How to clear your iPhone’s cache

Your iPhone’s cache is a collection of data stored to speed up operations instead of loading fresh information every time. For example, if a website has a huge banner at the top, your browser may cache it. Then the next time you visit that page, it will load the banner from cache instead of wasting time downloading it again.

Cache generally doesn’t use enough space to be a concern, and it helps apps run more efficiently because you don’t force them to reload repetitive items all the time. However, sometimes you will need to clear the cache to resolve a problem or tidy up when these files are taking up too much space. Although clearing the cache isn’t as easy on iOS as it is on Android, you can still delete these files if necessary.

However, it is not necessary to do this all the time. Your iPhone will create a new cache shortly after clearing it, so constantly clearing the cache is counterproductive. If you’re running out of storage on iPhone, even with the new 256GB base, clearing your cache is a very short-term solution.

Let’s start by clearing the cache in Safari, since it is the default browser on the iPhone. Open Safari, tap the three points (…) next to the address bar, then choose Bookmarks (the book icon). On the resulting page, tap the clock icon to view your history, then tap the icon three points (…) button again and choose Clear. On the Clear history screen, select the period for which you want to delete website data. If you have multiple profiles in Safari, you can choose which ones to clear data for. Enable Close all tabs if you want, choose Clear history.

For Safari, this option is all or nothing; This will clear your cache as well as your browsing history, cookies, site permissions and other associated data. You’ll have to log back in wherever you were logged in, you’ll have to accept permission prompts (like showing notifications again), and pages will likely load slower the first time.

Other iPhone browsers follow a similar workflow for clearing the cache, but may give you more options. For example, in Chrome, press the button three points (…) button, followed by Settings > Privacy & Security > Delete Browsing Data. In the panel, select a Time rangethen choose Navigation data to select exactly what you want to delete. Check only Cached images and files if you just want to delete the cache; Chrome also highlights the size of these files here. To access this menu more quickly in the future, select Edit menu of the three points (…) menu and move Delete browsing data in a convenient location.

Like browsers and apps, iOS maintains its own system cache to work more efficiently, but there is no way to clear it directly. Instead, the only way to clear temporary files on your iPhone is to restart it. You probably don’t restart your iPhone as often as your desktop or laptop, and while it’s not something you need to do frequently, it’s not a bad idea to restart every once in a while.

If you haven’t done this in a while: restart your iPhone by holding both Side and either Volume for a moment, then use the button Power off cursor to stop it. Wait a minute or two, then hold Side button for a second until you see the Apple logo. You can also access Settings > General > Shut down if necessary. This does not delete any permanent files.

Some apps, including Spotify, TikTok, Discord, and Telegram, offer a direct option to clear their cache. For Spotify, this is available by tapping your profile icon in the top left, followed by Settings & Privacy > Data Backup & Offline. Scroll down to see how much space Spotify downloads and cache are using on your device. Hit Clear next to Clear cache to delete this data without affecting your downloads.

Telegram deserves credit for its data management tools. By going to Settings > Data & storage > Storage usageyou will see what types of files are taking up space on your phone. You can choose default periods for clearing the cache for different chat types (with exclusions, if necessary), set a maximum cache size, and view a breakdown of files per chat. Browse each app’s menus to look for a setting like this if you want complete control over the cache.

For any apps that don’t offer these options (like Instagram), you’ll need to resort to a workaround to clear the cache: unloading it. In doing so, your phone deletes the app program data while retaining all your personal data. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storagethen choose an app and tap Download the application to erase its installed data. Once it’s gone you can press Reinstall the app to recover it immediately, or select the app icon on your home screen (there will be a cloud next to it to indicate that it has been unloaded) later to reinstall it.

For a complete refresh, you can uninstall and reinstall the app. This requires you to log in again and may need to reconfigure settings. And while you’re thinking about all of this, now’s a good time to thoroughly declutter your iPhone.

You should view clearing the cache as a solution when problems arise, not as something that needs to be done regularly. The cache can create issues when the file size increases, but it’s not something you need to maintain all the time. Clearing the cache works against you too often; Clearing the data your phone uses to quickly load frequent items will slow it down. Restarting your phone every now and then and clearing the cache when it gets too large or when apps misbehave should be enough.

And as we’ve seen with Spotify and Telegram, it’s easy to confuse files you’ve intentionally downloaded with cache. If you’re short on space, downloads are probably taking up a lot more space than the cache, so try reducing them. Check a Storage settings menu for all download-intensive apps (messaging, music streaming, and podcast apps are common culprits). If you get the most out of YouTube Premium by downloading videos, this is another good thing to check out.