How to Clear Cache on an iPhone or iPad

Find out how to clear cache on your iPhone or iPad in less than 30 seconds!
1 minute

It's not often that you will need to clear the cache on your iPhone or iPad, but there does come a time when it's a good idea to clear all that old Safari data and cache. Over time, cache can take up space on your iPhone as part of Safari's website data (and other apps too), and though it isn't often that it takes up a ton of space, if you are struggling with an iPhone storage issue, it's a good idea to give it a go!

Clearing up Safari cache and website data is also a good way to clean up Safari if you've recently had an issue with spammy sites or pop-ups. If you've had a persistent issue with popups or spammy sites, this clearing of Safari website data and cache is a great way to resolve that issue. Plus, clearing your cache is as easy as just a few simple steps.

Keep in mind, clearing cache on an iOS device is not like clearing cache on a computer. You won't be able to go in and delete all the cache on your iPhone or iPad at once. Each app has its own associated cache and app data. When people talk about clearing cache on an iPhone, they are mostly referring to Safari cache and website data, as well as some apps with a cache clearing option (these apps are few and far between), because all the cache and data aren't readily accessible to manage on an iPhone.

This guide will walk you through how to clear your Safari cache and website data in under a minute.

Note: Many apps do not give the option to clear cache. The only way to clear cache would then be to delete the app and it's data. Luckily for you, clearing every app's cache isn't really necessary. Offloading apps is not a viable way to clear cache because it was not meant for this purpose and so not all cache or data gets cleared during this process.

iPhone 11 (256GB + Green)iPhone 11 (256GB + Green) ×1

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How to Clear Cache on an iPhone

Navigate to your home screen and open the Settings app. The Settings app is where we can easily find the Safari settings. The Settings app is often found in the utilities folder.

How to Clear Cache on an iPhone

You'll have to scroll down quite a bit, but once you have found Safari, give it a click. This is where all your Safari settings can be located.

How to Clear Cache on an iPhone

In Safari settings, you are going to see tons of options. Scroll down until you see "clear history and website data" in blue lettering and give it a click.

How to Clear Cache on an iPhone

To ensure that you are sure about clearing this data, your iPhone will let you know what is being removed and you will have to click "clear history and data" in red lettering to confirm. Once the data is cleared, the once blue lettering will be a dim gray.

As the notification states, clearing history and website data will clear history, cookies, and other data (mostly cache). If Safari is syncing to iCloud, then this will be cleared from all the devices sharing the same Apple ID.

How to Clear Cache on an iPhone

Some apps, though they are few and far between, include a reset or clear cache option. For example, Slack has a "reset cache on next launch" option, so that cache will be reset upon launching the app next.

To clear third-party app cache try the following:

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Scroll down toward the bottom of the page and click a third-party app.
  3. See if it has a similar option for clearing cache.
  4. Continue through the list of third-party apps to clear their cache.

Unfortunately, most apps do not have this option. It is rare. You can, if you want, also delete unwanted apps to clear their cache. Only consider deleting apps you do not want since this deletes all app data.

Deleting has never been easier
Tayler Tayler (75)
1 minute

Do you have a bunch of apps downloaded onto your phone, taking up valuable space on your phone? It's okay - I did, too before I sat down to clear up some space when my memory was nearly full.