How to clear cache on iPhone and iPad

Over time, iPhones and iPads tend to slow down as they become clogged with junk files and apps. You can give your device a little speed boost by cleaning up the clutter and memory clogging files on your device. In this article we explain how to clear the cache, which should make your iPhone or iPad work faster again.

What is cache?

Pronounced “cash,” this is an area of ​​memory on your device that stores small, temporary files. These are often useful and intended to speed up performance by giving the CPU quick access to frequently used files. The most common use on websites, where the cache usually stores product images, javascript settings, and other relevant things that keep everything working properly while browsing. The problem is that when the cache is full of many of these files you no longer need it. The device takes more time to find the necessary files, which makes the process slower. So it’s a good idea to clean this up regularly to make sure your iPhone or iPad stays in top shape.

One thing you may notice is that the first time you visit a website after clearing the cache, it takes a little longer to load or you may even have to log in again. But those items are then cached until you need them again (or until you clear your cache again).

Free up memory by restarting an iPhone or iPad

Before you start deleting stuff from your iPhone or iPad, it’s worth taking the classic step of turning it off and on again. For the most part, iOS can manage memory well without any user involvement. But we do find that rebooting an iPhone every now and then is a good way to clear the memory and make sure important apps have enough to run smoothly.

The process for restarting your iPhone depends on the age of your iPhone or iPad. If you have an iPhone or iPad with a Home button, use one method. If your iPhone or iPad uses Face ID, you won’t have a Home button, in which case you’ll need another method.

Without Home button:

1. press the volume up button.
2. press the volume down button.
3. Press the on button.
4. Swipe to turn off your iPhone.
5. Your iPhone will shut down. Once it just press and hold the power button until you see the Apple logo appear, wait for the device to reboot completely.

On some older iPhone models, you may be able to press and hold the power button and the volume up button at the same time until you see the “slide to power off” option appear.

With a Home button

1. On an iPhone or iPad with a Home button (SE and the like) all you need to do is press and hold the power button until the slider appears.
2. Your iPhone or iPad will then be turned off.
3. Just press the power button to get everything going again.

Doing this regularly used to be vital on an iPhone, but it’s less so these days. Nevertheless, it can still be useful on older models.

How to clear the cache on an iPhone or iPad

As we mentioned above, one of the biggest problems can be the browser cache. Fortunately, deleting the cache in Safari is easy.

1. Open Settings, scroll down until you find Safari and select it to open the following menu.
2. Scroll down and tap “Clear history and website data.”
3. In the popup, tap “Clear history and data” to confirm.

Keep in mind that this will log you out of any websites you are currently logged into so make sure you know your passwords.

Close apps to free up RAM

There was a time when force quitting an app was considered a great way to free up RAM on your iPhone or iPad. This can still be helpful, but closing background apps is no longer recommended. However, if you want to give it a try, as it may help if a particular app is causing your device to slow down, here’s what you can do:

1. Swipe up from the bottom of the device screen and release when the pages you’ve opened appear in random order.
2. Find the app you want to close and swipe up on it.
3. You can select more than one app if you use more than one finger.

How to remove unwanted app data

Data stored by other apps can be cleaned using the Usage option in Settings.

1. Tap Settings > General > iPhone Storage. (On an iPad, this option is called iPad Storage.)
2. At the bottom of the screen (below recommendations for ways to save space), you’ll see your apps listed by the amount of storage they take up. Tap an app that is taking up a lot of space.
3. Check the image for Documents & Data. This includes related media such as images, songs and podcasts, saved games and preferences; in some cases, it can be significantly larger than the app itself.
4. If the Documents and Data document is taking up more space than you’d like or if you just don’t use that app anymore, you can uninstall the app and its files by tapping the Uninstall App option.
5. Once this is done, you can go to the App Store and download it again. This clean install will not contain the data and documents and will therefore be smaller.

Foundry / IDG

How to offload unwanted apps

Besides deleting apps and their data, another option is to take advantage of the Offload apps feature in iOS and iPadOS. This is different from deleting them as offloading means saving the related data on your phone but deleting the app itself. This is only really useful in terms of things like games where the app sizes can be quite large compared to their save files, but it’s a route you can take when space is tight.

To offload an app, follow the steps above for uninstalling apps, but select Offload App. You can always download it later if you need it again.

Best iPhone Cleaning Apps

There are plenty of apps that quickly and efficiently delete files you don’t need. These are normally downloaded to your Mac or PC; you then connect your iPhone (or iPad) and let the app do its work. Most offer a free trial, but to use the full range of features, you normally have to cough up a subscription. Still, $20/£20 is much cheaper than having to replace an entire unit, so it’s probably worth the splurge.

PhoneClean up

PhoneClean from iMobie can be used to remove unwanted files from iOS. Follow these steps:

1. Connect iPhone to your Mac.
2. Open PhoneClean and click Scan.
3. Once the scan is complete, click on Clean.

Some PhoneClean features, including photo caches, are only available in the Pro version. This starts at $19.99 (about £16), for a single Mac or PC for a year.

Smart cleaner

If you’d rather keep things on your phone than plug it into a PC or Mac, BP Mobile’s Smart Cleaner is a good choice. This iOS/iPadOS app can help you clean up the clutter on your device by removing duplicate photos, contacts and other ephemera that you have collected. The interface is well laid out, with easy one-touch options to let the app do its thing. Also included is a helpful guide that tells you to manually clean things up on your device if there’s something the app can’t do.

Foundry / IDG

Smart Cleaner comes with a 3-day free trial, but if you want to buy the app altogether, it will cost you $34.99 / £34.99.

Read further

That’s all for today, but we hope the tips above help you improve the performance of your device. For more general iOS speed tips, it’s worth checking out our broader tutorials: How to Speed ​​Up a Slow iPhone and How to Speed ​​Up a Slow iPad.

At some point, you may want to take the plunge and buy a new device. You can do this directly from Apple, but we recommend that you take the time to read some advice first; our iPhone buying guide and iPad buying guide should be your first port of call.