How to Clear Safari Before Opening Again

How To + Software & Apps

How to Reset the Safari Browser on your Mac

Posted on May 21st, 2020 by

Sometimes when you have issues with the Safari web browser on your Mac, y'all may demand to reset the app: delete its cache, delete all the data that it has stored about websites, and, perhaps, clear out extensions that could be causing issues. In this article, I'yard going to explain how y'all can fully reset Safari, and return it to the way it was when you first prepare your Mac.

I'll cover several points:

• How to delete your Safari cache
• How to remove website data, such as cookies
• How to examine and uninstall extensions
• How to delete bookmarks
• How to delete preferences and settings

Delete the Safari spider web cache

To make your browsing experience more efficient, web browsers cache data, which ways they store files on your computer so when you return to a website, yous don't need to download all if its elements. For example, if you lot regularly view a web folio that contains a number of graphics, not downloading those graphics once more volition save fourth dimension, and save bandwidth, both for you and for the web host.

Sometimes, however, yous may want or need to delete that enshroud. This is a first-line troubleshooting technique when you are having difficulty displaying spider web pages. Different browsers have dissimilar methods for doing this, and Apple'south Safari makes this complicated, for some reason. Here's how y'all can delete your Safari browser enshroud.

Plow on Develop Mode

In older versions of Safari, it was easy to delete the web cache. (Meet this article for instructions). But to access the Empty Caches carte du jour particular in the current version of Safari, you lot demand to turn on Develop mode.

To do this, go to Safari > Preferences, then click Avant-garde. Check Show Develop menu in the menu bar.

If you click the Develop menu that displays, you'll see a slew of card items. These are mostly used be developers who demand to see the source lawmaking of a web page, check how JavaScripts run, and even try out web pages in unlike sizes, to see how they display on mobile devices.

Delete the Safari enshroud

Near the middle of the menu, you'll see an Empty Caches card item. Select this, and Safari will delete the files it'due south stored on your Mac. This will assist free up some disk infinite; some cases, at that place can be hundreds of megabytes of files, or fifty-fifty more. But it volition also tell Safari to reload every item on every web page you visit, ensuring that if you lot did have corrupted files, or other issues with files in the cache, they volition resolve. It'south a skillful idea to quit Safari and relaunch it after y'all exercise this.

Remove website data

In addition to this enshroud, Safari can besides store cookies and other data from websites. This is easier to delete. Get to Safari > Preferences, then click Privacy. Click Manage Website Data. This window shows all the sites that have stored data on your Mac. In general, you'll delete data for a site when you're having problem displaying it, so type the name of a site in the search field, but y'all may want to delete this information from fourth dimension to time for privacy reasons.

Click the name of the website in the list, then click Remove. When you do this, you'll need to log into the site again.

There'south a nuclear option to empty all stored information, and this is how yous can fully reset Safari: the Remove All button. Information technology's actually a good thought to click this every now and then; information technology deletes all stored data and cookies for every site you've visited in Safari, and makes it more than difficult for advertisers to track you. But remember, yous'll have to log into every site you visit again, and you'll lose any local settings you've saved for a site, such as themes, font sizes, etc.

Bank check and uninstall Safari extensions

Safari lets you install extensions which enhance the browser's capabilities. Extensions tin include tools to save web pages for read-afterwards services, or in apps where you can store notes; there are extensions for password managers, so they tin help you log into and save passwords for websites; and there are ad blockers, tracker blockers, and more than. In some cases, Safari extensions are arranged within apps, in others yous download and install them individually. You can find Safari extensions in the Mac App Store, or you tin choose Safari > Safari extensions to open a page in the Mac App Shop showing what'southward bachelor.

Y'all can view your Safari extensions by choosing Safari > Preferences, then clicking Extensions.

Click an extension in the sidebar to learn more about it. In the to a higher place screenshot, you can come across an extension for Bear, an app I use to store notes and spider web pages. Each extension tells you its name, what it does, and the permissions that yous grant it by enabling information technology.

If y'all need to troubleshoot web folio viewing problems, endeavour disabling extensions by clicking their checkboxes. If yous encounter whatever extensions you don't recollect installing, or whose apps seem unfamiliar, select them and click Uninstall. You can fully reset Safari extensions by selecting each extension and uninstalling information technology.

Delete preferences and other Safari settings

Finally, to fully return Safari to its native setup, you lot demand to delete a binder containing preferences and other settings. In your user folder, become to /Library/Containers, then look for a folder named com.apple.safari. If you lot delete this binder, all your settings will be erased; this binder is too where Safari stores its cache.

Finally, some data in Safari, such as bookmarks and your Reading List, is synced via iCloud. If y'all have this enabled, you tin disable it so Safari on your Mac no longer syncs with your other devices – such as another Mac, an iPhone, or an iPad. Go to System Preferences, then click Apple ID at the top of the window. In the iCloud settings, uncheck Safari, and this will stop syncing data with your other devices.

With the to a higher place operations – deleting the Safari cache, deleting websites information, uninstalling extensions, and deleting preferences and settings – yous can reset Safari so it'southward as information technology was when yous start prepare your Mac. Make sure to quit Safari and relaunch it after y'all've washed the above steps.

Near Kirk McElhearn

Kirk McElhearn writes almost Apple products and more on his web log Kirkville. He is co-host of the Intego Mac Podcast, as well every bit several other podcasts, and is a regular contributor to The Mac Security Weblog, TidBITS, and several other websites and publications. Kirk has written more than two dozen books, including Have Control books almost Apple'due south media apps, Scrivener, and LaunchBar. Follow him on Twitter at @mcelhearn. View all posts past Kirk McElhearn →

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Source: https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/how-to-clear-your-safari-browser-cache-on-mac/

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