Your iPhone is a beast of a machine, but even the newest models eventually start to feel like they’re wading through molasses. You tap an app. It hangs. You scroll Safari, and the stutters are real. Most people think their battery is dying or Apple is slowing them down on purpose, but usually, it's just digital gunk. Basically, your phone is hoarding files it doesn't need anymore. Learning how to clear cache on iPhone isn't just a "pro tip"—it’s maintenance.
If you’ve ever wondered why your "System Data" is taking up 40GB of space, you aren't alone. It’s frustrating. It's annoying. And honestly, Apple doesn't make it as easy as Android does with a single "Clear All" button. You have to hunt for it.
The Safari Problem: Where Most of the Junk Lives
Safari is the biggest hoarder on your device. Every single website you visit leaves a little footprint behind in the form of cookies and cached images. The idea is that it makes the site load faster next time. Great, right? Well, until you have three years' worth of footprints from sites you’ll never visit again.
To fix this, head into your Settings. Scroll down until you find Safari. It’s pretty far down the list. Once you’re there, look for a blue link that says Clear History and Website Data.
Now, here is the kicker: if you tap that, it closes all your open tabs. If you’re one of those people with 453 tabs open "just in case," you might want to rethink this. You can choose to clear data for just today, yesterday, or all time. If you really want to learn how to clear cache on iPhone effectively, you have to go for the "All History" option. It feels a bit like a fresh start. Your phone will breathe a sigh of relief.
But wait. There’s a more surgical way to do this if you want to keep your history but lose the heavy files. Go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data.
This screen is a revelation. It shows you exactly which websites are taking up the most space. You might see a random news site from six months ago hogging 50MB. Why? Who knows. Swipe left on individual sites to delete them, or just hit Remove All Website Data at the bottom. It’s satisfying.
Third-Party Apps are Secretly Stealing Your Storage
Apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are notorious for this. They cache every video you scroll past so that if you scroll back up, the video plays instantly. That’s why the apps feel so smooth. But that data adds up. Fast.
TikTok is actually one of the few apps that gives you a built-in tool. If you go to your profile, hit the three lines in the corner, go to Settings and Privacy, and find Free up space, you’ll see a "Clear Cache" button. Use it. You’ll be shocked to see it sitting at 1GB or more.
Instagram? Not so lucky.
To clear the cache on Instagram or Facebook, you basically have to delete the app and reinstall it. It’s a pain. Apple doesn't provide a "Clear Cache" toggle in the main settings for these apps. You go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage, wait for the list to load (which takes forever sometimes), and look at the "Documents & Data" size. If the app is 150MB but the data is 2GB, the only way to get that 2GB back is to Delete App and download it again from the App Store.
"Offloading" isn't the same thing. Offloading removes the app but keeps the data. We want the opposite. We want the app, but we want the data gone. So, delete and reinstall is the nuclear option, but it works.
That Mysterious "System Data" Category
Scroll to the bottom of your storage settings. You’ll see a gray bar labeled System Data (it used to be called "Other"). This is the catch-all for logs, Siri voices, fonts, and—you guessed it—cache.
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Sometimes this grows to a ridiculous size. 10GB? 20GB? It’s basically the iPhone’s junk drawer.
One weird trick to force the iPhone to clean this up is to try and "rent" a massive movie from the iTunes Store (don't actually buy it). When the phone realizes it doesn't have enough space to download a 6GB movie, it starts an internal "cleaning" process to make room. It’s a bit of a hack, but it works when the system is being stubborn.
Another legitimate way to clear this is to sync your phone with a Mac or PC. When you plug your iPhone into a computer and open Finder or iTunes, the handshake between the two devices often triggers a cleanup of old log files and temporary update data. It’s old school, but effective.
What About Your Messages?
We forget about iMessage. If you’ve been texting for years, you have thousands of photos and videos buried in your threads. Those are cached locally on your phone.
Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Messages.
You can actually see a breakdown of Top Conversations, Photos, and Videos. It’s usually the videos. You’ll find a 30-second clip of a cat your aunt sent you in 2022 that’s still taking up space. Delete the heavy hitters. You can also set your messages to auto-delete after 30 days or a year in Settings > Messages > Keep Messages. Most people have this set to "Forever," which is a recipe for a full phone.
Restarting: The Easiest Cache Clear
It sounds like tech support 101, but a restart actually does something. When you turn your iPhone off and back on, the system clears out "temporary" files and flushes the RAM.
Don't just lock the screen. Do a hard reset.
- Press and quickly release Volume Up.
- Press and quickly release Volume Down.
- Press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears.
This forces the OS to restart its processes from scratch. If your phone was feeling glitchy or "heavy," this often fixes it instantly.
The Reality of Professional Cleaning Apps
You’ve probably seen ads for apps that "clean your iPhone" or "boost memory." Honestly? Don't bother.
Most of these are scams or just don't do anything that you can't do yourself for free. Apple’s "sandboxing" security means one app can't just reach into another app and delete its cache. Only the system or the app itself can do that. If an app claims to "boost your RAM," it’s lying. iOS manages RAM aggressively on its own. Your best bet is always the manual steps mentioned above.
Actionable Steps for a Faster iPhone
If you want to stay on top of this without spending an entire afternoon on it, follow this routine once a month:
- Wipe the Safari Slate: Use the "Clear History and Website Data" option to dump the web junk.
- Check the Storage List: See which apps have ballooned in size. If Instagram or YouTube are over 2GB, delete and reinstall them.
- Audit Your Attachments: Go into the Messages storage settings and kill the large videos you don't need to save.
- The Monthly Restart: Give your phone a hard reboot to clear the system logs.
Cleaning your cache isn't a one-and-done thing. It’s more like dishes. You do them, they get dirty again, and you do them again. But keeping that "System Data" low will make your iPhone feel like the premium device you actually paid for. Stop letting old TikToks and 2021 cookies slow you down.