How to Clear Safari History, Cache, and Website Data on Mac

You want to clear your Safari browsing history, cache, or stored website data on your Mac.

Why: History and “website data” (cache and cookies) are two separate things in Safari. Clearing history wipes the list of pages you visited; clearing website data removes the cache and cookies a site stored. A misbehaving site is usually fixed by the second one.

Fix 1: Clear your browsing history

This clears the list of pages you visited, recent searches, and frequently visited sites.

1. Open Safari and choose History > Clear History from the menu bar.
2. Click the pop-up menu and choose how far back to clear — the last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all history.
3. Click Clear History.

Downloaded files stay on your Mac; only the download list is cleared.

Fix 2: Remove cache and cookies for a specific site

Best when one site won’t log in, load correctly, or behaves oddly — it leaves your other sites untouched.

1. Choose Safari > Settings, then click Privacy.
2. Click Manage Website Data.
3. Select the site (use the search box to find it), then click Remove.

Fix 3: Remove all website data

A heavier reset that affects every site.

1. Go to Safari > Settings > Privacy > Manage Website Data.
2. Click Remove All, then confirm.

Note: this may sign you out of websites and change how they behave, and it can affect data shared with other apps.

FAQ

What’s the difference between history and website data? History is the list of pages you visited. Website data is the cache and cookies sites store. Clearing one does not clear the other.

Will clearing history log me out of sites? No — history is separate. Removing website data (Fix 2 or 3) is what signs you out.

Sources: Apple Support — Clear your browsing history in Safari on Mac, Apple Support — Clear your cache and cookies in Safari on Mac