search safari history iphone

How to See the Safari History on an iPhone: A Step-by-Step Guide

Seeing the Safari history on an iPhone is a straightforward process. Just open the Safari app, tap the book icon at the bottom of the screen, and then tap the clock icon to view your browsing history. You’ll be able to see a list of all the websites you’ve visited, sorted by date.

After completing this action, you’ll have access to the list of websites you’ve visited using Safari on your iPhone. This can be useful for finding a site you forgot to bookmark, checking what sites were visited on a particular day, or clearing your history for privacy reasons.

Introduction

Browsing the internet on your iPhone is a daily activity for many of us, but how often do we think about our digital footprints? Whether you’re a privacy-conscious individual, a parent wanting to check what your kids have been up to online, or simply trying to find that one website you stumbled upon a few days ago, knowing how to view your Safari history is essential.

Safari, the default browser on all Apple devices, keeps track of all the websites you visit, allowing you to revisit a site whenever you need to. However, not everyone knows how to access this history. This article is for iPhone users of all ages and skill levels who want to learn how to see their Safari history. It’s an important skill that can help you in a variety of situations. Plus, it’s super easy to do!

How to See the Safari History on an iPhone

The following steps will guide you through the process of viewing your Safari history on an iPhone.

Open the Safari app on your iPhone. Upon opening the Safari app, you’ll be greeted with your default homepage or the last page you visited.

Tap the book icon located at the bottom of the screen. This icon will take you to your bookmarks, reading list, and history.

Tap the clock icon to view your browsing history. The clock icon is typically at the top of the list, and tapping it will display all the sites you’ve visited, organized by date.

Additional Information

When browsing through your Safari history, you can tap on any entry to revisit that webpage immediately. Plus, if you’re looking to delete certain parts of your history, you can do that too! Just swipe left on any entry and tap ‘Delete’ to remove it from your history. If you want to clear your entire browsing history, there’s an option for that at the bottom of the history list. Remember, once it’s gone, it’s gone for good, so make sure you really don’t need that history before you delete it.

Additionally, keep in mind that if you’re using iCloud to sync Safari across your devices, your history will be visible on all devices signed into that iCloud account. This is super handy if you want to access a webpage you visited on your Mac from your iPhone, for example. However, if privacy is a concern for you, consider using private browsing mode, which doesn’t save any history.

• Open the Safari app.
• Tap the book icon.
• Select the clock icon to view history.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i delete my safari history.

To delete your Safari history, go to the history page, tap ‘Clear’ at the bottom, and choose the time range you want to clear.

Can I search through my Safari history?

Yes, there’s a search bar at the top of the history page where you can enter keywords to find specific sites.

Will my Safari history be synced across all my Apple devices?

If you’re using iCloud Safari syncing, then yes, your history will be visible on all devices signed into that iCloud account.

How long does Safari keep my browsing history?

Safari typically keeps your browsing history for up to one month, but this can be adjusted in settings.

Is there a way to keep my browsing private?

Yes, you can use private browsing mode in Safari, which does not save your history or AutoFill information.

Knowing how to see the Safari history on your iPhone is a neat trick that can save you time and ensure that you’re never too far from a useful website you’ve visited. Whether it’s for privacy, parental control, or pure convenience, mastering this skill is a must for any iPhone user. Remember to manage your history responsibly and enjoy the vast wealth of information the internet has to offer right at your fingertips. Happy browsing!

Matt Jacobs has been working as an IT consultant for small businesses since receiving his Master’s degree in 2003. While he still does some consulting work, his primary focus now is on creating technology support content for SupportYourTech.com.

His work can be found on many websites and focuses on topics such as Microsoft Office, Apple devices, Android devices, Photoshop, and more.

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2 Easy Ways to Check Your Safari Search History

Last Updated: May 21, 2024 Fact Checked

Using iPhone

Using macos.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Dillon . Hannah Dillon is a Technology Writer and Editor at wikiHow. She graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from North Dakota State University in 2013 and has since worked in the video game industry as well as a few newspapers. From a young age Hannah has cultivated a love for writing and technology, and hopes to use these passions in tandem to help others in the articles she writes for wikiHow. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 183,916 times. Learn more...

Do you need to check your Safari browser history? In a few simple steps, you can easily view all the websites you accessed in the past. You can also search for specific websites in your history and clear any website data you don't want. This wikiHow will teach you how to view and delete your Safari history on iPhone, iPad, and macOS.

Things You Should Know

• On iPhone, you can click the book icon, then the clock icon to find your Safari history.
• On macOS, you can click the "History" tab, then "Show History".
• You can search for specific websites and clear your history data.

• If needed, you can change your General Settings .

• If you're signed in with the same Apple ID to you use to log into your Mac, your Mac's Safari history will appear in this list as well.

• You may have to swipe down on the History page to find it.
• The results will load as you type.

• You can also swipe left on individual websites in your history, then click Delete .

• Be sure to update Safari.

• If you're logged into the computer with the same Apple ID you use on your iPhone or iPad, you'll also see sites you've visited on those devices.

• A list of matching results from your history will appear. Click a site to load it in Safari.

• Select a time frame from the drop-down menu, then click Clear History .
• You can also delete cookies from Safari .

Expert Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/search-your-browsing-history-ibrw1114/mac
• ↑ https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201265

About This Article

iPhone/iPad: 1. Open Safari . 2. Tap the book icon. 3. Tap the clock button. macOS: 1. Open Safari . 2. Click History . 3. Click Show All History . Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to search your browsing history on an iPhone, in Safari or Google Chrome

• It's easy to search the history on your iPhone's web browser to return to a specific webpage you've visited previously. 
• You can search the history on your iPhone in the Safari or Google Chrome browsers with these steps. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The search history on your iPhone's web browser can be helpful in taking you back to a site you want to see again, but scrolling through the whole list can be time consuming and annoying. 

Luckily, there's a search tool to help you get back to websites you may have visited a while ago — without going through the trouble of trying to remember the date you visited it. 

This feature is available on both the Safari and Google Chrome browsers. Here's how to use it to search your web history on an iPhone . 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Iphone 11 (from $699.99 at best buy), how to search the history on your iphone in safari .

1. Open the Safari app.

2. Tap the book icon at the bottom of your screen. It is the second icon from the right. This will bring up your search history.

3. Pull down on this History menu to reveal a bar at the top labeled "Search History" with a magnifying glass to the left of it.

4. Tap the search bar you just revealed to bring up the keypad, and type your search query. The query doesn't have to be exact to bring up results.

5. The result you are looking for should appear. Tap it to return to the website you visited.

How to search history on your iPhone in Google Chrome

1. Open the Google Chrome app.

2. Tap the three dots in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. This will bring up an options menu.

3. Tap "History," which is the second to last option on the list of items in blue. The icon looks like a clock with an arrow around the outside pointing counterclockwise.

4. On the new History page, tap the search bar at the top to bring up your keyboard.

5. Type your search query into the search bar. 

6. Tap the name of the site you were looking for. This will bring you back to the page.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech :

How to close all of the open tabs on your iphone's safari browser at once, how to stop pop-ups from appearing on your iphone's safari browser, how to add bookmarks and favorites on an iphone's safari browser for quick access to your preferred webpages, how to clear the safari search history on your iphone in three different ways.

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

Watch: I'm a diehard iPhone user who switched to Android for a week — here's what I loved and hated about the Google Pixel 3 XL

• Main content

How to clear Safari browsing history on iPhone and iPad

Clear Safari browsing history on iPhone and iPad in a few simple steps

You'll definitely want to know how to clear Safari browsing history on iPhone and iPad. Know how to delete browsing history is part of basic user operation on all your devices, and is especially if you share devices with others. 

Luckily, deleting browsing history on Safari is easy and can be done in just a few taps, and is the same on iOS and iPadOS, so whether you're using an iPhone 15 Pro or an iPad Air , these steps will apply.

Remember, though, that deleting your browsing history only stops your activity being visible on that device. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will still be able to see the webpages you have visited. If you want to stop that, for ultimate privacy, you'll need to use one of the best VPN services .

The following screenshots were taken on an iPhone running iOS 17 . If you aren't running the latest version of your device's OS, we can show you how to update an iPhone or how to update an iPad .

• In Safari, tap the book icon
• Go to the history tab (clock)
• Select how far back to clear

Read on to see full illustrated instructions.

1. In Safari, tap the book icon

Firstly, open Safari and tap the book icon in the bottom bar.

2. Select the history tab (clock icon) and tap Clear

Now select the history tab (clock icon) and tap Clear at the bottom.

3. Select how far back to clear and tap Delete

Now choose how far back you'd like to delete : last hour, today, today and yesterday, or all time.

If you like, you can toggle on Close All Tabs , which will close every open tab that isn't in a tab group (we can show you how to use tab groups if you aren't sure).

Finally, when you're happy, hit Delete .

As you can see in the screenshot above, if you now go back to the history tab, your history will have been deleted.

For more iPhone tutorials, check out our guides on how to transfer data from iPhone to iPhone , how to clear RAM on iPhone , how to delete multiple contacts on iPhone and how to rearrange the iOS 17 Messages '+' menu .

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Peter is Reviews Editor at Tom's Guide. As a writer, he covers topics including tech, photography, gaming, hardware, motoring and food & drink. Outside of work, he's an avid photographer, specialising in architectural and portrait photography. When he's not snapping away on his beloved Fujifilm camera, he can usually be found telling everyone about his greyhounds, riding his motorcycle, squeezing as many FPS as possible out of PC games, and perfecting his espresso shots. 

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How to view and clear your web browsing history in Safari on iPhone or iPad

Manage your history for greater privacy

Tools and requirements

• Quick steps
• Step-by-step guide

Final thoughts

Knowing how to view and clear your web browsing history in Safari on an iPhone or iPad is fundamental for privacy. After all, browsing history comes bundled with web navigation unless you're on Private browsing.  

Safari is Apple ’s proprietary web browser, and it offers a simple method to review and delete specific websites from your web history, or all of it. In this guide, we'll walk you through the steps to access and clear your Safari browsing history on iPhone and iPad. 

Additionally, for an incredibly secure browsing experience on iPad, we recommend checking out the best iPad VPN .  

• An iPhone or iPad

Steps for how to view and clear your web browsing history in Safari on iPhone or iPad

• Launch Safari. 
• On an iPhone, tap the Book icon at the bottom. On an iPad, tap the 'Show Sidebar' button at the top left.
• Select the History tab (Clock icon). 
• Tap 'Clear' and select the timeframe.  
• Tap 'Clear History'. 

Step-by-step guide to view and clear your web browsing history in Safari on iPhone or iPad

We’ve demonstrated the steps below on an iPhone. But the process is nearly the same on the iPad, and we’ve pointed out the differences where relevant. 

1. Launch Safari and access History

Open Safari on your iPhone and tap the 'Bookmarks' button at the bottom (beside the tab switcher button). 

On iPad, tap the 'Show Sidebar' button at the top left corner.

2. Clear History

Select the History tab (clock icon) to view all your browsing history. 

Tap 'Clear' at the bottom right corner to bring up the menu and choose a duration under the 'Clear Timeframe : Last hour , Today , Today and yesterday' , and 'All history' . 

To close tabs along with clearing history, toggle on 'Close All Tabs' . 

Finally, tap 'Clear History' at the bottom to erase your browsing history. 

To delete only specific websites from history, go to the History tab , tap 'Edit' (in the bottom left corner), select the websites you wish to delete, and then tap 'Delete' (bottom right corner).

Clearing your web browsing history in Safari is a straightforward and effective way to boost privacy. But remember that deleting your history removes data that you could easily use to access previously visited websites. If you’d prefer not to save your browsing data, try the Private Browsing Mode on Safari. 

For more iPad and iPhone tips, check out our tutorials on how to use and configure a VPN on your iPhone or iPad , how to change your iPhone password or reset it , and how to save, view and manage passwords in Safari .

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Nikshep Myle is a freelance writer covering tech, health, and wellbeing. He has written for popular tech blogs like Tom's Guide, GadgetReview, SlashGear, and Creative Bloq, and has extensively reviewed consumer gadgets. When he’s not writing, you’ll find him meditating, gaming, discovering new music, and indulging in adventurous and creative pursuits.

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• Get started with Photos
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Clear your cache and cookies on iPhone

You can erase your browsing history and data to clear the cache on your iPhone. This action removes the history of websites you visited and recent searches from your iPhone. This process also removes the cookies and permissions you granted to websites to use your location or send you notifications.

Note: Clearing your browsing history in Safari doesn’t clear any browsing histories kept independently by websites you visited, or your browsing history in other apps.

Below Clear Timeframe, choose how much of your browsing history to clear.

Note: If you have Safari profiles set up, select a profile to clear only the history of that profile, or select All Profiles.

Tap Clear History.

How to view and clear your web browsing history in Safari on iPhone or iPad

Wipe away your browsing history in Apple's Safari web browser in seconds.

How to find your web-browsing history

How to clear your web browsing history.

Viewing and wiping your web browsing history on the best iPhones and iPads in Apple's Safari web browser has been an easy task for years.

When you browse the web, a record is always kept of where you've been online, which can be stored on your device for days, weeks, or even months. Most of us don't need to look back on our web browsing, so being able to wipe it on our Apple devices is a straightforward affair.

However, you may be someone who regularly wipes your browsing history so you can make a clean start when you next use Safari. There may be other moments when you're wiping your browsing history so you can hide a surprise birthday present from a friend.

In any case, viewing and wiping your web browsing history on iPhone and iPad is simple, and can be done in minutes. Here's how to do it.

Viewing your web history in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 is very easy to do, here's how:

• In Safari, tap the Bookmarks button in the toolbar that's below the address bar.
• Tap the History icon in the upper right corner. Here, you can view your entire web history.

• Use the History search bar to find previously viewed pages.

If the time calls to wipe most or all of your web browsing history in Safari, here's how to do it on both iPhone and iPad.

To note, the below steps will be the same if you attempt to wipe your web browsing history on an iPhone 15 Pro Max or an iPad Mini 6 , all Apple devices require the same steps.

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• In Safari, tap the Bookmarks button.
• Select the History icon in the upper right corner.
• Tap Clear and select how much history you'd like to clear: the last hour, the last day, 48 hours' worth, or all recorded history.

One more thing… A feature no one talks about

Privacy on the web matters more than ever in these modern times. Websites store the pages you click on, especially when you sign into a page that can contain personal information about you.

It's great to have a feature like this in Safari — but it would be good to have this automated as an Apple Intelligence feature in iOS 18 someday. If Apple's web browser could automatically clear history after 24 hours it would be very useful, as you wouldn't leave a trail behind.

Regardless, it's still a good feature, and one you should use every week.

Daryl is iMore's Features Editor, overseeing long-form and in-depth articles and op-eds. Daryl loves using his experience as both a journalist and Apple fan to tell stories about Apple's products and its community, from the apps we use every day to the products that have been long forgotten in the Cupertino archives.

Previously Software & Downloads Writer at TechRadar, and Deputy Editor at StealthOptional, he's also written a book, ' The Making of Tomb Raider ', which tells the story of the beginnings of Lara Croft and the series' early development. His second book, ' 50 Years of Boss Fights ', came out in June 2024, and has a monthly newsletter called ' Springboard '. He's also written for many other publications including WIRED, MacFormat, Bloody Disgusting, VGC, GamesRadar, Nintendo Life, VRV Blog, The Loop Magazine, SUPER JUMP, Gizmodo, Film Stories, TopTenReviews, Miketendo64, and Daily Star.

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How to clear browsing history on Safari on iPhone or Mac

You can clear your Safari browsing history on both iOS and Mac

Last updated 3 years ago

As tracking goes, Safari keeping your browsing history is less about privacy-busting security and more about just being useful. It's your history that means Safari remembers where to go to when you choose forward and back within a site, for instance.

It's also how Safari is able to offer you a list of sites that you regularly go to, on account of how handy it is to be able to back to them with a click. History also does keep things you may not expect, though, such as a list of items you've downloaded.

If you don't want that, though, or you're just fed up of Safari going to site addresses you haven't looked at in years, you can wipe the whole browsing history.

On a Mac, you can also wipe, for instance, just the last hour's browsing history. So if you share Safari and it's someone's special birthday coming up, you can avoid them inadvertently finding out you plan to surprise them with dance lessons.

How to clear search history on Safari on Mac

• In Safari, choose the History menu
• Select Clear History from the very bottom of the menu
• In the dialog box that appears, choose from clearing the last hour , today , today and yesterday , or all history
• Click on Clear History

Alternatively, within Safari you can press Command-Y and the current page will be replaced by a history list. There's a Clear History... button toward the top right.

Clicking on that gives you exactly the same dialog about choosing how far back you want to clear your browsing history. But this page does also give you one extra option — the ability to delete one specific item.

How to clear one item from Safari search history on Mac

• In Safari, press Command-Y
• From the long list, click once on a history item to select it
• Right-click to bring up a menu, then choose Delete

Alternatively, if you select one, two, or more items in the history list, you can then press the Delete key to remove them all.

That kind of precision removal is only possible on your Mac, not on iOS . However, whether it's precision or wholesale clearing of your history, though, there is a way to replicate it on iOS.

If you have set iCloud to share your Safari history, then just doing this on your Mac also removes the history from your iPhone, and iPad.

Otherwise, you're stuck with going to your iOS device. And then with clearing the entire history.

How to clear search history on iPhone

• Go to Settings on your iOS device
• Tap on Safari
• Scroll down to Clear History and Website Data
• Tap that, then tap Clear History and Data to confirm

One important thing to note is that you can't selectively remove, say, today's browsing history on the iPhone or iPad . It's all or nothing, with iOS.

What you leave behind

Clearing your history like this does remove the list of sites and pages you've visited. It does mean you can't go back to that site you read last Tuesday, not without remembering what it was and going there yourself.

What it doesn't remove, though, is the information that gets used by something like AutoFill. If you have your address, for instance, and you're used to online forms being filled out with it, you've still got that feature.

You've also still got anything you downloaded. It's purely that Safari won't keep the list of downloads.

Keep up with AppleInsider by downloading the AppleInsider app for iOS, and follow us on YouTube , Twitter @appleinsider and Facebook for live, late-breaking coverage. You can also check out our official Instagram account for exclusive photos.

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Tips & Tricks

Troubleshooting, how to search safari browser history on iphone & ipad.

Did you know you can search through web browsing history in Safari on an iPhone or iPad? With the excellent Safari History search feature you can easily retrieve and find previously visited sites, webpages, and videos, whether from earlier in the day or even well over a year ago – assuming the searchable Safari history has not been removed anyway.

This offers a fantastic tool to track down old web content that you may have a hard time finding on it’s own. For example, if you knew you watched a web video somewhere about a topic like “Carl Sagan” but can’t quite remember what it was or where it was located on the web, you can search for that term and all history matching the search terms will be retrieved.

How to Search Browser History on Safari for iPhone, iPad

All modern versions of Safari in iOS have searchable history, here’s how it works:

• From the Safari app on iPhone or iPad, tap the bookmarks / history button (it looks like an open book icon)

• Choose the the book tab and go to the History section
• At the top of the History section, tap into the “Search History” box

• Type your search query term to search Safari browser history on the iOS device

If you tap on any searched history result, the page or site will immediately open in Safari.

In the example above, I searched for “Charlie Rose” to track down an old interview I had watched on YouTube, and the video I was searching for was found immediately.

You can search through any search history on Safari on the iOS device, even history that is quite a bit older, as long as you (or the user) has not cleared Safari history on the device being searched.

Note that if you use Safari and iCloud on an iPhone or iPad as well as another device, you will have other devices history to search through as well – even if it was not searched for on the current device. This is a feature of iCloud and is available to users with the same Apple ID and iCloud enabled on multiple iOS and Mac OS devices.

You can also search for an item match in Safari history and then remove that specific page from Safari history in iOS after it has been matched and found, offering a way to selectively clear history from a device without wiping it all.

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Related articles:

• How to Recover Deleted Safari History on Mac
• How to Delete Specific Safari History on Mac
• View Browsing History on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch from Safari
• How to Access & Search Safari History on Mac

11 Comments

» Comments RSS Feed

The step “From the Safari app on iPhone or iPad, tap the bookmarks / history button (it looks like an open book icon)” is inaccurate. My iPad lacks such a button.

Bookmarks and history is indeed a feature in Safari for iPad. Make sure you are using Safari and not another browser.

I would like to see Michael Frank’s location at the exact time I am looking for him everything was working fine when I first bought this phone now everything is messed up my map is completely incorrect with names of streets and highways doing what he did and I can never get Michael Franks timeline

I would like to see my partner that I share location with timeline and location when I look up his location why is it that he can see me perfectly fine but I can never see where he is

Only seems to go back 2 weeks to 1 month, is this accurate?

The Safari browser cache will usually go back as far either the last time the cache was emptied, or when the device age is, or when the device was last restored from. Safari in iOS can contain a significant time of browsing cache, depending on those circumstances and perhaps others too.

Searching safari history on my iPhone… how far back will the history go? I see only a month. I need two months at least.

You need to mention the search history section does not display unless you pull down on the list. It’s hidden at the top by default. Thanks

Nope I don’t get a history tab if I pull down

How can I download or put safari back on my iPad I have the icon but no app when I pull up. To use it

I do not have the history section on all my IOS devices, even I didn’t clear the history. I can see them on macOS but not on IOS. Any idea why?

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