If you go to Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage -> Safari, youll see an option called Website Data. When you open that option, you’ll see a button that says Remove All Website Data. The same option is also available if you go to Settings -> Safari. You will see a button saying “Clear History and Website Data.” You may want to delete Website Data to free up storage on your device. However, you may also wonder what will happen if you delete it. This article explains what Website Data is and if you should delete it from your iPhone or iPad.
What is Website Data
Website Data is comprised of history, cache, and cookies created by the websites you visit. It contains information such as site preferences and login status. Website Data is supposed to enhance your online experience. For example, it helps websites to remember you so that you will not need to re-login to frequently used sites if you’re already logged in, like LinkedIn, Facebook, Amazon, Gmail, or Google Docs. It can be very difficult to know what this data may be because sites partially control what they store. Commonly, however, Website Data includes the following:
- Browsing history: This is a log of the web pages you visited. It’s helpful when you want to return to those sites.
- Cookies: These are data files that websites send to your phone, including things like saved passwords to keep you logged into an account or even the website preferences from the previous time you visited.
- Cache: This is the temporary storage of some data, like parts of a website from the last time you visited it, for example. Browser cache is content from a website that is stored on your phone during a browser session to help the browser execute faster the next time you visit that page.
- Autofill: This information includes form data such as your name, address, and credit card numbers.
What will happen if you delete Website Data
There are advantages and disadvantages to deleting Website Data. Deleting this may cause a few issues for you. They are:
- The cache on your iPhone will be cleared.
- The history of websites you visited and recent searches will be removed from your iPhone.
- The first time you visit a page, it may take a little longer to load. Safari will re-download the cached data.
- The cookies and permissions you granted to websites to use your location or send you notifications will be removed.
- All open tabs in Safari will be closed.
- Cached images will be deleted.
- You’ll be logged out of any websites you were previously logged into.
Deleting this may also offer some benefits:
- If you share your computer with others, clearing Website Data will improve your privacy.
- Deleting it will clear up some room on your device.
- This may possibly increase your device’s overall performance.
- If you are experiencing Safari issues on your iPhone, this may fix it.
The following won’t be affected:
- Your AutoFill information won’t be changed.
- If you have Safari Bookmarks, they won’t be deleted.
Periodically clearing Website Data on your iPhone or iPad can be a good idea for a number of reasons. Beyond the fact that collectively these websites store quite a bit of data on your devices, that data can be used to track your visits, too. Websites save cookies to your devices to be able to tell when you visit again, and even though that can be beneficial to keep you logged in and save preferences, not everyone likes it. The good news is that you can delete all Website Data or if you prefer, you can delete an individual website’s Website Data. Here’s how:
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Scroll down and tap ”Safari.”
- Scroll to the very bottom of the screen and tap ”Advanced.”
- Tap ”Website Data” at the top of the screen.
- Youll see the websites that are using the most data. If you want to see them all, tap ”Show All Sites.”
- To delete all of the data for all websites, tap ”Remove All Website Data.”
- If you’d prefer to remove data for only one website, swipe it to the left and then tap the ”Delete” button that appears.
