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How to clear cookies on a computer
It’s good practice to clear your browsing history now and then. If you don’t want to remove it, though, clearing the cookies is the way to go. Often, clearing cookies may help you solve some minor issues with websites. The process is different for every browser, so here’s how to clear cookies on a computer for all the popular browsers.
Read more: How to clear the cache in any browser on any platform
QUICK ANSWER
To clear cookies on a computer, find your browser's security and privacy settings, and open the cookies/site data tab. You can then remove all the cookies at once or on a per-site basis.
JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS
How to clear cookies on Chrome
To clear cookies on Google Chrome, click the three-dot More button at the top right, and click Settings. Click Privacy and security from the left navigation pane. Click Cookies and other site data in the right pane.
Scroll down to find See all cookies and site data and click it.
Click Remove all. Confirm your action by clicking Clear all in the dialog box.
If you want to clear cookies from a particular site, you can scroll and find the site in the list and click the trash can button. You can also add sites that are always or never allowed to use cookies at the bottom of the page.
Most other Chromium-based browsers like Microsoft Edge will follow a similar procedure to delete cookies. So if you’re wondering how to clear cookies on a computer running the default Microsoft Edge, you should be able to find the option under the Privacy, search and services tab in settings.
Full method: How to delete cookies and clear cache on Chrome
Clearing cookies on Safari
To clear cookies on Safari on a Mac, click the Safari menu button on the menu bar at the top, next to the Apple icon in the upper left. Click Preferences.
Click the Privacy tab. Next to Cookies and website data, click Manage Website Data.
Safari will list all the websites with cookies stored. Click the Remove All button to clear all cookies. If you want to delete cookies for a particular website, type the site URL in search, or scroll and find it. Click it, and click the Remove button to clear cookies.
Click the Done button when you’re finished.
Full method: How to clear cookies in Safari on a Mac
How to clear cookies on Firefox
To clear cookies on Firefox, open Settings by clicking the three-line button at the top right of the window. Click Privacy & Security in the left navigation pane.
Scroll down to find the Cookies and Site Data section. Click the Clear Data button. Uncheck the Cached Web Content box if you don’t want to clear the cache along with the cookies. Click Clear.
If you want to clear cookies for a specific website, click the Manage Data button under Cookies and Site Data. Select the website you want to clear the cookies for, and click Remove Selected.
Clearing cookies on Opera
To clear cookies on Opera, click the Easy Setup settings button at the top right. Scroll down, find the Browsing Data option, and click Clear.
Under Basic, click the Time range dropdown, and select All time.
Uncheck the boxes next to Browsing history and Cached images and files. Click Clear data.
If you want to clear cookies on a per-site basis, you will have to use a different menu. Type opera://settings/cookies in the address bar to open the Privacy and security menu. You can also click Go to full browser settings in Easy Setup and click Cookies and other site data to get there.
Click See all cookies and site data. Opera will open up a window listing all the websites with stored cookies. Click the trash can button next to the site name to delete the cookies for that site, or click the Remove all button to clear all cookies.
FAQs
Cookies are small text files that contain the data about you for the websites you visit. This data can be used to remember your login details to not require a login every time. The browser can also use it to serve you ads.
It is recommended that you delete cookies from your browser regularly. Cookies can cause issues over time, and third-party cookies are potentially harmful to the point where they are now being phased out in favor of newer protocols like Google FLoC.