Clearing your browsing history on iPhone from time to time is a good practice; it clears all those good and bad websites that you may have come across during the course of your regular browsing activity, looking for information, entertainment or online shopping.
Why Clear Browsing History
The primary reason for clearing browsing history is to protect your privacy in case you happen to leave your phone unattended or come across a situation where you may have to lend your iPhone to a friend or a relative.
Other reason would be to clear out links to those websites which you may not need to visit again.
Clear Browsing History on iPhone in Safari
Most users stick with the default Safari browser on their iPhone and are quite familiar with clearing browsing history directly on Safari browser. However, clearing browsing history directly in Safari browser will not remove cookies and auto-fill information.
You can clear all your browsing history, cookies and auto-fill information by going through the settings app and following the steps below.
1. From the home screen of your iPhone, tap on the Settings app.
2. Scroll down till you see Safari icon and tap on it.
3. On the next screen, scroll down and tap on the link Clear History and Website Data.
4. You will see a popup informing you that clearing will remove history, cookies and other browsing data, tap on Clear History and Data.
Note: This action will clear history, cookies and website data from this iPhone and all other iOS devices that you are signed into with your iCloud account.
That’s it, you are now clean and in a better position to lend your iPhone. Anyone with access to your iPhone will not be able to view your browsing history and figure out what you do with your iPhone.
Clear Browsing History on iPhone in Chrome Browser
Google’s Chrome browser is also popular with iPhone users. Hence, the steps below to clear browsing history from Chrome app on your iPhone.
1. Tap on the Chrome app on your iPhone. By default, Chrome uses Google as its search engine and you will be landing on Google’s home page.
2. Now, tap on the 3 dot icon that you will see at the top right corner of your screen (See image below).
3. From the menu, tap on History (See image below).
4. By tapping on ‘History’ you will be landing on your website history page. Here you will be able to see the list of all websites that you have visited on your iPhone using the Chrome browser. Tap on Clear Browsing Data link that you will find at the bottom of the screen (See image below).
5. On the next screen, tap on Clear All.
6. You will see a popup asking you whether you are sure about clearing all your browsing data, tap on Clear All.
This will clear all your Browsing History, cookies, and all website data from Chrome browser. Now when you visit your history page you will find it blank with no entries to see.
Make sure that you develop the habit of clearing your browsing history on iPhone, this can help you protect your privacy.