Your iPhone history is usually used to make things easier for you, such as tracking down a website you’ve visited or finding a call you missed. If you’re worried about someone seeing something they shouldn’t, you can easily clear your iPhone’s history to preserve your privacy.
How to clear history on an iPhone
You can easily clear your iPhone’s history by following these steps:
Safari browsing history
- Open the Settings app. You’ll be clearing your Safari browsing history and cookies from the Settings app, not from the Safari app. In the future, you can use Safari’s Private Browsing mode to visit websites without saving them to your history.
- Scroll down and tap Apps. If you’re not on iOS 18, skip this step.
- Scroll down and tap Safari. If you’re on iOS 18, it will be under the “S” section, as apps are organized alphabetically.
- Tap Clear History and Website Data. This option is under the “History and Website Data” header. If this button is grayed out, there’s either no history saved or the option is restricted in Screen Time. You can re-enable Clear History and Website Data in Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions Web Content by disabling all website restrictions.
- Choose the timeframe of when to clear your history. You can choose the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all of your browsing history. If you want to close all of your tabs when clearing your history, toggle the Close All Tabs option.
- Tap Clear History. Your Safari browsing history, cache, and cookies will be deleted. Your browsing history will also be deleted on any other devices you are signed into with your iCloud account. Your AutoFill information (e.g., contact info and saved credit cards) will not be deleted. Alternatively, you can delete the cookies without clearing your history. Navigate to Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced > Website Data, then tap Remove All Website Data.
Chrome browsing history
- Open the Chrome app. If you use Chrome on your iPhone, you can clear the browsing history from within the Chrome app itself. If you don’t want Chrome to add the websites you visit to your history, you can browse privately in incognito mode.
- Tap the button with three horizontal dots. This will show a pop-up menu with additional options.
- Tap Delete Browsing Data. It’s in the second group of options and has an icon of a trash can. Alternatively, you can tap History > Delete browsing data… instead.
- Choose the time range. You can delete your browsing history from the last 15 minutes, the last hour, the last 24 hours, the last 7 days, the last 4 weeks, or all time.
- Choose the browsing data to delete. In the selection menu, choose what information you want to clear. You can choose your browsing history, tabs, cookies and site data, cached images and files, saved passwords, and autofill data.
- Tap Delete data. This will delete all of your selected browsing data. Note that this will also delete the Google Chrome browsing data for any synced devices.
Firefox browsing history
- Tap the button with three horizontal lines. It’s in the bottom-right corner, and it will open a menu with various options.
- Tap History. It’s the second option, and it has an icon of a clock.
- Tap the trash can icon in the bottom-left corner. This will open a pop-up at the bottom of your screen.
- Choose a time frame. You can choose the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or everything. Once you tap an option, Firefox will immediately delete your browsing history and cookies. Firefox will also delete the history on devices synced with your iPhone.
Google app browsing history
- Open the Google app. If you use the Google app to search Google, you can clear your search history through the app.
- Tap the profile button. It’s the profile picture in the top right of the app.
- Tap Search history. This will open a new page with options for your search history.
- Tap Delete. This button is located above your search history.
- Select a time range. If you want to delete the entire history, select “Delete all time.”
- Select Google products. Check the boxes next to the Google products you want to delete your history from. Then click Next.
- Tap Delete. This will confirm the deletion of your Google search history.
Call history
- Open the Phone app. You can delete your call history so that none of your calls appear on the Recents list. In addition to clearing your entire call history, you can also delete individual received or sent phone calls from your call log.
- Tap the Recents tab. This will display a list of recent calls that you’ve made and received.
- Tap Edit in the upper-left corner. Tap Select in the drop-down menu.
- Tap Clear to delete all of the entries at once. If you want to delete the whole list, tap “Clear” in the upper-right corner. This only appears after you’ve tapped “Edit.” All of the entries in the Recents tab will be deleted. If you just want to delete a single entry instead of clearing your entire call log, tap the red minus sign next to the call you want to clear.
Message history
- Open the Messages app. You can delete text message conversations using the iPhone Messages app. If you want to delete just one conversation, simply swipe left on it and tap the red trash can button.
- Tap the button Edit. This can be found in the upper-left corner.
- Tap Select Messages. This is at the top of the pop-up menu.
- Select each conversation that you want to delete. Tap the checkbox for each conversation that you want to remove. You can select multiple conversations.
- Tap Delete after selecting conversations. All of the selected conversations will be deleted without confirmation. If you’re signed in to another device, such as an iPad or Mac, using the same Apple ID, your iMessage history will be cleared from that device as well.
- Change your message history settings. By default, Messages will store all of your messages forever. You can change these settings to only keep messages for a year or for 30 days, which can free up space and reduce clutter: Go to Settings > Apps > Messages > Keep Messages. Select how long you want to store messages for. This will automatically delete messages that are older than the new setting.
Siri history & data
- Open the Settings app. If you use Siri to search the web or handle tasks, you can easily clear your Siri history in your Settings.
- Tap Siri. It has the Siri icon next to it, which has a teal and pink gradient on it.
- Tap Siri & Dictation History. It’s towards the bottom of the “Siri Requests” section.
- Tap Delete Siri & Dictionary History and confirm. This clears your Siri history.
Keyboard autocorrect history
- Open the Settings app. If you want to get rid of words added to your iPhone’s autocorrect dictionary, you can do so from the Settings app.
- Select General. A list of your general iPhone options will open.
- Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone. This will take you to the reset page.
- Tap Reset. Various reset options will appear.
- Tap Reset Keyboard Dictionary. You’ll be asked to confirm. All of the custom words and shortcuts that you have saved will be deleted.
Erasing all data
- Use this option if you want to completely erase your iPhone. This will delete all of the history and data on the iPhone, and you’ll be prompted to set it up as new when the process is complete. If you sync your data to iCloud, erasing your iPhone will not erase that synced data. Once you sign back in with your Apple ID, all synced data will reappear. For example, if you use iCloud to sync your iMessages (the default option), those messages will reappear on your iPhone after you sign back in with your Apple ID after erasing your phone.
- Open the Settings app. If you’re sure you want to erase everything on your iPhone, open the Settings app.
- Tap General. Your iPhone’s general settings will open.
- Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone. This will take you to the reset page.
- Tap Erase All Content and Settings. You’ll be asked to confirm that you want to completely delete everything. You may need to enter your Apple ID password or iPhone passcode. This will restore your device to the factory settings, deleting all of the information and settings.
- Set up your iPhone. Once the reset is complete, you’ll be taken through the initial setup. You can set up your iPhone as new, or restore an iTunes or iCloud backup.
Pro tip: Regularly clearing your iPhone’s history across various apps helps maintain your privacy and can also free up storage space. Consider enabling private browsing modes in Safari and Chrome for future sessions to prevent history from being saved automatically.
Why this matters
Clearing your iPhone’s history is crucial for maintaining personal privacy and security. Whether it’s browsing history, call logs, messages, or Siri interactions, this data can reveal sensitive information about your activities. Regularly deleting this information ensures that your personal details remain confidential, especially if your device is accessed by others.
Beyond privacy, managing your iPhone’s history can also improve performance. Accumulated data, such as cached files and old messages, can consume significant storage space and potentially slow down your device. Periodically clearing these histories helps free up valuable storage, leading to a smoother and more efficient iPhone experience.
