What you can delete from Safari and where to find it
Safari stores several types of information on your device: your browsing history (the websites you've visited), cookies and site data (which remember your login information and preferences), cached images and files (which speed up page loading), autofill data (saved passwords, credit card numbers, and form information), and search history. You can delete all of it at once or pick and choose what goes.
On a Mac, open Safari and click Safari in the menu bar, then select Clear History. On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data. Both routes open a dialog where you choose what time period to clear and what types of data to remove.
The difference between these options matters. Clearing history alone removes only the list of websites you visited. Clearing history and website data removes that list plus cookies, cached files, and site data — which is usually what you want if you're concerned about privacy or if a website is behaving strangely.
Key Takeaways
- On Mac, use Safari > Clear History; on iPhone or iPad, use Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data.
- You can clear data from the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all time — choose the time range that matches what you want removed.
- Clearing history alone leaves cookies and login information behind; clearing history and website data removes both.
- To delete a single password, go to Settings > Passwords (iPhone/iPad) or Safari > Preferences > Passwords (Mac) and swipe or right-click the entry you want gone.
- Private browsing mode prevents Safari from storing history, cookies, and autofill data while you browse, but does not delete data from past sessions.
Clearing history and website data on Mac
On your Mac, click Safari in the top menu bar and look for Clear History near the top of the dropdown menu. Click it. A window appears asking how far back you want to clear: the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all time. Choose the range you need.
Below that, you'll see checkboxes for what to remove. Leave all of them checked unless you have a reason not to — the default removes history, cookies, cached files, and site data all at once. Click Clear History at the bottom right. Safari closes the window and the data is gone when ready.
If you want more control, go to Safari > Preferences > Privacy instead. This tab shows you which websites have stored data on your Mac. You can click a website name and then click Remove to delete only that site's information, leaving everything else intact.
Clearing history and website data on iPhone and iPad
Open the Settings app and scroll down to find Safari. Tap it. Scroll down and tap Clear History and Website Data. A confirmation message appears asking if you're sure — tap it again to confirm. Safari removes your history, cookies, cached files, and site data in a few seconds.
Unlike the Mac version, the iPhone and iPad version does not let you choose a time range — it clears everything. If you want to delete data from only one website, you'll need to do it differently. Go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data, find the site you want to remove, swipe left on it, and tap Delete.
Deleting saved passwords and autofill information
Safari stores passwords, credit card numbers, and form information (like your address) so you don't have to type them every time. If you want to remove a specific password, go to Settings > Passwords on iPhone or iPad, find the entry, and swipe left, then tap Delete. On Mac, go to Safari > Preferences > Passwords, find the entry, and click the minus sign at the bottom.
To delete all saved passwords at once, you have to clear your website data (which removes cookies and cached files too). There's no way to delete only passwords while keeping everything else. If you want to remove just credit card information, go to Settings > Safari > Autofill on iPhone or iPad and toggle off Credit Cards. On Mac, go to Safari > Preferences > Autofill and uncheck Credit Cards.
Toggling off autofill does not delete the cards you've already saved — it just stops Safari from offering to fill them in. To actually remove a saved card, you need to go into your iCloud Keychain settings, which is more involved. For most people, turning off the autofill feature is enough.
Using Private Browsing to avoid storing data
If you want Safari to stop recording your activity from this point forward, use Private Browsing mode. On iPhone or iPad, tap the Tabs button (the overlapping squares at the bottom right), then tap Private at the bottom left. On Mac, click File > New Private Window. Any browsing you do in this window or tab will not be saved to your history, and cookies will be deleted when you close the window.
Private Browsing does not hide your activity from your internet service provider or from the websites you visit — it only prevents Safari from storing a record on your device. It also does not delete data from browsing sessions before you turned it on. If you've already visited websites and want them removed, you still need to clear your history manually.
What happens after you delete data
Once you clear your history and website data, it's gone from your device. Websites you visit will no longer remember you — you'll have to log in again, and forms won't autofill. Pages may load slightly slower the first time you visit them because Safari has to read images and files again instead of using cached copies.
Deleting data from Safari on your Mac does not affect Safari on your iPhone or iPad, and vice versa. If you use iCloud to sync your Safari data across devices, clearing history on one device will eventually clear it on the others too — but this takes a few minutes. If you want to clear data on only one device, turn off iCloud syncing for Safari first, clear the data, then turn syncing back on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does clearing Safari history delete my passwords?
No. Clearing history and website data removes cookies and cached files, but passwords stay saved in your Keychain. To delete a specific password, go to Settings > Passwords (iPhone/iPad) or Safari > Preferences > Passwords (Mac), find it, and delete it individually. There's no option to clear passwords without manually removing each one.
Can I recover data after I clear it from Safari?
No. Once you clear your history and website data, it's permanently deleted from your device. Safari does not have an undo button or a trash folder. If you're unsure whether you want to delete something, clear only a specific time range or specific website instead of everything.
Why does a website still remember me after I cleared my history?
The website may be using a different type of tracking that Safari's standard clearing does not remove, or you may have synced your data back from iCloud after clearing it. Try clearing your data again and check that iCloud syncing is off. If the problem continues, the website may be using fingerprinting or other methods that don't rely on cookies.
Does Private Browsing hide my activity from my internet provider?
No. Private Browsing only prevents Safari from storing history on your device. Your internet service provider can still see which websites you visit because the traffic goes through their network. If you want to hide your activity from your ISP, you need a VPN (virtual private network), which is a separate tool.
What's the difference between clearing history and clearing website data?
Clearing history removes only the list of websites you visited. Clearing history and website data removes that list plus cookies (which store login information), cached files (which speed up loading), and site data (which remembers your preferences). Most of the time you want to clear both together.