How to Clear Site and Browsing Data in Safari on Mac

Safari keeps visited pages, cookies, and cached files in separate places, so clearing history alone can leave a site looking stale or still signed in.

Remove the browsing records from the History menu, then open Safari Settings and Privacy to delete cookies and cache for one site or all of them. Reload the page afterward and sign in again if the site asks.

In this guide, I have covered:

Choose Which Safari Data to Clear

A page you updated yesterday still shows the old version, or a site keeps you signed in after you cleared its history. That usually means the wrong kind of data got cleared.

Safari stores visited pages, cookies, and cached files in separate places. Removing one does not remove the others, which is why a history-only cleanup can leave a site looking exactly as it did before.

• Browsing history is the list of pages and websites you visited.
• Cookies hold preferences and sign-in sessions.
• Cache keeps temporary copies of the images, scripts, and other files that pages load.

Choose History when the visited-page list is what you want gone. Choose Manage Website Data… when the site itself is the problem.

Clear Cookies and Cache for One Website in Safari on Mac

One site is showing old content, or it will not let go of a sign-in you thought you ended. Clear that single site’s data first. Everything else in Safari stays as it is.

1. Open Safari on your Mac.
2. Choose Settings… from the Safari menu.
3. Select Privacy in the Settings sidebar.
4. Click Manage Website Data….
5. Select the website whose data you want to clear.
6. Click Remove to delete that site’s stored data.
7. Click Done to close the list.

You’ll know it worked when the site stops remembering you. Reopen it, reload, and expect a fresh page and possibly a new sign-in prompt.

Work across devices too? You can clear cookies and cache data in Safari on iPhone or iPad with the device-specific steps.

Clear Cookies and Cache for All Sites in Safari on Mac

Sometimes the problem is not one site but every site. Pages load from old copies, saved sessions behave strangely, and a single-site removal fixes nothing. That is when you wipe cookies and cached data for everything Safari has stored.

1. Launch the Safari app on your Mac computer.
2. Click on the Safari menu from the menu bar, and select the Settings... sub-menu. It will open the Safari Settings window.
3. Switch to the Privacy tab, and click to open the Manage Website Data... button. It will load the list of websites currently storing the cache and cookies in the browser.
4. Hit on the Remove All command and then the Done button. It will flush the cookies and cache for all sites in Safari.

You’ll know it worked when sites ask you to sign in again and pages arrive with freshly fetched files. Safari pulls new resources the next time you load a page.

This procedure clears cookies and cache for all websites, but it does not clear Safari’s separate browsing history.

Clear Browsing History in Safari on Mac

You want the list of visited pages gone, whether that means the last hour or everything Safari has recorded. History is its own store, so this step leaves cookies and cache where they are.

1. Open the Safari app on your Mac.
2. Click on the History and select Clear History from the menubar.
   It will open the clear history pop-up window.
3. Select the Time Range from the drop-down and hit on the Clear History command button.
   That's it, the browsing history will be removed from the selected range.

You’ll know it worked when you open History again and entries from the selected period are missing. If iCloud syncs Safari history, the removal also reaches your other signed-in devices.

Need the full walkthrough, iPhone included? Clear browsing history from the Safari browser covers it step by step.

Clearing history does not remove cookies, cache, or other website data. A site that still remembers you has a cookie problem, not a history problem.

Check for Stale Pages or Sign-In Problems

The cleanup is done and the page still looks wrong. Before you clear everything a second time, check what you actually removed.

1. Open the affected website in Safari.
2. Reload the page and check whether the updated content appears.
3. If the problem remains, clear that website’s data using the one-site procedure above.

A private window is a quick way to see a site without your normal Safari session in the way. Open Private Browsing mode and new tabs in Safari on Mac shows how to run that test.

RELATED: Clear Browsing Data from Safari on iPhone & iPad