How to Clear Cache on iPhone and Delete Cookies

August 9, 2024 By Johan Curtis No Comments 8 minutes

Is your iPhone lagging, or is the performance slower than usual? This issue sometimes arises due to your iPhone cache that takes up a lot of space on your phone. Clearing the cache on an iPhone can free up a lot of storage space and let your device run a little smoother than before. However, the procedure is not as simple compared to Android smartphones. But don’t worry; in this guide, we will show you how to clear cache on your iPhone, be it the cache of your apps or cookies on your browser.

How to Clear Cache in iPhone

Note – iPhone apps are not always 100% secure. This leaves the door open for viruses and other vulnerabilities. There are also other issues like ISP throttling and data retention. For this reason, precautionary measures are needed, which is something FastestVPN can help with. FastestVPN is the best VPN for iPhone that encrypts your connection and keeps data private when you browse online or use iOS apps.

Cookies and cache help apps and websites load faster. However, if they keep taking space, be it recently used apps or most-visited websites, it can impact your device negatively. Before we proceed to the tutorials on how to clear the cache on an iPhone, let’s first discuss the different kinds of cache that could be on your device and other details.

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What is Cache?

Firstly, for those who don’t know, cache is pronounced as “cash.” Cache can be defined as the little bits of data that are stored on your CPU, apps, browsers, and operating systems in general.

Websites sometimes need it to maintain the performance and data that is accessed frequently. However important the cache may be, it sometimes ruins the performance of a device, and in this case, your iPhone.

Clearing out cookies and cache on iPhone will help speed up uploads, the device, and overall performance.

What is the Difference between App and Browser Cache on iPhone

There is a difference between clearing app cache and browser cache on iPhone. In terms of iPhone app cache, it means temporarily storing files on your device.

Whenever you download or use any app, whether it is images, games, videos, or music apps, it has a different number of caches, also depending on how often you use it. This aims to ensure that the apps or files perform faster and more efficiently.

On the other hand, the iPhone browser cache also means temporary data stored whenever you visit any website.

This is to ensure your history is saved via cookies and cache. Browser cache regards websites, scripts, and other files, ensuring fast loading time whenever you visit the same sites again.

Do You Need to Clear Cache on iPhone?

Clearing the junk files and data residue that accumulate in an unknown location and hinder your device’s performance over time is known as clearing cache. The best practice for clearing cache in your phone is to clear it and empty cookies every once in a while. This process extends the life of your device and improves its performance.

Cache can add up in the form of a user playing games on their iPhone. It could add up just by you clicking on your camera app to click some photos.

The best example of how cache on iPhone matters is to think of it as a deep freezer for all kinds of food. It helps you store the food you like for a rainy day instead of going all the way to the market every time.

However, even though this saves you the trip, the nature of food does not last forever and expires even in storage.

This could ruin your home appliance. In the same way, storing cache on an iPhone is crucial for the overall performance of your device, data, and apps, but it can also cause certain issues.

So, regardless of whether you use apps on your iPhone or a browser like Safari or Chrome, every kind of cache often builds up over time. This can cause your device to crash and work slower.

So, if you’re not using certain websites or apps on iPhone, it’s important that you clear its cache. This helps improve speeds, creates more storage space, and eliminates the possibility of your device crashing.

Now that you have a slight idea, let’s get started with the tutorials on how to clear cache in iPhone.

Are Cookies and Cache the Same?

No, website cookies are not the same as cache. Cache is the storage of temporary files and data in your device. However, cookies store information online, including your visit to a certain website, log-in information, and anything else you do on a website.

Think of it like this: a cache would never ask for your permission to store your information somewhere. However, the cookie policy on every website varies, and most of the time, your permissions are required to save your online information or not.

The cache stored from visiting websites helps it load quicker when you visit it the next time, making browsing easier and less time-consuming.

Website cookies, on the other hand, are stored both on browsers as well as the server. It helps identify websites and digital movements, like little cookie trails.

How to Clear Cache on iPhone

Whether you’re using Safari, Google Chrome, Edge browser on your iPhone, or just any app on your device, I will show you how to erase the iPhone cache on all these browsers and apps. Let’s first start with:

Clear Cache on Safari

Before beginning, keep in mind that clearing the browser cache on your iPhone will log you out of website accounts and clear out data.

This data also includes website cookies. It means that if you ever visit those websites again, you will need to re-sign into your accounts, for example, accessing Facebook via Safari. Here is how to get started:

On your iPhone, go to the Settings app.
Click on General.
Go to iPhone Storage.
Scroll and click on Safari.
Now, look for the Website Data option and click on it.
Tap on Remove All Website Data > Remove Now.

How to delete website data on an individual website? Click on the website whose data you intend to delete by swiping left and clicking Delete.

Clear Cache on Google Chrome

If the Google Chrome browser is what you prefer on iPhone, then here is how you can clear the cache:

Launch the Google Chrome app on your iPhone.
Click on the three horizontal dots (…) on the bottom-right of the screen.
Tap Clear browsing data.

If you want to delete cache, follow these steps:

Select Cached Images and Files box > Clear Browsing Data twice to confirm the deletion of cache.

Clear Cookies on Chrome

Click on History
Now, at the bottom of the screen, click on Delete Browsing Data…
Enable (tick mark) the options Browsing history, Cookies, Site Data, and Cached Images and Files.
Now, at the bottom, click on Clear Browsing Data.
Now, click on Clear browsing data again to confirm.

Clear iPhone Cache on Edge Browser

The last browser on the list is Edge. If you’re using the Edge browser on an iPhone, here is how you can clear the cache:

Open Edge on your iPhone.
Click on the three lines on the bottom right.
Now, tap on Settings.
Select Privacy and Security.
Click on Clear browsing data.
Just like in the Chrome tutorial above, enable Browsing history, Cookies and other site data, and Cached images and files.
Now, at the bottom, click on Clear Now twice to confirm cache deletion.

How to Clear App Cache on iPhone

Clearing the iPhone app cache is slightly different and not so straightforward. There is no particular feature or built-in tool that lets you clear all app cache on your iPhone in one shot.

There are, however, two ways you can clear it out:

Via the App Settings
By deleting the app entirely.

To clean the app cache on your iPhone, click on the app you want and check to see if the clear cache option is there.

If it isn’t there, you must have to delete the apps entirely. However, when you delete it, the cache gets cleared, and all the data on that app gets wiped out.

This includes your login details or sign-up information, just in case that option is there. If it’s a music or gaming app, then you lose access to all history, logs, scores, etc.

Follow these steps:

Go to Settings
Click General
Go to iPhone Storage
Delete the app permanently before installing it again.

FAQs – Clear Cache on iPhone

How do you clear cookies on iPhone 13?

To clear cookies on iPhone 13, you need to go to the “Settings” app > “Safari” > “Clear history and website data” > “Clear history and data.”

How do you clear Instagram cache on iPhone?

To clear Instagram cache on your iPhone, go to “Settings” > “General” > “iPhone Storage” > “Instagram.” You should now see how much cache the app has taken up. When you click on it, you get the options of “Offload App” or “Delete App.” This will then clear the cache and free up space.

Should you clear iPhone cache?

Yes, gradually, you need to clear iPhone cache. Over some time, the device and data cache accumulate. This can falter the way the device works or restrict the time with which the website loads. At times, when your device is old and you have low storage space from all the cache stored, your iPhone can crash. When you delete the cached data from your iPhone, your phone runs much faster and you experience less lagging than before.

How do you delete cookies on iPhone?

To clear the cookies on iPhone, go to “Settings” > “Safari” > “Clear Cookies.” Click on “Clear Cookies” again to confirm it.

Can you clear the iPhone cache without deleting the app?

If you’d like to just clear cache and not delete the app on your iPhone, you need to “Offload” it. This way, the cache is cleared but the app data stays intact.

How do you clear iPhone cache with buttons?

To clear iPhone cache only with buttons, you need to do a hard reset. To do this, you need to press the volume up and volume down buttons simultaneously while pressing down on the power button. Your screen will now go black; wait a few seconds until you see the white Apple logo. This means that your device is restarting and your cache is cleared.

To Conclude

As mentioned, there are many reasons why you would want to clear iPhone cache on your browser or apps, including bettering the performance of the device.

Some apps or browser cache is good, but cache that festers up from unused apps can downgrade your iPhone.

Our guide shows you the easiest and most straightforward way on how to clear cache on iPhones.

However, even though the performance gets better after cleaning, there are still other precautionary measures to take.

Using a VPN for iPhone is one of the safest tools to protect your data and device while using the internet or when offline. FastestVPN is easy to install on all iOS devices and gives you industry-leading features.