Safari on the Mac features a “Reading List” function, designed as a way to save articles you want to read later. Unlike a standard bookmark, when you add a page to your Reading List, Safari aggressively downloads the entire webpage—including images, text, and formatting—and saves a physical copy of it directly to your hard drive so you can read it offline.
If you have been indiscriminately clicking the “+” button for years, your Safari Reading List is likely storing hundreds of massive, outdated HTML files that you will never look at again. This offline cache can consume gigabytes of precious SSD space. You cannot delete these files by clearing your standard browsing history; you must manually wipe the Reading List cache.
How to Completely Erase the Mac Safari Reading List
You must clear the list directly from within the Safari sidebar interface.
- Open the Safari browser on your Mac.
- Look at the top-left corner of the Safari window and click the Sidebar icon (it looks like a square with a thick line on the left side). Alternatively, click View > Show Sidebar in the menu bar.
- At the top of the sidebar, click the icon that looks like a pair of Eyeglasses. This is your Reading List.
- You will see a long list of every article you have ever saved.
- To delete a single article, hover your mouse over it, swipe left on your trackpad or magic mouse, and click the red Remove button.
- To completely erase the entire list at once: Right-click (or Control-click) anywhere in the empty grey space within the sidebar list.
- Select Clear All Items… from the pop-up menu.
- A warning box will appear asking if you are sure you want to clear the list. Click Clear.
Safari will immediately delete the offline HTML files from your SSD and wipe the visual list clean. If you use iCloud, this deletion will sync across your iPhone and iPad as well, freeing up storage space across your entire Apple ecosystem.