Cannot clear Safari history

If Clear History and Website Data under Settings → Apps → Safari on the device (Settings → Safari on iOS 17 and earlier) is grayed out and cannot be selected, check the following two points.

1. The Allow clearing Safari history setting in the profile

If Allow clearing Safari history is turned off in Restrictions (Functionality) of the applied profile, history cannot be cleared. To allow clearing, turn this item on and sync.

note

Allow clearing Safari history is effective on supervised devices running iOS / iPadOS 26.0 or later. For details, see (iOS) Profile Settings Types and Contents.

2. The Content Filter setting in the profile

If a Content Filter is configured in the applied profile, Safari history cannot be cleared even if Allow clearing Safari history is on. This is due to iOS / iPadOS specifications.

In this case, no restriction related to clearing Safari browsing history is shown under Settings → General → VPN & Device Management → Remote Management → Restrictions on the device.

What to do if you are using a content filter

If you need to clear the history, temporarily remove the content filter using the following steps.

Remove the profile that configures the Content Filter from the template applied to the target device, and sync.
After the sync is complete, clear the Safari history on the device.
Add the profile back to the template and sync.

warning

While the profile is removed, access control for websites by the content filter is disabled.

For how to configure a content filter, see Control access to websites (iOS).

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Last updated: October 15, 2026