How to Clear Cache on iPhone and iPad

If you are running out of storage space on your iPhone or iPad or you have noticed that it’s overall performance seems to be getting slower, then you could benefit from clearing the cache that certain apps use. This cached data includes all the files and images that are kept in your iPhone or iPad’s storage, which is meant to help apps avoid having to request the same data repeatedly, creating a better user experience. While clearing the cache in the commonly used Safari App is quick and easy to do, there will be a different process to clear the cache from third-party apps. In this article, we’ll first look at how to wipe out the Safari cache on iPhone and iPad and then tackle the other apps.

How to Clear Safari Cache

The following steps clear all cookies and web data cached on your device by Safari, although AutoFill information remains unchanged. Note that when you clear Safari browsing history on a device running iOS 11 or higher, the same logs are cleared on any other devices signed into the same iCloud account.

1. Open the Settings app on your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌ and scroll down to Safari in the list.
2. Scroll to the Privacy & Security section and tap the blue Clear History and Website Data option near the bottom of the menu. (Note that this setting might be grayed out if there’s already no history to clear or if parental controls are set for websites.)
3. Tap Clear History and Data in the popup pane to confirm.

How to Clear iPhone Cache for Third-Party Apps

The way to clear the cache used by third-party apps on your ‌iPhone‌ varies from app to app.

For example, to clear the cache of the Accuweather app, go to your iPhone’s Settings -> Scroll down and tap the AccuWeather app. Turn on the Reset cached content slider.

If there’s an app that you suspect is unnecessarily hoarding data on your ‌iPhone‌ but you can’t find an equivalent option to clear its cache, then the best alternative is to check the iOS ‌iPhone‌ Storage screen.

1. Launch the Settings app on your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap iPhone Storage.
4. A list of all the apps (including stock apps) on your iOS device will load in order of size, with the largest apps listed first. Tap an app in the list that is taking up an unnecessary amount of space.

5. Clearing the cache of third-party apps varies from developer to developer. As seen below, some like Slack offer an option in the app preferences in iOS Settings, while others like Facebook don’t. Check out the settings of your apps to see your options.

For apps that don’t provide a clear cache button, deleting the app and reinstalling it is the next option

5. Two uninstall options are presented on this screen. Tap Offload App to unload the app but preserve any documents and data (these are reinstated if you later reinstall the app) or tap Delete App to remove the app and all related data from your device.

How to Reinstall Deleted Apps

1. Launch the App Store app on your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌.
2. Tap the Today tab if it isn’t selected already.
3. Tap your circular profile photo at the top-right of the Today screen to access the account settings screen.
4. Tap Purchased.
5. Tap My Purchases.
6. In the Purchased screen, tap the Not on this iPhone tab.
7. Scroll through the list of purchased apps to find the one that you want to reinstate, and tap the cloud download icon next to it to re-download and install.

As it stands, iOS still lacks a straightforward way to clear the cache in apps. For example, sometimes you may want to keep an app, but delete its documents and data. Hopefully Apple will include an equivalent option in a future version of iOS, but until then, the methods described above are your best options for clearing the cruft from your ‌iPhone‌.