How to Clear & Delete Cookies in Safari: Mac, iPhone, iPad

If you’re wondering how to clear or delete cookies on Safari—whether you’re using a Mac, iPhone, or iPad—we’ve got you covered. Just follow the straightforward steps we’ve outlined here for your specific device.

Keep in mind, you have the option to clear all cookies or just those from a particular site. Plus, you can choose to erase cookies from a specific timeframe, from the last hour to all time.

Table of Contents

How to clear cookies on Safari On Mac

Option 1: If You Need a Full Safari Reset

Use this option when: You want to completely clear all browsing history, cookies, cache, and other data in Safari. This is effective for overall privacy, freeing up space, or resolving performance issues.

What it does:

Clears all browsing history.
Removes all cookies.
Deletes the entire cache and other website data.

What happens to logged-in sessions and passwords:

Logged-in Sessions: You will be logged out of most websites as this option clears cookies that keep you signed in.
Passwords: This operation does not affect saved passwords in Safari’s autofill, which are stored securely in the Keychain.

How to do it:

Launch Safari by clicking on its icon in your dock or Applications folder.
Click on ‘Safari’ in the menu bar at the top of your screen, then select ‘Settings…’ or ‘Preferences…’ from the dropdown menu.

In the Settings/Preferences window that opens, click on the ‘Privacy’ tab.
Click on ‘Manage Website Data…’.

Here, you will see a list of all websites storing data on your Mac. You can remove data for individual sites by selecting a site and clicking ‘Remove’, or clear all data by clicking ‘Remove All’.
You may need to confirm your choice to remove the data.

Option 2: If You Need to Clear Specific Site Data

Use this option when: You need to selectively remove data from certain websites without impacting your entire browsing history or cache.

What it does:

Lets you view and manage data stored by individual websites.
Allows removal of cookies and locally stored data per site.

What happens to logged-in sessions and passwords:

Logged-in Sessions: Removing data for specific sites may log you out of those sites since you are deleting cookies used for your sessions.
Passwords: Deleting site data does not affect passwords stored in Safari’s autofill; these remain secure in the Keychain.

How to do it:

Open up Safari on your Mac – you’ll find it in your Applications folder or on your dock.
Head to the History menu on the top bar.
Click on ‘Clear History’ at the bottom of that menu.
Choose your time range – you get options like the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all history.
Go ahead and clear it. If you pick “today,” it’ll wipe cookies and other data from sites you visited today, along with your history from today.

How to clear cookies on Safari On iPhone or iPad

Option 1 – If you need a full Safari reset.

Use this if: You want to comprehensively clear all browsing data, including history, cookies, and cache for improved privacy or to resolve loading issues.

What it does:

This action clears all browsing history, cookies, cache, and other site data across all websites visited.

What happens to logged-in sessions and passwords:

Logged-in Sessions: You will be logged out of most sites as this process deletes all cookies.
Passwords: Does not affect passwords saved in Safari’s autofill, which are stored in the Keychain.

How to do it:

Find the Settings app on your device and open it.

This is a common point of confusion because it differs from how you manage settings on many desktop browsers, where you typically adjust settings directly within the browser itself. You don’t need to open the Safari app itself to clear cookies on an iPhone or iPad. Instead, you use the Settings app to manage Safari’s cookies and data.

Navigate through the list in Settings and tap on ‘Safari’. Or type in the search

Tap “Clear History and Website Data”

This option, found directly in the Safari settings, clears all your browsing history, cookies, and other site data in one action. It’s a broad sweep that not only deletes all cookies but also your browsing history and cached files across all websites. This is typically used for a complete reset of Safari’s browsing data, improving privacy and often resolving issues with web pages loading improperly.

Option 2 – If you need to clear specific site data.

Use this if: You need targeted deletion of data from specific websites without impacting all your browsing data.

What it does:

Delete data for specific websites. Instead of clearing all data from all sites, you can select specific sites and delete only their stored data. This is useful if you want to clear data from one site that might be causing problems without affecting the data stored by other sites.

What happens to logged-in sessions and passwords:

Logged-in Sessions: Removing data for specific sites may log you out of those sites.
Passwords: Like the full reset, this does not impact your saved passwords in Safari’s autofill.

How to do it:

Same as option 1, find Safari App pn your iPhone or iPad.
Type “Safari” in search.

Scroll down to the bottom of the Safari settings and tap on ‘Advanced’.
Tap on ‘Website Data’ to see a list of all websites that have stored cookies and other data.
You can delete data for specific sites by swiping left on the site name and tapping ‘Delete’, or clear data from all sites by tapping ‘Remove All Website Data’ at the bottom of the screen.
Confirm your choice when prompted to clear all website data.

This option allows for more granular control over the data stored by individual websites.