Do you need to clear cookies & cache from your Apple device? Well, you’re in the right place.
Cookies & cache serve an important purpose in your web-browsing experience, however, they can also have a malignant effect on your internet use.
In this article, we will cover how to clear cookies & cache without hassle.
So keep reading to learn more.
What Is a Cookie?
In premise, a cookie is a minuscule text file that is downloaded and stored on your computer each time that you visit a website. This file consists of information that can easily be identified by a web server the next time you choose to visit the same site.
Cookies are used in a variety of ways, for instance, one of the most common uses is to store login info for websites you visit often. This will ensure that you don’t have to enter your pass and name each time. Another use is to help track items that you have added to your shopping car when visiting an online shop.
The cookie can help track the items you select while navigating through various categories until you decide to go to checkout and actually purchase them. They can also be used to store information that you input into a form. If there is an issue when submitting the form, the cookie can save you time and effort by entering the rest of the info with a fill-in option.
However, cookies can also be used by advertisers to analyze your web-browsing behavior so that ads can be delivered based on interest. Most people have a negative outlook upon this as an invasion of privacy. While it’s possible to disable cookies in your browser, it might limit the capability of several websites that rely upon them. For this reason alone, you might want to keep cookies on.
However, you can always delete cookies at any time.
What Is Cache?
Most often in unison with cookies, cache serves a purpose of its own as well. It exists on the assumption that internet is slow, and more intricately, your internet is slower than your computer.
Browser developers realized that websites have several elements that remain the same on most pages. For instance, if you look at a website page, and see the header. It’s the same header for every page of that site. So the thought was why download the logo each and every time? Why not just do it once and then retain that copy for display on each subsequent page?
That’s the cache. It’s basically a place on your storage in which the browser keeps things downloaded in case it needs it again. The very first time you visit a website, the browser will download repeated elements into the cache, and then display them as part of the site.
For each page you visit that already has those elements, it will no longer need to download them again. The cache has a limit to it, which you can configure. When the cache is full, the items unused for a long time will be removed.
How to Clear Cookies, Cache, History
And now to the grit of this article, how to clear cookies, cache, and history. Well, it’s quite simple.
In order to clean your history and cookies, go to the settings of your device, then click on Safari. Click on Clear History & Website Data. This will remove all of your browsing data, cookies, history in Safari for a given timeframe, but will not remove AutoFill info.
To clear the cookies and keep your history, go the same Safari location, but then navigate to Advanced – Website Data, then click on Remove All Website Data.
And to visit websites in the future without leaving a history, turn on private browsing functionality.
In this option, there will be no website data or history or clear, so the settings will be grayed out. The setting might also be grayed out if you have restrictions set up under Content & Privacy.
You can also choose to install a third-party content blocker that allows you to block resources, images, pop-ups, and other content without your involvement.
Here is how you can do it:
Download it from the App Store. Tap on Settings – Safari – Content blockers, then set up your extension and it will do its magic.
How to Block Cookies?
Because a cookie retains its data on your device, you might want to never have it stored on your device. In order to do this, go to Settings – Safari and click on the Block All Cookies option.
If you do this, some websites might not work properly. Some of the occurrences are:
- You might no longer be able to sign in on a website with the correct password and username.
- You might see a pop-up that prompts you to enable cookies for this website.
- Some features might not work as intended.
And that’s about it. Of course, there are several other circumstances that might come up, but it’s quite rare.
More Cookie for You
Now that you know how to clear cookies, cache, and history, you are well on your way to taking control over your browsing experience. As long as you are fine with the reduced functionality of some websites, then there really is no reason not to block cookies.
In any case, if you’re interested in similar articles, go through our tech pages at the top of the website.
