How to Clear Cache on iPhone
Clear Safari's cache and browsing data on your iPhone, find the apps using the most storage, and offload or clear them to free up space, with the current iOS 27 Settings paths.
You will end up with Safari's browsing data cleared and the apps holding the most storage found and slimmed down, without losing your photos, contacts, or messages. What comes back is storage, not speed. Apple explains that as an iPhone battery chemically ages, iOS can limit the peak performance of the CPU and GPU to prevent unexpected shutdowns. Cached files are not part of that explanation.
Cache is the temporary files that Safari and your apps keep so content loads faster the next time. Clearing it does not delete your photos, contacts, or messages. Apple's storage article also says iOS removes cached and temporary files on its own when the phone needs space, so clearing by hand matters most for Safari and for apps that hold on to their own downloads.
Start with Safari's browsing data, then find the apps using the most storage. How much space comes back depends on how you use the phone, and step 3 shows you each app's numbers before you delete anything. We checked every Settings path here against Apple's support articles and the iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 in September 2026.
Clear Safari browsing data
Read the warning below before you start. Open Settings, tap Apps, then select Safari. Scroll down and tap Clear History and Website Data. Pick a time range, choosing All History to clear everything, then tap Clear History. Safari used to sit in the main Settings list. iOS 18 moved every app's settings into a single Apps section, so that is where it lives now, and Apple's current instructions say to go to Settings, tap Apps, then select Safari. If you are scrolling the top level of Settings and not finding it, that is why. This clears your history, recent searches, cookies, and cached files, and it removes the permissions you gave websites to use your location or send you notifications. Apple notes that your AutoFill information is not changed. To clear the cache and cookies but keep your history, go to Settings, tap Apps, select Safari, tap Advanced, then Website Data, and tap Remove All Website Data.
Heads up: Clearing Safari data removes the website data that keeps you signed in, so it logs you out of the sites you use. You will need to sign in again to sites like Gmail, Amazon, and social media. Make sure you know your passwords or have them saved in a password manager before clearing.
Close your Safari tabs
Open Safari and tap the Tabs button, the two overlapping squares in the toolbar. To close every tab in the current Tab Group, touch and hold Done, then tap Close All Tabs. To close tabs one at a time, tap the Close button in the upper-right corner of each tab. Closing tabs does not clear the cache and will not make the phone faster. Do it to make the tab switcher usable again.
Check which apps use the most storage
Go to Settings, then General, then iPhone Storage. Wait for the list to load. It shows every app sorted by how much space it uses. Tap into any app and you get two numbers, the size of the app itself and its Documents & Data. The second one is the files and content the app keeps, such as downloads, and it is the number worth judging. A small app with a large Documents & Data line is the one with room to give. Apple's storage article covers the same screen and the categories underneath it, and it notes that cached and temporary data might not count toward these numbers.
Offload or delete heavy apps
Tap any app in the iPhone Storage list. You will see two options. Offload App frees the storage the app itself uses but keeps its documents and data, so reinstalling it brings everything back. Delete App removes the app and its data from your iPhone. Apple's iPhone User Guide says data the app keeps in iCloud is not deleted, but anything saved only on the phone is gone, so back that up before you tap Delete App. Delete the apps you no longer use. Apple's guide also says you can reinstall an app only if it is still available in the App Store, so check its App Store page before you delete an app you still use. For an app you still use whose Documents & Data line from step 3 has grown large, delete it and reinstall it from the App Store, so it starts again without the files it had saved on the phone. Offloading will not shrink that line, because it keeps the app's data.
Good to know: Turn on Offload Unused Apps in Settings, then Apps, then App Store. The same switch also sits in Settings, then General, then iPhone Storage. It removes apps you have not opened in a while and keeps their data, and the icon stays on your Home Screen with a small cloud on it. Tapping that icon downloads the app again, which needs a connection and needs the app to still be on the App Store. It is not a safe place to park something that has been pulled from sale.
Clear cache in specific apps
Some apps have their own cache clearing option inside their settings. In Spotify, tap your profile picture, tap Settings and privacy, tap Data-saving and offline, then under Storage tap Clear next to Clear cache. Spotify keeps that path current on its own support page. Not every app has this option. Check your heaviest apps from step 3 one by one, and look for it in a Storage, Data, or Advanced section of each app's own settings. These paths were checked in September 2026. App menus move, so if the wording has changed by the time you read this, the app's own support page is a better answer than any guide, ours included.
If iPhone Storage still shows the phone as nearly full, turn on the recommendations at the top of that screen and check the Photos and Messages lines, which FAQ 3 below covers. If the phone is slow rather than full, restart it first. Apple's steps differ by model. On iPhone X and later, hold either volume button and the side button until the power-off slider appears. On iPhone 6, 7, 8, and the second or third generation SE, hold the side button on its own. Drag the slider, wait 30 seconds, then press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears. If it is still slow after that, open Settings, tap Battery, then Battery Health. If the Peak Performance Capability section says performance management has been applied, the battery is what is holding the phone back, and clearing cache will not change that. Replacing the battery will.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
No. Cache is temporary data that apps create to load content faster. Your photos, messages, contacts, and app data are stored separately. Clearing cache removes things like website images Safari downloaded, thumbnails an app pre-loaded, and temporary files from streaming services. Your personal content stays exactly where it is.
There is no schedule to keep. Apple's storage article says iOS removes cached and temporary files on its own when it needs space. Check iPhone Storage when you see a Storage Almost Full alert, start with the recommendations at the top of that screen, and then work down the largest apps. Caches exist to make content load faster, so clearing them more often than that only means the content has to download again.
The usual suspects are cached data in apps you do use, your photo library, and the system category, which Apple's storage article calls Other and some iOS versions label System Data. Apple describes it as holding non-removable caches and logs, Siri voices, fonts, dictionaries, and the Spotlight index, so a chunk of it is not yours to clear. Watching it refuse to shrink is normal rather than a sign something is broken. iCloud backups are not one of the suspects, because they are stored in iCloud rather than on the phone. Check iPhone Storage in Settings to see the breakdown. Messages with lots of photos and videos can also take up a lot of space. Tap Messages in the storage list to see per-conversation usage and delete old threads with large attachments.
No. Apple does not provide a one-tap option to clear every app's cache at once. You need to handle Safari and each app individually. Third-party cleaner apps cannot reach inside another app's storage at all, because iOS sandboxing walls each app's data off from every other app. Work through Safari and your largest apps one at a time instead.
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