Where to find and delete Safari cookies
Open Safari and click Safari in the menu bar at the top of your screen. Select Settings (on newer Macs) or Preferences (on older ones). Click the Privacy tab. You will see a button labeled Manage Website Data — click it.
A window opens showing every website that has stored cookies on your device. You can delete all of them at once by clicking Remove All, or you can select specific websites and click Remove to delete only those. If you want to search for a particular site — say, to remove cookies from one retailer but keep others — type the site name in the search box at the top.
After you delete the cookies, close the window and close Safari's settings. The cookies are gone. The next time you visit those websites, they will not remember your login information, shopping cart contents, or browsing history from before you deleted them.
Key Takeaways
- Cookies are small files websites store on your device to remember you — your login, what you put in your cart, what you looked at before.
- Deleting cookies from Safari takes three steps: open Safari, go to Settings or Preferences, click Privacy, then click Manage Website Data.
- You can delete all cookies at once or pick specific websites to remove cookies from.
- After you delete cookies, websites will not remember you until you log in again or visit them again and they store new cookies.
- On iPhone and iPad, the process is the same: Settings app, Safari, Advanced, Website Data, then Remove All or select specific sites.
Why you might want to delete cookies
Websites use cookies to remember you. When you log into your email, a cookie stores that login so you do not have to type your password every time you refresh the page. When you add items to a shopping cart, a cookie remembers what is in it. When you visit a news site, a cookie can remember which articles you have read.
Some cookies are useful — they make websites work faster and remember your preferences. Other cookies track where you go across the internet so advertisers can show you targeted ads. Deleting cookies removes both kinds. If you delete them regularly, you reduce the amount of tracking data websites collect about you, though you will also have to log back into sites more often.
You might also delete cookies if a website is behaving strangely — loading slowly, showing you the wrong language, or not accepting your login. An old or corrupted cookie can cause these problems, and deleting it often fixes the issue.
How to delete cookies automatically when you close Safari
If you want Safari to delete all cookies every time you close the browser, you can set that up in settings. Open Safari, click Safari in the menu bar, then Settings or Preferences. Click the Privacy tab.
Look for the section labeled Cookies and website data. You will see a dropdown menu that says Always allow, Allow from websites I visit, or Never allow. Below that dropdown, check the box next to Remove all website data when quitting Safari. Now every time you close Safari completely, all cookies will be deleted automatically.
This setting is stricter than deleting cookies manually. It means you will have to log into websites every time you open Safari, even if you only closed it for a few minutes. Most people find this annoying, so they delete cookies only when they notice a problem or want to clear out old tracking data.
Deleting cookies on iPhone and iPad
The process on iPhone and iPad is slightly different because Safari settings live in the main Settings app, not in Safari itself. Open the Settings app on your device. Scroll down and tap Safari.
Scroll down to the section labeled Advanced and tap it. Tap Website Data. You will see a list of websites that have stored cookies on your device. Tap Remove All Website Data to delete everything at once, or swipe left on individual sites and tap Delete to remove cookies from specific websites only.
After you delete the data, go back to the main Settings screen. The next time you open Safari, the cookies will be gone. Like on Mac, you will have to log back into websites that require a password.
The difference between deleting cookies and clearing browsing history
Cookies and browsing history are two separate things, and deleting one does not delete the other. Your browsing history is a list of websites you have visited — Safari keeps track of it so you can go back to a site you visited before. Cookies are files websites store on your device to remember information about you.
When you delete browsing history, Safari forgets which websites you visited, but the cookies those websites stored remain on your device. When you delete cookies, the websites forget you, but Safari still remembers that you visited them. If you want to erase both, you have to delete them separately — history in one place, cookies in another.
Some people delete both regularly for privacy. Others delete only cookies because they want to keep their browsing history so they can find sites they visited before. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
What happens after you delete cookies
After you delete cookies, websites will not recognize you the next time you visit them. If you were logged in to your email, you will be logged out. If you had items in a shopping cart, they will be gone. If a website had customized the page for you — showing your preferred language, hiding ads you marked as uninteresting, or remembering your font size preference — those customizations will reset.
This is temporary. The moment you log back in or visit the website again, it will start storing new cookies. Within a few visits, the website will have rebuilt most of the information it had before. The only lasting change is that you have interrupted the tracking data the website was collecting about you.
If you find that deleting cookies is too disruptive to your browsing — because you have to log in to everything again — you can be more selective. Instead of deleting all cookies, delete only the ones from websites you do not trust, or delete cookies only from advertisers and tracking companies rather than from the sites you actually use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will deleting cookies log me out of everything?
Yes. If you delete all cookies, you will be logged out of every website that uses cookies to keep you logged in. This includes email, social media, banking sites, and shopping sites. You will have to log back in the next time you visit. If you delete cookies from only specific websites, you will be logged out only from those sites.
Can I delete cookies from just one website?
Yes. In the Manage Website Data window, search for the website name or scroll to find it in the list. Click it once to select it, then click Remove. Only cookies from that website will be deleted. All other websites' cookies stay on your device.
Do I need to delete cookies regularly?
No. Cookies do not slow down your device or take up much storage space. You only need to delete them if a website is not working right, if you want to reduce tracking, or if you are concerned about privacy on a shared device. Most people can leave cookies alone.
What if I delete cookies and a website stops working?
Log back in or refresh the page. The website will store new cookies and should work normally. If it still does not work, the problem is probably not the cookies — it might be a browser issue or a problem with the website itself. Try clearing Safari's cache (in the same Privacy settings) or restarting Safari.
Are cookies the same as cache?
No. Cookies are small files that store information about you. Cache is a collection of images, scripts, and other files that websites store so they load faster the next time you visit. You can delete cache separately from cookies in the Privacy settings — look for Remove All Website Data, which deletes both.