keyboards, Sumukh is busy convincing people how VR Gaming is the next best thing after sliced bread.

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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.

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 .

How to Delete Cookies in Safari on macOS

• Launch Safari browser on your Mac.

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.

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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.

Click the "Clear History..." item

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

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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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

Safari User Guide

• Change your home page
• Import bookmarks, history and passwords
• Make Safari your default web browser
• Go to websites
• Find what you’re looking for
• Bookmark web pages that you want to revisit
• See your favourite websites
• Use tabs for web pages
• Pin frequently visited websites
• Play web videos
• Mute audio in tabs
• Pay with Apple Pay
• Autofill credit card info
• Autofill contact info
• Keep a Reading List
• Hide ads when reading articles
• Translate a web page
• Download items from the web
• Share or post web pages
• Add passes to Wallet
• Save part or all of a web page
• Print or create a PDF of a web page
• Customise a start page
• Customise the Safari window
• Customise settings per website
• Zoom in on web pages
• Get extensions
• Manage cookies and website data
• Block pop-ups
• Clear your browsing history
• Browse privately
• Autofill username and password info
• Prevent cross-site tracking
• View a Privacy Report
• Change Safari preferences
• Keyboard and other shortcuts
• Troubleshooting

Manage cookies and website data in Safari on Mac

You can change options in Safari preferences so that Safari always accepts or always blocks cookies and website data .

Open Safari for me

Prevent trackers from using cookies and website data to track you: Select “Prevent cross-site tracking”.

Cookies and website data are deleted unless you visit and interact with the trackers’ websites.

Always block cookies: Select “Block all cookies”.

Websites, third parties and advertisers can’t store cookies and other data on your Mac. This may prevent some websites from working properly.

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 change website behaviour.

See which websites store cookies or data: Click Manage Website Data.

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

How-To Geek

How to clear safari browsing data with a keyboard shortcut.

Need to quickly clear your Safari browser history on your Mac? Here's how to create a custom keyboard shortcut to get the job done in a flash.

If you use Safari on Mac and would like to quickly clear your browser history without digging through menus, you can take care of it with a keyboard shortcut and a click by creating a custom shortcut in System Preferences . Here's how.

First, we'll need to visit "System Preferences" to create the custom keyboard shortcut. On your Mac, click the "Apple" icon in the upper-left corner and select "System Preferences."

In "System Preferences," select "Keyboard." In "Keyboard" preferences, click the "Shortcuts" tab.

In the sidebar menu, click "App Shortcuts."

Click the plus sign (+) located near the bottom of the window to add a new shortcut.

A pop-up window will appear. First, click the drop-down menu labeled "Application" and select "Safari.app."

In the "Menu Title" text box, enter "

" exactly. It must include the three dots at the end, as it must match the existing menu command in Safari under the "History" menu.

Next, select the "Keyboard Shortcut" box and type the shortcut you want to use to clear Safari's browser history. We chose Shift+Command+H, but you can enter any unused keyboard combination.

Then click the "Add" button, and the shortcut will be added to the list. You're now clear to close System Preferences (unless you want to tweak the keyboard shortcut key combination after testing it out.)

Open "Safari" and press the keyboard shortcut you just defined. A small pop-over window will appear with a drop-down menu and two buttons. In the "Clear" menu, you can choose how much of your history is cleared. When you're ready, click the "Clear History" button.

Your Safari browsing history will be cleared to whatever level you selected. Safari will remember the setting you chose in the "Clear" menu, so next time you call up the window with your custom shortcut, you can just click the "Clear History" button.

If you find yourself frequently clearing your browser history, consider trying Safari's Private Browsing mode , which is a special mode that doesn't keep track of your browsing history. You can even configure Safari to start with a Private window every time you open the app .

Related: How to Always Start Safari in Private Browsing Mode on a Mac

How to Clear Cookies and Cache on a Mac (and Why You Should)

E ach website you visit leaves breadcrumbs on your browser. Small information files called cookies, which your browser stores, create a more personalized experience (such as saving items you've placed in a cart), and are also used for authentication. Your browser also saves information, like images, in its cache so pages load faster the next time you visit. However, this stored information can cause problems with formatting and loading, so you'll occasionally want to clear it from your browser.

How to clear cache on Mac

The steps to clear cookies on your Mac vary slightly based on which browser you're using. Following are instructions for Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox.

How to clear cache on Safari

To clear cache on Safari on Mac, open History on the top menu bar and select Clear History . In the pop-up menu, use the drop-down to choose how much time you want to clear (Last Hour, Today, Today and Yesterday, or All History) and tap Clear History . This deletes your browsing history, cache, and cookies for the period selected. Note that Safari does not have an option to selectively delete this data.

How to clear cache on Google Chrome

To clear cache on Google Chrome on Mac, tap Chrome in the main menu bar and select Clear Browsing Data . A new settings tab will open up where you can choose the period to clear (from the last hour up to all data) and what you want to delete (browsing history, cookies, and/or cached images and files). Then click Clear data . The advanced tab has options to also clear passwords and passkeys as well as download history and autofill data.

How to clear cache on Firefox

To clear cache on Firefox on Mac, tap History in the top menu bar and select Clear Recent History . In the pop-up menu, select the checkboxes for what you want to clear, choose the time range (from the last hour to all history) from the drop-down, and tap Clear Now . Firefox allows you to select from browsing and download history, cookies, cache, active logins, and form and search history. You can also delete site settings and offline website data.

Note that if you clear your browser cache and cookies, you may need to sign in to certain sites again, and page loading may be slower initially as previously stored data reloads.

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why are cookies cleared when clearing safari history?

• Thread starter dontlan
• Start date Mar 20, 2024
• Tags safari sonoma
• Sort by reaction score

macrumors regular

• Mar 20, 2024

every time I clear my safari history, I log out on all sites, why is this happening?  

Attachments

FreakinEurekan

Macrumors 603.

Why? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ask an Apple developer. I suspect it's because if you want to remove history, you're trying to remove all evidence of accessing that site. Which would include cookies.  

FreakinEurekan said: Why? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ask an Apple developer. I suspect it's because if you want to remove history, you're trying to remove all evidence of accessing that site. Which would include cookies. Click to expand...

macrumors Penryn

Use the app named "Cookie" to manage your cookies and clear Safari data and caches. It's "the best there is". Nothing else I've seen that works as well.  

Apple Support: Clear your browsing history in Safari on Mac https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/sfri47acf5d6/mac Clear cookies in Safari on Mac https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/sfri11471/ Keep your browsing history private in Safari and Maps https://support.apple.com/guide/personal-safety/ips375e6d608/web  

bogdanw said: Apple Support: Clear your browsing history in Safari on Mac https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/sfri47acf5d6/mac Clear cookies in Safari on Mac https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/sfri11471/ Keep your browsing history private in Safari and Maps https://support.apple.com/guide/personal-safety/ips375e6d608/web Click to expand...

VampyricGentleman

Macrumors 6502.

dontlan said: every time I clear my safari history, I log out on all sites, why is this happening? Click to expand...

dontlan said: It doesn't help Click to expand...

Browse privately in Safari on Mac

• Mar 23, 2024

VampyricGentleman said: My memory may be wrong but I believe other browsers (Chrome and Firefox I’m recalling) allow you to delete history and other temporary files without deleting cookies. Click to expand...

None of you guys helped me. I click the clear history button in safari and I log OUT OF ALL ACCOUNTS  

Delete history without deleting cookies - from Terminal Code: rm ~/Library/Safari/History* - AppleScript that can be saved as an app AppleScript: do shell script "rm ~/Library/Safari/History*"  

bogdanw said: Delete history without deleting cookies - from Terminal Code: rm ~/Library/Safari/History* - AppleScript that can be saved as an app AppleScript: do shell script "rm ~/Library/Safari/History*" Click to expand...

Make sure you have * at the end of the command.  

• Sunday at 12:22 AM

I entered the with * at the end , the history was not cleared  

• Sunday at 3:42 AM

Close Safari, give Full Disk Access to Terminal (in System Settings - Privacy & Security - Full Disk Access), run rm ~/Library/Safari/History* , open Safari – History (⌘Y).  

• Sunday at 7:39 AM

• Sunday at 8:49 AM

Simple app to delete Safari’s history, keeping cookies AppleScript: tell application "Safari" to quit delay 0.5 do shell script "rm ~/Library/Safari/History*" delay 0.5 tell application "Safari" to activate Save a script as an app in Script Editor on Mac https://support.apple.com/guide/script-editor/scpedt1072/mac Video is loading or being processed.  

• Sunday at 9:58 AM

Or: Safari > History > Show All History, Safari > Edit > Select All, Safari > Edit > Delete Will churn a long time if left open, so might want to quit Safari for a tick and restart. But will keep a "backup" around as an SQLite equivalent of a transaction log is kept as part of the database used for history management.