How to Clear Search History on iPhone

Clear selected Safari entries or your entire browsing history

The Safari web browser on your iPhone keeps a log of web pages that you visit. If you want to clear your search history, you can do so through Safari or your iPhone's Settings app.

These procedures work for all recent versions of iOS.

Clear Browsing History Using the Safari App

Here's how to delete your browsing history through the Safari app on your iOS device.

  1. Open the Safari app and tap Bookmarks (the icon that looks like an open book) at the bottom.

  2. Tap History (clock icon).

  3. Select Clear, and then select All time to erase your browsing history completely. Alternatively, choose The last hour, Today, or Today and yesterday.

    Safari for iPhone showing how to clear the browser history

Depending on the setting you chose, you've deleted your browsing history.

To delete individual entries, instead of tapping Clear, swipe from right to left over the website you want to remove, and then choose Delete.

Clear Browsing History Using the Settings App

You also can delete your browsing history through your iOS device's Settings app.

  1. Tap Settings and then scroll down and tap Safari.

  2. Scroll down and tap Clear History and Website Data.

  3. In the confirmation box, tap Clear History and Data. You've deleted your Safari browsing history.

    iPhone showing how to delete Safari browsing history through the Settings app

    This method clears your entire browsing history, with no option to delete items selectively.

FAQ
  • How do I find a specific entry in the Safari search history on an iPhone?

    Open the Safari app and tap the book icon at the bottom of the screen. Tap the History icon (clock) and pull down on the screen to reveal the Search History field. Enter a search term.

  • How can I view my Private Browsing search history?

    You can't, but neither can anyone else. When you enter Safari's Private Browsing mode, the iPhone doesn't store your browsing history. To browse without recording the history, tap the Safari app > Tabs icon > [number] button > Private.

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