Due largely to the wicked-fast A15 Bionic coupled with the seamless integration between software and hardware, iPhones are endowed with better speed. But that doesn’t mean Apple smartphones are infallible and that they never slow down unexpectedly. Many a time, the throttled speed is down to the cluttered storage that tends to trigger a host of issues like iPhone overheating, rapid battery drain, and sluggishness. So, what’s the way to fix this chaos and retrieve your precious storage? Well, one of the more reliable ways to get rid of the clutter is to clear your iPhone history. Here’s how to clear history on your iPhone and iPad.
While there is no “Kill All” button to eliminate the entire history on iOS at one go, there are multiple ways to wipe out the saved history to free up storage on your device. In this guide, we have mainly focused on cleaning up history, and not the documents and data associated with an app. If you’re wondering about System Data on your iPhone, check out our detailed article on how to delete System Data to recover space.
- Clear Safari History and Website Data on iPhone and iPadDelete Cookies While Saving Safari Browsing History on iPhone and iPadClear Cookies and Browsing History in Google Chrome on iPhone and iPadClear Browsing History in Firefox on iPhone and iPadFree Up Precious Storage by Deleting Spotify Cache on iPhone and iPadClear Snapchat History to Retrieve Storage on iPhoneDelete Google Maps History on iPhone and iPadDelete Apps and Reinstall to Clear History on iPhone and iPadRestore Your iPhone or iPad As New
1. Clear Safari History and Website Data on iPhone and iPad
Safari saves your browsing history so that you can access frequently visited websites and also log in to websites with ease. While this is pretty neat and does enhance your overall browsing experience, over time this history and cache can become a storage hog. What’s more, if you are a privacy-conscious person, you may want to delete the Safari history on your iPhone or iPad from time to time as well.
- Navigate to the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad -> Safari. Tap on Clear History and Website Data. Then, tap on Clear History and Data in the popup to finish.
2. Delete Cookies While Saving Safari Browsing History on iPhone and iPad
What if you wish to get rid of cookies while keeping Safari browsing history? Bother not, iOS offers you the flexibility to delete specific website data or wipe them all at once. For those wondering what is the purpose behind saving website data, it enables websites to keep a track of your activity, preserve your login information to speed up your browsing experience.
- If you wish to delete all the website data stored in Safari, tap Remove All Website Data and then hit Remove Now to confirm.
3. Clear Cookies and Browsing History in Google Chrome on iPhone and iPad
Just like Safari, Chrome also saves your browsing history cookies, site data, cached image files, saved passwords, and auto-fill data to deliver a more personalized experience. Whether for safeguarding your privacy or recovering some free space, you can clear cookies and browsing history in Google Chrome on your iDevice.
- Now, tap on Clear Browsing Data -> choose the preferred time Time Range like last one hour, last 24 hours, last 7 days, last 4 weeks, and all time as per your need. If you want to get rid of all the history in Chrome, make sure to select Saved Passwords and Auto-fill Data. Then, hit Clear Browsing Data and confirm.
4. Clear Browsing History in Firefox on iPhone and iPad
Mozilla Firefox also stores your browsing history, cache, cookies, offline website data, and saved logins to offer a fully personalized browsing experience. To ensure you have the desired control over saved data, it lets you clean up the entire browsing history.
5. Free Up Precious Storage by Deleting Spotify Cache on iPhone and iPad
Notably, Spotify shows the actual size of the cache and cookies. Thus, you have a clear idea about how much space you will be able to recover after removing the history. If you are concerned about losing downloads, let me assure you that it won’t affect your downloads at all.
6. Clear Snapchat History to Retrieve Storage on iPhone
Deleing history in Snapchat is dead simple as well. You can clear the saved cache and cookies whenever you want to keep this social networking app tidy. It’s worth pointing out that clearing Snapchat history doesn’t affect your memories backup. So, you shouldn’t bother about losing them.
Launch Snapchat on your iPhone and tap on the profile icon at the top left. Now, tap on the settings cog in the top right.
Scroll down to the Account Actions section and tap on “Clear Cache”. Now, tap Clear in the popup to confirm. The app will restart to bring the change into effect.
Do note that Snapchat also allows you to clear your search history, scan history, and voice scan history. Thus, you can clean them all if want to go for a clean slate.
7. Delete Google Maps History on iPhone and iPad
Google Maps provides a straightforward way to keep a track of your activity and wipe it all if need be. If you use this navigation app on your iOS device, it would be better to take a look at the saved activity and remove everything.
8. Delete Apps and Reinstall to Clear History on iPhone and iPad
There are many iPhone apps that don’t offer a dedicated ‘clear history’ feature. If you’re trying to get some space on your iPhone back from such apps, you can simply delete and reinstall them. This is an effective way to wipe out all the data associated with an app. So, if you are on a cleanup mission, make sure to give this radical but efficient method a try. Be sure to back up the data if you don’t want to lose it.
9. Restore Your iPhone or iPad As New
If your iPhone is still sluggish or you wish to retrieve more storage on your iOS device, restoring the iPhone as new would be a viable proposition. Rightly termed as the nuclear solution, it’s probably the best way to optimize your device to not only wipe out the clutter but also enable the device to deliver the best.
- Alternatively, you can use iTunes/Finder to back up and restore your device. To do so, connect your device to the computer -> launch iTunes/Finder -> select the device. After that, back up the device and then restore it.
Remove History on Your iPhone or iPad to Free Up Storage
That’s pretty much done! I hope you are now fully familiar with the ways to deal with history on your iOS device. By removing the saved cache and cookies associated with an app on a regular basis, not only can you prevent the storage from being clogged up, but also help the app (and your iPhone) run smoothly. That’s not all, it can also play a pivotal role in preventing the app from gobbling up more storage.
