How to Clear Cookies on iPhone? [Beginner-Friendly Guide]

Has your phone been slowing down lately? Are you having trouble loading up some sites for no reason? 

Or maybe you’d like to keep your browsing as private as possible? 

Once you know how to clear cookies on your iPhone, you can cover all those bases in one simple step.

How to Clear Cookies on iPhone? 

Before I show you how to erase the cookies on your iPhone, let’s get the basics out of the way. 

What are cookies, and what are they doing on your device? 

Obviously, there aren’t any baked goods in your gadget. “Cookies” are small data pieces that websites put on your phone/computer when you visit them. They use them to remember you (well, your device) and identify you the next time you come by. 

There are two types of cookies: first-party and third-party.

First-party cookies are created by the website you’re on. They remember your login details and preferred settings (e.g., what language you have a website set to).

Third-party ones are generated by other sites that have content on the site you’re on. They’re mainly used by advertisers and marketers. These are known as “tracking cookies” and have no impact on your user experience on a given site. 

In most cases, cookies are a good thing. Sites use them to keep you logged in and personalize your experience. For example, if you remove cookies from your iPad, you’ll be logged out from everywhere.

On the other hand, there are a couple of potential issues.

Firstly, cookies are essentially a digital trail, and not everyone wants to leave one of those. It’s possible that your online activity can be tracked through them. 

And secondly, small as they are, cookies are data. If you never erase the cookies on your iPhone, they’ll add up over time and end up hindering your device’s performance. 

You don’t want that, so let me tell you how to prevent it.

Do bear in mind that deleting cookies will sign you out of all websites. So make sure you remember your passwords before doing it. 

Deleting cookies in Safari 

Safari is still the preferred iPhone browser choice for over 50% of users. 

If you’re one of them and you want to remove cookies from your iPhone, it’s simple. You just need to clear your website data, and that’ll get the job done. 

There’s also a way to clear them while keeping your other data intact, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

To clear your Safari history and cookies, here’s what you need to do: 

• Navigate to your device’s Settings menu, find Safari and select it
• Tap Clear history and website data 
• When prompted, confirm your choice by selecting Clear History and Data 

Erasing Cookies While Saving Safari Browser History

Now, you can also get rid of the cookies on your iPhone without having to delete Safari history. The process is slightly different: 

• Just like before, go to Settings and select Safari 
• Tap Advanced
• Select Website Data. That’ll give you a list of all websites that store cookies in your Safari browser. You can delete them all – or only pick the websites you’d like to clear.

Deleting cookies in the Chrome app

Going through the process in the Chrome app is also quite simple.

Unlike Safari, you don’t need to go digging around in Settings. The Chrome app has everything you need. Just follow the instructions below: 

• Open the app
• Tap the three horizontal dots in the lower right corner to bring up the menu 
• Select Settings, then Privacy 
• Tap Clear Browsing Data to bring up a new selection window 
• Check Cookies and other site data, as well as anything else you want to delete 
• Tap the Clear Browsing Data button and confirm when prompted 

Deleting cookies in Firefox 

If you’re a Firefox fan trying to remove cookies from your iPhone, you can do it in a few simple steps. Similar to Chrome, Firefox lets you handle everything in-app without going through the device Settings. 

Anyway, here’s what you need to do: 

• Open the Firefox app
• Tap the three horizontal lines in the lower right corner of the app to open the menu
• Navigate to Settings and then to Data Management 
• Select Clear Private Data, and tap OK in the confirmation window 

How to Disable Cookies on iPhone? 

Don’t feel like doing regular cookie cleans on your device? 

You’re in luck. Safari and Firefox both let you toggle your cookies off and be done with it. 

Let me show you how to disable cookies on your iPhone altogether.

Disabling cookies on Safari

Disabling cookies on Safari takes seconds. All you need to do is: 

• Open Settings on your device 
• Select Safari
• Enable the option called Block all cookies

That’s it. Your Safari browser will no longer store cookies from the websites you visit. 

Disabling cookies on Firefox

If you’re on Mozilla Firefox, disabling cookies can only be done through the in-app settings. Here’s how: 

• Tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom right corner and open the Settings 
• Find and tap Data Management
• Find the Cookies toggle and turn it off

Congratulations – your Firefox browsing is now cookie-free.

Wrap Up 

Knowing that you can disable the cookies on your iPhone doesn’t mean you should automatically do it. 

It’s all a matter of priorities. Turning them off might give you enhanced browsing security – at the cost of a less personalized website experience. 

If you ask me, I’d recommend keeping them enabled and regularly cleaning them instead. Now that you know how to erase cookies on an iPhone, it’ll only take you seconds. You can maintain device performance, keep your browsing private, and still let websites give you some personalized service.