Are you taking your first steps into the Mac world and would like some help figuring out how to clear your Safari history?
Contrary to what it may seem, deleting Safari’s history is a very simple operation to perform even for those who, a bit like you, don’t exactly consider themselves to be great experts when it comes to computers and telephony. In fact, all you have to do is access the browser’s settings and press a couple of buttons. You can find everything explained below.
One important clarification before we start: if you have enabled synchronization of browsing data with iCloud, deleting Safari history on your Mac, iPhone or iPad will also delete browsing data on the other devices connected to the same Apple ID.
If what you’re interested in doing is deleting Safari history on Mac, the first step you need to take is to start the browser by selecting its icon (the one with the compass) found on the macOS Dock bar or in Launchpad, click on the History menu at the top left and then on the Delete History item found in the latter.
In the window that opens, choose from the History drop-down menu whether you want to delete all of your history or just today’s history, yesterday’s and today’s history, or just the last hour’s history and proceed with the deletion by clicking the Delete History button.
If you want to delete the history of the sites displayed in Safari but not their data, such as cookies, go to the browser’s History menu, hold down the option key (⌥) on the Mac keyboard and click on the Delete History and Keep Web Site Data item from the menu that appears, then again decide whether you want to delete all history, only yesterday’s history or yesterday and last hour’s history via the History drop-down menu and click on the Delete History button to complete the operation.
Don’t want to delete all of Safari’s history, but only the addresses of a few specific sites? No problem. To accomplish this, always open the browser’s History menu and select Show All History from it. If you prefer using keyboard shortcuts, you can also use the key combination cmd+y.
In the tab that opens, locate all the pages you want to remove from the history, select them using the cmd+click combination, and delete them by pressing the backspace key on your Mac keyboard (the one that is above the Enter key and you also use to delete text). If you can’t locate the pages you want to remove from the recent history, find them using the search bar located in the lower right corner by typing the relevant keywords into it.
In addition to the history, would you also like to delete cookies? To do so, click on the browser’s Safari menu located in the upper left-hand corner and the Preferences item therein, then select the Privacy tab in the window that is shown to you.
At this point, you can choose to erase all cookies indiscriminately by first clicking on the Manage Websites Data button and then on the Remove All button, or you can choose to erase the information of individual Internet sites by always first clicking on the Manage Websites Data button, then selecting the cookies to be removed in the window that opens and finally pressing the Remove button.
How to delete Safari history: iPhone
Do you own an iPhone and would like to figure out how to clear Safari history if so? Said and done! For starters, select the Settings icon (the one shaped like a gear wheel) found on the home screen and/or in the iOS App Library, then select the Safari item attached to the displayed screen.
Now, scroll down the proposed new screen, press the Clear Websites Data and History button, and confirm the operation by tapping the red Clear Data and History button.
Alternatively, or if you’re interested in figuring out how to clear history only for a specific amount of time, open the Safari app by selecting its icon (the one with the compass) found on the home screen and/or in the iOS App Library, then tap on the book icon at the bottom right of the browser toolbar.
Now, select the History tab by tapping on its icon (the one with the clock) found at the top of the new screen that has opened, after which press on the Delete item located at the bottom right. To finish, choose whether to delete all browsing data or just today’s, yesterday’s and today’s or the last hour’s by tapping on the items attached to the menu that is shown to you and you’re done.
Keep in mind that by performing history deletion, either all of it or only that related to a particular period, cookies will also be deleted. Therefore, it is not necessary to implement a separate procedure to remove such data.
On the other hand, as far as the possibility of deleting Safari history by going to act on specific Web pages is concerned, you can do so by proceeding as follows: open the browser, tap on the book icon at the bottom right, select the history icon (the one with the clock) from the newly displayed screen, locate the pages to be deleted from the history list that appears, swipe from right to left on the first item you are interested in going to act on and tap on the Delete button that appears on the side.
How to delete Safari history: iPad
Do you own an iPad and are wondering how to delete Safari history in this specific case? The answer is quickly given: proceeding in a similar way as I explained in the previous step related to the iPhone. The steps to be taken are identical, nothing changes at all.
Unable to delete Safari history: how to solve
Despite having followed the instructions in this tutorial of mine to the letter, you find it virtually impossible to delete Safari history and would like to figure out how to fix it? First, I recommend that you – as in the most classic of cases – restart your Mac or reboot your iPhone and try again.
If even then you can’t solve it, there might be some problem with the synchronization of browser data via iCloud. As also mentioned in the opening of the tutorial, browsing data, including bookmarks, Web site information, and, indeed, history are automatically synchronized across all devices connected to your Apple ID.
