Back to Top A white circle with a black border surrounding a chevron pointing up. It indicates 'click here to go back to the top of the page.'

How to clear your browsing history on an iPad in three different ways

ipad pro
Follow these steps to clear your web browsing history on an iPad via the Safari app or Settings. AP Images

  • You can clear your Internet browsing history off an iPad in several different ways — removing individual sites visits, or scrubbing batches of or all of your history.
  • If you use a shared iPad or one from your workplace or school, it's important to remove any history that could cause issues with human resources or the administration.
  • Clearing a long backlog of history can make your iPad more efficient as you browse the web by removing out-of-date data cached on the device.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Advertisement

Maybe you use an iPad loaned to you by your school or office, or maybe you just ran a quick search on your kid's iPad (or on your parent's device) that you'd rather not become a part of the next dinner table conversation.

Whatever your reasons for wanting to clear the history on an iPad may be, clearing said searches and site visits is quick and easy.

And periodically clearing the history off your iPad can make the device work faster when it comes to web browsing, as a backlog of old cookies and other data can slow downloading speeds if the data is out of date.

Advertisement

How to clear individual pieces of history on an iPad

If you just want to remove one or two searches or sites you visited off an iPad's history, follow this approach.

1. Launch the Safari app.

2. Tap the icon at the top left of the screen that looks like an open book.

3. Tap on the clock icon under the word "History."

clear history
Tap on the book, then tap on the clock. Steven John/Business Insider

4. Locate the item to be cleared, swipe left a bit, and tap delete, or swipe all the way left on the item to automatically delete it.

IMG_0072
Swipe left on an item to delete it from your history. Steven John/Business Insider

Advertisement

How to clear larger periods of history on an iPad

If you need to clear the last hour, day, two-day, or all-time history off your iPad, again start with the open book icon found at the top left of the Safari browser.

1. Tap the clock icon.

2. Tap the word "Clear" at the bottom right of the History popup window.

3. Select the period of history you want to clear (The last hour, Today, etc.), and tap it.

clear
Tap the time period of your history you'd like to clear. Steven John/Business Insider

Advertisement

How to clear all online history on an iPad

If you want to wipe out not just your all-time browsing history (as depicted above) but an iPad's entire online history, including cookies and all cached search and site data, you can do that through the Settings app.

1. Open the Settings app and open the Safari tab.

2. In the window that appears on the right, scroll down to the blue words reading "Clear History and Website Data" and tap it.

clear history
Tap "Clear History and Website Data." Steven John/Business Insider

3. Tap the red word "Clear" on the popup window.

clear
Tap "Clear" to clear all of your online history. Steven John/Business Insider

Just keep in mind that this will remove all your pre-loaded login information, so if you'll still be keeping the iPad, you'll have a lot of usernames and passwords to re-enter.

Advertisement

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech: 

Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.

Advertisement

Jump to

  1. Main content
  2. Search
  3. Account