What Does Clear Cookies & Data Mean on My iPhone?
By Richard Bashara
Safari keeps track of the websites you visit and stores data in the form of cookies to help identify you. These bits of data help keep you logged in to Web pages after you have finished a browsing session, or identify which of your email accounts you mean to be logged in to at a given moment. If you accumulate too much of this data, your device can become sluggish. Clearing cookies and data wipes your device of this information and restarts your browser history, which can be helpful when you are troubleshooting or repairing your iPhone.
Open the "Settings" app on the home screen of the iPhone. Perform a search for the app if you cannot find it by sliding to the final screen on the left and typing “Settings” (without the quotations) in the search field.
Tap “Safari” to open its settings.
Tap “Clear History,” followed by “Clear Cookies and Data” to remove all of your Web history, stored cookies and other data like cached Web pages. Your iPhone may take a moment to complete this task.
Tips
Clearing your history will remove a record of pages you browsed, but not passwords you used.
Remove passwords and other stored, sensitive data by tapping “Advanced,” then “Website Data” and then “Remove all Website Data” in the Safari settings.
Warnings
This article pertains to iPhone 5 devices running iOS 6 software. Other versions of the software or hardware may vary from the instruction provided here.
References
Writer Bio
Richard Bashara writes for various entertainment and technology publishers. He has been covering topics such as dating, Comic-Con and the technology trade since 2007. Bashara holds a B.A. in writing.