Although the purpose of your web browser’s cache and cookies is to make browsing faster, these files can occasionally lead to issues. Deleting these cached files can help resolve problems with sign-in or websites that aren’t loading correctly. Thankfully, clearing the cache and cookies is simple. Easily use Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox on any device, including your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone. You may learn how to delete cookies and cache in the most widely used web browsers on your computer, smartphone, or tablet by reading this wikiHow article.
A website may save cookies, which are just plain text files, in your browser. They are made to recognize users, store login credentials, or produce personalized webpages based on user preferences.
What is a cache in a browser?
The area of your hard disk devoted to holding browser files that your browser believes it might need again is referred to as the “cache.” Your browser would run more slowly without this feature because each time you opened a website, a lot of files would need to be downloaded from scratch.
This comprises technical components like CSS, HTML, and JavaScript in addition to visual components like the website’s logo, background photos, and typefaces. For a single website, these can total dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of files. These files are stored locally in the cache, which speeds up subsequent page visits and enhances your online experience in general.
By keeping information on your devices, caching and cookies are both intended to enhance user experience and website performance. But there are some distinctions between the two:
- While the cache is used to speed up the loading of web pages, cookies are used to save information in order to track certain user characteristics.
- Whereas the cache keeps resource assets like audio, video, and flash files, cookies save data like user preferences.
- While cache stays on the user’s device until it is actively cleared, cookies often expire after a while.
When you clear your cache, all of the data that has been saved to your local hard drive and kept there is erased. You could want to delete your browsing history for several reasons, including:
Optimizing performance:
Your computer’s cache can get very big and eat up a lot of disk space, depending on your settings. Your computer will operate more slowly when accessing the web if it has a larger cache. You can speed up website loading times and enhance device performance by clearing your cache.
Maintaining Security:
Clearing your cache could assist in safeguarding your privacy if you’re using a shared or public computer. Your browser history may be visible to everyone who uses the computer after you if you don’t clear your cache. Additionally, some websites require private data to be stored in the cache, which could expose sensitive or private information to the computer’s subsequent users. Adware, malware, and viruses can potentially target the temporary files in the cache.
Resolving issues with the browser:
Browser problems might occasionally be caused by your cache. For instance, you might discover that some websites don’t open, return an error message, load slowly or only partially, or react oddly. Usually, emptying your cache before shutting down and reloading your browser will resolve these kinds of issues.
Google Chrome
Choose More tools > Clear browsing data from the three-dot menu in Chrome’s top right corner. In addition to deleting your browsing history, this will also remove your download history (though not the actual items you downloaded), cookies, cached files and pictures (which speed up page loads when you return to them), remembered passwords, and more. The only information you may remove is that from the previous hour, day, week, month, or “all time.”
You cannot choose not to allow Chrome to gather your browsing history. Even worse, Google is continuously tracking your app and web activity. However, you can frequently remove it. To view Web & App Activity, go to myactivity.google.com. Uncheck Add your Chrome history and activities, and enable Auto-Delete so that Google removes everything that is more than three, eighteen, or thirty-six months old (whatever you like). To remove even more, click Manage all Web & App Activity.
Microsoft Edge
Since Microsoft Edge is also based on Chromium, many of the previously mentioned methods are applicable. Press Ctrl+Shift+Del to view your browser’s history, put “edge://settings/clearBrowserData” into the URL bar, or select “Choose what to clear” from the three-dot menu > Settings > Privacy, search and services > Clear Browsing Data.
For the same time periods, including the last hour and all time, with increments in between, delete your browsing history, cookies, and more. Any device you’ve synced Edge with will have it erased if you do that. Sign out of the browser first to prevent that.
Safari
Safari is the best app on macOS. It’s easy to delete your website visit history: select History > Clear History. Choose a timeframe for how far back you wish to wipe in the pop-up. But this does far more than just clear your browser’s history; it also clears off your data cache and cookies.
Alternatively, you can search for specific websites you wish to remove from your history by selecting History > Show All History. Go to Safari > Preferences > Privacy to delete cookies. Then, use the button to manage website data.
Opera
To access History in Opera, click the clock icon in the navigation bar on the left side of the main menu. There is a Clear Browsing Data button that provides settings that are nearly the same as those in Chrome. This is due to Opera’s use of the Chromium Project’s engine, which drives both browsers. However, Opera provides an additional feature for those who wish to browse the web safely: a built-in VPN option, accessible by typing opera://settings/vpn (in the address bar). Installing an extension is not necessary in order to use it.
How to clean up your mobile web browser history
Safari
Safari is the default browser for the iPhone and iPad. Use Private mode when browsing to avoid recording your browser’s history. Go to Settings > Safari > Clear History & Website Data if you do want to remove a history. By doing this, surfing data such as cookies and history are removed. Additionally, if the phone is logged into iCloud, the history on iCloud and any devices connected to that iCloud account is cleared.
Return to Settings > Safari and select Advanced > Website Data if you wish to remove data for specific websites only. It may take some time to load, but once it does, you’ll get a list of all the websites you’ve been to, along with most likely many you didn’t, as it also logs websites that employ third-party cookies. To delete, swipe left on each, or tap Edit > [minus symbol] next to each.
Chrome
All Android phones come pre-installed with Google’s Chrome browser, which is also available for iOS. In any case, you may view a list of all the websites you’ve visited while cognito (as opposed to Incognito) by selecting History from the three-dot menu. Your desktop history is also displayed here, as it encompasses history from all Chrome browsers that are linked to the same Google account.
When using iOS, you can choose to hit Edit or Clear Browsing Data. When you select the latter option (the only one available for Android phones and tablets), you are sent to a dialog box (shown in the photo) where you may choose which browsing history, cookies, cached data, saved passwords, and autofill data to remove. Users of Android now have the option to restrict deletion to a single hour, day, week, month, or “all time.”
Edge
In the mobile world, Microsoft Edge is hardly noticeable, but if you use it on your desktop, you might want to sync it on your phone. A hamburger menu in the lower right corner of the iOS version provides access to You can download browsing history, cookies, cached data, passwords, and completed forms by going to Settings > Privacy and security > Clear Browsing Data. You can choose the time range to be anything from the last hour to “all time.” To remove information for specific websites you visit, choose History from the menu and then swipe left on the item you wish to remove. Keep in mind that the history for both your desktop and mobile devices will be displayed here if you are syncing with your desktop.
For Edge on Android, the moves are all the same; the only difference is the three-dot menu is located at the bottom center of the screen.
