How to delete cookies in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE

Cookies, small data files used by websites to track your internet usage, pose no threat to your computer. Some cookies can, however, compromise your privacy. They can also take up space–albeit a small amount–depending on how your operating system stores and retrieves data. Advertising companies, meanwhile, often embed cookies with web ads to track your browsing history and tailor specific ads.
You may decide you want to toss out your cookies, delicious though they may sound, because of one or all the issues above. We’ve put together a guide outlining the various ways you can customize your cookie settings and delete them with browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Microsoft Internet Explorer, along with data-cleaning applications such as CCleaner.
Do keep in mind that cookies have legitimate functions. Websites use them to track login activity and data, which can be essential to their function. You’ll find some ‘sites don’t work properly without them.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome users can easily delete cookies, browsing data, and specify what sort of files Chrome should accept or block.
Access content settings: Click on the “Menu” tab in the upper-right corner, and select “Settings.” From there, click on “Show Advanced Settings,” at the bottom of the menu, and then “Content Settings.”
You may also simply type “chrome://chrome/settings/content” into your address bar and Chrome will take you to your intended destination.

Manage cookies: Chrome gives you four options when it comes to how to deal with cookies. You can store all cookies without discretion, store all cookies but delete them once you close your browser, block cookies entirely (we don’t recommend this), and block third-party tracking cookies.
Chrome also allows you to manage exceptions for the above settings. This could be useful in the event you want to keep your auto-fill information for a specific website while deleting them from others.

Delete cookies: Click on “All cookies and site data…” to see a list of all the cookies Chrome has stored on your hard drive. From there you can delete specific files individually, or delete everything by selecting “Remove All.”

For Android, iOS: Access Chrome’s menu, go to “Settings” and then find the “Privacy” tab under advanced settings. From there select “Clear Browsing Data” at the bottom and check “Clear cookies/site data” as well as anything else you want to wipe from your hard drive.

MOZILLA FIREFOX

Although Firefox accepts all cookies by default, the browser actually offers more options than Chrome when it comes to customizing these settings.

Access custom settings: Click on the “Tools” menu button at the top, and in the drop-down menu, select “Options.” Navigate to the “Privacy” tab and under “History” set Firefox to “Use custom settings for history.”

Manage cookies: Firefox gives you a number of options when it comes to managing your cookies: you can accept or block cookies outright, block third-party cookies, block specific third-party cookies that do not come from any site you visit, or prompt Firefox to ask for your permission every time it wants to store a cookie (running Firefox under this setting exposes just how ubiquitous cookie usage has become).

Delete cookies: Click on“Show Cookies…” which appears once you’ve enabled custom settings for your browser history. From there, you can scroll through a list of cookies accumulated by Firefox, clear them individually or remove them all as a group.

Firefox (iOS): Tap the New Tab button (top right, with the number in it). Now tap the cog button in the top left of the screen. Scroll down to “Clear private data.” On the next screen, make sure “Cookies” is selected, then tap “Clear Private Data”.

Safari

Unlike Chrome and Firefox, Safari only stores cookies from websites you visit. Nevertheless, Safari lets you easily change these settings. Since the Windows version has been discontinued, this will focus on the Mac OSX version.

Access privacy settings: Click on the Safari menu in the upper-left corner and scroll down to “Preferences.” Alternatively, in the same menu, choose “Clear History,” and you can delete everything in one go, from a variety of time frames. If you would much prefer to have more control over what is deleted, choose the “Preferences” option.

Manage your settings: In the “Privacy” section, you can use “Cookies and website data” to dictate whether or not Safari should accept cookies. You can use the option “Remove All Website Data” to remove everything in one fell swoop. Alternatively, click on “Details” to see a list of each individual cookie stored in the browser.

Delete cookies:  To delete individual cookies, click “Details…” under the “Privacy” tab. From there, find the specific cookie and delete it accordingly.

Safari (iOS): Go into “Settings” and select Safari. To delete all cookies, tap “Clear History and Website Data.” To delete a specific cookie, tap “Advanced,” then “Website Data” to pull up a list of cookies stored on your phone. From there, hit “Edit,” tap the red circle next to the specific cookie you want to remove, and delete it.

Internet Explorer

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is now being pushed into the background, in favor of Edge. But many people still use Internet Explorer as their daily recommended browser, so it is still worthwhile seeing how the cookies are handled there.

Access “Internet Options”: Open Internet Explorer, click on the “Tools” menu, and select “Internet Options.”

Manage Cookies: Under the “Privacy” tab in Internet Options, there are two sets of options – “Sites” and “Advanced.” Let’s look at “Sites” first. When you click on this, you will be presented with the option of specifying which sites are always allowed or not allowed to use cookies on your computer, regardless of their privacy policy.

The “Advanced” section merely gives you the option of whether or not to accept First-Party Cookies and Third-Party Cookies. You can also choose if you want Session Cookies. Tick and choose as desired.

Delete Cookies: To delete all cookies, head to the “General” tab under “Internet Options” and then click “Delete…”under the “Browsing History” tab. Check “Cookies and Website Data” and click delete.

To delete individual cookies, click “Settings” under the “Browsing History” tab. From there, head to “Temporary Internet Files” and select “View Files” to see a list of all the temporary internet files Internet Explorer has saved to your hard drive. Select the files you want to remove and delete them manually.

You can also delete your IE cookies manually on Windows. This will require you to access your hidden folders, which contain sensitive data. Only follow this route as a last resort, as any missteps can seriously damage your computer.

Folder options: Search for an application in Windows Explorer called “Folder Options.” There, check the circle that’s marked “Show hidden files, folders, and drives,” uncheck “Hide protected operating system files,” and click “Apply.”

Access your cookie files: Open “Computer” and click on “OS Username” to access your hard drive. From there, select “AppData” to enter the hidden folder. Head into “Roaming,” then “Microsoft,” then “Windows,” and then “Cookies.”

Delete your cookies: Here, delete the text files and the text files only. Then enter the “Low” folder and delete the text files there. Once you are finished, go back into “Folder Options,” uncheck the circle that’s marked “Show hidden files, folders, and drives,” check the box marked “Hide protected operating system files,” and click “Apply.”

CCleaner

CCleaner (short for Crap Cleaner) is a powerful tool you can download for free and use to clean your hard drive of excess files generated by your web browser and other applications. When it comes to deleting cookies, CCleaner has an edge over Web browsers in that it can delete cookies across the board, rather than just files stored with a particular browser. CCleaner can also uninstall programs and fix registry issues.

Download and install CCleaner: Navigate over to Piriform’s website to download CCleaner. As always when installing freeware pay close attention to each step and avoid installing any superfluous software or malware.

Run the program: Close your Web browser, run CCleaner and select the “Cleaner” tab on the far left. By default CCleaner will search for a number of different file types to delete from your hard drive. Use the checklist on the left to specify what file types you want to erase; to batch erase all of your cookie files, make sure to select the “Cookies” box under web browsers in both “Windows/Mac OS X” and “Applications” tabs. Then select “Analyze.”

CCleaner will then produce a list of all the files it will delete. To make adjustments to this list, tailor the checklist on the left and reanalyze your hard drive. Once you’re happy, select “Run Cleaner” and CCleaner will delete the files, including the cookies you selected.