How to Clear History on an iPhone: Try These Easy Privacy Tricks

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 delete your web browsing and search history, call and message logs, keyboard autocorrect dictionary, Siri interaction data, or even erase everything completely. This wikiHow will show you easy ways to clear your iPhone's history to preserve your privacy.

Ways to Clear iPhone History

To clear your Safari browsing history, go to Settings > Apps > Safari > Clear History and Web Data.
To clear your call history, open your Phone app, tap Edit > Select, then tap Clear.
To clear your message history, open the Messages app, tap the button with three dots, tap Select Messages, then choose which conversations to delete.

Method 1

Method 1 of 9:

Safari Browsing History

Download Article

1
Open the Settings app
. You'll be clearing your Safari browsing history and cookies from the Settings app, not from the Safari app.^{[1]
X
Research source}
- In the future, you can use Safari's Private Browsing mode to visit websites without saving them to your history.
If you're not on iOS 18, skip this step.

Advertisement
If you're on iOS 18, it will be under the "S" section, as apps are organized alphabetically.
4
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.
5
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.
6
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.^{[2]
X
Research source}
- 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.

Method 2

Method 2 of 9:

Chrome Browsing History

Download Article

1
Open the Chrome app. If you use Chrome on your iPhone, you can clear the browsing history from within the Chrome app itself.^{[3]
X
Research source}
- If you don't want Chrome to add the websites you visit to your history, you can browse privately in incognito mode.
This will show a pop-up menu with additional options.^{[4]
X
Research source}
3
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.
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.
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.
6
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.

Method 3

Method 3 of 9:

Firefox Browsing History

Download Article

It's in the bottom-right corner, and it will open a menu with various options.
It's the second option, and it has an icon of a clock.
This will open a pop-up at the bottom of your screen.
4
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.^{[5]
  X
  Research source}

Method 4

Method 4 of 9:

Google App Browsing History

Download Article

If you use the Google app to search Google, you can clear your search history through the app.^{[6]
X
Research source}
It’s the profile picture in the top right of the app.^{[7]
X
Research source}
This will open a new page with options for your search history.
This button is located above your search history.
If you want to delete the entire history, select "Delete all time."
Check the boxes next to the Google products you want to delete your history from. Then click Next.
This will confirm the deletion of your Google search history.

Method 5

Method 5 of 9:

Call History

Download Article

1
Open the Phone app
. You can delete your call history so that none of your calls appear on the Recents list.^{[8]
X
Research source}
- In addition to clearing your entire call history, you can also delete individual received or sent phone calls from your call log.
This will display a list of recent calls that you've made and received.
Tap Select in the drop-down menu.
4
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.^{[9]
X
Research source}
- 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.

Method 6

Method 6 of 9:

Message History

Download Article

1
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.
This can be found in the upper-left corner.
This is at the top of the pop-up menu.
Tap the checkbox for each conversation that you want to remove. You can select multiple conversations.
5
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.
6
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.

Method 7

Method 7 of 9:

Siri History & Data

Download Article

If you use Siri to search the web or handle tasks, you can easily clear your Siri history in your Settings.^{[10]
X
Research source}
It has the Siri icon next to it, which has a teal and pink gradient on it.
It's towards the bottom of the "Siri Requests" section.
This clears your Siri history.^{[11]
X
Research source}

Method 8

Method 8 of 9:

Keyboard Autocorrect History

Download Article

If you want to get rid of words added to your iPhone's autocorrect dictionary, you can do so from the Settings app.^{[12]
X
Research source}
A list of your general iPhone options will open.^{[13]
X
Research source}
This will take you to the reset page.^{[14]
X
Research source}
Various reset options will appear.^{[15]
X
Research source}
You'll be asked to confirm. All of the custom words and shortcuts that you have saved will be deleted.^{[16]
X
Research source}

Method 9

Method 9 of 9:

Erasing All Data

Download Article

1
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.
If you're sure you want to erase everything on your iPhone, open the Settings app.
Your iPhone's general settings will open.
This will take you to the reset page.^{[17]
X
Research source}
5
Tap Erase All Content and Settings. You'll be asked to confirm that you want to completely delete everything.^{[18]
X
Research source}
- 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.
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.

Community Q&A

Search

Add New Question

Question

When I search for a person on Facebook, my phone won't let me delete it. Why?

Community Answer

This may be because you are using the Facebook app and that Safari does not interact with the app's searching system.

Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
Yes No

Not Helpful 7 Helpful 18
Question

How do I delete the history from my iPhone, like the stuff that is behind the home screen?

Community Answer

Tap the home button 2 times to open the menu, then swipe up on any open app or game to close it out.

Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
Yes No

Not Helpful 21 Helpful 32
Question

How do I clear recent notifications on my iPhone 7?

Community Answer

Go to the home page and pull your finger down from the top of the screen to the bottom. A notification bar will pop up that shows all of your notifications. Tap the "X" at the top right and then press "Clear." Do that to all of the notifications you want to clear.

Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
Yes No

Not Helpful 0 Helpful 6