This minHour teaches you how to delete your Mac's Safari, Chrome, and Firefox cookies. Cookies are temporary files related to sites that you've visited. Keep in mind that while clearing cookies from your browser may speed it up, doing so will also sign you out of most websites on which you were signed in.
Safari
Open Safari.
It’s the blue, compass-shaped app icon.
Click Safari.
This menu item is in the top-left side of your Mac’s screen. A drop-down menu will appear.
Click Preferences….
It’s near the top of the drop-down menu.
Click the Privacy tab.
You’ll find this on the far-right side of the Preferences window.
Click Manage Website Data….
It’s in the middle of the page. On older versions of Mac OS X, this will say instead.
Click Remove All.
This button is in the lower-left side of the window.
Click Remove Now when prompted.
Doing so will clear your Safari browser’s cookies.
Clear Safari’s cache to get rid of persistent cookies.
If you still see cookies popping up after deleting your Mac’s stored cookies, you can clear Safari’s cache, which will remove all of Safari’s input information except for settings and bookmarks. To do so:
- Click the Safari menu item.
- Click Preferences…
- Click the Advanced tab.
- Check the Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar box.
- Click the Develop menu item.
- Click Empty Caches
Google Chrome
Open Google Chrome.
It’s the red, yellow, green, and blue sphere icon.
Click Chrome.
This menu item is in the top-left corner of your Mac’s screen. A drop-down menu will appear.
Click Clear Browsing Data….
It’s near the top of the drop-down menu. Doing so will open the Browsing Data window.
Select a time frame.
Click the drop-down box to the right of the “Clear the following items from” heading near the top of the window, then click one of the following options:
- the past hour
- the past day
- the past week
- the past 4 weeks
- the beginning of time
Check the “Cookies and other site data” box.
You can check other boxes in this window as well if you want to remove other types of web data, but you must check the “Cookies and other site data” box to remove Chrome cookies from your Mac.
Click CLEAR BROWSING DATA.
It’s a blue button in the bottom-right corner of the Browsing Data window. Clicking this will completely clear your Mac’s Chrome cookies.
Firefox
Open Firefox.
This icon resembles an orange fox wrapped around a blue globe.
Click History.
It’s a menu item in the upper-left side of your Mac’s screen. A drop-down menu will appear.
Click Clear Recent History….
This option is in the drop-down menu. A window will open.
Select a time frame.
Click the “Time range to clear:” drop-down box, then click one of the following options:
- Last Hour
- Last Two Hours
- Last Four Hours
- Today
- Everything
Check the “Cookies” box.
You can check other boxes on this menu as well, but the “Cookies” box has to be checked in order for Firefox’s cookies to be cleared.
Click Clear Now.
It’s at the bottom of the window.
Tips
- You shouldn’t have to clear your Mac’s Safari cache regularly, but doing so once in awhile will help keep your Mac running quickly.
Warnings
- Cookies can be detrimental to your web browsing experience, but they’re also what allow you to sign into sites without re-entering your username or password every single time. Deleting cookies will sign you out of most websites.