No matter where you surf on your iPhone – in Chrome, Safari or any other app – Your cache accumulates digital garbage over time. Clearing your cache gives your browser a clean slate and can speed up your browsing search.
Your browser’s cache is like a fridge where you can store many leftovers like website information to load pages quickly in the future. The problem, however, is that data, just like leftovers from the fridge, will eventually deteriorate. Pages could then load very slowly.
Therefore, clearing your cache is often beneficial: it restarts websites in your browser and frees up space on the phone. Remember: this allows you to log out of any website you are currently logged into.
Depending on the browser you use, here are instructions on how to clear the cache on your iPhone.
How to clear iPhone cache in Safari
The default browser for iPhones is Safari and you can clear the cache by following a few simple steps. Starting with iOS 11, this process affects all devices connected to your iCloud account. This will clear all your devices’ caches and you’ll have to sign in to each one individually the next time you use them. Here’s what to do.
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Select Safari from the list of apps.
3. Go to Advanced > Website Data.
4. Scroll down and select Remove all website data.
5. In the pop-up window, choose Remove Now.
How to Clear iPhone Cache on Chrome
Chrome is another popular browser for iPhone users. To completely clear your Chrome cache, there are a few more steps you need to take.
1. Open the Chrome app.
2. Select the three dots at the bottom right to get more options.
3. Scroll up and select Settings.
4. In the next menu, select Privacy and security.
5. Then select Clear browsing data to open a final menu.
6. Select the desired time period from the menu at the top.
7. Make sure Cookies and site data are selected along with cached images and files.
8. Click Clear browsing data.
How to clear iPhone cache in Firefox
If you’re a die-hard Firefox fan, that’s fine too. On an iPhone, clearing the cache is a fairly simple process. Just follow these steps.
1. Click on the hamburger menu in the lower right corner to bring up the options.
2. Select Settings at the bottom of the menu.
3. Select Data Management in the Privacy section.
4. You can select Website Data to clear data for individual websites, or select Clear Private Data at the bottom of the screen to clear data from all fields.
Why clear the cache?
Clearing your cache removes all locally stored information from the site, so you don’t have to download the data every time you visit. Over time, the data in your cache builds up and if it gets too big or too old it can cause things to slow down.
When this data is removed, websites start over, which can alleviate some loading issues and speed up your browser. However, clearing the cache will also log you out of pages, so be prepared to log back into everything.
