How to Clear Cache on iPhone: Safari, Chrome, and Apps

Quick answer: to clear cache on iPhone, go to Settings > Apps > Safari and tap Clear History and Website Data. To keep your history, use Advanced > Website Data instead. For Chrome, use More > Delete Browsing Data. For other apps, use the app’s own clear-cache option, or delete and reinstall it. iOS has no single button for every app.

The steps below follow Apple’s and Google’s current help pages. The rest of the guide compares what each method clears and what you lose, and explains when clearing cache is worth doing at all.

How to clear Safari cache on iPhone

The main controls for Safari’s cache are in the Settings app. On older iOS versions without the Apps section in Settings, Safari appears directly in the main Settings list.

Clear history, cache, and cookies together

1. Open Settings, tap Apps, then tap Safari.
2. Scroll down and tap Clear History and Website Data.
3. Choose a timeframe, then tap Clear History.

This removes your browsing history, cookies, and cached files. It also removes permissions you gave websites, such as access to your location or permission to send notifications. It doesn’t change your AutoFill information.

You can also do this from inside Safari: open History from the start page, tap the More button, and choose Clear History. If you use Safari profiles, that route lets you clear one profile or all of them.

If the button is gray, there’s either nothing to clear or Screen Time content restrictions are switched on.

Clear cache and cookies but keep your history

1. Go to Settings > Apps > Safari, then tap Advanced.
2. Tap Website Data.
3. Tap Remove All Website Data, then Remove Now.

Your history stays, but cookies go, so expect to sign in to websites again. The Website Data screen also lists the individual sites storing data, and in recent iOS versions you can remove a single site there instead of everything. That’s the better fix when one site is misbehaving.

Apple walks through both options in deleting Safari history, cache, and cookies on iPhone.

How to clear Chrome cache on iPhone

Chrome on iPhone keeps its own cache, separate from Safari.

1. Open Chrome and tap More (the three dots), then Delete Browsing Data.
2. Next to Time Range, choose how far back to go. The default is only 15 minutes, so pick a longer range to clear the whole cache.
3. Tap Browsing Data and select Cached Images and Files. Leave Cookies, Site Data and Browsing History unselected if you want to stay signed in and keep your history.
4. Tap Confirm, then Delete Browsing Data.

Google’s help page on deleting browsing data in Chrome on iPhone describes each data type. Other browsers have similar options in their own settings.

How to clear cache for apps on iPhone

There’s no Settings switch that clears an individual app’s cache. Many apps offer one inside the app instead, usually under Settings, Storage, or Data. Two examples:

• Spotify: tap your profile picture, then Settings and privacy > Data-saving and offline, and tap Clear next to Clear cache.
• TikTok: open Settings and privacy > Free up space and tap Clear next to Cache.

Labels move around between app updates, so if you can’t find the option, check the app’s help pages. Chat, social, and streaming apps, which tend to store a lot of media, are good places to look.

To see whether an app’s data is worth clearing, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and tap the app. Apple notes that cached and temporary data might not count toward the number you see there, so the figure is a rough guide.

Offload vs. delete and reinstall

When an app has no clear-cache option, these are your two choices, and they do very different things.

Offload App (in Settings > General > iPhone Storage, then tap the app) removes the app itself but keeps its documents and data. Apple’s iPhone storage article describes it this way. Because the data stays, don’t count on offloading to clear the cache. It’s for freeing the space an app you rarely use takes up. Tap the icon later to reinstall, and you pick up where you left off.

Delete App, then reinstalling, removes the app along with everything it stored on your iPhone, cache included. Anything the app keeps in iCloud or on its own servers comes back when you sign in again. Anything it kept only on the phone, such as downloads, offline files, or unsynced drafts, is gone. Use this when an app keeps misbehaving and nothing else has worked.

Restart your iPhone

A restart isn’t a cache cleaner, but it’s the quickest thing to try when Safari or an app starts acting up, and it costs nothing.

1. On an iPhone with Face ID, press and hold either volume button and the side button until the power-off slider appears.
2. Drag the slider and wait about 30 seconds for the phone to turn off.
3. Press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears.

On iPhones with a Home button, hold the side or top button instead. Try this before you wipe data you might want to keep.

What each method clears, and what you lose

Method	What it clears	What you lose
Safari: Clear History and Website Data	History, cookies, cache, site permissions	Sign-ins and history; AutoFill is kept
Safari: Remove All Website Data	Cookies and cached website data	Sign-ins; history is kept
Chrome: Cached Images and Files only	Chrome’s cached files	Nothing beyond slower first loads
An app’s own clear-cache option	That app’s cache	Slower first load; varies by app
Offload App	The app itself, not its data	Nothing; tap the icon to reinstall
Delete and reinstall	The app, its cache, and all its local data	Sign-ins and anything stored only on the phone
Restart	Not a cleanup step; it starts the phone fresh	Nothing

No app can clear every cache on iPhone

The honest part. iOS has no system-wide “clear cache” button, and no app can clear other apps’ caches or System Data. That includes cleaner apps, ours among them. Apple’s platform security guide explains that every third-party app is sandboxed, which is designed to stop apps from gathering or modifying information stored by other apps.

That’s a good thing for your privacy, and it means any app promising a one-tap clean of all your caches can’t deliver it. iOS does this job itself: Apple says your iPhone removes cached and temporary files when it needs more space. System Data includes caches and logs of this kind, and our explainer on what System Data means covers it on both Mac and iPhone.

When clearing cache actually helps

There are two good reasons to clear cache on an iPhone:

• A website looks outdated or won’t load properly. Clear that site’s data, or Safari’s website data, and reload.
• One app keeps crashing or acting strangely. Use its clear-cache option if it has one. If not, delete and reinstall it.

Freeing space is a weaker reason. Caches rebuild as you use your apps, and iOS already trims them when storage runs low. If your iPhone is full, photos, videos, and large apps are almost always the bigger win; our guide to fixing a full iPhone goes through them in order. For the photo side, BlueHammer Cleaner finds duplicates, blurry photos, burst shots, and screenshots, with all the processing done on your device.

On a Mac, the picture is different: you can open app cache folders directly. See how to clear cache on a Mac safely.