Looking to tidy up the browser on your Mac or fix some issues you’re seeing with websites? Read on for how to clear the Mac cache, history, and cookies in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox.
It’s a straightforward process to clear history/cookies and the cache in Safari on a Mac, as well as third-party browsers like Chrome and Firefox. While the button in the menu bar for Safari is labeled “Clear History,” it also clears cookies and your cache.
For Chrome and Firefox, you get more detailed control of what data you’re deleting.
Whether you’re just wanting to do some regular maintenance or having some issues with browsing that you want to clear up, follow along below…
For how to clear your cache, history, and website data on iPhone and iPad, check out our tutorial here.
How to clear the Mac cache, history, and cookies in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox
Safari
- Open Safari
- In the menu bar (top left of your screen) click History
- At the bottom of the menu, choose Clear History…
- You can also choose Safari > Clear History…
- Use the drop-down menu to pick what timeframe you want to clear history and cookies from Safari
- One last time, click Clear History
- Along with clearing your Safari history, this also clears your cookies and cache
- Keep in mind that means you may be logged out of websites, etc.
Now look at the bottom of the menu and click “Clear History…”
To fully clear your history, cache, and cookies, click the drop down and select “all history.”
Google Chrome
- For Google Chrome on Mac, click Chrome in the menu bar (top left corner)
- Choose “Clear Browsing Data”
- Pick a time range, or “All time”
- Choose what data to clear with the checkboxes
- Click Clear data
Firefox
- For Firefox on Mac, click “History” in the menu bar (top left of your screen)
- Click “Clear Recent History…”
- Change the timeframe to what you’d like
- Choose what data to remove
- Click “OK”
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